Please please please can anybody offer any advice about my screaming Ammie! I am positively at the end of my rope!

We have had him for a couple of months now and to begin with there were no real problems at all. He settled in well, he's not destructive and not really messy, few biting issues but with a bit of work they were settling down. I was told he had never lived with young children, but he has really taken a shine to my 8 year old daughter and just loves her, flies to her as soon as she walks in the room.

He's not a massively chatty bird, although he has a few phrases. When we first got him we noticed he would scream "WHAT" for attention, the kids thought this was hysterical and would shout it back, so he quickly realised this got attention, and we quickly learnt to ignore him. He has always made his loud flocking cry in the morning and again at night, which is fine - because he's a parrot and I don't expect him to be quiet. However his screaming has increased.

When the children have friends around and the kids are making any noise he starts screeching, again we tried to ignore this putting him in another room and closing the doors so the noise would no excite him, however he just seems to be getting worse. Because my daughter is his favorite, he will scream for her attention as soon as he hears or sees her, if she ignores him the noise just escalates. 

We have tried to ignore him, to give him time out in his cage, cover the cage (which I know some people say shouldn't be done - this worked initially but now makes him worse), The screaming is now a real problem because he cannot be in the living room while the tv is on because he just shouts over it, he screams if he hears you talking on the phone. If we take him out of the room he gives his flocking cry (which literally makes the house vibrate!). It seems the more I try to address the problem the worse I am making it! 

His behaviour is making him really unpleasant to have around, he starts screaming as soon as he gets any sort of attention, and shrieking when you ignore him. I really don't know what to do for the best now.

Any ideas? 

 I dont have ammies, but I have a conure, greys, alex's and quakers and ALL of them are noisier at the moment than normal, and trust me at times Im soooo glad to get out the house!  Shell will have some good advice for you xx

our likely lads Sonny & Percy (Ammies) who live together have started to moonwalk around the bottom of the cage making strange noises, so I've give them a box to shred up. Plus when the 4 Ammies here get started on a shouting spree usually just before food is coming, I tell them with my hand palm facing them that the babies are sleeping this shuts them up only for a minute or so but then I just put up my hand, by which time food is in their dishes and they are rewarded for quiet behaviour, noisy birdies get the goodies last, they soon catch on. 

Oh trust me, we all get the same at times, it can get wearing after a while.  All I would say is if it starts to get to you too much, take a 5 minute walk outside, just getting away from it for a short period helps a lot.

Amazons can be very noisy just now, I have a pair of yellow crowned, a pair of red lored and 2 pairs of orangewings in my garden aviaries ( I have very understanding neibours ) and at this time of year they get very excitable. When the noise gets too much I just let my dogs out into the garden and this distracts them and they go quiet, they don't have any fear of the dogs, they just get curious and come down to see them . This seems to take their mind off the screaming and they settle down again. So I think quiet distraction is also worth trying.

Charlotte, sorry to hear things have not improved. Its even more difficult with my Gizmo at present due to Dusty my baby grey wanting constant attention. Gizmo is loud all day if im in and fights constantly for my attention, despite all my efforts at present times are hard. Added to that is a young grey copying the ammie squeals, but louder lol.

I find my two babies take me through life learning every day, it would be boring otherwise. Gizmo i understand suffers from a bit of separation anxiety from her past ( me being a mental health nurse lol). From my experience so far i would say my amazon experience has provided me with more challenge than my african grey one. But to be honest thats what i signed up for lol.

Keep persevering, because there are days when i know those techniques work with Gizmo.