Food fight??

Background: Since relocating we have been experiencing a myriad of new...challenges... with Mav. While he did exceptionally well for about 15 of the 16 hour car ride (he panicked when it got really dark so I had to hold him the last hour ish), he has not quite settled in to our new home. This was our first move with him, and we are trying (PATIENTLY) to get him back to being happy birdy. On top of everything he has been doing the cluck-cluck-big-bird chicken thing lately so I'm worried that puberty and the Hormonal Wars are impending. His second birthday is tomorrow.

Anyways...

I've noticed that lately he will stand on top of his food bowl, reach into it with his little dino claw, grab a handful of pellets and throw them onto the floor. Multiple times. Rainbow. Pellets. Everywhere.

This is the same food he was weaned onto at the breeder's and we've continued it without problems. He eats Zupreem Fruit Blend, and we mix in the Veggie mix from them as well. He usually leaves the purple ones to be thrown away, so I thought maybe he was trying to throw them out but no, it's every single little pellet all over the bottom of his cage.

Any insight into his food fighting?? I need to order more pellets for him and am unsure if I should buy something different for a change.

He's expressing his general displeasure. When ANY of our larger birds get annoyed about something, they'll stand on their food bowl, fish out fistfuls of pellets, and fling them as far as possible. Of course, they realize we'd never let them go without, so there's no fear of them running out of food!

Devilish creatures, they can be...and they're always happy to "remind" you, if they thing you've slighted them or are taking them for granted!!!

The New Home: We are strong believers in using the Real Estate Agent's House Tour approach to providing an ongoing introduction of the home. Whether it has been a small change in our pattern /life style that may result in any number of small changes that mean nothing to us, or relocating furniture. We tour our Amazon though the entire home at least once a month. Understanding that our Amazon is Free Ranging and Free Flighted in the home. Over the years, we have found that they really do lock into things that do not change and those that do. If a landmark changes, that will spook them.

Night time driving just makes not sense to Parrots. Things passing by at speed it something they are hardwired to understand during the day. Night time provides them with no connection to any reality they understand.

Well, I would recommend that you consider changing to a non-color based pellet, since it looks like you have an opportunity.

More Later!

Still a bit early for an all out puberty hormonal rush at two years old. Likely a bit of growing-up and pushing boundaries as he is now a Big Boy. After all, just ask him.

At this age, it is not uncommon to see early signs of Adulthood in his behavior. Time to begin reading the Thread at /near the top of the Amazon Forum regarding Understanding Amazon Body Language as he begins adding those hardwired responses.

This is the time to really work on relationship building /bonding and socializing him with every poor soul that walks into the house.

Enjoy!

That's too funny, I'm an angry parrot so watch me waste my food! Haha! I've tried keeping his bowl less...plentiful... and as we've unpacked I found his old favorite foraging toy. He hasn't seen it in over a month so he is in love with fishing out nuts and treats. He's really really good at it though, so I'm thinking about using it or his other foraging toy to feed him. Get him to work for his pellets and fight potential boredom without him going all out Amazonian Pig from all the treats.

When we moved here we gave him a tour because even though he is not flighted he has playstands and parrot domains throughout the house. I speculate that the constant changes as we unpack and bring in more furniture could be to blame then. We gave most of our furniture to Goodwill when we left Georgia so we've been gradually purchasing new things. And of course with any addition we rearrange the room 100 times to get it "just right". I could understand how stressful that could be on him.

I'm glad to hear that we still have some time before the hormonal wars hit, but you're dead on that he's pushing boundaries. Just this morning...
Mav: "Come here, step up"
Me: "No Mav, I'm making breakfast"
Mav: "Come here, wanna go upstairs?"
Me: "I said not right now"
Mav: "Come here, come here, comeherecomeherecomehere"
Me: (ignores him)
Mav: "No? Ok..." *PARROT SCREAM*

I don't think anyone other than parrot people would understand what it's like to hide in the kitchen with your coffee cup from a 400 gram creature so you don't reward unwanted behavior...

Re: night driving - scares the scrap out of Salty. I had to let him out of his PoB and let him sit on my shoulder coming back from Jim's 2 years ago. Even then he was crying ( crying !!) he was so scared.

Baby has a custom made perch that sits just behind head rest of the car....passenger side and she loves to 'go for a ride'. When it gets dark she would always get down and sit on my other half's chest with her head tucked in just below his chin....often he would put one hand around her for comfort. Rides are good....but go through spooky woods or a cematary and she is visable freaked out!

Baby will also show her displeasure by tossing out food....even pitching the entire bowl if there is something else she wants......the neat trick is trying to figure out what she wants.....this...no?....that ...no? trial & error!

Good ones!!!!!!!!!!!

The Rickeybird loves to get a beak full of pellets, climb to a high perch in his cage (how do they manage that????) and gently shove them over his lower mandible with his tongue, causing a lovely cascade that goes boinky-boink-boink-boink as it hits the newspapers. With a bit of luck, some pellets bounce out onto the wooden floor, for a melodic plinkity-plink-plink-plink.

the night time comments are interesting to me. When I walk Rudy about the only time he talks nearly incessant is when the sun drops below the horizon..