Weezerj
New member
My morning routine goes something like this:
I wake Loki up with the room lights and a soft hello. He tends to give me his good morning vocalizations then, usually a tick tick tick, or his purr sound. Both of these I've come to associate with happy sounds as he gives me them when he is pleased or happy to have a toy, etc.
Then I place his bowl with chop on his tree playstand and get his macaw mix into his stainless steel bowl on top of his playstand. On weekends, I may wait a bit for the macaw mix and let him get into the chop first, but on weekdays I have only about 1/2 hour to spend with him before I have to leave for work so the mix is done at the same time as the chop.
Things are going very well up to this point....but then it goes a bit south. Once he checks out the chop and the macaw mix he realizes that there are no safflower seeds in any of it, he starts to get more vocal and agitated with me. He starts by banging his beak into the stainless steel bowl or on top of the playstand, then works his way up his netting to start to give me his unhappy macaw screech. Its loud and often at this point.
(for background reference, there used to be safflower in his macaw mix, but he was only eating the safflower and not touching anything else. In addition, I removed the safflower so that I would have something to offer him as a training treat).
If its the weekend, I just leave the room when he starts to yell until he quiets down.....and that usually means he is settled into eating his chop. But during the week, I don't really have time to wait outside of the room for him to settle down.
so, somewhere in here that has to be a question....I guess I'm wondering is this normal for a macaw that has had his diet changed (off of safflower seeds), is it something that given time will calm down, and is there anyway I can speed up this process so that he isn't so pissed?
Thanks for any help....
I wake Loki up with the room lights and a soft hello. He tends to give me his good morning vocalizations then, usually a tick tick tick, or his purr sound. Both of these I've come to associate with happy sounds as he gives me them when he is pleased or happy to have a toy, etc.
Then I place his bowl with chop on his tree playstand and get his macaw mix into his stainless steel bowl on top of his playstand. On weekends, I may wait a bit for the macaw mix and let him get into the chop first, but on weekdays I have only about 1/2 hour to spend with him before I have to leave for work so the mix is done at the same time as the chop.
Things are going very well up to this point....but then it goes a bit south. Once he checks out the chop and the macaw mix he realizes that there are no safflower seeds in any of it, he starts to get more vocal and agitated with me. He starts by banging his beak into the stainless steel bowl or on top of the playstand, then works his way up his netting to start to give me his unhappy macaw screech. Its loud and often at this point.
(for background reference, there used to be safflower in his macaw mix, but he was only eating the safflower and not touching anything else. In addition, I removed the safflower so that I would have something to offer him as a training treat).
If its the weekend, I just leave the room when he starts to yell until he quiets down.....and that usually means he is settled into eating his chop. But during the week, I don't really have time to wait outside of the room for him to settle down.
so, somewhere in here that has to be a question....I guess I'm wondering is this normal for a macaw that has had his diet changed (off of safflower seeds), is it something that given time will calm down, and is there anyway I can speed up this process so that he isn't so pissed?
Thanks for any help....
