Hi, I hope I am posting in the right section, if not, I apologies.
I am in desperate need of help and feel so sad right now.
My husband and I have an OWA, he is 7.5 years old, we have had him since he was 6 months old. He was parent reared and had little contact with humans, so despite having him for so long, he is quite feral and won't allow touching left alone petting, he bites and growls if we try. However he is very attached to me, in fact it is obvious he loves me as he will follow me around and wants to sit next to me, he will jump on me and sit on me, he will be so happy when he sees me and chirp away. He is nice to my husband too, but not as attached to him as he is to me.
He has a large cage, but we try to have him out of it a couple of hours every day. He has a good diet (I believe), all the supplements he needs, plenty of toys.
The problem is that he screams constantly, as soon as he hears me moving in the morning or if he sees me he starts to scream for attention non-stop. I work from home and cannot have him out when I work, because I am in meetings all day. I also cannot be in the same room he is when I work, as if he screams, it will be a problem for my meetings.
His constant screaming is driving me crazy, I am starting to resent him and don't feel like spending any time with him, even when I finish working. I feel very guilty about it, but it is just too much for me, being in the house all day since the start of the pandemic. I feel like I have to tip toe around the house and even then he screams anyway.
I am seriously considering that we need to rehome him, because my mental health is starting to be badly affected.
We do love him though and feel terrible about the thought of letting him go. We are responsible owners, but honestly this is so exhausting for me.
Do you have/know of a behavioral expert that could help us train him? I know screaming is natural to OWAs to an extent, I just think there may be ways to decrease the screaming and train him; we read so many books but practice is different to theory and we may really do with some help. I am pretty sure we are doing the wrong things, as, if anything, he got worse.
I am so sad, so please don't judge, be kind if you can.
I am in desperate need of help and feel so sad right now.
My husband and I have an OWA, he is 7.5 years old, we have had him since he was 6 months old. He was parent reared and had little contact with humans, so despite having him for so long, he is quite feral and won't allow touching left alone petting, he bites and growls if we try. However he is very attached to me, in fact it is obvious he loves me as he will follow me around and wants to sit next to me, he will jump on me and sit on me, he will be so happy when he sees me and chirp away. He is nice to my husband too, but not as attached to him as he is to me.
He has a large cage, but we try to have him out of it a couple of hours every day. He has a good diet (I believe), all the supplements he needs, plenty of toys.
The problem is that he screams constantly, as soon as he hears me moving in the morning or if he sees me he starts to scream for attention non-stop. I work from home and cannot have him out when I work, because I am in meetings all day. I also cannot be in the same room he is when I work, as if he screams, it will be a problem for my meetings.
His constant screaming is driving me crazy, I am starting to resent him and don't feel like spending any time with him, even when I finish working. I feel very guilty about it, but it is just too much for me, being in the house all day since the start of the pandemic. I feel like I have to tip toe around the house and even then he screams anyway.
I am seriously considering that we need to rehome him, because my mental health is starting to be badly affected.
We do love him though and feel terrible about the thought of letting him go. We are responsible owners, but honestly this is so exhausting for me.
Do you have/know of a behavioral expert that could help us train him? I know screaming is natural to OWAs to an extent, I just think there may be ways to decrease the screaming and train him; we read so many books but practice is different to theory and we may really do with some help. I am pretty sure we are doing the wrong things, as, if anything, he got worse.
I am so sad, so please don't judge, be kind if you can.