Old dog New tricks

[PanZon]

I rescued a 25 year old Military Macaw that had been in the rescue for 11 months. The reason he stayed un-adopted for so long is he is very male aggressive. When he and I are together and no one else is around, he is friendly, playful, and very responsive to me. As soon as my wife gets home he strikes at me, hisses, will chase me around. He has left me 2 scars on my forearm already.

I am not giving up on this bird!

I did some research on training and building trust, and i work with him daily. Right now, even with my wife present, I do the fun, pleasurable stuff with him. I give him treats, I give him his showers, I take him outside...Trust building.

My question is 2 parts
1) Can an older parrot learn new tricks? Will he learn to accept me, trust a male?
2) What do i do if his absolute favorite treat is something he shouldnt have that much of? He LOVES good cheese!

 

[MacawGuy]

You never to old to learn something new. It may take longer time to. In if he really wants to learn also. I would fine a nut of some sort for training. Nuts are really good for training. But just keep working with your bird everyday. Don't never give up. It could take months for him or longer or sooner. Every bird is different. Building trust could take a lot of time depending on the pass. Just hang in there I'm sure he will come along just fine.

 

[Sicilysangel]

I know its frustrating , Im going through a similar situation except My macaw only likes me but will still bite me at any given time.

 

[PanZon]

An update...Not much has changed, or so I think. I still do most of 'Pocos handling in the daytime, I take him to the aviary and shower him, feed him, talk to him. He will murmur back and whistle with me sometimes, but as soon as he hears the wife drive up, I am last weeks news. Literally within minutes he will turn to hissing at me and snapping.

 

[Kiwibird]

Poco is beautiful! I just love how militaries look. Older rescues unfortunately come 'with baggage' more often than not. Kiwi took to my husband fairly quickly, but HATED me with a passion when we got him. It took time, patience and a lot of work to gain his trust and get him to like me. Poco isn't going to magically like your wife unless she dedicated herself to working with him too. You never know why he doesn't like her (or women). He may have been abused by a woman or had a negative experience with a woman who looked similar to your wife. A good place to start would be her sitting beside his cage (when he's inside) and talking to him, even if he is acting vicious. She could just sit there are read a book out loud (not as though he cares) in a nice, even, calm tone. If she does that every single day, he will eventually start becoming more used to her, and move closer in a friendlier way. At that point, she could offer a small treat through the bars. She has a LONG way to go before she'll get him to step up, but it can be done.

As for cheese- I don't think I have ever met the parrot who doesn't LOVE cheese lol I give Kiwi individual strands of grated cheese as small "rewards" and occasionally put a SMALL chunk in his dish on top of his dinner. If you want to use it a reward, it should be small enough the bird can eat it in one bite.

Edit: one last thing- Kiwi still hates women in general, but he's learned to be ok with me. Actually, when I do not have my glasses on (I wear them virtually all the time), Kiwi doesn't recognize me anymore and I get the flashy/aggressive/I want to kill and eat you dance. I don't know if you can ever fully train out them when they have a preferred gender, but all household members (i.e. your wife or any children who aren't little ones) need to be able to interact in a positive way with Poco, even if he hates every other woman on the planet, he needs to learn to trust and be friendly with your wife.

 

[FreedomAndForgiven]

Our Military rescue is 12, and is the same way though she doesn't strike at me anymore unless my wife is right by me. It has taken a lot of time, and I would handle our other Macaws, and our Toos where she would see me playing with them, and snuggling them. It has taken a lot of sucking up, but I am now her best friend and she loves snuggling up on me, and having me pet her. Crazy enough she wants me to break open her pin feathers, and will bend over so I can see them, and get them for her. She has only got crabby about two which our other Macaws can get crabby if you barely bump just one She doesn't like it if I handle another bird though, and can get loud if I do.

Believe it or not, but 25 is not old for a captive Macaw, I have met ones much older that you would have thought were younger and acted like our 1 1/2 year old, and 3 year old Macaws. I met an old lady who her 2 Macaws were 43 years old, and you would have never thought it.

 

[Phlox]

If I'm understanding correctly, he likes you when you are home alone, but when the wife arrives, he loves her and hates you?

Birds can be weird like that. As long as he doesn't try to hurt himself to get at you? This might just be how he is. You don't have to give up working with him, but he will probably always like her more. Macaws (and lot of other birds) appear to really be "one person" birds and if they like one gender over the other, its hard to break them of that.

It's like convincing yourself to love bananas if you hate them. It's just a preference. You can learn to not throw them or have a tantrum if they're in the room, but you may never learn to like them.

 

[FreedomAndForgiven]

A video of Rita

[ame=http://youtu.be/P3wOsPwUkrk]FreedomAndForgiven & Rita The Military Macaw Rescue - YouTube[/ame]

 

[PanZon]

Rita is awesome, and that is how 'Poco acts with my wife. Play nibbles, preening, regurgitating. He hasnt hurt himself yet, the only thing i was worried about was when i walk by his cage, or aviary, he will strike the bars open beak. I thought he might be hurting his beak but after a month and constant checking he isnt causing a groove or anything in it.

Poco loves women, hates men. Plain and simple. He is NOT scared of men at all. He will chase them instead of running from them. He knows, and is very confident, in the power his beak has, lol. But that male centered aggression is only when a woman is around. So I work in the times when its just me and him.

I also found out (the hard way) he has an issue with open toed shoes! I was wearing sandals and he chased my feet around for 5 minutes before I could get him to step up.

Birds are a strange lot.

 

[FreedomAndForgiven]

All of ours have something with open toed shoes, and will destroy sandals if they can get a hold of them. We think they think our toes are some kind of nut that they have to crack lol. We haven't figured out why they love destroying sandals though lol.

In my experience Militarys are the smartest Macaw, but also hold grudges, and be very emotional also. Especially when they were neglected or abused. An example is a month ago I had a stroke. I was in ICU, and the hospital for a few days. When I came home our flock was excited to see me except for Rita she was mad at me. When I walked up to her cage she nailed me hard. A few minutes later though I was her best friend again. She just wanted me to know she was not happy I left her.

 

[PanZon]

Update: How do you get a Macaw to let go once they are biting the living $#@*& out of you? He seems to not just strike like most birds, he seems to latch on and gnaw/chew till bones break.

 

[lucy1]

Update: How do you get a Macaw to let go once they are biting the living $#@*& out of you? He seems to not just strike like most birds, he seems to latch on and gnaw/chew till bones break.

Rather than doing the instinctive trying to pull your hand away, push back towards the bird instead. It'll unbalance him and he can't easily adjust his balance and maintain the crazy bite. I've never had a bird actually fall off whilst doing this- they let go at the last minute to grab hold of whatever they're standing on (hopefully not your arm- it kinda backfires if it's your arm they grab! )

 

[PanZon]

He tricks me, I open his cage and he goes to step up on me, but as soon as he is on me he swings down and latches onto me, or he will act like he wants off the play stand by raising a foot as to step up on me, as soon i let him get on me he bends down and gets me.

I'm pretty sure he thinks "watch, I'm ganna get this sucker again"

 

[PanZon]

Here is some progress with Poco, while he is not a mushmac with me yet, it is 1000% better. He will still strike at me if i try and do to much with him and my wife is around. This is 3 months since having him and 1 month since he tore the ligament in my thumb. I was scared, but didnt give up and i still work with him daily. He is sharing my lunch, he took the cheese and bread into the bag, but left the turkey (the dogs didnt mind), by the by that is also HIS blanky, he loves the blanky.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM7GgucHkeI&feature=youtu.be"]poco's bag and blankey - YouTube[/ame]