Blue and gold has gone crazy!!

I have a 21 year old male blue and gold, I have had him since he was a few weeks old. About a year ago he started getting hard to handle. Now he tries to attack anyone that gets near the cage. He has always been aggressive to any one but me. Now I can't get him out of the cage for anything. He has always been easy to keep, and is not a feather picker of a nervous bird.
He was always quite, except if he saw a cat then he would scream, now he will scream to get attention. He is more vocal than ever, talks more around strangers etc.
any ideas to what is going on and how to get him to calm down and be friendly again?? I'm just about ready to wring his neck!!

Has anything changed? Moved cage, switched rooms, new people in your life-not in your life?? At that age, he was already mature, so hormonal issues would have already been in play at 21 years old, unless there is a health issue. Had he been left in the cage more often, sounds like he is cage bound/territorial. Honestly, he sounds mad ,

You want to send a private message to birdman666. He is the resident genius when it comes to macaws. I don't care if you have to send hi and good bye messages to your self to get your post count up to 15 , one of the boards little rules. But you my friend need to get in touch with this guy.

Mods will forward messages for you.

Darn, I had written quite a bit, and then it disappeared, and now I don't have as much time.

Now I can't get him out of the cage for anything.

Click to expand...

I never try to force any of my parrots to come out of their "nest", or "safe place", the doors are all ways open, except in certain unusual situations. I do not like to even call there places cages,..they are not like prisoners being kept in jail, .... but any way my thoughts,... and if you think about it
hopefully you will begin to understand how the parrot feels.
Assuming you are a normal , male,... 21 years old, and you still have never been given the opportunity to be with a real female, human (your species),... How would you feel ? and How would you react to the rest of the world, including the person that has kept you all those years ?
Keep in mind, you are unable to express this, and tell the "keeper", what is bothering you, ...
even though the parrot may be able to mimic words, and "talk" so to speak,.. it can not express this frustration in words that it has learned to mimick, it is probably trying to do that. I mean , he is trying to express his anger, and frustration, as best as he can. It is up to you as his "keeper" to understand what his needs are.
I feel it goes beyond just "hormonal" issues,..parrots have real thoughts, and feelings , in nut shell, if at all possible, maybe consider finding a female companion for the poor guy.
I have only had my macaws a few months, so am lacking in experience, but Guako , the male , was the first, almost still a baby ,..weened, but still less then a year old. The person that I got him from told me he did have a female as well, but I wanted to wait , and see how it went with Guako first, since they are large birds, and I had never had one before I figured just one would be all I could handle, but I did tell
the guy, I would let him know in a couple of months.
To make a long story short, after 2 months, with Guako, it was very clear to me , that even though he had me as a friend, etc,... he still was not as happy as he could be,.. so I called the breeder, and they still had the female, the same guy brought her to me.
It was not love at first sight, but the 2 of them get along, and Guako is much more active, even though he does not say it in words that are spanish or engles , he does show that he is happier to have a companion.
Hilda, the female was much easier to start handling, partly because she could see that Guako was not scared of me, and I was not any kind of threat,... any way , that is my thoughts on this, again I am no expert,

I do realize probably getting another parrot might not be a option, and also that after 21 years with
yours , you must be very close and do everything you can to be sure he is happy.
I can imagine it would be difficult , now obviously he is not so happy now, and neither are you.
I looked for some posts by "birdman666", and stumbled on to this:
http://www.parrotforums.com/do-yourself/51070-monster-playstand-tutorial.html and
it made me start thinking, maybe something new, like a real nice playstand, but out side of the
cage, something that is so interesting to your macaw, that he wants to come out and check it out. I did not notice a name, ? He does
have a name doesn't he ?
If he seems to get exciting and talking more when you have visitors, and you mention strangers,
It seems to me like maybe some new things, like a nice playpin, would maybe be interesting enough to him , and make him more eager to come out, explore the "new toy", or area,..

now he will scream to get attention.

Click to expand...

That is what he wants / needs attention, that is why he screams for it, in the short time I have had my Guako and Hilda, this is something I have noticed, they are very "vocal", especially Hilda, she shouts alot, somtimes she starts screaming bloody murder,
at first, it scared me, and I would immediately stop what I was doing and go into their house, to see what was wrong,... nothing was wrong, she just likes to get the attention,... kind of like a kid that likes to "cry wolf" so to speak, I guess. We are working on this,
I try to get her to understand, that kind of scream, is a "panic" scream, something is wrong,..and should not be done unless there really is something wrong, she does seem to be getting better about it, as she realizes I am not that far away, and will come when she screams,
it will take some time I am sure, kind of like a dog that barks to much, they can be taught not to , but it is difficult.
Good luck, and hope it all works out.

Had he been left in the cage more often, sounds like he is cage bound/territorial. Honestly, he sounds mad ,

Click to expand...

It sounds like this to me as well, and additionally, if nothing really fun, or interesting occurs when he does come out of the cage, Why bother coming out ?
I do find this comment rather disturbing, but I try to believe you don't really mean it.

I'm just about ready to wring his neck!!

Click to expand...

Maybe better in full context:

any ideas to what is going on and how to get him to calm down and be friendly again?? I'm just about ready to wring his neck!!

Click to expand...

Hope you don't take this wrong and get angry with me,... but are you sure it is the parrot that
needs to calm down ? Maybe trying to calm down, needs to be demonstrated by you ?
I do know, for example, if I am kind of "stressed out", and angry, not at my parrots, but for example my wife, and then I go into the Parrots room (house actually), they all sense this anger and stress, and none of them seem to want anything to do with me,... well except for George, he
seems to sense something is wrong, and kind of makes some "whining noises" cocks his head, and cautiously approaches,...it is clearly like he is asking, "Oh, no, what's wrong ?, don't be mad",
Once I calm down, the parrots as a group also calm down.
Any way, the main point is, maybe if he had some things happening that were new, to break the routine and boredom, interesting enough to make him want to come out, and explore, thing like that would help him get his mind off of "girls", and if that is not a option at all, to have a "mate",
Well there are other things that can be very fun and exciting, for a parrot as well as a human,
and really have a girl friend , wife or what ever, is not absolutely necessary. The important thing is to have things that are of interest, and enjoyable.