gaining my macaws trust

[momma2three]

Hi everyone. I have a 5 1/2 year old B&G macaw named Louie. I have had him for around 9 months. He is rescued from a home where he was getting hit with his perches. Only one person in my house can interact with him anyone else he tries his best to basically attack them. I am wondering if their is anything we can do to gain more of his trust, to really show him he's safe here.

 

[weco]

Hi again Nikki, I answered your question in a reply to your other post.....

 

[Birdman666]

Well, job one is to figure out what triggers him, recognize it, and avoid doing those. Job two is gradually exposing him to those things until he accepts him again.

Like your macaw, my red lored was "disciplined" with dowel perches. To this day, if you approach her with a dowel perch in her hand, you are likely to cause her to have a panic attack.

In this house we don't use dowel perches anymore.

She was also whacked with brooms. For awhile, I had to cover her cage before using them around it. Then, I used it across the room, and left it in a corner away from the cage. Gradually, over a period of 2-3 months, each time I left the broom a little closer, until one day I left it leaning against her cage.

She freaked out, she approached it, she attacked it. Then, the light bulb went on and she figured out that it was just an object. It wasn't going to attack her, and neither was I. From that point on, I could use the broom around her, and even with her on my shoulder...

Which was HUGE.

 

[Birdman666]

With a big mac, some of this is birdie intimidation.

This is where the discipline comes in. Once the bird is 100% calm and safe with you, then you really, really really need to work on socialization.

The bird has to learn that he is not allowed to bully people. They have to stand up to him. Trust is a two way street. No lunging and no biting!!!

I would start over from scratch, and just re-pattern the bird. "I don't know how things were in your last home, but this is how things are here. We don't hit you, and you don't bite us!" Once he gets that message, the stuff stops.

If he gets to dictate terms to everyone, then the behavior gets worse, not better.

It's going to take time, and I'd say 2-4 months is a reasonable estimate. BUT if everyone gets involved and is consistent, eventually everyone in the household will be allowed to step him up, and handle him. And if you do the control the beak thing, give head scratches...

Baby steps first.

First you need to get him tame, and loving and gentle again.

Then basic supervised give treats, step up, no bite, touching exercises with the other members of the family. With you holding the beak, and emphasizing the "no bite" training.

With the phobic and aggressive birds, I used to take them to the park, and sit on a park bench with them in the playground so that they were exposed to kids running around, and screaming, and running up to them, etc. until it simply didn't bother them anymore. [Strict supervision of course.]

The more people they get exposed to, over time, that are nice to them and pay attention to them, the less they are concerned with the one idiot that hurt them.

These are attention oriented birds. They are also pair bond birds. Which means they WILL overbond if you let them. At that point, no one but you will be able to handle them without being bit, and training them out of this one becomes problematic.

 

[momma2three]

Louie is fine with my husband who can pick him up and lay in bed with him and everything but hes gone all day but i think he encourages the biting, loudness and aggression. When my son or my grandmother come near his cage he tries to attack them thru the bars. I've told my son from the start to just stand there and talk to him softly, show him you wont hurt him, and in the last 9 months my son can finally get within about 10 inches from the cage before Louie tries to get him but not as bad when before my son could be 3 feet away. I've been his main caregiver and talking buddy since I picked him up and he will let me pet his tail and that is it. Today I got him to play ball with me for the first time, its his favorite thing to play with.

Louie is fine for the most part with my 2 daughters talking to him, he tries to talk back to them.

Here are a couple pictures of him playing with his ball and him relaxing in his cage after we moved stuff around for him. I have to get open his cage, put a kitchen chair in front of it let him climb on it, then move it with my foot so he doesnt bite me, so i can add or move something in his cage.

 

[NiRD]

I'm currently working with a blue and gold who was labeled aggressive. I have his cage in my family room, so I can sit by him quietly. He isn't fearful, but he's a biter/lunger/hisser. Here is what I am doing.

-Target training. I've taught him to seek out and touch a target so I can guide his head when I have to get inside of his cage.
-Touch gently. In addition to guiding his head, I've generalized the target to pretty much anything I put in front of him. At first he would get a reward whenever he touched it, now I'm only giving rewards when he doesn't apply pressure.
-Other games/training. I'm teaching him peekaboo, spreading his wings, screaming on command, quiet on command, and with target training I'm teaching him to give and take and deposit items into a bag/basket. This puts less pressure on the time we spend together, so he knows that I'm not going to touch him every time.
-Life rewards. When I do touch him or pick him up, it's to go somewhere he enjoys being. That could be his play stand, I'm front of the mirror, or his outdoor flight, or even the kitchen. When I pick him up from one of those places, three out of four times it is not to put him back in his cage, but to transfer to another fun area. I mix up where he goes and when I take him so it isn't routine.
- When I do put him back in his cage, he only goes in to a new toy and favorite food. He's learning that being in his cage is a fun thing.
-I let his body language tell me when to stop. If he so much as leands away,the interaction stops.

 

[momma2three]

-Target training. I've taught him to seek out and touch a target so I can guide his head when I have to get inside of his cage.
-Touch gently. In addition to guiding his head, I've generalized the target to pretty much anything I put in front of him. At first he would get a reward whenever he touched it, now I'm only giving rewards when he doesn't apply pressure.
-Other games/training. I'm teaching him peekaboo, spreading his wings, screaming on command, quiet on command, and with target training I'm teaching him to give and take and deposit items into a bag/basket. This puts less pressure on the time we spend together, so he knows that I'm not going to touch him every time.
-Life rewards. When I do touch him or pick him up, it's to go somewhere he enjoys being. That could be his play stand, I'm front of the mirror, or his outdoor flight, or even the kitchen. When I pick him up from one of those places, three out of four times it is not to put him back in his cage, but to transfer to another fun area. I mix up where he goes and when I take him so it isn't routine.
- When I do put him back in his cage, he only goes in to a new toy and favorite food. He's learning that being in his cage is a fun thing.
-I let his body language tell me when to stop. If he so much as leands away,the interaction stops.

How are you target training if you don't mind my asking. I've read alot of different things to try with macaws to help, and me and him are learning this together.

 

[NiRD]

I start by marker training. This could be using a clicker, or using your voice to mark the behavior with a "yes", or a "good".

Start marker training by finding out something your bird really enjoys. It could be a special treat that he only gets during training, a special toy, affection, or what motivates your bird the most.

When you find that motivator, randomly either click or use your marker word. Every time you mark, it must be followed immediately by the motivator. You're teaching your bird that that marker means he is about to get rewarded. Soon when your bird hears the marker, it will start looking for the reward. That's the goal here, so when that happens move on to the next step.

Step two is introducing your target. It could be anything. I use a target stick, but it could even be a piece of paper or tape.

Introduce your target to your bird at a distance, but still make it accessible. If your bird so much as looks at the target, Mark and quickly reward. Your bird will catch on to a few things. The first is that when he heards the mark, a reward will come. The second thing is that the marker marks that he is doing something right. And third, he will learn that if he does a specific behavior, he will get a reward. He will start to offer different behaviors to see what gets a reward.

So right now, you are rewarding approximations to the goal behavior. If he looks at the target, Mark and reward. If he leans toward it, mark and reward. If he takes a step toward it mark and reward.

Eventually you will stop rewarding the first step and only reward the more advanced ones.

 

[mrfish]

i guess, u may start with feeding him some treats first. and try to touch his beak outside the cage... slowly and step by step...

 

[MikeyTN]

They can also be a one person bird just remember that!!! Both of our macaws will only let me hold them but they both have learned to tolerate my partner or anyone feeding them treats as that's how we've taught them. But do not try to stick your fingers through their cage or they will bite hard!!! In order to train a macaw, you must be firm! They will try to fool you and run over you if you give them the chance. My partner lets me deal with them, BUT they behave better with my partner IF I'm not home.

 

[NiRD]

Any bird can be taught to be friendly and let strangers hold them. It's all a matter of patience and training. Once I can successfully pick up and touch this bird every time, I will start tis process over with a new person, and then another new person, and another new person, and so on and so forth.

 

[MikeyTN]

Not saying they can't be taught! But it does take time and patience to do so. The training that most people do not know how to do. When you have a bird that's attached to you it is easy to deal with then one that isn't. You make it sound simplified as it's not. Even the best trainers will have problem with a few, not 100% proof! I've been doing this for long enough to know better.

 

[NiRD]

I never said it was easy, I just said it can be done.