Regurgitating issue

My 2 year old male macaw has occasionally tried regurgitating for me over the last year and a half. But lately it's CONSTANT when I get near him.

I try petting him, asking him to step up, reaching into the cage...or even get within a foot of him...he starts bobbing his head. Sometimes he gets food up, others he just makes the motion.

I had him vet checked. Gram stain was normal. Both crop and anal swabs were normal. He is a healthy big boy.

I have tried ignoring the behavior. I have stayed away from no non zones. I have tried time outs. I have tried using perches from a distance for step up... nothing jas helped :/

How can I get him to stop? This didn't seem normal. Vet said it's most likely behavior as he only does it with me. Not just randomly during the day.

He is still young. I don't have any Macaws or experience with them but experience with other young bird makes me think he will outgrow this behaviour.

I also think it might get worse when he hits puberty.
When dealing with such long lived birds you have to take the long view.

So I think it's normal. The first thing I would do is make sure he gets at least 12 hours of dark, quiet sleep. I might even go for 13-14 hours for right now. The long sleep period is not only healthy for him but extending the dark hours will trick his body into thinking it's winter and not mating season. Vets also say to reduce the high protein items in his diet and to reduce warm mushy foods, again to tell his body that food is more scarce, not a good time to mate.

When he does this don't punish him, just put him down. Also, until you can get the hormones under control, I wouldn't pet him at all.

If it just started constantly happening it's probably because it's that time of year and what I mentioned above should help the situation.

Was he handfed?

My 10 year old macaw does a lot of headbobbing etc. at the most idiotic moments.
(If it was flirting etc. they would be timed at certain events, they are not. She just throws them in quite random during the day, even in the middle of passively receiving scratches, taking a shower or actively working with the aviator.)

According to my vet is is one of those things you only see in handraised birds (she was sold at only 2 months old, so yea... Sunny is one of them) - they keep throwing in the "feed me/ feed you"-respons in inappropriate moments. They do not know any better.

It is like still reverting to babytalk at an older age.

With 2 years of age your bird would be weaned in the wild by his parents and that 'reflex' should be gone by now
On the positive side: sharing food is not just for procreation- it is also a friendship/ family "thing" so it is not all bad.
At least he likes you a lot to do that.

Maybe you can teach him another way of expressing "Heloooooo I am SO glad to see you!" ?

First thing in the morning here: Sunny wants to grab my finger firmly almost in the corner of her beak and then violently headbob <yes only at the side one will put the feedingsyringe> -> she keeps cutting through my skin that way so we are working on that as well.

To change this:
I am saying "goodmorning!!" first and then go for touching the pads of her feet and then wait for her to stick her beak through the bars and give her small beakscratches (and some times play with her tongue a bit if she wants) -> she still has some sensory feedback in an area she expects/and somehow needs but we start somewhere else to let her know "this is greeting 102 not the old way/ 101 anymore".

When I start the day without this headbobbing-habbit it usually is a lot less during the day as well.
(and my fingers are healing)


...as a B&G he is way to young for raging hormones yet...

He was hand fed. I got him when he was down to 1 feeding a day. He went about 2-3 weeks before refusing when I offered it.

He has always had a mouthing habit with me. Whether it be holding my hand or finger in his beak, no bobbing though, or chewing on my clothes.

He changed a bit the last few months though. Between this and his sudden dislike for stepping up and his nipping, I figured hormones. He LOVES to talk and has a big vocabulary already

Usually as soon as he sees someone he starts with Hi!! Hello! How are you? What are you doing? You coming? Come on! Good morning!

Then if he puts his mouth on me, he likes to say Ouch! Because he's developed the habit of grabbing tiny bits of skin to nibble on lol. He's crazy smart verbally.

He bobs, regurgitated, then eats what he spit up. Then wants to kiss me lol. How about no, pal.

Bill's response was spot-on...It's normal, hormonal behavior, and is most-likely going to continue to get worse and worse as he approaches puberty, which for a B&G Macaw is usually around 3-4 years old, although some start younger than 3 years, and I'd suspect your Macaw is likely going to hit puberty earlier than 3 years old based on how hormonal he already is at 2 years old. So it will continue to get worse, but there are things you can do to lessen the hormones, as Bill already mentioned...

#1.) Avoid all warm and/or mushy foods.
#2.) Make sure he does not have access to any fabric/cloth, like towels, blankets, etc. that he can readily get underneath; make sure he never has anything in his cage or around him that could be used as "nesting" material, such as bedding, wood chips, etc.; make sure there is nothing in his cage like any type of "Happy Huts", tents, hammocks, boxes that he can get inside or underneath, etc.
#3.) Make sure that when he's out of his cage that he cannot get underneath of any furniture or inside any cabinets, boxes, or any small, dark places.
#4.) Decrease his daylight hours and increase his amount of restful sleep...This is the big one, as Bill mentioned, and this time of year it's extremely important that you try your best to put him on a "Natural Light Schedule". This is easier to do in the spring and summer because we have longer days, but it's likely that his hormones going out of control are due to just that, not being on anything close to a "Natural Light Schedule". In the wild, birds awaken with the sunrise and watch the sunrise, and they also watch the sunset and go to sleep with the sunset, regardless of whether the sun sets at 5:00 p.m. or at 9:00 p.m. That's why you can hear wild birds outside as long as the sun is up, but you stop hearing them as soon as it's dark. This "Natural Sunlight Schedule" keeps their hormones on a very normal, yearly schedule, which is why wild birds have a very regular "breeding-season" schedule, while captive birds breed all year round and there's no "schedule" at all...So as Bill already suggested, putting him to bed much earlier so that he can get a good 13-14 hours of sleep, and then gradually decreasing his hours of sleep and increasing his daylight hours according to the sunrise and sunset, and making sure his cage or wherever he sleeps allows him to visibly see the sunrise and sunset, at least by the light changing in the room he's in. So making sure he sleeps in a room with a window that will allow enough light to come-in to the room (even with blinds/curtains shut) so that he will awaken with the sunrise every morning, and then trying your best to get him to bed as early as you can, and then as the months go by he will naturally, on his own, wake up earlier as the sunrise is earlier, and go to bed later, as the sunset is later. The more natural his daily light-schedule is, the more regular his hormone-cycles will be.
#5.) Get rid of any artificial lighting that you may have on him/over him/in his room...Not only do artificial "bird lights" or UVB lights usually do more harm than good, but they also encourage hormonal behavior, especially if they are being used this time of the year to "lengthen his daylight hours"...I keep seeing people saying that they are doing just this, using artificial "bird lights" or UVB lights to "lengthen their bird's days", but all this does is cause their hormones to go out of control, as it totally goes against their natural light schedule.
#6.) Lower the amount of protein and carbs/sugar that he is eating. The more energy his body has, the more hormone-production he will have. So feeding him less pellets/seed-mix/nuts/people food and feeding him more fresh veggies and dark, leafy greens this time of year is a must.

Obviously limit petting him anywhere but on his head/face/neck and that's it...

*****Very, very important is that you NEVER punish him for being hormonal!!! Bill already touched on this and he was very wise to do so, because this is not at all your bird's fault!!! Macaws are extremely intelligent and they use logic and reasoning...And if you "give him a time-out" whenever he becomes hormonal, but he knows that he gets time-outs when he does something bad like biting, this often causes HUGE psychological and behavioral issues because they don't know what they are doing that is wrong, and they don't know how to stop it (because they can't stop it!). So you cannot use the normal methods that use with him when he purposely does something bad/wrong to try to "correct" his hormonal behavior. As you've already found out, it won't help to "correct" his behavior one bit because it's not a behavior that he has any control over at all, and more-importantly hormonal behavior with their "flockmates"
or their main "mate" is completely and totally natural to them and is what they naturally do. In addition to not using "time-outs" or other punishments when he becomes hormonal, you also should never, ever take away any "Positive Reinforcements" from him because he's hormonal...Now I don't mean that you ever want to reward his hormonal behavior, obviously you don't ever want to do that either. However, if he does something that you would normally reward him for doing but you refuse to reward him for it because he's been hormonal that day, this too will only confuse him, frustrate him, and cause him to start having issues in his normal, daily behavior as well.

The best thing you can do whenever he becomes hormonal with you/starts regurgitating for you/tries to masturbate on you, etc. (if he hasn't already done this, don't be surprised when he does) is to make sure you DON'T ever yell at him, scold him, or say anything at all negative to him, but rather simply put him down on one of his stands or on top of his cage (NOT INSIDE OF HIS CAGE!, as his cage should not ever be used as a negative thing or a place to go when he's "bad"), wherever it is he hangs out regularly, and then walk away from him for 5 minutes and let him cool down...Then go back to him and let him step-up, and just act normally with him like nothing happened, but if he immediately starts being hormonal again with you, put him right back down on his stand or on top of his cage without saying anything, and just walk away again for another 5 minutes...Continue to do this until he steps-up for you and is able to be with you without be hormonal...And if he's okay for 20 minutes or an hour or 2 hours or however long and then he starts being hormonal again, whenever that might be, just take him back to his stand or back on top of his cage and walk away again for 5 minutes without saying anything...That way he will have time to calm down and settle himself, and while he'll eventually get the point that if he's going to be hormonal that's fine, but he's not going to be hormonal on you or to you, he will also not be upset or feel like he's being punished or like he's in-trouble for it; he'll learn that it's okay if he wants to be hormonal, but if he's going to be hormonal, he's going to do it by himself...