Adopting a Military Macaw

[katieleon]

I am not sure if I should be moving this conversation to a new part of the forum or not....so for now I will continue here.
I figured I would give an update, though it is not much of one...
I went to visit George tonight but it turned out to be not much of a visit. I got him out of his cage without incident (have never had one getting him out, yet). All seemed fine until we got to another room of the rescue where we could sit and visit. He started moving up my arm even though it was close to my body and upper arm was as vertical as I could get. I tried "George step down" as taught by Sandy the rescue owner which normally works but it did not this time. He stopped halfway up and turned his head toward me (on his move he was facing away from me)and the look I got!! Eyes pinning, feathers fluffed...definite aggressive posturing. I looked to Sandy for guidance and he made his way to my shoulder. Sandy immediate put the kibosh on that and got him down but not before getting a good bite that bled pretty well. She ended up putting him back.
In discussing with the volunteer that works with him she is chalking it up to hormones. But she also said something that made me wonder.
She said she has noticed a change in George from the bird he was when he got there. Not a good one either. There are a couple macaws in the same room as him that are more on the aggressive and screaming side. She thinks some of their bad habits are beginning to rub off on him. What are all of your thoughts on this??

[Pajarita]

Hormones, yes, definitely. Macaws are all considered low hormonal birds but if they have been keeping him up after dark during the winter, feeding mostly protein food (rescues hardly ever offer a lot of fresh food on a daily basis, it's just too expensive and they work under very small budgets) and the fact that we are in breeding season would make a difference.

As to 'bad habits rubbing off', good try but no cigar. If it happens, I've never seen it. If anything, in my personal experience, it's usually the opposite because I have seen over and over the aggressive birds watching the 'good' ones interacting with me, when they first come, with an attitude of rapt attention -perching at the very edge of the platforms, they lean their entire bodies forward, slightly lowering their front and stare straight at me as if wondering: "Hmmmmmmm, why in the world does that bird love the human?" And, as time goes by, they stop attacking, they allow me to take the bowls and put fresh ones in front of them without even displaying and even take treats from my hand. But I've never had a single 'good' bird turning bad.