First Time Having a Macaw and He Has Issues. Please Help!

[Pingity]

We recieved a male red fronted macaw (somewhere between 4 to 6 y/o) 3 days ago from a lady who did not have the time or patience to care for him. She was not the original owner, and she believes he was neglected before going to her as his wings, beak, and toe nails were all poorly clipped/filed. He cannot fly and has a problem with balancing. As of right now, he will accept certain food and nuts from the hand. Unfortunately, he refuses to eat most fruits and veggies. He was quiet when we first met him but when we took him home he would not stop screaming and has a few outburst every 30 min or so. He's quiet when my dad is around (presumably his favorite family member) but screams when he is gone. We cannot seem to calm him down when he has his screaming-fits. He won't leave his cage and he hangs from the corner of a cage (The corner of this cage is closest to us not far from us). Any tips on getting him to socialize, stop screaming, and come out of his cage?

Also, is it common for a red fronted macaw's eyes to turn yellow?

 

[Laurasea]

Hello. Thank you for taking a re-home in!! It's early days and all the changes are hard on these smart birds. Diet changes will happen slowly, at first feed him what he is used to. If you can post pictures that helps us help you. You can click the go advanced button under the text box and paperclip a pic from your phone.
If his scleral is yellow that can be a sign of liver disease. I'm sure a visit to an avain specialist vet is a good idea. Not an exotic vet but an avain vet specialist.

On page number 10 of my Ornithology thread I have several articles on behavior. I will link my thread here. http://www.parrotforums.com/general...hare-discuss-scientific-articles-parrots.html

This article is very good, does talk about screaming
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

Also many parrots who have been neglected can become cage bound, they are terrified of leaving the cage. You can overcome this. But all of his behaviors will take time and patience to overcome. It's terrible that so many parrots are abused to this point. I'm going to link Sailboats I live Amazon's an ongoing journey. This excellent thread may be dedicated to Amazon's , but almost everything will apply to you as well. I used this thread to help my rescue Quaker overcome many issues. I've given you a lot if reading I know, but they are all worth it, and it's more info than I can post in a reply.
http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/65119-i-love-amazons-going-journey.html

Have you had psrrots before?

 

[Pingity]

@Laurasea I have only had small birds before like cockatiels and budgies so this is definitely a new experience. And I honestly want to take him to a vet as soon as possible, but I don't want to force him out of his cage.

 

[Pingity]

Here is his eye. It rubbed me the wrong way bc it looks cloudy and the yellow is uneven

 

[Laurasea]

Have lots of perches set up just outside the door, and in the door so when it swings open the perch is right there. Lots of perches on top of the cage. Put a treat dish on top of the cage and one in the cage. This is a great only dish. Every time you come to the cage say hello ( name) and out a treat in the dish and then walk away. Do it bunches of times. Until he always comes right to the dish for treat. Then move the treat dish right outside the door with a perch there and he gets treats in that dish and repeat. Then move the dish and perch further from the door and repeat.
Always talk to him and exokay things, use the same phrases, like here is breakfast, I'm cleaning your water now, just tell him everything you are doing. Give him routine do he knows what to expect and can start trusting the process.
You can sit right next to the open door once he is calm with you being near. Maybe hold a waded up piece if paper and calmly play with it and tear it up and crinkle it. If he gets curious and seems like he wants to try hand it to him. You can do that with toys to. You want him curious and engaged in what you are doing ..

 

[Laurasea]

I think the eye color is normal from what I can tell. Looks normal to me....

 

[Pingity]

I may just be overreacting but it wouldnt hurt to take him to the vet regardless. In the sun the yellow seems splotchy then again I haven't had much experience with red fronted macaws. After a while of screaming and hand feeding him some grapes and blueberries he finally is asleep. I will keep his progress updated as I really want him to interact with us outside of the cage

 

[Pingity]

Your paper tip helped me coerce him outside of the cage and he spent 2 hours sitting on a tree branch stand we have playing with various toys we gave him! Progress! However, as for getting him to step up, he only stepped up on our dad and would try to bite the rest of us if we tried. It's interesting as our dad is the one who has spent the least time with him. Got an explanation for this?

 

[Laurasea]

Parrots choose a person, for reasons all there own. But it could be your dad's energy is calm and unafraid.
You can use a long habd held perch , you can get an untreated dowl of a thick diameter maybe have them cut to 16 inches at a home important box store. Whatever length you can hold comfortable and not wobble and leaves the bird enough room to step up on to it far from your hand. Use that to have him step on and praises. Then over weeks you slowly move your hand closer to the end he steps on. Until eventually your hand is right there and he only has a little to step up on, then start just useing your hand. Praise and treats everytime.
Glad to hear if progress!!! Great job!

 

[mica21493]

That’s wonderful you took him in and are making progress so soon. I use a 1 1/4 inch dowel for my B&G to step up on. It's actually quite a bit longer than most people probably use because of his cage aggression. It took us awhile, but it was worth it and he is very comfortable with it now.
Especially if he was in a small cage, limited perches, and not let out/interacted with I think it could effect his balance and flying. My guy couldn't fly even though his wings weren't clipped and he did a lot of rocking back and forth from foot to foot. That has all passed with time, attention, and time out of his cage. I hung a short cement perch on the outside of his cage, opened the cage door, and would put a nut on it further and further away until he came out on it. Very similar to what laurasea said.
His eye looks normal to me as well. But an avian vet visit is always a good idea for a new bird.
For such a new bird I'd focus on whatever he is used to eating and offer him lots of different foods. I find eating around the bird and making 'yummy' noises sometimes entices them to try new foods. I never realized the impact it made on my macaw until I recently served him his Christmas dinner and I thought he completely ignored it until I started hearing 'yummy' noises a few hours later and saw him chowing down on his dinner ��.
Hopefully the screaming will pass as he gets more used to your house and routine.
It seems sometimes birds pick who they are comfortable with right away, not sure why.
So it could be too soon for this, other members would probably know better, but target training is amazing. I adopted my macaw 6 years ago and we've come a long way but seemed a bit stuck. Since starting target training, my macaw is even more social and we literally only started it a week or two ago. I'm not sure how to post a link to a thread but look up cage aggressive/biting macaw. The members listed some links and I looked up some videos on YouTube. My macaw really looks forward to his training time and has done things he's never done before to touch the stick and get a treat.

 

[wrench13]

Go to the Macaw sub forum and read every thread started by, and contributed by birdman666 who is a master guru on macaws. really ! What he doesn't know about macaws can fit in a thimble. Urge you to read, and read it out loud in a nice voice to your macaw.

These birds are very very smart, on the level of 3-5 yr old human children and need all the stimulation, companionship, love and interaction that a human child does. Think what a human child would be like, caged, malnourished and traded from owner to owner because it cried to much. RIght now, he has no reason to trust anyone, so that must be built up, and it builds slowly.

 

[Pingity]

I'll keep it slow and steady for now in his first week. Because he doesn't seem to like being left alone, we let him walk onto our tree branch that has wheels and move him about. I want to give him a feel of our regular schedule so he gets acquainted. He definitely likes being people to keep an eye on our dad, too. As for target training, I am all for it. I have done it for our two cockatiels in the past. I actually tried introducing him to the stick and clicker we have but he seems deathly afraid of it for now. Will probably try again next week.

 

[noodles123]

Just make sure whatever you do is something you can maintain indefinitely--- if you can't move him around like this forever, then don't get him used to it now.

 

[Pingity]

Our bird is getting more accustomed and I can get a good read for when he is upset with us. I just can't understand his motives for screaming however. Sometimes he will be playing with his toy and all is quiet while I watch over him and then he will start screaming. It's also interesting that I know exactly when he will start screaming when he hangs from the ceiling of the cage in a corner with his head directly in the corner. He screams in the morning which I've heard is normal for birds and I'd imagine he's also signaling it's time for breakfast.