Help

[MrHenry]

I am new to handling birds. My wife has 4 different species. She hit a brick road with her yellow collared Mini McCaw. He bites and doesn’t allow her to pick him up or touch him. She was going to sell him and I said give me a chance at him. So I started putting his cage right next to my chair. I’ve given him treats and he now expects them and comes to me to get the treat. I’d like to try and have him step up on my hand but I’m a big baby. He did fall to the floor and I had him step up with no problem. What can I donext

 

[kme3388]

Hi there, and welcome. The mini macaws definitely pack personality in my experience with them. I feel like even more so than the larger species of macaw. They make their preferences well known. How good are you at reading your macaws body language? Mine is very loud in his body language. He’ll eye pin people he don’t like, air bite at them, lunge, scream, show the biggest wings possible, and you’ll see his feathers raise. He puts on a huge show essentially. He will bite if someone is incompetent enough to ignore all of this. If he’s in his cage, or is hormonal even I will be cautious, and he’s bonded to me. My macaw would die protecting me (no I’d never put him in a bad position). He will not bond with others. When I board him when I’m away he makes it well known that he will bite anyone else. Please be careful with strangers if your macaw isn’t excepting of others. Out of all of the parrots I’ve worked with this species can form such strong bonds.

This is a video I’d watch in your situation