My angel is growing horns.....

Well, my normally sweet 6 month old B&G is learning how to toss tantrums.... Joy.

It started will yelling his displeasure when being placed into a time out and then carried on to our outings.

He's normally calm and accepting to people touching him. Now his first reaction is to turn and yell at them. He's still never even offered to bite, but his yelling and open mouth are obviously off putting to people.

So we've started back to just having people only approach and offer his favorite treat, no touching or reaching. We'll see how it goes.

His tantrums... Holy Moly. And I thought my Jenday was bad??

The yelling, the limit pushing, the mouth... Who snuck in and replaced my baby ROFL.

But while he definatly tests my mother more than me, we are sticking to our guns. Time outs, ignoring him, rewarding good behavior, making sure limits are being followed, working on things to keep him engaged....

He's not happy about not getting his way but we are committed to him and making sure we don't raise a spoiled (well not to spoiled) and bratty dominant jerk.

So far both my mother and I have received some bites, not enough to break skin by close, while picking him up from things he shouldn't be on, and placing him in a time out, and ignoring him. But we move on as always.

I'm more sad to see him suddenly so defensive with other people. So far he's never had a bad experience so I'm not sure why the change. And when people aren't around when we are out he's a chatter bug even in new places. Though I've noticed he's always been more nervous acting outside as compared to being in an indoor setting.

He's my life long commitment so we'll start back at square one as many times as it takes

Hmm. Maybe something happened that you don't know about.

Two of my "babies" are at that age also. I can only say to stick to your regular plan, that's what works for me.

The only input I can add is the way I get my birds used to other people. I will try to descibe it, but should probably film it, as that would make it much easier to understand, but I'll try with the written media.

I hold my bird on my right lower arm facing inwards. I then hold the other persons right wrist with my left hand. I then place the bird on the other persons right lower arm, while I still hold the wrist with my left hand. Once the bird has been there for some seconds, I offer my right lower arm again and the bird can get back to "safety". This way the bird gets used to other peoples extremities as a prolonged "appendice" of me and therefore not scary.

When that works a charm, I prolong the period how long they sit there. Later on I let go with my left hand. After that I take a step back and eventually the other person can take the bird closer to their chest and then at long last get to pet the bird in their neck.

I think you might be "going too fast" with contact with strange people. The process above takes about 3 months more or less depending on on how often you "offer strange people" to your bird and the birds anxiety levels.

I hope my descibtion is understandable and I have tried to explain this many times before, so I should make a video, that makes it much easier to explain and I bet much easier to understand.

SilleIN said:

Two of my "babies" are at that age also. I can only say to stick to your regular plan, that's what works for me.

The only input I can add is the way I get my birds used to other people. I will try to descibe it, but should probably film it, as that would make it much easier to understand, but I'll try with the written media.

I hold my bird on my right lower arm facing inwards. I then hold the other persons right wrist with my left hand. I then place the bird on the other persons right lower arm, while I still hold the wrist with my left hand. Once the bird has been there for some seconds, I offer my right lower arm again and the bird can get back to "safety". This way the bird gets used to other peoples extremities as a prolonged "appendice" of me and therefore not scary.

When that works a charm, I prolong the period how long they sit there. Later on I let go with my left hand. After that I take a step back and eventually the other person can take the bird closer to their chest and then at long last get to pet the bird in their neck.

I think you might be "going too fast" with contact with strange people. The process above takes about 3 months more or less depending on on how often you "offer strange people" to your bird and the birds anxiety levels.

I hope my descibtion is understandable and I have tried to explain this many times before, so I should make a video, that makes it much easier to explain and I bet much easier to understand.

Click to expand...

Seems like a great method to me! You are offering contact with another person while maintaining the security of nearness to you. Easy to "read" the bird's reactions and manage the time and degree of separation.

Hi,I'm cas, I'm new too macaws I have blue and gold and green wing I can tell you that they watch everything and are very jealous and protective birds very smart you really have too take you're time and give them their space when they want it.