Parrots vs me

[larcher09]

I have a macaw and an African grey. I raised the African grey from a fledgling; however he decided he did not want to be my buddy after I got pregnant, I am pretty sure he knew before I did. Now he will not have anything to do with me except chase me and bite the tips of my toes. After my daughter was born it was extremely difficult to maintain a relationship with my macaw, especially after I returned to working 50+ hours a week, I have since made the transition to being a stay at home mom and am trying to rebuild these relationships. My macaw is doing very well, except when she is out of her cage she thinks she rules the house, my grey enjoys trying to chase my two year old daughter into her room, although we don't usually take them out when she is awake my husband seems to make poor choices when he is left alone any suggestions would be extremely helpful, I love my birds and really want to live in harmony with them again.

[Wolf]

Well Greys are amazing birds and I will not dispute this as I also have a Grey. But I do know that you getting pregnant had absolutely nothing to do with the change in his loyalties. Since you raised him, how old was he when you got pregnant and his attitude towards you changed?
Before we can really get a handle on what is happening and what may be affecting the birds, we do need more information. I am going to ask some questions and I am sure that you will think that some of them couldn't possibly have any bearing on the situation, but they are all pertinent.
1) what time do your birds get up and go to bed?
2)are they on a solar light schedule or not?
3)what do you feed them and when?
4)are they clipped?
5)how much out of cage time do they have daily ?
6) how much one on one time do they have with you ?
7) are their any other animals in the house ?

In addition please try to describe the day as it pertains to each of the birds. This should give us enough to attempt to give accurate answers for you and your birds.

[larcher09]

At that time they went bed between 9-10 and got up around 6-7 am. He was only about a year old when I found out I was pregnant, the solar lighting we did until we moved and he was on it for about 2-3 hours a day and until he got temperamental with me he pretty much had free reign of the house as did my macaw, their cages were in two separate rooms, the would both help me make their various meals through out the day. I am some what of a clean freak so I would give them the super messy foods like their rice, oatmeal, fruits and veggies at two different intervals, them at dinner time they would get their pellets. They were both clipped and had my undivided attention all the time. I realize now with my two year old and now that we have a dog things are going to be more difficult, I bring the macaw out when the baby is asleep at both night time as well as at nap time, but my grey is so aggressive towards me I don't bring him out all that often I have to wait for my husband to get home as he loves my husband and listens to him. When I'm around when he is out he goes right for my toes and to sit in the top of my head to poop and fly away.

[Wolf]

I just typed for two hours to reply to you, and it just disappeared. I will do it again later today as I am too tired to do it again right now.

[Wolf]

I don't envy you the position that you are in, you have a lot of work cut out for you, and at least with your Grey probably only a partial success as an outcome. Allowing a bird to get a couple of hours of sunlight a day is not the same thing as a solar light schedule. Think of the solar light schedule as like with chickens, up with the sun and to bed with the sun. However the solar light schedule begins just before dawn and end at full dark. This is because to keep the birds endocrine system in balance with the proper season, they must be exposed to the solar wavelengths that only occur at dawn and dusk. It appears to me that you have the idea of a proper diet down already, that's great.

I think that with the Grey, Socrates, that the best route to go for you is to start all over with basic taming and socialization. Probably about three 15 minute session per day in you can, I know that this could be difficult with a 2 yr. old child to take care of as well. He also needs at least 2 to 3 hours of out of cage free time as well as an hour of one on one time, and this part should really fall to your husband as, Socrates has bonded to him. Do you have an aviator harness? Usually when a Grey bonds with a person they only want to be with that person and will normally either ignore or bite everyone else. I think that the best that you can logically expect to achieve with him is for him to accept you as part of the flock and to ignore you.

I am really not sure as to how to proceed with the Macaw as I have only limited knowledge of them and their habits and personalities. And this is backed up with no actual experience with them, although I suspect that most training that works with other parrots will also work with them.

A Catalina macaw is a hybrid Macaw being a cross between a Scarlet Macaw and a Blue and Gold Macaw, if my information is correct, and thus it is not found in nature.
You say that when he is out that he throws his weight around and acts as if he owns the place, so my question is, just how aggressive is he being? They are territorial and the trick is how to distract him without getting bit. With a bird of this size even a little nip can cause major damage to a human, as I am sure that you are already aware of. Perhaps some of the other people with more experience with this type of bird will pick this up and offer suggestions. It would help if you would supply more detail concerning his behavior.

[Pajarita]

It seems to me that he changed toward you not because you got pregnant but because he was going through puberty. Then, most likely, both birds were neglected when you had the baby (I am not blaming you, it's inevitable, you simple cannot care for a baby and two parrots, there aren't enough hours in the day) but the problem now is very inadequate out-of-cage time (they need 4 hours a day), lack of flight (they are clipped), and a human light schedule (coming out at night). Food seems fine but, even with a diet that is not high in protein, they will go into breeding condition if exposed to long days and, apparently, the grey has not rebonded with you but seems to prefer your husband who is not there for him during the day and can only see him for a short while at night (wrong time of the day and not anywhere near enough for a bird that is meant to have companions around him 24/7/365.

It is possible for you to rebond with the gray. I am not saying it's 100% guaranteed because they do have their preferences and, sometimes, no matter how much we try, they just don't want us but the other person. But you can achieve a relationship as a flock member so he doesn't attack you. This will mean a strict solar schedule (he cannot be hormonal for this), training and four hours of out-of-cage time (people tend to forget that birds were not created to live in cages) as well as allowing his primaries to grow so he can fly around and dissipate the stress and sexual hormones he now has in his bloodstream. Two sessions of 15 minutes each of target training (one after breakfast and one before dinner) will help a lot with this BUT, I warn you, the training does not work unless he is not overly hormonal and more content with his life in captivity.

[Harpmaker]

I would add that with a dog and two-year-old in the house, a flightless bird will be stressed. Gaining flight capability will help, but I don't know how much. It will most likely stop the toe-biting, anyway.

[larcher09]

I am very fortunate that I am able to take all the advice and apply it, as my two sleeps in much later than I do and takes very long naps. As for the dog I have enough rooms that I am able to put her in her own room. I think my biggest problem is the fear of being bit, the bites from my macaw don't hurt nearly as bad as the ones from him.

My macaw is getting better, significantly better, now that she is getting out at least 2 hours each day, but like I said she throws her weight around, she does it because she wants to be on my shoulder, to climb up my blinds, curtains, etch and I won't let her. I distract her with treats and toys, but she has a one track mind and if she doesn't get her way she gets bitey. The bites are hard but not quite hard enough to break anything, thank goodness.

Neither bird is currently clipped, I would like to keep the macaw clipped because she is so clumsy, I think it is more her breed, because even when she was out all the time she trips over feet as she hobbles around and consistently flys into everything.

When beginning target training do you start in the cage or out of it?

[Wolf]

Most target training is started with the bird in the cage as it is the last part of the taming process along with step up.
I would start it in the cage and advance to outside the cage so that you can target his flight which is where Pajarita was speaking of target training helping, because flight is actually the only form of exercise that can do this with a bird.

Do you have a tall perch that would be suitable for the macaw ? It sounds like she is trying to find a place to perch that she is high enough to feel safe. Most birds that live in trees feel safer when they are higher as opposed to being on the floor.

[larcher09]

Yes I have an enormous Java tree perch, she just has not been very fond of it.