Fid picked the wrong favorite person, am I doing it right?

[Screech]

Our Greenwing, Beaker, from day one decided that my wife is the best thing ever. This is a problem, because I'm the one with the time and drive to work with Beaker. I'm worried that her slow time to get on him about doing anything wrong (too many warnings, rarely action) and that I'm the one that comes in with the perch stick or towel to do the dirty work.

I'm trying to stop his aggressive behavior when he's around her towards me, but I don't want something to break in the poor guy. I want to be able to get close in these situations without a lunge, but I'm not sure what I should expect to accomplish with him.

 

[Screech]

So a little update on this in case anyone is interested: when I am alone with Beaker he does reveal that he is more hesitant to be close to me than he previously let on. He also was a little bit deprived of sleep so all I had to do to fix that was just allow him some quite time late morning. The heat setting turned out to be low for him, he was shivering and had his feathers fluffed up until nearly 80F. A simple fix for a cheap oil radiant space heater, we'll fallow that one up real soon with a closer look with experienced eyes.

For now I just give him more room. When he is with my wife I will give Beaker a treat every so often and when I approach I make sure his beak is occupied with something to chew on or eat. Because he expects me to fight back, when I give him something to chew on it really throws him off

All these changes seem to be working for the better. My wife is now starting to get on the manners training bandwagon, the bites she gets are starting to get harder than gently nibbles. I'm hoping this is all the right action for now.

 

[kq_fan]

Well I don't know much about Macaw behavior but I do know a bit about parrot behavior. Some birds just take to one person. I know it sucks, my foster cockatiel only liked my dad and I was the one who bought all his food, toys, treats etc. But some birds just like women better then men and some birds like men better then women. That's all I know about that situation. With the blighting, is he a rehoused bird or did you get him as a baby? I really hope someone with a macaw replys to you! They will tell you a lot more then I can say! What you can do is just sit and talk with him and maybe even read a book to him. I know that sounds silly but it's worth a try! And maybe spend more time with him. He might not ever like you best but atleast he won't hate you!

 

[kendrafitz]

I have a GW a Rosie who will be 2 in July.

She is very strongly bonded to me. It got to the point that she would lunge whenever a family member came near us. Obviously not going to work.

I have tried to remedy this the way I would with a jealous child. Just included her in interactions with my family. Helps to lessen jealousy bc she is involved. (Like when we told my son we were pregnant with HIS baby sister. Then let him choose her middle name).

Example: "Rosie, look, it's Ashie! She is such a good girl. Don't you think she is a good girl? We need to give her kisses!!" (Rosie & I then kiss her on the top of the head - so nothing for her to chomp on if she changed her mind). Did the same with the dogs - "say hi to Teddy, he is such a good boy. Isn't he a good boy Rosie?" No kisses for the dogs.

Also, I have found that my family reading out loud to her made a difference. Singing made a bigger difference - really helped bond my daughter with Rosie. And believe it or not, Peek A Boo made the biggest difference. Just play with the bird the same you would with a baby. Lots of excitement and ohhs and ahhs. You can hold something in front of you or just duck down behind something. Doing fun things centered around the bird should help. Just think of your bird as you would a toddler - if they are the center if attention they are usually happy. That way you aren't taking Mommy's attention away, you are adding fun and extra attention. Though like toddlers, you just never know 100%!!

Best of luck - I will look forward to reading all about your progress!

 

[Caesar]

Yeah .I agree with Kq...But my Ekkie has no choice of which to favour as my flat mate and I r both males.
My flatmate has been bitten By Caesar and is a little scared of him.
But as I am the main handler of Caesar he try's to put it over me ..as he is 5months now and I think I remember reading somewhere that if you get through that 5th month without getting a major injury its smooth sailing (so to speak) from there.

 

[cassiepengo]

how long has ur fid been with you?

 

[Screech]

how long has ur fid been with you?

It's still been less than two weeks, but progress has been downhill a little bit. The first week I could spend up to an hour just rubbing under his neck feathers and he'd just lean his beak into me. After the weekend, when he had time to spend with his favorite person, things went really downhill. I try to just distract any aggression with treats or something to chew on, as I was saying.

During the work day we spend almost all our time together, but this doesn't seem to bring much progress except to recover from the nippy attitude in the morning (a good nap seems to fix this).

Beaker does seem to have a slight bias towards women, but this doesn't seem to be a standing rule for him (usually indicated with "HAAIII!!").

 

[cstambaugh]

how long has ur fid been with you?

It's still been less than two weeks.

Your fid isnt bonding to anyone yet. He is still figuring out where he is, and what is going on. You'll be in the honeymoon phase for a few more weeks still.

I've had my 10yr old adpted GW for 2+ months now. We are definitely out of the honeymoon phase. He seemed to turn mean after this, but that wasn't the case. He just understood that this was his new home, but he didn't trust anyone so he was defensive. Now the bonding can really start.

Time, and patience will be key. It can take months and months (into years) before a GW can fully trust.

 

[Birdman666]

Use two fingers on the beak. As you work with the bird more and more, the bird will become more social.

Maggie is bonded to me. My daughter couldn't handle her when she first got here. Now she handles her just fine. Took it slow. Two fingers on the beak. Head scratches, treats, positive interaction, combined with you're not going to get away with that pinching nonsense with me.

My girlfriend is now working on it. Same deal. Jealous bird issue. Taking it slow. Two fingers on the beak...

My other four are fine with her already. Maggie plays with her, but still sometimes has jealousy issues...

It takes time.

Have you done the disfavored person training that I posted awhile back?

 

[Screech]

Have you done the disfavored person training that I posted awhile back?

I have been spending a good amount of time during the day to build our relationship and it works, temporarily. Once the evening hits it's all downhill from there and the next day I'm greeted with wings, up head down and the process starts over. This will be an interesting next two weeks when everyone is home.

How would it work if I were to just work with him one on one despite him begging for attention from someone else?

When you say two fingers to the beak does this mean actually taking hold or is this two fingers across to distract him from biting?

 

[Screech]

For the last week I've tried a few new things. For starters I got a little more aggressive with clicker training (hard to clicker train when you get bit each time) and now up to gently touching my hand with the tip of his beak!

It's pretty clear that he is doing displays for me trying to challenge me when ever my wife is around. He wants to fight, but he doesn't bite his hardest - just tries really, really hard to get a bite in on my face (not successful yet!). To deal with this I try to ignore him or I'll bring out the clicker and pecan treats, which works to diffuse all except for his occasional "cordless industrial-strength meat processor" attitude.

Another approach is actually letting him make attempts at biting me. I have done a few session in which I put on a glove and put a clean, cotton sock over the glove and tried to learn as much about the beak as possible. I've learned that making a C shape with the fingers together and wrist vertical is difficult for him to bite. Any bone that supports the thumb should be kept away from the beak (nice easy chomp area). A horizontal wrist and forearm make for most of the forearm to be nearly impossible for a good bite (Bird: 1, Arm: 9), with the exception of the softer muscle towards the elbow which allows for a good beak hold. After just letting him do his worst he's really mellowed out and will spend more effort on showing me that he is not in the mood to be handled rather than waiting for me to get well into beak range.

I still have no idea how to deal with my face, though. I'm 2 for 2 in just temporarily protecting an area until biting is under control, but I just don't know what to do with the face except to put on a riot mask.

 

[Ambermai]

Really interesting to read your posts. I am feeling a bit desperate because my tiny black capped conure is so aggressive with my husband that I am afraid to have them in the same room. He jumped on him yesterday and bit his face. So I have to leave them (we have 2 birds) in their cages in my office when my husband is home. I really don't know what to do. Jade will puff up and start grumbling the minute he sees my husband now, even across the room. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Screech]

Really interesting to read your posts. I am feeling a bit desperate because my tiny black capped conure is so aggressive with my husband that I am afraid to have them in the same room. He jumped on him yesterday and bit his face. So I have to leave them (we have 2 birds) in their cages in my office when my husband is home. I really don't know what to do. Jade will puff up and start grumbling the minute he sees my husband now, even across the room. Do you have any suggestions?

I've had the best initial success when Beaker is just distracted enough with my wife that he won't try to hunt me down (otherwise I fear I will reinforce bad behavior). Then I'll clicker a click and give him a treat. At first I had to get creative to give him the treat by either dropping it a short distance out of reach or protecting my hand (hence the glove-in-sock hand protection), but now I can use my bare fingers.

After the clicker sound was associated with treats, the very first thing I started with was "Beaker, touch my hand!" (with glove). Now I can ask him and he gently comes up to my hand and will tongue my fingers a little bit. I've added "touch your wing" to our repertoire, but he's still not used to sharing that space with me. I also have the added benefit of using the clicker method to get him to calm down when he is on his cage. His feathers will flatten and his neck would stretch out so fast that he looks like he belongs in the loony bin.

Now that I've done some more reading about bird behavior, it makes sense that Beaker would want to fight me. I've learned that most birds will only show this kind of aggression after they know the person. I think it's because he feels safe enough with me to express his feelings ("MINE" or "MY SPACE") with his beak. We might have our squabbles, but when it comes down to it, he actually feels safer with me than any stranger (we almost had a horrible toddler - fid encounter, he stepped up so obediently and hastily to my arm you'd think it was the best thing since shelled pecans!), so progress made!

Unfortunately I've been quite sick this weekend and I have no energy to do anything except hold him for a minute so progress might have just stepped back a step or two.

So to get back to your problem, Ambermai, I saw another thread in which an amazon (I think?) was just being foul (fowl?) towards the guy who posted the topic and mainly him. A major theme in all the replies was that he should have a clicker and click it and leave a treat in an accessible spot for the bird on the cage every time he entered the room. After two days of doing this often, the bird was more interested to hear the next click than to take his face off. - If only I could find the original thread!