Now the male bird hates me

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I have a unique situation, if I explain, can you can tell me what you think?

About a month ago I picked up a mature pair of macaws that had been in mostly isolation for 5 years in a garage in a cage.

I brought them home, the male looked ok, the female lost all her feathers on the torso.

After about 3 weeks, I got both birds to step up and eat from my hand, and they seemed very tame and docile.

The female had lost or pulled out all her feathers, so after doing much reading on line, (and taking the birds to a vet) I took the female bird from the cage in the dining room to the kitchen, and tried to put a "sweater" on the bird, she was very unhappy and screeched and screeched, and made sounds like she was dying.

I stopped after 2 trys, and the male bird heard all this and after, he was incredibly angry.

Now he bites me viciously every chance he gets. It's been about a week now and he is still mad as a wet hen.

I am not surprised, but I am disappointed. The birds were so docile last week and now the male is incredibly pissed. He would chomp off my fingers if he could.

Can this bird be salvaged? Do they have a memory such that he won't forget the incident?
Ironically, the female bird has no grudge with me, and happily sits on my shoulder and rubs my face with hers, while the male looks at me and scowls....

I am thinking the only way to salvage anything from this is to separate the birds, keep the female, treat her feather plucking in whatever way works, and get rid of the male. He is obviously jealous, but If I can't get him to reform his ways, then maybe he should go (it's my house after all, not his.)

I don't have a great desire to breed them, since I have read that if you do go down that path, the birds are really lost as pets from then on, since you can't reall mess with them when they are trying to breed.

I have been reading how to stop a bird from biting, and perhaps this can be resolved by retraining the male nice to me, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Seems to me pairs of birds don't work out that well as pets, since they become much more involved with each other and would tend to ignore the humans in the house.

thanks

Andy

 

[martin]

I'm not too experienced when it comes to birds, but I HAVE owned a male and a female bird. It's not so much that the male is mad at you because you hurt the female, I think he's mad because you separated them and began giving her more attention. As you can't truly communicate with the bird that you mean him no harm, it's going to very hard to make him docile once again. It could also be that he was outright scared of you for the first while at your house, and now that he's more familiar with you and his surroundings, he trusts himself to act out. Birds do have a permanent memory that is really hard to reverse. I'd say that he's salvageable to an extent, but I wouldn't expect to see him on your shoulder any time soon. You may also want to read his body language. If he becomes rigid when you walk into the room, he just doesn't like you, and there's little to no chance of changing that. One thing that you could try doing is being with him all day every day for about a week. I did this with my male parakeet and he got really affectionate after a strong bond was formed. Be warned, however, because once you stop being with him all the time, he just goes right back to where he was before. Best of luck!

 

[Darius]

you can try takeing the bird out of its comfort zone and working with 10 to 15 minutes a couple times a day this means take him to a room preferably a small room. away from his mate and his cage. I like the bathroom for this because there isn't anywhere to far to get away close the toilet and the shower and have a pocket ful of treats and start by talking to the bird ask him to step up tell him you love him complement him on how beautiful he is. when you what him to step up close your fist tight so the skin on the back of your hand is really tight tuck your thunb in he won't be able to bite your hand always keep the back of your hand lined up with his beak so he can't grab the side slowly move your fist strait towards him saying step up at the same time if he raises one foot keep going if his eyes are pinning and his feathers are starting to fluff back off a little and say step up do this until he does then give him a treat and tons and tons of praise get excited about it then set him back down and do it all again. 10 minutes a couple times a day is plenty the bird will get bored any longer than that pretty soon step ups will become automatic and you can slow down ont the treats and just use praise as his reward and a scritch be consistant and try to make these training sessions at the same time every day that way the bird will start looking forward to your time together. your bird is salvagable if your willing to work at the relationship if you just get rid of him the female will get very depressed. for her you should start with daily baths this will help promote proper preening and help the new feathers that are comming in not be so irritating so she may stop plucking its a hard habit to break once they start but there is always a chance with lots of TLC good food a proper husbandry. Good luck with your birds