My good deed and some advice....

A couple dropped off their Severe Macaw here today for me to train and work with. He's seriously cage aggressive and loves to fly off and attack people. They heard about me through a couple of people whose birds I've tamed in the past. I told them that training the bird would be a breeze (it always is), but that training them to handle him properly would be the real challenge. The severe will spend 30 days here. He appears to be positive for Giargia (wiill confirm with a test), his beak and feathers and body weight reflect a diet of Walmart seed, and he needs some beak alignment and trimming done. At the end of his physical treatments I plan to teach him a couple of tricks (Severe Macaws are highly intelligent even among other macaws) because he will benefit from learning some new behavoirs. At the end of the 30 days (give or take) I will take hime home to them and spend one full day watching them interact with him and try like hell to make sure that they know how to prevent him turning into the bird he was when he arrived.

It got me thinking again about how most (if not all) parrot behavoir problems I encounter are either directly cause by a human, or reenforced by a human.

Macaws are the easiest birds for me to retrain.... why? Because they are birds that flourish in an even home with clear rules and one clear and fair flock leader. They. Are birds that need to be confident in what is expected and what to expect.

Todays example is Rascal.... a bird that now consistently steps up on command, goes to my husband and son without any thought about biting or being cage aggressive. His owners are not bad people (uneducated parrot owners) they have tried to switch his diet for years with nothing but failure, they don't want to dump a problem bird on someone else, they just want their pet back. But because of how Rascal has acted today I can be certain that they don't have a clear set of limits, and that when Rascal bit them in the past he figured out how afraid of him they had become. It was the same thing with Miko (Harlequin Macaw), Dolly ( a Scarlet macaw), nimo (hahns mini macaw), scooter (blue and gold macaw), Lola (blue and gold macaw) etc... All macaws who just lacked a confident owner they could be confident in and a clear set of boundaries. Now Rascal will be fine, and I will work with this couple for a long time to ensure that all will go well.

My advice...... Make sure a macaw is a good fit for your personality, consider how you'll handle it if you get bit by it. Ask yourself if you can brave a bird that bit you once and (without being abusive) continue to set the rules and still work with it.

I am a little worn out from getting macaws to re tame that have spent the past 2 to 15 years sitting in a cage because no one will brave a bite.

Additionally, it may help to learn to restrain your macaw and do it's toe nails (I see too many people reluctantly approaching macaws with gloves and towels. I don't use either for macaw catching, and if you can approach a nasty macaw without an aid than you are probably the type of person that can be both firm and fair.

Just remember your sweet little baby macaw will eventually have a bad day and perhaps bite..... what will your natural reaction to a bite tell your bird about you? What is the bird going to learn?

Again this is just my opinion and my experience, and I figured since this seems to be a running theme among macaw owners (especially people who have macaws over 20 years old) that I would at least vent about the issue a bit and hopefully enlighten just one person to the true nature of macaw ownership....

(A handfed baby is not guaranteed to be your sweetheart forever)

I absolutely agree with you that Macaw's are re trainable! It takes human training.. My YC was previously owned for his first 4 years and learned some awful behaviors, including major cage aggression and biting problems. You CAN retrain if you are persistent and approach the situation correctly.

There is definitely something to say about being a clear and fair flock leader. I think it's the macaw's natural tendency to try to be the leader, and if you don't stand your ground your house will be overrun. I still struggle with this occasionally, and they will take full advantage if you let them. (Hence, my previous posts regarding my punishment bites)

You are a great resource - where are you located? Are you an avian behaviorist?

I live in Nebraska. I have no professional credentials, not an avian behavoiralist.... just a woman who has raised and rehabilitated birds for about 24 years.

Nothing special...

I just hate seeing birds rehomed and so I do my best to help people keep a healthy, understanding relationship with their bird(s)

A lot of it is unethical breeders selling birds to people without consideration to either bird or person and if it is a good fit. Oh well, I guess each person here does their part in one way or another to help birds and people owned by birds.

lol i am soooo owned by my bird!! lol

This ius one of the most useful and informative post I have read in a while. Thanks for the useful info, I think it will also work for most birds.

Case in point: The 3 year old Eclectus I just adopted has the phrase "DON'T BITE ME" and then "OUCH" when he pinches someone. So it appears the previous owners must have almost used this as a game because Mac will bend his head while your not looking and take his beak and pinch your hand with the tip of his beak and then say "ouch" and "don't bite me". He will also pinch the top of your hand and just sat there to see if he will get a reaction from you.

So I grabbed his beak the couple of times he did this and pulled his beak forward a little and said nothing. He let out a squawk and backed away. Then I asked him if we were done now. hahahahahaha. He sure didn't get the reaction he was expecting.

Oh wow that is what I do too mike with the one quaker who has only been here for a month the re home . someone made it a game for him to try and bite and he does not like that at all and he backs off . I did this same thing when I got my first macaw . When I had to go to the hospital for stitches was the last straw sorta thing . LOL !!!! yep dont make biting a game it can result in the bird being re homed over and over again .

Thanks, this is a really useful post. In some ways I am one of the people you are talking about. I adopted a 8 year old B&G Macaw named George. He is my first parrot and I am trying to get him out of biting. He also bites then says 'ouch' so must have learnt this from his past owners. I am not scared of him and tend not to react when he does bite (except to say No to him) . He is getting a lot better but still bites me occaisionally and other people most of the time. I have had him 3 months now.

Me & George are getting along well but I don't know how to so******e him with people who just come to my house now and again or as a one off. He is getting used to my Mum & Grandma, and will let them stroke him as they come round fairly regualarly but how do I get him to let other people stroke him?

I like the idea of not speaking at all and just pulling his beak towards me if he bites. He does think it is a bit of a game at the moment. Someone told me to knock him on the beak if he bites but I've never been able to bring myself to do that and feel that I should be able to sort this behaviour out without resorting to that. He is learning that biting is not acceptable but when other people come round I think he can sense their fear & becuase I can't say to them that he won't bite they are scared when they go near him.

Do you have any tips?