Need help with juvenile macaw behavior

[ElleEmKay]

Hi everyone,

I need some advice regarding my ~1 year old flame macaw. I have had large parrots before, and I have a 7 year old rescued blue and gold, so I am not new to parrot ownership. We love our blue and gold so much that we wanted to get another macaw to add to the family. I spend a lot of time with my birds and provide enrichment, but I am having problems connecting to this new guy. We have had him for a few months now, and he is just constantly going and going. He gets into everything and you can't go into another room for a second because he will fly down and bite giant chunks out of whatever is closest to him. My other birds have all been destructive to some extent, as most parrots are, but not like this. It is exhausting keeping up with him. He lets you handle him and will wrestle with you, but wont ever slow down enough for cuddling or petting. He also likes to pinch you often as you carry him around. He doesn't usually bite hard. Just enough to be annoying...especially if you want him to do something he doesn't want to do. He gets new toys every day to chew up and he has a number of play stands, plus he forages for his food. But, I am starting to get a little frustrated at the excessive amount of attention he needs to keep him from destroying our entire house. Is this just a phase that all juvenile macaws go through? Like a puppy would...? Will he settle down eventually if we are consistent with his training and provide plenty of toy wood to chew, etc? He is a really intelligent, beautiful and fun bird, but we are considering returning him to the breeder at this point, as I can't imaging doing this for another 70 years. Did anyone else go through this with their young macaw?

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

 

[itzjbean]

Hello and welcome!!

I'm sorry you are having trouble with your new young Flame macaw and I feel your frustration on this. I have never owned a macaw, but I do know that hybrid macaws can have varying personalities. So yours is 1/2 Greenwing, 1/4 Scarlet and 1/4 Blue and Gold. I know Scarlets are notorious for 'pinching', and it seems your Flame mac has picked up on this behavior, and based on your despriction, seems to have quite a Scarlet-type personality. While some macs like the Greenwing and Blue & Gold can be more laid back, Scarlets are known to be quite feisty, ornery and high strung.

As far as curbing this behavior, I unfortunately have no experience with this and therefore cannot offer any advice. I know that these birds do need daily/constant reminders that they are not in charge, so when the pinching occurs or any unwanted behavior (the flying and chewing up the closest thing to him) you return him to his cage immediately until he composes himself and then let him out again. I might also suggest getting your mac clipped, to ensure you can keep a closer eye on him and he won't be flying off so much. Do your macs have full-run of the house, or do they have their own room? Good luck and I'm hoping other experienced mac-owners will comment with tips!!

 

[Mariar]

I'm going through a lot of things with sissy....she's great with me by myself...she great with my fiancé when he's by himself....get us together...and the brat shows up...bad.shell rip up carpet...dive bomb who's up walking around..bite our feet...don't understand it either. If we talk to each other...everyone gets bit...I'm over it.. Time to bust out the tiny little cage she lived in when we took her from horrible owners. How do you discipline a parrot?? I don't want to smack her.i can't spray her with water cuz she likes it and when I yell at her...her words are not worthy of typing...oh yea..the bad words come out.

 

[Pinkbirdy]

I think this is definitely a young bird behavior.They are little devils .Acts just like my Scarlet I have 4 Macaws.Maybe he has more Scarlet in him than anything ☺I would just hang in there.

 

[SilleIN]

I have 2 juvenile macaws in the house, a scarlet and a b&g. The scarlet is a lot harder to keep up with. The b&g I can correct just once or twice and she will never do it again, the scarlet can get a "no" and 2 seconds later she's right back at it. I have 2 diciplining tools for when "no" doesn't help.

One is a time out. I have a rather boring cage in the other room with nothing in it. If they scream repeatedly or bites, they get a time out. Usually they scream in the time out. The time out is over, once they have calmed down and are quiet.

The other is for when they do the same thing and have gotten "no" repeatedly, but just won't listen. I flip them on their back and give them the "stink eye" for a few seconds untill I can see them stop to think.

After either we are good friends as soon as the diciplining is over.

I cannot recommend to hit a parrot. You need your hands a lot when working with parrots and it's really bad if they start to fear your hands.

I actually have Honeys brother living with me at the moment as he is scared sh*tless of hands. I can now feed him with my hands, but if I ask him to step up on my hand, he panicks. We are now at a place, where I can get him to step up, when I wear gloves, but that has taken a long time. I don't really know what happened to him, but something bad has come from uncovered hands.

 

[Solo]

I got my Shamrock when she was about a year, and she was a handful! I have had her for 2 years now and she is much calmer most of the time but still has spouts of being satans spawn! I would say give it time. He is acting like a young scarlet, and the surroundings are still fairly new to him. Phoebe didn't start calming down for about a year. As it is I can barely leave the room with her alone. Idle hands and mind you know. If I go to the bathroom she automatically assumes shower and will make her way in with me. And if I'm cleaning her room with her in the other room (I ask my fiancé to watch her but he gets distracted) then she decides I'm distracted and she can tear the place apart.

As to the mac being a sweetheart when your there alone, and a demon when your both together..Phoebe does this too. When your both together she's competing for attention. Phoebe also does this thing where if I get on to her for doing something bad she will go to Marko and cuddle and be the sweetest thing to him and lunge at me. Macaws are very good at mind games, she knows this hurts my feelings and makes me jealous. I try not to be, but it's automatic and she picks up on it.


Rachael & Phoebe from KS

 

[Birdman666]

Hi everyone,

I need some advice regarding my ~1 year old flame macaw. I have had large parrots before, and I have a 7 year old rescued blue and gold, so I am not new to parrot ownership. We love our blue and gold so much that we wanted to get another macaw to add to the family. I spend a lot of time with my birds and provide enrichment, but I am having problems connecting to this new guy. We have had him for a few months now, and he is just constantly going and going. He gets into everything and you can't go into another room for a second because he will fly down and bite giant chunks out of whatever is closest to him. My other birds have all been destructive to some extent, as most parrots are, but not like this. It is exhausting keeping up with him. He lets you handle him and will wrestle with you, but wont ever slow down enough for cuddling or petting. He also likes to pinch you often as you carry him around. He doesn't usually bite hard. Just enough to be annoying...especially if you want him to do something he doesn't want to do. He gets new toys every day to chew up and he has a number of play stands, plus he forages for his food. But, I am starting to get a little frustrated at the excessive amount of attention he needs to keep him from destroying our entire house. Is this just a phase that all juvenile macaws go through? Like a puppy would...? Will he settle down eventually if we are consistent with his training and provide plenty of toy wood to chew, etc? He is a really intelligent, beautiful and fun bird, but we are considering returning him to the breeder at this point, as I can't imaging doing this for another 70 years. Did anyone else go through this with their young macaw?

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

Yeah. That's a baby bird thing. FIRST ABOUT FOUR YEARS ARE NON STOP!!! I'VE GOT A 15-ISH MONTH OLD GREENWING WHO IS VERY MUCH THE SAME WAY RIGHT NOW... She's as sweet as they come, but she just doesn't stop.... attention span of a gnat! And all play, all the time.