I Adopted A Blue & Gold...Advice?

Hello Everyone! First off, great forum, and a wonderful resource!

I have recently had the good fortune of adopting a 4 year old, female Blue and Gold Macaw named Juliet. The previous owner was a nurse and worked insane hours and knew she wasn't giving Juliet the attention that she needed. She told me that Juliet has been spending most of her time locked in her cage, alone, while the woman slept before leaving again for her next shift.

So through a connection at the vet's office where the previous owner took Juliet, I now have a new feathered friend. This is my first bird, and I've scoured this forum and bugged the avian vet to no end for general care information lol.

Despite being left alone and locked in a cage for the last 6-ish months, Juliet is an absolute riot. She steps up perfectly to anyone, even complete strangers, and lets me put her in her cage and take her out without any aggression. She gets unbelievably happy and excited at anyone playing games with her or being high energy around her. She bites me if I try to pet her still, but she is content to hang out on my arm or near me on her play stand. She will play peekaboo with me, loves to play the game where she drops something and I give it back for her to drop again, and has no problem with me hand feeding her treats. Considering she's only been at my house for two days now, I think she's doing amazingly well and I think the rest (wanting scratches, pets, or cuddles) will come down to time and bonding?

I have two questions for all of you knowledgeable people. The first is, what can I do to make sure that she stays the generally friendly, playful bird that she seems to be. All things considered, she seems pretty well adjusted and I want to make sure that I'm helping her make positive progress, instead of doing things that could possibly set her back.

And the second question, if I leave the room, she will screech until I come back to pay attention to her. Is there something I should be doing to correct this behavior? Or should I just be happy that she's seeking my company? I don't necessarily mind the noise, but I feel like I'm rewarding her for throwing a fit.

In regards to the behavior: You are currently in the "honeymoon phase" She is in a new environment, so she is not testing boundaries yet. She likely will. They key is to ignore the bite. If you are interacting and she bites, sit her down, and walk away for a few minutes. Yelling, scolding, and continued interaction rewards the behavior. The desire for cuddles will likely come with time, although some parrots like it more than others.

The screeching advice is similar. If she is screeching, do not come back in the room. Wait until she is quiet for at least five minutes. She will learn over time that quiet= attention, screeching=ignored. Initially this may take an hour of annoying screeching at a time, but it will improve.

Develope a contact call with her. When you leave the room, and she starts screeching, answer her back ONCE with your contact call, which could be as simple as "I am here, Where are You". Keep it consistent, and dont answer her back more than once. If you tell her you will be right back, ie going to the bathroom, then make sure you do come right back. If your going to work and will be back in several hours, tell her that. You want to develope a sense with her that she understands that you will come back as you described to her. The advice you got above is spot on.

My advice for the “honeymoon phase” keep her happy! Lol.

What Wrench13 said. Every bird is different ... I had good luck walking away if the bird started screaming when I was in sight, and only coming back when he was quiet. Also turning my back on screams and making some different sound like a whistle. If the bird made that sound, I immediately came over with a treat.

Parrots in the wild use their voices to stay in contact and be sure it’s safe. They are saying I’m here, I made it through the night without being eaten, are you there? Are you all there? I don’t hear Old Three-Toes, is she here? I’m here, I’m here. Ok good, who’s hungry, I’m hungry, let’s go to the fruit tree we found yeasterday! I’m flying over here, where are you? I’m flying over here too. I found a fruit, yum! Me too! What was that sound? Is that a snake? I heard a weird noise. Should we fly? No, it’s nothing, eat more fruit. My tree is out of fruit, let’s go.

And so on. They use contact calls to know where the other birds are in the dense vegetation and for reassurance that nobody is being eaten. If you go out of sight, your macaw doesn’t know where you are ... are you safe, is she safe, is it safe. Or did you leave because you saw a snake and maybe she should be leaving too? So an occasional contact call is reassuring. Make it something natural like “over here” or “hi sweetie” or something you would normally say. And don’t repeat it every time she calls or it becomes a reward. Maybe start with going out of the room for five minutes at a time, gradually extending the time, so she gets the idea that you will come back eventually.

I’ve started giving our b&g a small reward, like a couple of nuts, when we have to cage him and go out. I hope it distracts him from the thought of being left alone or at least makes it bearable. He has to be alone in a cage for a while, but at least he gets paid first. It seems to help. And it communicates that this is what’s going to happen, in the cage, here’s a nut, we’re going away for a while, then we come back. Routine is very important to birds.

You will learn a ton from reading Birdman666 posts. Start with the Big Beak-O-Phoebes Guide To Macaw Beaks in the macaw forum, and then click on his username to see the rest of his posts - I believe it’s on the statistics tab. Macaws like to bluff charge, and they do bite, and if they learn that they can use that to get their way - not be picked up, for example - they will put that knowledge to good use.

Congratulations and good luck to you both. Thanks for giving this bid a chance. Know that macaws live a long time, and you have lots of time to work things out between you. If she hasn’t been to a vet recently, now is a good time to schedule a checkup with a certified avian vet (find one at AAV.org) for a full checkup and blood work. And keep us posted, ok? With pics?

These birds are often a long term, life long endeavor.

There are no quick fixes to any one thing that you want to correct.

What works for one person doesn't work with another.

There is a lot of advice on here.

Try everything once, the things you like, try them twice.

Best wishes!