Troubled Youth

[ParrotMan82]

Hello, I have a Meyer's parrot that I adopted. When we first got him he was nearly bald on his chest. Over the next year he managed to grow back his feathers. This fall, he suddenly started barbering his feathers again, refuses to go back in to his cage at night, and has a habit of biting.

My first thought is that these behaviors (minus the biting that happens often) are the result of hormonal changes. I'm looking for a way to get him back in to his cage or in to his carrier without stressing him out. What can I do?!

[Wolf]

Two major questions before I try to make suggestions, Does he step up for you? What do you feed him for breakfast, for all day and for dinner?

[ParrotMan82]

He will step up, but generally on his own schedule. He used to bite when he didn't want to step up, but now he will move away or chirp in response to the command if he doesn't want to do it.

He has Harrisons lifetime formula pellets throughout the day and in the morning and before bed he gets a single Lafabers Nutriberry. They also get whatever veggies we have on hand for the week.

[ParrotMan82]

A lot of the time he will step up, be okay for a little while then after a few minutes (and especially when we look away) he will bite. Or he will step up, then fly away.

[Wolf]

Often the easiest way to get a parrot to go back into its cage at night is by showing it that you are placing its dinner in its cage and then giving it the opportunity to go in on its own, which for the first time or two may take until it starts getting dark in the room, after which it will usually go in shortly after you place the food in the cage. But the diet that it currently has may make this method not work.
The other way that I like is to ask the bird to step up and to give it a high value treat as I place it in the cage. I further back this method up by randomly asking for the step up and then taking the bird to another perching spot and asking it to step down and giving it the treat. I usually do this in at least two other places with one of them being on top of its cage. Also during the day and close to its dinner time I will step the bird down in its cage but leave the door open so that it can come back out. This work pretty well as the bird never knows when it is actually going to be placed in the cage and the door closed. Many birds will refuse to step up due to the owner putting the bird in the cage and closing the door either all of the time or most of the time and it just doesn't want to be locked in the cage.
Once again the current diet may interfere with the effectiveness of this method. The reason for this is that the diet that you are feeding is almost all high in protein which is what makes a treat a high value food item for a parrot. Also this in not really a very good diet for a parrot as in time it will cause fatty liver disease, kidney disease as well as heart disease.
This is the diet for a Meyers Parrot as recommended by The World Parrot Trust, although it does not tell you either how much to feed or when to feed what foods to the bird. I am also fairly sure that the rearing food as listed is only used until the bird is fully weaned.
Diet:

Cooked beans and pulses, boiled corn; sunflower, dry, soaked or sprouted; walnuts, fruit, especially apple, orange, banana, rearing food (hard-boiled egg, wholegrain bread, low-fat cheese and carrot, all ground to crumbly consistency); fresh vegetables, complete pellet.

I feed my birds a cooked mixture of whole grains, mixed vegetables and white beans and lentils along with a fresh raw fruit, vegetable and leafy green for their breakfast and for all day eating and then I feed a quality seed mix for dinner. Where I feed the seed mix for dinner you would feed your pellets.
The biting may be the bird trying to tell you that it doesn't like something being done to it, that it doesn't like something, it could be hormonal or it could be aggression caused by too much protein in its diet. I would personally work on changing the diet slowly for starters. As to whether it may be hormonal or not that would depend on the age of the bird. Do you know the age of this bird? If not does it have a ring on its leg and if so is it a solid or split ring? If it is a solid ring it may have a two digit number turned sideways on the band that may give us an indication of the year the bird was hatched.

[liz]

birds don't move around very much in the dark. Rambo will not walk into a dark room and myrtle does not fly in the dark. you can always wait until dark and use both hands to scoop him up and put him in his cage.

[Chantilly]

I sit or lay down with my bird in a dark room for a while talking to her. She gets so snuggly in the dark and cuddles under my neck if I am laying down or in my hair if im sitting up:) in 15-30 minutes she will be cuddling all up to me, and then when i have had enough (I get tired and dont want to fall asleep and roll on her) I offer her to go in the cage she hops in because she wants to... not becausd I made her. Then she goes and snuggles up to one of her fav toys. Hopefully this works for you!!!!! :p

[ParrotMan82]

So I've used the darkness trick and that seems to work. I give him a parrot video to watch and he steps up and watches it while I bring him to the cage or carrier. There's a lot less stress this way and we've been getting him used to being in the carrier.

He's been behaving better as of late. I've found out that he will only go in to his cage if I offer the correct treat. If I give him the wrong treat he refuses. So we go through about 5 different treats before he'll go in (he'll only accept one).