Post by karwil on Dec 27, 2010 20:57:48 GMT 10
Hello
I have a corella that we got as a baby 21 years ago from the Morawa area of WA. We got him after the tree was cut down, his (we assume he) parents flew off, the other baby was killed and this one had a damaged wing. He was still very young when he came to us and still had his baby feathers.
We've taught him to talk, and he talks very well. Most of the day he's very quiet, doesn't make much sound at all. We leave the radio on for him almost all day so that he can dance to the music or whatever and that keeps him quiet. I'd say, if I were to add up how much time he actually spend screeching it'd be somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes per day. That seems a bit odd considering the wild ones flying around here are quite noisy.
Sometimes he will screech early in the morning or at sundown which is natural, though some mornings I'm up before he is and he doesn't screech every day.
The problem is, our next door neighbour has a very cheeky, rude, disrespectful son, who often runs riot in their house at 10 or 11pm, which sometimes makes our bird screech. I guess he thinks it's playtime. So the boy next door then yells at our bird to "shut the &*^% up" amongst other things. We've tried explaining that he's only reacting to them making noise and if they didn't disturb him then he wouldn't screech at those times. I guess the child is just undisciplined with a parent who would rather ignore him than give him attention (we've seen this boy on the bus abusing bus drivers too and she's ignored him while he damages someone's car and then told that person's sister to tell him off because she wasn't going to). So I told the mother to discipline her son and to stop him swearing at our bird because although he's an intelligent bird, he can't tell what's a bad word and what isn't and we'd rather he not learn to swear. When I asked the mother what would happen if our bird learned to swear from her son she was at a loss for an answer. I'm sure she'd be the first person complaining if our bird started saying those words to her. Her visitor then told us to train our bird not to screech at all because he does screech in the morning sometimes - which is true, but it's pretty natural for those birds to do that, and we have wild ones (and black red and white tails) flying around here a lot lately all screeching but they don't complain about those. They're now only complaining about our bird. We also have magpies at our house morning and night, sometimes more, they make more noise than our corella but the lady next door still doesn't complain about them.
Okay, we tried to explain morning and evening screeching is natural, despite the fact he doesn't do it all that often. We were told we were stupid if we didn't train our bird not to screech. So my question is, can they be trained not to screech at all? and then, why would you even want a bird to be so domesticated as it's part of their beauty?
The other neighbours think he's brilliant, especially when he calls our names, only to call us "ugly" when we respond to him. They think he's gorgeous, and previous neighbours have talked to him while doing their gardening. The people next door told us they don't mind when he speaks English but they don't like it when he screeches (which is rare) or when he speaks in "those other languages". The other languages he speaks are Noongar (Aboriginal) or he barks like a dog because he spent a lot of time with our old dog. I don't understand why the language he speaks is an issue.
Now they've threatened to report us to the RSPCA and have our bird taken off us if we don't stop him screeching. Is there any advice to stop him screeching when he doesn't do it much anyway?
They say he "frightens" them despite the fact he's in a cage and the wild ones aren't. Aren't magpies known for swooping? But they're not afraid of the magpies that visit us several times a day? I know which I'd be more frightened of.
I have a corella that we got as a baby 21 years ago from the Morawa area of WA. We got him after the tree was cut down, his (we assume he) parents flew off, the other baby was killed and this one had a damaged wing. He was still very young when he came to us and still had his baby feathers.
We've taught him to talk, and he talks very well. Most of the day he's very quiet, doesn't make much sound at all. We leave the radio on for him almost all day so that he can dance to the music or whatever and that keeps him quiet. I'd say, if I were to add up how much time he actually spend screeching it'd be somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes per day. That seems a bit odd considering the wild ones flying around here are quite noisy.
Sometimes he will screech early in the morning or at sundown which is natural, though some mornings I'm up before he is and he doesn't screech every day.
The problem is, our next door neighbour has a very cheeky, rude, disrespectful son, who often runs riot in their house at 10 or 11pm, which sometimes makes our bird screech. I guess he thinks it's playtime. So the boy next door then yells at our bird to "shut the &*^% up" amongst other things. We've tried explaining that he's only reacting to them making noise and if they didn't disturb him then he wouldn't screech at those times. I guess the child is just undisciplined with a parent who would rather ignore him than give him attention (we've seen this boy on the bus abusing bus drivers too and she's ignored him while he damages someone's car and then told that person's sister to tell him off because she wasn't going to). So I told the mother to discipline her son and to stop him swearing at our bird because although he's an intelligent bird, he can't tell what's a bad word and what isn't and we'd rather he not learn to swear. When I asked the mother what would happen if our bird learned to swear from her son she was at a loss for an answer. I'm sure she'd be the first person complaining if our bird started saying those words to her. Her visitor then told us to train our bird not to screech at all because he does screech in the morning sometimes - which is true, but it's pretty natural for those birds to do that, and we have wild ones (and black red and white tails) flying around here a lot lately all screeching but they don't complain about those. They're now only complaining about our bird. We also have magpies at our house morning and night, sometimes more, they make more noise than our corella but the lady next door still doesn't complain about them.
Okay, we tried to explain morning and evening screeching is natural, despite the fact he doesn't do it all that often. We were told we were stupid if we didn't train our bird not to screech. So my question is, can they be trained not to screech at all? and then, why would you even want a bird to be so domesticated as it's part of their beauty?
The other neighbours think he's brilliant, especially when he calls our names, only to call us "ugly" when we respond to him. They think he's gorgeous, and previous neighbours have talked to him while doing their gardening. The people next door told us they don't mind when he speaks English but they don't like it when he screeches (which is rare) or when he speaks in "those other languages". The other languages he speaks are Noongar (Aboriginal) or he barks like a dog because he spent a lot of time with our old dog. I don't understand why the language he speaks is an issue.
Now they've threatened to report us to the RSPCA and have our bird taken off us if we don't stop him screeching. Is there any advice to stop him screeching when he doesn't do it much anyway?
They say he "frightens" them despite the fact he's in a cage and the wild ones aren't. Aren't magpies known for swooping? But they're not afraid of the magpies that visit us several times a day? I know which I'd be more frightened of.
but lucky for me my birds in aviaries are out the back and my pet birds are inside. I have never complained about their kids who can swear better than any "truckie" or when they party on until 9am in the morning......sometimes during the week too because he is a shift worker so his weekends start during the week sometimes. The reason I have never in 9 and half years complained is I did not want to give them ANY ammunition to complain about my birds and dogs........and so far we all live in reasonable harmony. We have had them do burn outs in motorbikes at 2am and play extremely LOUD music to all hours of the morning.......in their defence though it is not usually a weekly occurrance and I do NOT allow my 8 year old to even talk to their 3 boys.
and if possible bring him inside at night so you know he is quiet and "safe".
i keep bobos cage padlocked on all doors when hes out side for that reason ive heard of others having the same done to thier birds..