Parrot attacks my wife and sometimes me

[AllenK]

My 2 yr old Yellow Crown Amazon bullies my wife by chasing her around and blocking her path. She is terrified of him! Initially when we got him he was nice to us. He was especially nice to my wife as I was working a lot and didn't come home until much later in the evening. Then at some point he became more territorial raising his foot and hissing. The bad behavior became worse as he jumped my wife multiple times while unprovoked.

He bit me a few times as well but he mostly behaves with me except for the occasional tantrum he throws right before going to bed.

We tried all we could think of starting with stick training. With stick training, it started out well but he would eventually snap the stick in two and walk away. We tried withholding food from him making sure that if he is hungry he would eat from our hands. That proved ineffective.

Max became way too comfortable in our home exploring every room and climbing any piece of furniture he wants. I don't mind it at all but that coupled with his often aggressive behavior is too much for us.

What do I do with this bird? How do I get him to stop attacking my wife and relax? Also, all the experts say to not "let" him go to certain areas which is easier said than done when one lives in an open concept area. If I put up gates or other barriers, he'll just climb them or fly over them. Even if his wings are clipped, he'll just jump to where he wants to be.

What should we do to correct his behavior?

[pennyandrocky]

what's his diet and schedule? i've never heard of certain areas being off limits to birds mine and most people i know allow their birds to go where they like. this could be hormones i'm not sure when s reach sexual maturity since mine was in his early 20s when i got him. if it's hormones it will pass until next season but after the first it doesn't get as bad. there are things you can do with diet and lighting schedule to get him out of breeding mode. your wife should not be letting him intimidate her she's starting a very bad habit that is hard to break. watch what he does before he attacks. birds rarely attack without warning they give signs like eye pinning, or tail flipping. watch his body language if he shows he wants to be left alone walk away for a few minutes til he calms down. clipping will make him more aggressive birds have a fight or flight instinct take away flight you get the fight. my used to bite alot when i first adopted her she was clipped since her flights came back she's a different bird when she's had enough she flies off to play, eat or go potty. if i'm petting her when she's ready to fly off she says " what are you doing?" or "cut it out" and she'll grab my hand with her beak to move it off her.

[AllenK]

Max mainly eats seeds, almonds and peanuts (we recently limited peanuts as they are too fatty and upgraded to almonds). He's not much of a fruit & veggies eater except for apples and bananas. Surprisingly, he goes wild for meat -- its hard to eat steak in his presence when he's out of the cage. He also likes pasta, especially pad thai noodles.

I realize that they react to light and I limit his light to under 10 hrs a day. His schedule is as follows:

1. Morning (cranky maxie)

He's typically cranky in the mornings, pinning his eyes so we keep him in the cage to avoid altercation. He doesn't eat much in the morning but when he was out of the cage he would forage around, hide under the couch and build makeshift forts.

2. Afternoon (sleepy maxie)

His afternoons are classic textbook amazon. He preens himself, takes naps and does his yoga stretches. If he feels like it, he sometimes climbs me to get his head scratched; otherwise he roams around, forages, watches TV, mimics us on the phone, etc. By late afternoon, I can expect him to start chasing my wife and/or bite me if he experiences a mood swing.

3. Evening

Max mostly cuddles with me in the evenings and often attacks my wife. He also goes binge eating. He could be in his cage eating for hours -- this is when he does most of his eating. At night he's most playful, climbing on my desk reaching for the pens and doing his acrobatics. To get him to "bed", I need to turn off the lights, change his food and water, and convince him that the night is over. Then and only then would he go back to his cage.

He has attacked us in the evenings pretty much about the same amount of times as he attacked us at any other time of the day. It could be hormones but still -- there must be some kind of solution to this.

[pennyandrocky]

get him off seeds they are high fat not only will high fat foods encourage breeding but they are very bad for him it would be like making your main diet potato chips. convert him to pellets nuts and seeds can be used for training and treats only. that could be the problem put him on pellets and see if that helps. have you tried eating veggies/fruits with him? they are flock animals that means they do everything together if he sees you eating what's in his dish he'll at least try it. meat sometimes is ok i give mine a little piece under their chop, a mix of beans, veggies,brown rice,and sometimes fruit. my will not eat fresh fruit unless i put it in her hot oatmeal not the microwave kind the kind you cook on the stove. you can also hide veggies in scrambled eggs in the morning. scrambled eggs with a finely ground egg shell are good for them to have the shell gives them calcium.
stop building the forts to you it's fun to him it's a nest for mating. the change is not going to be overnight but i see the main problems are diet and sexual frustration.let meknow how it's working out for you.

[Eric&Rebecca]

The wing clipping won't help matters either, in fact that wil make it worse. Wing clipping causes frustration, psychological and health issues. Its not a way to may the bird behave and it certainly doesn't keep them safer or stop them flying away. In fact, studies show a clipped bird is then predisposed to more biting and aggressive behaviour which is believe to be born out of frusdtration of not being able to fly.

As previous posters said diet needs to change. Seeds are just junk although they should play a small part in the diet they should be at a much lower percentage for larger parrots.

Also look at his routine... he should have 10-12 hours sleep rising at dawn and resting at dusk. This sleep should be dark and undisturbed. This SHOULD stablize the hormones. Light plays a very important factor in endochrine and hormones levels as does diet.

You need to start right back at the beginning with the training. I would also get your AV to run bloods to check for hormonal imbalances or other medical factors (other than the clipping) that could be contributing to this behaviour.