Illiger's macaw biting his own foot and mood swings.

[eplekid]

Greetings!

We bought a 2 year old male Illiger's macaw almost 1 month ago.
He's not tame yet, but he is getting slooowly better. He is very sceptical whenever he is trying to step on our shoulder, arm etc.

Usually he makes purring sounds when we're next to him, but everytime he tries to step on my boyfriend's arm or shoulder - the parrot bites/nimbles on the foot he tries to step on with, and he seems irritated by this, but then he seems happy again. It's really confusing not to know what he wants. I've only had experience with conures. Those few times our parrot manages to stay on our shoulder or arm, he seems rather scared but then he starts to purr.

Sometimes he just screams his lungs out, he seems very annoyed. But we usually leave the cage door open when we're at home so he can fly around the apartment. It seems like he really wants to fly and land on top of us, but he's too scared - and it looks like he really wants to explore other rooms and the floor levels.

I'm not sure if he's just too excited and scared at the same time, but we were wondering if he might be a little schizophrenic?

Any tips on how we can improve this behaviour?
For the record, he is willing to eat food from our hands and enjoys our company even though he seems worried/scared/too excited.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Weezerj]

Give it time is the best answer I can give you. I rescued a two year old Illigers Macaw and have had him home now for about 2 months. The difference between his comfort level at month one and month two is huge. We still aren't cuddly yet, but he is now ok with me touching him anywhere, anytime.

Have you identified his favorite treat? Loki's is safflower, so every night I work with him with the safflower seeds. I started with step up, then moved to kisses (pressing his beak to my lips). He really was uncomfortable with me touching him, so then I would touch his head and if he didn't react negatively, he got a treat. That progressed to me sliding my hand down his back, under his wing, etc. this is how I got it so that he now let's me touch him whenever.

Hope this helps. Remember just be patient and reward good behavior with treats and praise and he will come around. It's amazing how quickly they can pick it up.....if you are being consistent.

 

[eplekid]

We're doing our best to be patient with him. His favorite treat at the moment is wholewheat bread with seeds. We try to give him treats when he is behaving good or getting very close to us. I guess we'll have to wait for him to be more comfortable.

 

[Captsteve]

The foot biting behavior, from what I have seen with my Scarlet is kind of a nervous, I wanna do it but not too sure about it! My Mac does it when excited about something but not real sure about it.

As far as the rest of the behaviors, time and patience will fix them. Macaws take lots of time to get comfortable. Try leaving the cage open and just ignoring him. Get his favorite treat and sit and eat it so he can see you, make a show of it but ignore him. See what happens...

 

[eplekid]

I thought so too about the foot biting, cause it really looks like he wants to, but he chickens out.
Guess we have to be patient about his screaming as well.
I tried to eat his fav treat (bread) and he wanted to fly and land on top of us sooo bad but he chickend out, so I guess I just have to wait and see how it goes.