Hi all,
I very recently started fostering. I grew up with a few types of birds - budgies, a lovebird, then my mom had a grey shortly before I moved out. I'd been pet-less since then, for about the past decade. Wanting to try having a bird again, I decided to foster and my husband was okay with it (he only grew up with finches). However.. This first week has been challenging.
We were given two cockatiels in a nice large flight cage. They're mostly well behaved, with one being far more introverted than the other (neither want hands near them yet). However, one thing is proving to be very difficult.. constant calling.
We live in an apartment and I'm 1. worried the neighbours will complain soon, especially since when the quiet one decides to join in he does it in a screaming way, and 2. worried about our ability to handle the constant sound (I have anxiety and misophonia when stressed). When I had bird before, I had a large house. The walls here aren't super thick and I guess I'd been expecting some bursts of noise like with my lovebird, but not a loud beep every 5-8 seconds for the majority of the day. They also like to scream right after we uncover them for the first few minutes of the morning. Is this behavour something we can decrease over time, or should we reconsidering our choice? It's tough because these cockatiels were already just in another foster for a couple of weeks so it would be another shakeup if it doesn't work out here. So far I've been trying to ignore it so that they don't get rewarded for being noisy, and only going in the living room where they are when they're quiet.
We've had them about a week now, I figured I'd try to give it at least two weeks, but they're screaming right now and I'm trying to think of reasons to leave the apartment so I know that's not good. Any advice would be appreciated.
I very recently started fostering. I grew up with a few types of birds - budgies, a lovebird, then my mom had a grey shortly before I moved out. I'd been pet-less since then, for about the past decade. Wanting to try having a bird again, I decided to foster and my husband was okay with it (he only grew up with finches). However.. This first week has been challenging.
We were given two cockatiels in a nice large flight cage. They're mostly well behaved, with one being far more introverted than the other (neither want hands near them yet). However, one thing is proving to be very difficult.. constant calling.
We live in an apartment and I'm 1. worried the neighbours will complain soon, especially since when the quiet one decides to join in he does it in a screaming way, and 2. worried about our ability to handle the constant sound (I have anxiety and misophonia when stressed). When I had bird before, I had a large house. The walls here aren't super thick and I guess I'd been expecting some bursts of noise like with my lovebird, but not a loud beep every 5-8 seconds for the majority of the day. They also like to scream right after we uncover them for the first few minutes of the morning. Is this behavour something we can decrease over time, or should we reconsidering our choice? It's tough because these cockatiels were already just in another foster for a couple of weeks so it would be another shakeup if it doesn't work out here. So far I've been trying to ignore it so that they don't get rewarded for being noisy, and only going in the living room where they are when they're quiet.
We've had them about a week now, I figured I'd try to give it at least two weeks, but they're screaming right now and I'm trying to think of reasons to leave the apartment so I know that's not good. Any advice would be appreciated.
