macaw questions

[Neravas]

do macaws go through a "bad stage" like amazons do? and do tame macaws bite to kill ever. a lot of them ive seen, just seem really friendly and not prone to nipping

 

[HalfInsane]

Yup, macaws can go through a 'bad' stage. Almost all parrots will go through a behaviour change between the age of 1-5 (varies widely by species) as they hit sexual maturity. And, of course, the bigger the bird, the bigger the beak, the harder the bite.

A lot of birds become aggressive at this age; some will just act bratty, some will try to nest, etc etc. Rarely, you'll find a bird who doesn't get too difficult upon hitting sexual maturity, but it is rare. I'm not saying its not something you can't work through, but you need to know what to expect and how to deal with it.

 

[Pedro]

do macaws go through a "bad stage" like amazons do? and do tame macaws bite to kill ever. a lot of them ive seen, just seem really friendly and not prone to nipping

Every bird has the capability to bite or even kill another bird, it is not unheard of. IMO these "bad stages" are only fabricated by some carers.

If trained & understood IMO there is no terrible two's or bad hormonal day's. Personally I think it's the lack of knowledge & education on parrot behavior with most owners. If they took the time to read their birds body language. I have also noticed there are a few people that misinterpret things that their parrots do.

I don't care if it's the smallest to the largest parrot if you don't understand how your parrot sees things well yes your going to get bitten. Honestly in my experience if you watch your birds body language they will warn you if they are not happy to do something but humans being humans for the most part don't understand what their bird is telling them. I hardly ever get bitten these day's. I treat all my parrots the way i want to be treated myself, with respect.

 

[roxynoodle]

I do have to agree that some people are amazingly bad at reading parrot body language. My conure is the most obvious bird in the world. Not only will she coming running up to a stranger trying to get close too soon with her head feathers standing up and her beak out, she actually is yelling nasty things at them. And most people (non bird people) still don't get it! They stand there putting fingers in her cage or trying to play with her toys. I tell them, she doesn't want you there yet. And she really doesn't want you to touch her things. And they seem surprised when I say that.

Now she did give me a bad bite when she was on anti biotics and an anti inflammatory and knew I was going to give them to her again. But it's the only bad bite I've gotten in 12 years. Or at least it was the only one that broke the skin, and the only bite since she was about 8 months old.

So far I've not been bitten at all by my zon. If he is overly wound up, or displaying I don't touch him.