Macaw Hormones

[kme3388]

I wanted to post about Blue’s hormones. He’s been challenging the past week as spring is happening. He’s at the bottom of his cage trying to find a darker place. He’s escaped a few times. I’ve reinforced his cage so he can’t anymore. Macaws are absolutely beautiful stunning creatures. Blue is by far my favorite parrot to train with. He picks up on stuff so quickly. He truly is a precious gift. I will never regret adopting him. I did want to post about his hormones however. WOW! This truly is a big powerful bird. He has gotten cage aggressive despite the fact that I did everything to prevent it. He even lunges, and try’s to bite me. Usually I put on a long sleeve shirt, and still ask him to step up as I know this big powerful bird will take advantage if I’m scared. He thinks he’s alpha, and unfortunately I have to show him that I’m alpha or he will run my house. He has such a strong personality in comparison to my other parrots. He really doesn’t back down if he is near his cage. He even lunges at my dog (German shepherd) who goes anywhere near his cage. Despite this being my first spring with Blue, and my first year dealing with macaw hormones I will never give up. Today I had him step up on a stick, and he’s in his shower currently. Although I don’t want to be bit by Blue I know that he needs a shower for his feather condition. Please anyone who wants a macaw do your research this parrot is not for the faint hearted.

 

[kme3388]

I thought blues hormones were bad before. Nope, it definitely gets worse. Because blue kept escaping from the front door of his cage i had to secure it. Yesterday I went to grab him water, and I always leave the water door open because that takes me a few minutes at most. He crawled through his food bowl door that was open to attack me from coming anywhere near his cage “territory”. He was lunging at my face from the top of his cage. I had him step up on a stick to get him back into his cage safely, and for my safety as well. He was going after my hands that were holding the stick, and he’s never done that. I had to move the stick in circles as he was on it to keep him off balance so I didn’t get bit. I’ve never quite dealt with a parrot who has no fear of attacking humans when hormonal/territorial, and almost seeks the fight intentionally. Obviously I ignore it, and just get him back safely in his cage, but WOW!!! The day prior to the event he was training, trying to give me kisses, and requested head scratches.

Second incident, I train with my parrots daily aside from my two who are a pair. They prefer each other over me. Since blue has been so aggressive due to hormones I tried to target train with hi, in his cage. He is breaking the wood target sticks. He went through 8 of them tonight. He’s grabbing them with his beak, and snapping them, right out of my hand. He knows how to target train nicely as we’ve worked on this since the day I got him.

I must admit he’s so cute, and I can’t resist giving him nuts as treats. Especially when he says “crackers”. I do give him more than I probably should. I know better as loading him up on protein to energize him is probably not for the best. He’s a captive bird, and probably doesn’t need all of that energy to fly for miles a day.

 

[smwboxer]

Abelarda the military macaw has a plastic trash bin that is her’s this time of year. She sleeps in it and is very protective of it. Soon, it will pass and the trash bin will go into storage until next year.

 

[kme3388]

I’m sitting here crying. Blue has been hormonal. When he is he will be aggressive. Being around his cage intensifies it. I could tell he was off emotionally immediately from waking him up this morning. Yes, he just had a look to him. Then when I opened his cage door to clean it he wasn’t a fan of getting his head scratched. This is generally how I pick up on the severity of his hormones. He went to the top of the cage where I can’t reach him. So I grabbed a wood dowel to get him to step up onto it for transport. He did step up, and I made eye contact (huge mistake) by accident. He went to bite my finger. I twisted the dowel to intentionally get him to lose balance to prevent the bite. He lost his balance, and fell. He did step right back up, and go into his cage. He didn’t try to bite again. I just feel so terrible for his fall. The amount of damage a macaw could do to a finger would be extensive. I know he’s a wild bird, and I know I shouldn’t take this personal but I can’t help it. Especially when it’s my own parrots.

 

[Jcas33]

So sorry to hear you are dealing with this . It can be terribly hard for us to not feel betrayed when our birds go after us like this even when we logically know that they can’t help
it and don’t mean it.
Keep yourself safe! If Blue doesn’t want to interact, don’t feel
guilty about not doing training and stuff with him. He’s probably not in a great head space to benefit from it anyhow!
Hang in there and Trust that this phase will
pass!

 

[kme3388]

Thank you. We went through hormones in March. He’s again shredding everything in his cage, and putting it all in one corner. Then he guards it, and defends it vigorously. WOW do some macaw’s vigorously defend nests. I would prefer to not have 2 bouts of hormones back to back. Momma needs a break.

 

[osklvste73]

You have my prayers. It's got to be rough dealing with Dr Blue and Mac the Hyde. My Nameliss is a pebble compared to him. There are things my avian vet stresses to everyone during this. Keep him on a regular regular sleep schedule. Try to keep shredables to a minimum. Humans must keep calm. Absolutely no sign of sadness, annoyance, anything. The personality of the bird will determine their response. Parrots especially intelligent ones because they read each other's body language know what you are thinking before you do. Walk away, until your internal stress meter is negative. Do things to distract. It doesn't matter what. As long as it's not perceived as a threat. Avoid eye contact, aim your sight enough to see feathers and body. I have a pattern. I act weird. Nameliss notices. I return and check feather language. That determines what will be my next action. Sadly there's no one fix. If there was the inventor would be a billionaire in one season.

 

[kme3388]

You have my prayers. It's got to be rough dealing with Dr Blue and Mac the Hyde. My Nameliss is a pebble compared to him. There are things my avian vet stresses to everyone during this. Keep him on a regular regular sleep schedule. Try to keep shredables to a minimum. Humans must keep calm. Absolutely no sign of sadness, annoyance, anything. The personality of the bird will determine their response. Parrots especially intelligent ones because they read each other's body language know what you are thinking before you do. Walk away, until your internal stress meter is negative. Do things to distract. It doesn't matter what. As long as it's not perceived as a threat. Avoid eye contact, aim your sight enough to see feathers and body. I have a pattern. I act weird. Nameliss notices. I return and check feather language. That determines what will be my next action. Sadly there's no one fix. If there was the inventor would be a billionaire in one season.

He seriously treats humans like they are filthy. Nothings to his expectations.

 

[kme3388]

This is how Blue is… he seriously is a boss. No fear no nothing.

 

[osklvste73]

This is how Blue is… he seriously is a boss. No fear no nothing.

Yup, Nameliss agrees!

 

[kme3388]

Blue is charging out of his cage to attack at this point. He is all sorts of . He even charged my sun conures cage. I now understand why people say this parrot species is for the most experienced. In march he was charging my dogs, and scaring them. For whatever reason he still lets me handle him away from his cage, and he lets me clean his cage. The only other parrot I’ve came across that behaves this way is the Moluccan cockatoo. It was just brief that I met one. Yes, parrots are individuals. It’s just these 2 species that I’ve seen the no flight mentality in. I haven’t extensively worked with all species of parrot. But WOW… I have a WTF face at this point.

 

[osklvste73]

Yup, obviously Mac the Hyde is clearly visible. Sorry you are going through this. My dog is stupid. He would've stood there crying for momma to come rescue him!

 

[kme3388]

He fell and did a little damage to his nostril. Of course like a moron I rushed over to snuggle him, and make sure he is okay. I didn’t even think that one through. Luckily he stepped right up, and welcomed snuggles. This is just not my day.

 

[osklvste73]

Good! Dr Blue is back. Give lots of luv and hugs.

 

[osklvste73]

How is he doing today?

 

[kme3388]

How is he doing today?

He’s still hormonal (more mildly). I rearranged the room/aviary Blue is in to move my conure as far away as possible. That way Blue can’t run across this bar where I can’t get to him to get to my conures cage. Yes, he climbed up the curtains. I can’t lift my arms above my head very well. I definitely can’t do it for any lengthy time to get my macaw off a curtain rod. I had to move my conures cage very quickly and it was heavy when Blue went to attack my little sun conure. Blue likes my Ekkie. He’s never shown aggression like this to any other bird aside from my sun conure.

 

[osklvste73]

What color is your sun conures and Ekkie? Could color be the trigger? Birds respond to colors. Some colors trigger hate, anger, fear and more.

 

[kme3388]

What color is your sun conures and Ekkie? Could color be the trigger? Birds respond to colors. Some colors trigger hate, anger, fear and more.

Ekkie is green, sun conure is mostly yellow. I know they see in ultraviolet and they are sensitive to colors. Sometimes I can keep exposing my parrots to something ridiculous my parrots don’t like. They will change their minds with time. My Mac daddy has not changed his view point of my conure.