Need some biting assistance

[ChocoboFun]

Hey all, it has been a while since I've been around. Things have gotten incredibly busy with a new addition to the family, among some other transitions.

The reason I hopped on tonight is because I need some help with fixing a growing problem. For the last year, Harvey (my Hahn's macaw) has increasingly become more bitey. Sometimes its quite obvious it is from overstimulation so I've tried to work around those kinds of cases and avoid doing those types of things while he is out, but some of it I've failed to understand. Sometimes he's in a super loving mood and making kissy noises and cuddling, then out of nowhere he turns and clamps down on my hand. He put the tip of his beak through my wife's cheek a few months ago and she refuses to touch him anymore, at least until we can get him beyond this stage.

I thought with the recent changes we've had going on including a baby and getting ready to move across the country, I'd send my wife and new daughter to be with her mom until I could get everything settled in. Since he's been mostly aggressive towards her, I thought he would be good while she was gone. Nope, its just shifted towards me.

As for the reason he's been more aggressive towards her, we think it is because of a specific event that I will now detail. We were getting ready to go on our last vacation before the baby was born, and had my friend and his wife come over to review care information for the birds, since they would be available to watch over them for us again. Unfortunately, my friend's wife is much more of a bubbly personality and waltzed over to the cage and stuck her hand (much too quickly) in Harvey's face while my wife was trying to get him to step up to come out of his cage. This seems to have quickly destroyed the trust he had in her, as he immediately flew around the room screaming and every few passes landed on my wife and bit her before taking off again. He has bitten her almost every single time she's handled him since. Sounds like a good reason to suspect a link to me.

Anyways, I could give more detail but this is already too long. Keeping in mind that I'm in the process of selling my house and moving across the country this month, and taking a new job as part of that, what can I do in the miniscule spare time that I have to help Harvey get out of this bitey stage he is in?

P.S. for those that are unaware, he is right at 3 years old now, so he's been going through birdy puberty for most/all of the time that this has been an issue.

 

[SailBoat]

Parrot Puberty can be a nightmare or a blip on the behavior scale. Add to that everything that is going on in all of your lives and its would be a wonder that your Parrot is not a bit crazed.

Understanding that near all Parrots are deeply in tune with our emotions and the more confused the signals the more confused the Parrot.

The combination of Puberty, the overload of emotions and extensive changes and your young MAC is likely lost in what to do, which can result in lunging and biting.

Get the Humans to mentally settle will greatly help the MAC. Take great care to assure that your young MAC is getting 12+ hours of dark quiet sleep will be a starting point. You have a 60 to 90 days period of continual nightmare life in front of you. Bring as much stability into your MAC's life as possible! When you begin the landing in a more stable World that is when detailed working with your MAC is best likely to have positive results.

If your cross-country trip will include flying, it is worth having a Health Certificate from your 'Certified Avian Vet.' Resulting from recent abuses of the traveling public, traveling with Pets are going to get a bunch more difficult.

 

[Cas27]

Man I wish I could help you I have a 4 year old yn amazon in puberty doing the same crap I just feed him and open his cage door and let him roam his cage but he is always pissed off it’s getting annoying .

 

[ChocoboFun]

It is indeed unfortunate. I have been trying to reward good behavior.

He used to be so sweet and forgiving. Now, he is very aggressive and vengeful. A notable example would be popping pin feathers. I sometimes go a little too far and he would yelp as I applied pressure. then he's snuggle up as if to say "I forgive you" and then ask position his head as if to ask for more preening. Now, he chases my hand until he gets a good bite in when it happens.

He's also been getting worse about how he bites. I'd let him out for some solo play time in the living room where I keep music playing. I got distracted and forgot he was out there, until he called for me. I thought he was still in his cage so I just called back and kept doing what I was doing, until the 3rd time I went to check and saw that he was still out. He was acting a bit odd and standoff-ish so I went to leave and he flew over to me. I got a treat out and got him to stand on my hand instead of my shoulder, then went to his cage. I guess he didn't want to go back because he latched onto my finger and the tip of his beak went in pretty deep. And he wouldn't let go. At ALL. I tried one of the tricks I'd learned from reading some other posts involving particular types of holds on the head. Still wouldn't let go and I had blood pouring out pretty good at that point and it hurt something fierce. I finally dislodged him with rapid motion. Ended up having to toss a nearby blanket over him as he tried to fly back over to me so I could catch him and put him back in his cage.

I really don't know what to do. It is rather hard to not lose my temper when things like that happen and I'm afraid I'm going to end up hurting him when something like that happens again. It's the second time in the last 4 days that he's refused to let go after biting.