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I have a unique situation, if I explain, can you can tell me what you think?
About a month ago I picked up a mature pair of macaws that had been in mostly isolation for 5 years in a garage in a cage.
I brought them home, the male looked ok, the female lost all her feathers on the torso.
After about 3 weeks, I got both birds to step up and eat from my hand, and they seemed very tame and docile.
The female had lost or pulled out all her feathers, so after doing much reading on line, (and taking the birds to a vet) I took the female bird from the cage in the dining room to the kitchen, and tried to put a "sweater" on the bird, she was very unhappy and screeched and screeched, and made sounds like she was dying.
I stopped after 2 trys, and the male bird heard all this and after, he was incredibly angry.
Now he bites me viciously every chance he gets. It's been about a week now and he is still mad as a wet hen.
I am not surprised, but I am disappointed. The birds were so docile last week and now the male is incredibly pissed. He would chomp off my fingers if he could.
Can this bird be salvaged? Do they have a memory such that he won't forget the incident?
Ironically, the female bird has no grudge with me, and happily sits on my shoulder and rubs my face with hers, while the male looks at me and scowls....
I am thinking the only way to salvage anything from this is to separate the birds, keep the female, treat her feather plucking in whatever way works, and get rid of the male. He is obviously jealous, but If I can't get him to reform his ways, then maybe he should go (it's my house after all, not his.)
I don't have a great desire to breed them, since I have read that if you do go down that path, the birds are really lost as pets from then on, since you can't reall mess with them when they are trying to breed.
I have been reading how to stop a bird from biting, and perhaps this can be resolved by retraining the male nice to me, but any suggestions would be appreciated.
Seems to me pairs of birds don't work out that well as pets, since they become much more involved with each other and would tend to ignore the humans in the house.
thanks
Andy
About a month ago I picked up a mature pair of macaws that had been in mostly isolation for 5 years in a garage in a cage.
I brought them home, the male looked ok, the female lost all her feathers on the torso.
After about 3 weeks, I got both birds to step up and eat from my hand, and they seemed very tame and docile.
The female had lost or pulled out all her feathers, so after doing much reading on line, (and taking the birds to a vet) I took the female bird from the cage in the dining room to the kitchen, and tried to put a "sweater" on the bird, she was very unhappy and screeched and screeched, and made sounds like she was dying.
I stopped after 2 trys, and the male bird heard all this and after, he was incredibly angry.
Now he bites me viciously every chance he gets. It's been about a week now and he is still mad as a wet hen.
I am not surprised, but I am disappointed. The birds were so docile last week and now the male is incredibly pissed. He would chomp off my fingers if he could.
Can this bird be salvaged? Do they have a memory such that he won't forget the incident?
Ironically, the female bird has no grudge with me, and happily sits on my shoulder and rubs my face with hers, while the male looks at me and scowls....
I am thinking the only way to salvage anything from this is to separate the birds, keep the female, treat her feather plucking in whatever way works, and get rid of the male. He is obviously jealous, but If I can't get him to reform his ways, then maybe he should go (it's my house after all, not his.)
I don't have a great desire to breed them, since I have read that if you do go down that path, the birds are really lost as pets from then on, since you can't reall mess with them when they are trying to breed.
I have been reading how to stop a bird from biting, and perhaps this can be resolved by retraining the male nice to me, but any suggestions would be appreciated.
Seems to me pairs of birds don't work out that well as pets, since they become much more involved with each other and would tend to ignore the humans in the house.
thanks
Andy
