Hi everyone. I have a 2 year old blue and gold Macaw named Freddie. From the moment I got him, 1 year ago, even though he had never met me before then, he took to me immediately. He was out of his cage and on my head within minutes of him arriving at our apartment. The problem is that he wants to be with me all the time. He won't keep quiet if i so much as breathe loudly in another room. Even when he is out of his cage, if I'm not in sight he goes mad. He is hyper active, won't sit still for a minute, won't let me talk to anyone without screaming, is very protective of me, and if I put him on his play stand, he just flies to me and plays with me, which is nice, but his idea of playing is to try and bite my fingers off, lunging at my face, and over preening my hair by pulling it as hard as he can and removing what little hair I have left. He trusts me completely, I can literally hang him up by his tail, touch him anywhere, and he is fine with that, but as soon as he is put back in his cage he starts screaming again. Even if he is covered he will go mental if he knows I'm in the apt. He has lots of toys to play with, my wife talks to him all the time, he even learned 'hello' from her, but that's the only word he knows. She feeds him and scratches his head through the cage bars but he wont let her touch him anywhere else, and wont go near her or anyone else when he's out. Any ideas how I can stop his screams and get him to play more nicely? I've tried everything from a firm NO (that just pisses him off) to ignoring him, to giving him treats when he quietens down, but he just screams with his mouth full too. Getting rid of him is NOT an option.
Help!
- Thread starter Pan
- Start date
Featheredsamurai
New member
You need to teach him how to keep himself entertained, foraging toys are a excellent way to do this. provide different types of enrichment everyday, make him think with his mind and also do trick training.
Hopefully someone will have good tips on his rough way of playing.
Hopefully someone will have good tips on his rough way of playing.
He sounds like a hand full 
this may not work but just a suggestion, when he plays hard or screams loud when he is out, put him in his cage and just walk away. Hopefully he will realise that being loud and playing hard means he goes to his cage.
this may not work but just a suggestion, when he plays hard or screams loud when he is out, put him in his cage and just walk away. Hopefully he will realise that being loud and playing hard means he goes to his cage.- Thread Starter
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks for your advice, but I already tried that. I taught him how to shake hands and give 'high fives', and as far as foraging toys are concerned, they last minutes before they are destroyed lol. As far as he is concerned, I am his toy. I once had guests around for dinner, and was sitting at the table with my back close to his cage, he stretched his leg out and grabbed hold of my jumper and tried to pull me closer to him. He's a complete mental case but I love him to bits
ParkersMom
New member
- Jan 18, 2013
- 669
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- Parker male BF Amazon hatched 5/2/2012
Charlie unsexed BF Amazon hatched 1994?
Juno Female BH Caique Hatched 6-3-2013
have you tried the plastic foraging toys made for macaws...they will last longer and come in different difficulties
JJones1719
New member
Pan, thank you for your post.
First of all, what your'er doing to correct the issue is correct. you have to remember that you have a very young Macaw and they do not Mature until 5-6 years old. Right now, your Macaw is going through their terrible twos just like children. This is a very tuff time in their life and they will snap out of it with lots of work from your and your Girlfriend.
Depending on where his cage is locaged, you may want to remove it from your living space and give them their own room so when times of bad behavior happen, you can remove them from your area and give timeouts. these work very well and Macaws are smart enough to know when they have performed an action that is unwanted. Timeouts should never be more then 5 min at a time, after 5 min, they would have forgotten what they did wrong but if you stay ontop of this screaming issue, they will learn quite fast not to scream.
When they settle down and become quite, thats when you reward then, praise them for being good with a treat. then take them back to your living area and place them on a playstand or gym. If they perform bad or unwanted behavior, it's timeout again and again until they learn.
The word NO is also very good but in order for it to work, your Macaw needs to understand the meaning. When placing them into timeouts, use the word either NO or Timeout, they will learn the meaning and the action with it.
Macaws can be a one person bird and you my Friend are their chosen love. No matter what your girlfriend does, they may never see her in the same light as your macaw sees you. The best that you can hope for is, one day perhaps with lots and lots of work on your girlfriends part, they may come around and put up with your girlfriend.
There is a saying that the Macaw only bites or lunges at the one they love. MY GW Macaw gets jealous and instead of lunging or biting someone talking to me, he always wants or atempts to bite me, he also knows that if he does, timeouts will be in his future. LoL. Best of luck, hang in there, it will get better. Joe
First of all, what your'er doing to correct the issue is correct. you have to remember that you have a very young Macaw and they do not Mature until 5-6 years old. Right now, your Macaw is going through their terrible twos just like children. This is a very tuff time in their life and they will snap out of it with lots of work from your and your Girlfriend.
Depending on where his cage is locaged, you may want to remove it from your living space and give them their own room so when times of bad behavior happen, you can remove them from your area and give timeouts. these work very well and Macaws are smart enough to know when they have performed an action that is unwanted. Timeouts should never be more then 5 min at a time, after 5 min, they would have forgotten what they did wrong but if you stay ontop of this screaming issue, they will learn quite fast not to scream.
When they settle down and become quite, thats when you reward then, praise them for being good with a treat. then take them back to your living area and place them on a playstand or gym. If they perform bad or unwanted behavior, it's timeout again and again until they learn.
The word NO is also very good but in order for it to work, your Macaw needs to understand the meaning. When placing them into timeouts, use the word either NO or Timeout, they will learn the meaning and the action with it.
Macaws can be a one person bird and you my Friend are their chosen love. No matter what your girlfriend does, they may never see her in the same light as your macaw sees you. The best that you can hope for is, one day perhaps with lots and lots of work on your girlfriends part, they may come around and put up with your girlfriend.
There is a saying that the Macaw only bites or lunges at the one they love. MY GW Macaw gets jealous and instead of lunging or biting someone talking to me, he always wants or atempts to bite me, he also knows that if he does, timeouts will be in his future. LoL. Best of luck, hang in there, it will get better. Joe
WeimerHeimer
New member
The formula to keeping birds, escpecially BIG BIRDS, is:
5% - Experience
5% - Experimentation
5% - Common Sense
85% - Bird Psychology, knowing how/what/& when to use it
If you can figure out that last part ........ consider yourself a "good" bird keeper, a real Dr. Doolittle.
To be a bird keeper, ..... you gotta think like a bird. :22:
5% - Experience
5% - Experimentation
5% - Common Sense
85% - Bird Psychology, knowing how/what/& when to use it
If you can figure out that last part ........ consider yourself a "good" bird keeper, a real Dr. Doolittle.
To be a bird keeper, ..... you gotta think like a bird. :22:
- Thread Starter
- Thread starter
- #11
JJones1719, Thanks for the advice, I'll try to clear out our spare room (store room at the moment, no room for his cage) and give it a go. At the moment I'm giving him time outs in his cage and covering him up but he's learned how to pull the cover off his cage, or when he can't do that he sits there repeating the word 'hello' in such a sweet way that my wife feels sorry for him and uncovers him again even though I tell her to ignore him.
- Thread Starter
- Thread starter
- #13
He's learned a new trick now, he flies over to me, yanks off my glasses and throws them across the room as hard as he can, then flies back to his stand and looks at me as if he's trying to say 'now go and pick them up, sucker'! Just gotta love him!!!
JJones1719
New member
Oh yes, the old flip your glasses off of your face trick. I too fell for this. My GW Neleno likes me to think that while on my shoulder, he presses his head into mine and talks real sweet then once my guard is down, he flips the glasses across the room. Then he laughs. So I can relate.
I must admit that his aim and performance are spot on, not once has he ever got my face, ears or nose. lucky me I guess.
I must admit that his aim and performance are spot on, not once has he ever got my face, ears or nose. lucky me I guess.
goalerjones
Well-known member
- Oct 24, 2011
- 1,403
- 53
- Parrots
- Hahn's macaw, RIP George, Jenday Conure
I fortunately only use my glasses for driving. As soon as I get home off they come. I learned the hard way not to allow Hahnzel out of his cage while we are driving. He climbs up my head, using my sunglasses for pulling himself up. Then, once on top of my head he hangs upside down and looks right into my eyes and says "hello!". All while we're doing 70 on the freeway.
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