HELP! First bird!

[tytootsietate]

Hello! I purchased my first bird ever, a blue & gold macaw. I have ran into a few problems so far & can't seem to find the exact answer to my problem. First, she only steps up when she wants to. I leave her out of her cage most of the time, but when I need to put her up at night, she won't step up, making it almost impossible to put her in her cage. At first she would almost always step up, so I would take her for walks around the house & give her treats before I put her in her cage. But now, she will not step up as long as she is out of her cage.

The only other major problem is that she has started flying through the house. At first, she would not leave her cage. I guess she has done it 4 times now, but today was the worst. Normally it would not bother me, but she flew down the hallway looking for me, and flew right over my 3 year old son, which terrified him. This also scares me, because I am the only one who can touch her in our family, and I'm scared that she could hurt someone (like my son), with her flying through the house! I don't want to leave her in her cage all the time, but I have to be able to put her up sometimes, and I also can not take the chance of her hurting my son. Any tricks or advice is very much appreciated!

[Michael]

Well first of all you're going to have to manage doors, pets, and people to avoid conflict. So either the parrot stays in the room with a closed door or you let the parrot roam the house when your son is elsewhere. Next you need to work on making going back to the cage reinforcing rather than punishing. Here's a quick tip, never feed meals to the parrot anywhere but in the cage. Here is a guide I wrote about the basics of training a parrot to help get you started:

http://TrainedParrot.com/Taming

But I must say you sure got yourself into something here starting with a flighted macaw as a first bird!

[tytootsietate]

Thank you, I will read your article. Thanks for the food advice, I do give her lots of treats while she is out of her cage, I understand now the problem that has caused. So you are saying to keep her up when my son is around? Would it be safer to have her clipped?

[Michael]

No. I don't think clipping will improve safety. Think about it. Not keeping son + bird in same room by at least a closed door is a guarantee that neither can interact or get hurt. But now having a clipped parrot that can't fly + son in same room. If the parrot jumps down to the floor but can't fly back up, it is more likely to stay there and just as likely if not higher chance that it will try to bite than if it could fly away. Clipping does not prevent biting but separation does. Take the approach that solves the specific issue.

Some out of cage treats are ok but only as long as:

A) They are not spoiling in cage meals
B) They are a reward for specific desirable behavior

Don't give treats just for the heck of it. It doesn't teach the bird to like you. It just teaches it to take treats from you. Definitely apply target training and work toward flight recall. It's important for a parrot to get some flight exercise. It greatly helps with mental/physical well being, health, and tires them out and makes them less noisy and more mellow.