Hi: We have a 28-year-old miniature Yellow Collar Macaw, Hobo, who has recently developed the annoying habit of waking an hour (or more) earlier, than my husband and I wish to arise.(We are retired and my husband has cancer) This behavior has occurred occasionally in the past…those times I would just get up, remove his covers, refresh his water, fill his food dish, then walk out of his room and go back to bed. Hobo, would spend the next hour or so, munching on his seed mix, playing with his toys or just quietly looking out the window. But several months ago he started SCREAMING at the crack of dawn and then every time I would leave the room after the blankets/water/food ritual he would start screaming again and keep it up until, finally, bleary-eyed and VERY ANGRY, I would get up and start our daily routine…Realize now that I have just been reinforcing this early, morning quest for attention. I feel that when he first “cries out” in the morning, I HAVE to uncover him, as Hobo will not “poop” while he is covered for the night. The vet said that some birds are like that….but hate to leave the poor little thing covered, screaming, in his cage, having to relieve himself :>( Perhaps his little bladder(?) is getting older like the rest of ours are, (but cannot awaken him, in the middle of the night, when I get up to go to the bathroom….he would just panic)! The rest of the day he is an angel…UNTIL 4:00 PM when he starts screaming again to be put to be covered (has been “going to bed” at that time for over a quarter of a century.) So now we’ve been trying to keep him “up” later, hoping he will sleep in later and deal with the SCREAMING at the end of the day rather than at the beginning…BUT he still is waking at the same time! There is NOTHING that is waking him…no noise: (alarm, car going by, plane going over, dog barking…NOTHING!!!!) HELP PLEASE! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!