Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I currently own a baby Timneh African grey. I spend lots of time with him and he is very affectionate. I was at the local Pet store and they had a baby Sun that I fell in love with. Sweet little thing that rolls over on her/his back when I approach the cage. $600 bucks, but so darn cute I can't stand it. lol

And now the hard part, DH hates loud screeching or screaming. I'm afraid if I buy the conure, the Grey will learn the Conure scream. Is is possible to control the scream since they are both babies? Right now, the grey chatters/whistles alot but does not scream often. I ignore screaming. As long as he has food, toys and is let out of his cage, he is a happy mostly quiet boy. Would I ruin this with adding the Conure? I do work at home, so I have time to spend with them both.

I recently got a sun too & also have a eclectus that not only hates the screams but picks up on the noise!

My sun was noisy but now a week ago, she still screams but they're only evening & occational morning screams. They can be controlled to limited screams.

What I found out is they thrive attention from humans. If you don't give it to them, that's what usually makes the screamers. My sun has learnt where her 'place' is in the family & has accepted this really well. She occasionally calls out to see if I'm still around & I call back.

If she has a naughty scream it's ignored & put in her cage if it gets bad until she quietens down. This has worked well for me so far. I have her cage at the end of the house in a room where I can shut the door so it doesn't drive anyone nuts & she cannot see whats going on in the house while she being put away for time out.

You can't stop the screaming but you can make it minmal. You can also try distracting the sun with other nicer noises. This didn't work with mine but I had heard that it does work. Encourage them when they make quieter noises & give them lots of praise. This is one thing that my sun is slowly but surely getting the drift of. Today when she called out to me it was a nice quiet grunt instead of a scream.

There is no doubt your AG will pick up the scream & imitate it. My ekkie has been doing this. Thankfully though, so far, it is minimal & I also know that when he finds another new noise or sound, he'll forget the scream. He lets out a complaint scream too when my sun too loud. I have lots of toys that make nicer noises to distract him from the noise, or I take him away from the noise or the conure is distracted or taken away, depending on the situation.

Since they'd be both babies, it may be easier to train both when it comes to the screaming. Also they'll grow up together which may help, but you will not be able to actually prevent the AG from picking up the sun's screams.

I definitely agree. There isn't really any way to keep your african grey from learning the scream or to make them stop the screaming completely. There are ways to curb it and make it minimal. I still go on the theory that all birds are individual even in their own species. Yes sun conures are definitely noisy and can have a very annoying screech as a species but yes there are quieter ones and you can hope for the best. Be sure to talk it over well with DH though beforehand and make sure it is understood that your bird might start to screech but that you will try your best to train it otherwise and make sure this is going to go over well so you don't have to look at rehoming a few months or years down the road.

Also many suns will not screech continuously but will instead do an early morning and later evening wakeup and goodnight social call. Sometimes if you watch and know when to expect it and what to expect it makes it not quite as bad.

Thanks for the replies. I'm gonna have to think long and hard about this one.

I have a 6 year old Sun Conure and I can tell you there is no way to quiet him when he wants to be loud. It isn't all day and the others are correct....as long as he is getting attention he is pretty good, but there are times when he just WANTS to be loud. I think - he thinks it's fun. I have taught him how to whisper (although he doesn't talk so he just makes a whisper noise) sometimes if I start whispering in his ear he will get quieter but not always. If it helps...they are cute beyond description. He is very loveable and playful and everyday I'm so glad he is in my life