7 months Catalina following me everywhere

[Uwiik]

Hi all!
Glad to be a member here. While I am not new to bird keeping, I am totally noob when it comes to Macaw.

I have a free flighted 7 months old Catalina. He still constantly nib my fingers, too powerful at times but otherwise totally bonded to me. One time he got pissed after I mocked him on "fly to me training" and flew away far and high only to return back right to my arm after I shouted his name and "come" command. His name is Rio by the way.

I have a kinda major annoyance that I need direction to fix. I am a very busy family and business man with three kids. I go to work at 9-10 AM and back at home 7PM everyday including Saturday. While I try to spend as much time as possible with my kids I also keep it balanced with Rio. I spend as much time as I can before work and also after work and the result shows by Rio never wanting to leave me alone. However, this never wanting to leave me alone part is the actual problem right now. After work I always let him out of the cage to mingle with all of us, everyday without fail like a clock, but he just fly to me all the time and stick to me like glue. I need to spend time with my kids and wife, I need Rio to understand the command "Stay". I can make him stay on his perch by putting chain on the leg or put him back to the cage but I hate to do that. I want him to stay free inside the house but understand when I need him to be on his perch he stay there and not following me all the time. Basically I need my space when I demand it while keeping him happy as a family companion. Not necessarily stay on perch, he can roam around all he wants to but I need him to sometimes leave me alone when I need the space.

Is it possible at all? Or am I demanding the impossible?? I used to train my dogs since I was a little kid and I got really good at it. I can train "fly to me" and simple "no" command to Rio, but training Rio to "stay" or "leave me alone" seems like an impossible task for me. Whenever i put him down and leave for 2-3 steps he immediately fly to me un invited and stick like a glue. I tried treat when he fly on command and no treat when he fly un invited, firm "stay" word with my palm close to his face and block his way persistently, anything I learn from my dog training experience but nothing works to make him stay.

Thanks for taking the time to read my long second post and cheers from Indonesia!!

 

[JerseyWendy]

Welcome to the forums.

At 7 months, your Catalina is still a baby. Babies are MUCH needier than adult birds.

I've done a quick Google search on 'Station Training', and here are some of the results I've found:

https://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/how-to-train-your-bird-to-station-stay-put/
https://larajoseph.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/training-a-bird-to-station-its-importance/

Please be careful using the chain around his leg. Many accidents can occur with those. It's a practice that was once common, but is no longer being used (at least not in the US)

 

[Uwiik]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Ahhh, sometimes I forget that Rio is still a baby. When should I expect that Rio will start to mature up given the proper training? From experince dog require the age to reach 2 years before they start settling down.

I know about the chain, that is why I hate it so much but sometimes I have to choose between going back to cage or chain, so I choose chain, at least he can still see me. On weekends i sometimes use sticky tape to just tape up 3 of the flight feathers and it work wonders with no harm done, he will hate me for 20 seconds but will beg to be with me in just seconds.


Thanks forthe awesome links!! I will learn from there.

Cheers!!

Dwi

 

[Bandespresso]

Does he play with toys? A great way to get him to stay where you want him is by giving him a favorite toy and some treats. An entertained macaw is a happy macaw! Bird-safe wood blocks are always a favorite distraction among the macaws I've worked with. Sometimes, I would fill a cardboard box (with no tape or staples) with blocks, paper, nuts, and other fun things to entertain them for hours. He needs something to make the playstand a super awesome place to be. Hopefully, with the right training, you won't need a chain or sticky tape

 

[Uwiik]

He is not too interested in toys. All he have interest in is me, I even would say in a lot of time he prefer to stand on my arm and nib on my fingers than eating his food or treat. He only eat from my hand or I have to hide before he would touch his food served in bowl. I rigged his cage with so many toys, climb toys, noisy toys, birdsafe woods and hanging platform and he don't have much interest in playing with the toys at least inside his cage while I am around. I will try toybox idea on his perch, maybe it will distract him a little bit, I will rig something out.

I find that sticky taping his wings affect a lot, he become much more calmer and stop demanding so much of my attention (off course because he cannot fly to me as he wish). I hate to do this because I can see the sadness in him as soon as he loses the ability to fly.

He is a very sweet bird and obviously he loves me so much and I want the best for him by letting him be as free as possible and allow him to free flight all the time. It is so hard to achieve that right now with him insisting to stick to me all the time.

 

[Mimsy01]

Since he's not much into toys, maybe during the time you do spend with him you can work on playing with toys. Birds seem to love what we have, you can use that to make him interested. My gcc, Foo hated and actually feared most toys when I first got her. So with a toy she is not showing interest in or shows fear in, I would pretend to nibble on it and play with it. Once she is paying attention to what I'm doing I will turn my back on her and hide the toy while making sounds like I'm having the time of my life with this toy. That really gets her interested. She wants to get in on that toy that I'm being so greedy with that I am actually hiding from her.

I've also put toys in pockets or hung them around my neck so I could play with them from time to time where Foo could see it.

Teaching them to self entertain makes things much easier. They will still want to spend lots of time with their favorite person, but they can also have fun when they are not available.

 

[Birdman666]

Macaws are people and attention oriented... that's just it.

What size is his cage? If it's big enough, I'd rather see you do that than put one of those leg chains on him. Give him out time when he has your undivided attention.

Taping is just FLAT WRONG!!! NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT...

If you're gonna clip, then clip, but do not tape!!!

Not only is it cruel, but over time, it will either make your bird more aggressive, or it will give your bird psychological problems, i.e. confidence/plucking disorders!!! Please don't!!!!

 

[StephenAndKyleigh]

Just my opinion, but I'm not a fan in the least of taping. Maybe it's just me. Macaws want attention. That's a part of their nature. And that is what we signed up for when we took home a macaw. Every day you've gotta make the effort to give your 100% attention to your bird. Even if it is for an hour and a half. Take him/her outside. Do something. He/she sees you as a flock member and his/her safe zone. She didn't volunteer to go to your home. And she certainly didn't sign up to have tape on her wings. He/she kept his/her word to be a macaw. Now we have to keep our word to love them and treat them the best we can in captivity.

 

[Betrisher]

Hi Uwiik and welcome to you and your bird (what's his name?)

I think you sound like a really switched-on bird owner and congratulations on giving your bird a good environment to live in! Yes, they can be very draining when they're young: my Alexandrines were three years old before they finally stopped calling for me at every opportunity. The secret is in teaching your bird to enjoy his toys and other occupations.

Does he know how to chew on wooden toys? You could start with a bit of wood (make sure it has no chemicals in or on it!). Using a sharp knife, peel away a small piece and give it to the bird. Peel another piece almost off the block and show it to him. See if he'll go for the slice of wood that's sticking out. Keep peeling bits of wood partly off the block and allow him to grab them and pull them off. Before you know it, he'll be picking away at his wood block and chewing like mad.

Cardboard makes a great chewing toy too. All my cardboard boxes and food packages go into the birds' basket because with three big birds it takes no time at all for all the cardboard rubbish to be turned into tiny pieces. Again, you could teach your bird to shred cardboard by starting it off for him. Pull a strip away from a bit of cardboard and encourage him to take hold of it and pull the strip all the way off. Keep doing this and he'll learn to enjoy it for himself.

Another great item for birds is natural tree branches that have loose bark. MAKE SURE the tree you choose is not poisonous to birds, though. I make all my perches from Australian Callistemon wood. It's twisted and has deep cracks in the bark and in no time my birds have stripped off all the bark and made it quite smooth! Eucalyptus is another good wood, as is Casuarina. Casuarina is also great if you can get it with cones on: the birds just love cracking the cones to get the tasty seeds out.

One thing I've done for my birds that has helped greatly in keeping them out of my hair (I have a lot of very long hair) is their playgym. My husband made a sort of climbing frame for the birds that hangs over our back doorway. It's suspended from hooks in the ceiling and it's made from PVC pipe. I've got ladders, perches, swings, a rummaging basket and a cargo net hanging from it and when the birds come into the house, they head straight for the playgym because it's the highest perch in the room.

What if you made a station for your bird that's high up? Might that be possible? He could spend his time perched up there and watching everything that goes on, but still leave you free to do your household chores. You'd simply use Station Training to teach him to stay there. Make sure the bird's perch isn't over a high traffic area, though. You don't want people getting bombed by Macaw-sized poops!

If you don't have space for that, you could rig up a tree-branch or something that sticks out the top of your bird's cage. Whenever he's out of the cage, you would put him up there. If he flies to you, you simply get up and put him back. Do that for as long as it takes for him to stay there. Put treats and food items on the perch so he knows it's a nice place to be.

As with most bird-training issues, it all takes time and a LOT of patience. If you put the work in, your bird will learn and you'll be able to enjoy him as a happy and obedient companion. Good luck with him and please let us know how you get on!

PS. Forgot to add - I really don't like the idea of taping his wings either. That's likely to make him distrust you in the end. Also, the sticky stuff from tape can't be good for his feathers or his stomach if he tries to preen it away. Do try other ideas before you resort to taping or clipping his wings!

 

[ToMang07]

I'm taking a different route....taping the wings is abuse. Period.

 

[Uwiik]

Thanks for the awesome response. Much appreciated. Sorry for the tardy reply, I was able to escape Saturday work and i managed to spent many hours with my family and Rio.

One thing that I need clarification on. When I say sticky taping the wings, I am definitely not taping the wings to the body. That would be classified as animal cruelty and I will never ever do that. What I do when I say taping is just taping 3-4 of the outer flight wings together, very nicely, neatly and not in destructive way at all, you can even hardly see it. I even use the lowest quality sticky tape that does not stick too well. He can still glide, flap his wings freely, jump and even fly a short distance if he really wants to. Like I said, Rio hates me when I just did it but he quickly forget and goes back to happy happy mood in no time. Rio is a very happy bird, I can assure you all for that fact, he really trust me, I made him played dead for almost a full minute today and he didn't mind at all.

Please clarify if I am doing a bad thing by doing this? My simple logic says this simple and temporary taping is way least destructive than actually clipping the wings. I am not going to clip Rio ever. As soon as I untape the feathers Rio just fly like normal after 5-10 minutes adjustment like nothing ever happen. Once again please read above, I do not tape the wings to the body.

This afternoon when I was playing with Rio, I tried a different approach, instead of taping 5 outer flight feather together, I moved the tape to only three of the flight feather right after the first two outer most flight feathers. This seems to create the best peaceful middle ground for me and Rio. He clearly don't mind at all, he still flies well but because flying now requiring a bit more effort he stop following me everywhere. He can stay on his perch and only fly to me when I told him to. Yes it requires persuasion before he would fly to me but when he does he still fly well. He is way calmer this way too. I managed to spent many hours with Rio today without me feeling pestered all the time, this was quite a fun day for both of us actually. It's 7.44 PM here and Rio just got back to his cage an hour ago.

I actually think that I just hot the "Bingo" button and found a solution to my problem until I saw the posts on this forum stating how cruel taping the wings is. Please excuse me if what I am doing is wrong and cruel, hence the reason I ask question in this forum, to understand more about this magnificent creature that I am caring right now. If after my explanation about my taping method the general consensus still thinks it's cruel then I will just have to soak it up and stop taping the flight feathers.

Thanks in advance !

BTW: I agree with comments about chain and I stopped using it immediately.

 

[Uwiik]

Hi Betrisher,
Thanks for the encouragement. The name's Rio. Just trying to learn and do my best. Keeping Macaw is still considered a rare hobby in my country and I am just trying to learn more despite the limitation here. Awesome and detailed suggestions you made there. I am trying everything to make it work for both of us, don't worry, yes I am taping but I will never ever clip the wings. I spent too much time building the trust for free flight, not going to throw it away just like that

Hi Birdman666,
Much bigger permanent stainless steel cage is on order, 3 more weeks before it's done. Current cage is 6.5' tall, 4' long and 2.5' wide. Would you please kindly explain why taping a few of the flight feathers is more cruel than clip? My logic says otherwise. With taping I can do it anytime and undo it anytime (please read above post on how I tape the feathers), in fact after 3 taping and untaping sessions Rio quickly get used to it and just don't care anymore when I do it.

Hi StephenandKyleigh,
The reason behind all my questions is because I want to spend as much time as I can with Rio without neglecting my own family with the eventual goal of having Rio as a free roaming member of the family that is always there, just like my 14 years old Golden Retriever that sleeps with me and wife. I spared at least an hour in the morning and an hour after work of undivided attention to Rio. He think I am his God already. When anybody else come to the house he don't scream, but when I come home Rio always screams really loud and stop the exact second I tell him to calm down and approach him. He can smell me from a distance I think..

Thanks in advance folks!!

 

[Dinosrawr]

You definitely sound like you're trying your best to give Rio a phenomenal life. But clipping isn't a permanent thing, and with one proper molt it's undone. Clipping a bird before it fledged can certainly have adverse affects, or at least that's what I can say anecdotally based on my two birds.

I don't think giving Rio a very, very soft clip is cruel. Clipping doesn't mean completely destroying his ability to fly - in fact, many clipped birds manage to escape their homes and become lost because they're still so capable of flying. And a clip should never, ever completely destroy a bird's ability to fly unless the bird is causing some serious, dangerous havoc. My Indian Ringneck came to me with a very soft clip, and he could still fly across the room. He couldn't get much lift or get further than that distance, but he could certainly enjoy flight.

Sometimes what we think is the greater evil or lesser evil really depends on this situation. In my opinion, giving Rio a very soft clip is the lesser evil if you don't have time to dedicate to station training, teaching him to self entertain, or providing multiple play stations in the house (I for one have 3 play areas for my birds aside from their cages, and my super needy IRN will leave me alone if I tell him "stay").

The forum just wants to provide you with the knowledge that your local community may not. We want to see both you and Rio flourish [emoji4]