Aggressive Macaw

[Linds85]

My macaw who will be 3 at the end of may. I am in need of some advise/help with my feather baby. Some background info on him and I. I have had him since he was 8weeks old. My ex syringe fed him. He was never the bird that would willingly go to anyone but the 2 of us but if asked to do so would for a few minutes. He is trained to poop only on his stands and so has all his flight feathers. He waves and has a pretty large vocabulary for a B&G. I can do just about anything to him and I know that he is extremely attached to me. I have since moved in with my bf (not the one that hand fed). He has 3 kiddo. The transition has been hard on Erebus. I used to be able to be around ppl with him out of his cage or with him even sitting with me. Now that has changed and continues to get worse. He has started to hiss and lunge at anyone who comes near me. My bf tries so hard with him and he used to fly over and sit on him or climb all over him if he was sitting next to me. Now he flies over to him just to be mean, to knock him on the head with his beak or try to bite him. He won't even take anything from him without doing it aggressively and then throwing it on the floor. Recently its been him trying to lunge and bite other ppl and in the process him getting me.

I am very aware how attached to me he is and also that they reach sexual maturity around the age of 3 so this could be due to that. However, i hate the thought of him nor being able to be out of his cage when other ppl are around and my bf really would love to be able fo interact with him.

Any advice would be great!

 

[Jferrand526]

Let me start off by saying hello! I am terribly sorry about your B&G Macaw being aggressive. I have had experience with macaws before but never owned one of my own. I know it’s hard to take away his flying but have you ever thought about clipping his wings so he won’t fly to attack your boyfriend? Has he flown to attack other people?
If he is purposely flying to attack people I would clip his wings

Another thing is maybe you should try hanging some toys on the outside of his cage. He might find more interest in the toys than the people walking around. A playstand with lots of wood to chew is another good idea as well.

 

[DiscoDuck]

I know and have heard that parrots are essentially one owner animals. Now with that said, I have a significant other who is much more an "animal person" than I am. Now with that said. whenever Rudy is interacting with her, I separate from the room and Visa-versa.

What you might try is simple one on one interaction and progress from there, slowly intertwining all three.

The above is working for us. MY male GWM will be 3 in june. Our interaction is very different, our voice intonations are different. While I dont believe Rudy is sexually active nor aggressive, I have learned and seen very subtle differences in his behavior. He definitely seems to like women more. Yet he likes male ballads, go figure!

 

[wrench13]

Welcome and be welcomed. Get you hence to our macaw sub forum, and read you there the stickies at the top of the page, the post by birdman666, one of our resident mac experts. In fact all posts from him are informative.

 

[MonicaMc]

Before considering clipping him... have you tried target training and station training him? What about teaching him over behaviors that he *can* do?

Or having your BF give Erebus a special treat that Erebus *only* gets when your BF walks by his cage? Give Erebus a special treat cup that your BF can drop the treat into as he walks by. (doesn't have to stop - just drop and go)