Sunnybirb
New member
- Dec 24, 2017
- 76
- 1
- Parrots
- Sunny the blue and gold macaw.
I wanted to make a post just about this, since it seems to be a pretty common problem with rescued parrots. I'm no expert, but I wanted to share the things that have been effective and the process itself. Keep in mind, it's been months and months to get here; it didn't happen overnight and takes a lot of patience, but is totally worth it! Most of it is no-brainer stuff, but I know a lot of people here are newer to large parrots like macaws and any information helps.
I'm pretty sure Sunny was abused to some degree. I found out recently that there was a man where she was at that would go after some of the macaws with pliers if they didn't like him. He's fortunately not employed there anymore. I also don't know how many homes she's had (at least two, probably more), or her age, but I do know that she HATES men. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hissing ensues, eye pinning, feather raising, lunging, biting, rubbing her beak along the bars threateningly, and even shaking uncontrollably if they get too close. So you could say her reaction is pretty severe. She will actively try to get at a man if he even steps into the room. I realized how bad it was after I had a few relatives over and she had the same reaction to all the men.
With my friend, she initially despised him. I wouldn't even say that she likes him now, but she puts up with him, and no longer engages in most of the behaviors I mentioned above.
We started by him being in the room. Every time he came in, he would try to feed her a treat. I avoided giving her treats for a few weeks and he exclusively tried to give them to her. At first she wanted nothing to do with him and would attempt to bite him if he put the treat near the bars (we always did this while she was in the cage, since it was the safest for them both). Then he started going in without me, and began using a spoon.
Without me as a distraction, she was more interested, but still very standoffish. We also switched to very "valuable" treats, mainly meat. So usually a scrap of chicken or beef, or a really tasty piece of fruit. Finally she started taking things from the spoon. Grudgingly. Oftentimes she would take the item, walk away on her perch, then look at him and drop what he had given her, or she would just hiss and bite the spoon. It took a good few months before she would consistently take from the spoon. Having my friend alone with her seemed to be the most effective. He never forced the food on her, and he would leave if she displayed a lot of aggression. He also talked to her the entire time. Sunny likes being called a "good girl", so he would repeat this once she took the food.
Finally he decided to try feeding her by hand, which was difficult at first. She didn't want to be near his hands, even through the bars. She would feign that she wanted the treat, but then lunge and try to bite his fingers. If she was particularly hungry she would grab at the treat, but often drop it out of nervousness. We never corrected her when she tried to bite or discouraged her in any way. I decided from the beginning to let her do it on her terms because it seemed to be really traumatic for her and I didn't want to reinforce that feeling of fear. Eventually, using this method, she started taking from his hands regularly. He made it part of his day (he lives in another house on the property) to visit her a few times a day and offer her a treat.
Once they were to that point, I decided to try getting her to step up for him, mainly for safety reasons. This was a lot harder. Sunny is quite the escape artist and I wanted him to be able to put her back if she got out, since I have other animals and she likes to get into things.
For this, I bought a kevlar sleeve. You can get them on eBay or Amazon. I got this idea from the ace bandage trick that I think Birdman666 mentioned somewhere to help with birds who bite. So she can bite with the sleeve, but what would be a horrible puncture is just a bad bruise/pinch with the sleeve. It still hurts, so don't take this as a full-proof, pain free method, but it's much better than bare skin, and easier than wrapping a bandage (the bandage towel combo is probably better if your bird REALLY bites, but Sunny was better about it by this point and did it more as a warning than an intent to maim
). Now if she is giving me trouble and I put on the sleeve, she is immediately obedient because she knows that she needs to get up on my arm or I will keep bugging her. In general, I don't believe in forcing her into anything, but if I need to leave and she is out and won't step up for some reason, I needed a method to make that happen quickly and this works very effectively.
So I highly recommend either the ace bandage trick or the sleeve for this part. I would have Sunny step up for me after my friend had given her a treat (to make sure her disposition to him was the best it could be), then stand really close to him. Initially she would lunge at him or poof up and crawl up my arm. So that also took awhile. Sometimes I would have him sit near me while I held her so that she would get used to him. Even now, she's still wary of him, but her lunging/aggression is lessened.
Then I would push my arm against his (this is a good time to have your friend wear a sleeve, just in case), and I would do it quickly so she would be unstable and feel like she had to step up. We tried giving her treats once she stepped up, but even now, she's still to agitated and won't take food once she's on his arm. At first she would get really irritated and poof and shuffle her wings, but I'd have her stay there for at least a minute, then I would take her back. When she is more tolerant, we will do it a couple of times, until she seems like she's not in the mood anymore. The reason we never used a perch is because the instant it was in his hand, it was a "weapon". She would get extremely aggressive and he couldn't even get it near enough to her to get her on it (her reaction was totally different if the perch was in my hand).
The thing I've realized is that it's all patience and trust. She associates my friend with food. She also is more comfortable now with me being in the room as well (although she still tries to defend me from the horrible man!). That was one thing that was missing when I looked into getting her used to men: you need to have the person interact with her alone. This isn't ideal, since a lot of people may be intimidated or not have the proper experience, but taking yourself out of the equation so your macaw doesn't have the extra stressor or distraction of you, makes a huge difference.
My friend has had to handle her multiple times without me, since I am gone sometimes. The fact that he is bonding with her without me there, it has made a night and day difference, not just the few minutes when I am out of the room. She gets lonely when I'm not home, so who does she bond with??? Bonding is a strong word, but she is much more apt to take treats from him/tolerate his handling, when she hasn't had as much interaction as she usually does!
I hope this helps. We're still working on it, and there's a lot more progress to be made, but considering how many people feel like they will never get their bird to like a particular gender, I feel like it's important to prove that you can work on it and improve it. It's stressful for Sunny to hate men, and it's stressful for anyone who wants to interact with her. That's why I'm spending so much time trying to help her realize that she can trust, and that no one is going to hurt her or force her to accept their attention.
I see so many things online and on places where people sell/adopt out birds, saying that the parrot doesn't get along with men or women. There's also a lot of talk that it is impossible to fix and birds like who they like. While I won't deny that parrots pick their people, that doesn't mean they can't learn to tolerate others. I think the issue is that people don't want to put in the effort or time, or they are too busy to, or intimidated to, especially with a big-beaked parrot like a macaw. I get it, but I really hope that over time, it becomes common knowledge that parrots are like any social animal and need to BE socialized. It's not going to happen overnight, and some may be quicker to accept it than others, but in the end, they can at least get to a point where they don't shake every time they see a man.
I'm pretty sure Sunny was abused to some degree. I found out recently that there was a man where she was at that would go after some of the macaws with pliers if they didn't like him. He's fortunately not employed there anymore. I also don't know how many homes she's had (at least two, probably more), or her age, but I do know that she HATES men. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hissing ensues, eye pinning, feather raising, lunging, biting, rubbing her beak along the bars threateningly, and even shaking uncontrollably if they get too close. So you could say her reaction is pretty severe. She will actively try to get at a man if he even steps into the room. I realized how bad it was after I had a few relatives over and she had the same reaction to all the men.
With my friend, she initially despised him. I wouldn't even say that she likes him now, but she puts up with him, and no longer engages in most of the behaviors I mentioned above.
We started by him being in the room. Every time he came in, he would try to feed her a treat. I avoided giving her treats for a few weeks and he exclusively tried to give them to her. At first she wanted nothing to do with him and would attempt to bite him if he put the treat near the bars (we always did this while she was in the cage, since it was the safest for them both). Then he started going in without me, and began using a spoon.
Without me as a distraction, she was more interested, but still very standoffish. We also switched to very "valuable" treats, mainly meat. So usually a scrap of chicken or beef, or a really tasty piece of fruit. Finally she started taking things from the spoon. Grudgingly. Oftentimes she would take the item, walk away on her perch, then look at him and drop what he had given her, or she would just hiss and bite the spoon. It took a good few months before she would consistently take from the spoon. Having my friend alone with her seemed to be the most effective. He never forced the food on her, and he would leave if she displayed a lot of aggression. He also talked to her the entire time. Sunny likes being called a "good girl", so he would repeat this once she took the food.
Finally he decided to try feeding her by hand, which was difficult at first. She didn't want to be near his hands, even through the bars. She would feign that she wanted the treat, but then lunge and try to bite his fingers. If she was particularly hungry she would grab at the treat, but often drop it out of nervousness. We never corrected her when she tried to bite or discouraged her in any way. I decided from the beginning to let her do it on her terms because it seemed to be really traumatic for her and I didn't want to reinforce that feeling of fear. Eventually, using this method, she started taking from his hands regularly. He made it part of his day (he lives in another house on the property) to visit her a few times a day and offer her a treat.
Once they were to that point, I decided to try getting her to step up for him, mainly for safety reasons. This was a lot harder. Sunny is quite the escape artist and I wanted him to be able to put her back if she got out, since I have other animals and she likes to get into things.
For this, I bought a kevlar sleeve. You can get them on eBay or Amazon. I got this idea from the ace bandage trick that I think Birdman666 mentioned somewhere to help with birds who bite. So she can bite with the sleeve, but what would be a horrible puncture is just a bad bruise/pinch with the sleeve. It still hurts, so don't take this as a full-proof, pain free method, but it's much better than bare skin, and easier than wrapping a bandage (the bandage towel combo is probably better if your bird REALLY bites, but Sunny was better about it by this point and did it more as a warning than an intent to maim
). Now if she is giving me trouble and I put on the sleeve, she is immediately obedient because she knows that she needs to get up on my arm or I will keep bugging her. In general, I don't believe in forcing her into anything, but if I need to leave and she is out and won't step up for some reason, I needed a method to make that happen quickly and this works very effectively. So I highly recommend either the ace bandage trick or the sleeve for this part. I would have Sunny step up for me after my friend had given her a treat (to make sure her disposition to him was the best it could be), then stand really close to him. Initially she would lunge at him or poof up and crawl up my arm. So that also took awhile. Sometimes I would have him sit near me while I held her so that she would get used to him. Even now, she's still wary of him, but her lunging/aggression is lessened.
Then I would push my arm against his (this is a good time to have your friend wear a sleeve, just in case), and I would do it quickly so she would be unstable and feel like she had to step up. We tried giving her treats once she stepped up, but even now, she's still to agitated and won't take food once she's on his arm. At first she would get really irritated and poof and shuffle her wings, but I'd have her stay there for at least a minute, then I would take her back. When she is more tolerant, we will do it a couple of times, until she seems like she's not in the mood anymore. The reason we never used a perch is because the instant it was in his hand, it was a "weapon". She would get extremely aggressive and he couldn't even get it near enough to her to get her on it (her reaction was totally different if the perch was in my hand).
The thing I've realized is that it's all patience and trust. She associates my friend with food. She also is more comfortable now with me being in the room as well (although she still tries to defend me from the horrible man!). That was one thing that was missing when I looked into getting her used to men: you need to have the person interact with her alone. This isn't ideal, since a lot of people may be intimidated or not have the proper experience, but taking yourself out of the equation so your macaw doesn't have the extra stressor or distraction of you, makes a huge difference.
My friend has had to handle her multiple times without me, since I am gone sometimes. The fact that he is bonding with her without me there, it has made a night and day difference, not just the few minutes when I am out of the room. She gets lonely when I'm not home, so who does she bond with??? Bonding is a strong word, but she is much more apt to take treats from him/tolerate his handling, when she hasn't had as much interaction as she usually does!
I hope this helps. We're still working on it, and there's a lot more progress to be made, but considering how many people feel like they will never get their bird to like a particular gender, I feel like it's important to prove that you can work on it and improve it. It's stressful for Sunny to hate men, and it's stressful for anyone who wants to interact with her. That's why I'm spending so much time trying to help her realize that she can trust, and that no one is going to hurt her or force her to accept their attention.
I see so many things online and on places where people sell/adopt out birds, saying that the parrot doesn't get along with men or women. There's also a lot of talk that it is impossible to fix and birds like who they like. While I won't deny that parrots pick their people, that doesn't mean they can't learn to tolerate others. I think the issue is that people don't want to put in the effort or time, or they are too busy to, or intimidated to, especially with a big-beaked parrot like a macaw. I get it, but I really hope that over time, it becomes common knowledge that parrots are like any social animal and need to BE socialized. It's not going to happen overnight, and some may be quicker to accept it than others, but in the end, they can at least get to a point where they don't shake every time they see a man.
