Phoenix being "naughty"

[FreedomAndForgiven]

The night before last we were putting our flock to sleep. gizzygirl had Phoenix and was going to put him in his cage. He started acting funny trying to climb all over her, stick his head down her shirt, rub on her neck. I walked over and he nipped at me. Then he turned around looked partially at me and started making a grumbling, and groaning sound and blushing a lot. All of a sudden my wife is rushing me to hurry, and open his cage door. Which I didn't know what was wrong so I wasn't moving fast enough I guess because she really started rushing me. He apparently started getting freaky on her arm. I am still baffled on this one because he just turned 3 so I know he is way young to be getting in breeding mode.

 

[MonicaMc]

He's just a young teen trying out his moves!

 

[FreedomAndForgiven]

He is now to the point my wife really can't hold him because as soon as he steps up on her he starts humping her, and will go at anyone who is close by. We are totally confused because this just happened out of the blue one day he was his onry self that night he started humping my wife.

 

[MacawLoverOf3]

He has chosen her and it is best she not handle him for a couple of months until it blows over. She probably should not even be in the same room when you handle him so that he is able to get some out of cage time and all.

Just remember, This Too Shall Pass

 

[SweetyPie]

Ah Yes -- It's that time of year!! I have a scarlet macaw, Sweety, and this time of year his hormones go into overdrive. I brought him home at roughly 5 1/2 mo.s old. He was about 1 the first time he put his head down my T shirt and gave out a loud "hello". I think this had more to do with my "feathers changing colors" than anything else, since we girls tend to wear more colorful things than the guys. After that Fred, my assistant, came in wearing a red sweatshirt, and Sweety did the same thing to him. The shewing Fred away started the next spring/summer. So I made Fred his "food and water guy". This helped, so we started making up group games using pine nuts as positive reinforcers. The first was walking along my arm to Fred's. I would tap my shoulder 4 times call his name and hold up a pine nut, so he could see it & presto, he was on my shoulder. Fred repeated, this evolved into hopping from my arm to Fred's at a short distance, to now flying from one of us to the other. He gets lonely quick this time of year, so we have to play with him often. He usually lets both of us rub his head but now, he will pick one and stay until he wants to go back into his cage. He occasionally goes back and forth, which is normal and becomes more frequent as the season goes away. Hope this helps. To stop the "head in the shirt thing", you would have to try keeping him on your hand or knees. This is sometimes easier said than done.