It can feel so rewarding to rescue a shelter animal and give them a new forever home. But it can also be pretty frustrating at times, especially when your new pet is still settling in and it isn’t going so smoothly. For example, let’s say you rescue an abandoned parrot and you are so so happy! Until your new bird starts screaming all day while you are gone and the neighbors are complaining. Is there anything you can do to help your parrot settle in and quiet down? There sure is – you can ask the animal communicator for help!

Dear Shannon,

My new parrot, Sylvie, and I are a true love match. I rescued her when I went to the local SPCA to adopt a dog. Sylvie, a yellow-crowned Amazon parrot, had just arrived and the staff hadn’t quite figured out where to put her yet, so she was in her cage on the counter at the main intake desk. The moment she saw me, she came over to the corner of her cage closest to where I was standing and pressed her whole body against the bars. She started singing “you are my sunshine” and my heart just melted. But ever since she came home with me, she has gotten louder and louder. I own a townhome and share one wall with a neighbor, who is home most days and has started to complain. I work outside the home and I don’t know how to keep Sylvie calm and quiet while I’m gone during the day. The SPCA didn’t have much history on Sylvie and they couldn’t tell me how old she is or what her life was like before she came to me. So I’m basically at my wit’s end. Can you help?

Smitten and stressed parrot mama Dolores

Shannon’s reply:

Hi Dolores,

Situations like what you describe with Sylvie can be complicated. We want to look at her situation from all aspects such as health, species-specific traits, past history, current situation. So of course I want to encourage you to have Sylvie checked by an avian veterinarian just to rule out any underlying health issues. That aside, animal communication can definitely help with some of this, and we will explore what Sylvie had to share when I talked with her.

When I tune in with Sylvie, I do get the sense she is past the point of parrot adolescence – what some parronts (parrot parents) like to call the “terrible twos.” This is a time period when parrots are reaching sexual maturity. For larger birds in particular, it can be a time when they bond intensely to one human family member and reject all the other humans in the family. And it can be a time of acting out, screaming, throwing temper tantrums and all the other displays we often see in young humans going through the same process.

Because my sense from Sylvie is that she is older – perhaps around eight or 10 or even in her early teens – this would theoretically rule out pure hormonally-motivated vocalizing. In fact, when I ask Sylvie what the screaming is about, she broadcasts pure anxiety. She keeps showing me a woman walking away from her and the further away the woman gets, the more Sylvie’s stress level rises. By the time the woman disappears from Sylvie’s line of sight, she is screeching with panic.

Even from a purely species-specific standpoint, this doesn’t surprise me. As a longtime parrot lover and parrot carer myself, I am aware that nearly all parrot species are social animals both in a wild setting and in captivity. Yellow-crowned Amazon parrots are known to be especially social, congregating in small groups during daylight hours and regrouping in larger flocks to roost at night. Being alone at any time is super scary to this prey species, as the birds rely on each other to keep a sharp eye out for dangers like approaching predators.

When I ask Sylvie what her idea of a perfect day looks like, she shows me an unmistakable scene of you being there with her all day long. You are singing together, eating together, walking around the house together, driving in the car together, running errands together and doing everything together. So we know Sylvie is going to need some extra help to cope with your absence on work days.

To identify the things that are most likely to help her, I used applied kinesiology (also known as muscle testing). Sylvie tested positive for soothing music, natural sounds of birdsong (I recommend Pet Acoustics Avine for this), essential oils (you can work with a pet aromatherapist trained in zoopharmacognosy to learn how to allow Sylvie to self-select the ones that will help her the most) and parrot foraging and puzzle toys to help keep her mentally busy during the day.  

Sylvie also tells me she wants you to talk to her each morning and tell her exactly what to expect during the day. Tell her when you will leave and when you will be home. If that changes during the day, talk to her on the inside and tell her when you will actually return home. This will help her feel connected to you and reduce the chances of avian panic.

Before closing out my conversation with Sylvie, I did three rounds of emotional freedom technique, aka EFT tapping, to help her move some of her residual anxiety out of her body. The phrase I used with Sylvie while I tapped was “even though I feel utterly panicked when Mom (you) leaves and I am afraid she will never come back, I affirm that I am the pure and perfect parrot just the way I am.” I encourage you to download my free EFT for Pets four-part tapping series https://animallovelanguages.com/eft-for-pets/ to learn how you can use EFT for Sylvie at home. I also encourage you to use EFT to ease your own anxiety about leaving Sylvie, which is also covered in the four-part EFT for Pets series.

Dolores, I truly hope this information helps you to help Sylvie settle into her new forever home with you. Please do keep in touch and let me know how you both are doing.

From my heart,

Shannon