Hello there!

[Wolf]

Have you ever watched the wild birds in your area? They all get up with the first light in the morning and then they all go to roost around dusk and are asleep by the time it is dark, Now that is what the birds do where I live and it is pretty much what a solar light schedule is and it is very important in that it is the primary thing that controls a parrots breeding cycles. Now I don't know how many hours od daylight and darkness that you have throughout the year, but if you live far enough north so that during the summer months there is very little night or in the winter that there is very little day light then you will have to resort to using a full spectrum light set up that Pajarita has much more experience and knowledge about how to set it up than I do. If you live far enough south that the natural lighting would run close to what it would be like in New York city then you will not need to set up the same type of lighting system. So where do you live in Norway? This is so that the right lighting can be suggested for you and your birds to bring their systems back to where they should be.

It is very common for parrots to be jealous of their mates and of their chosen human and in these cases they will nip their own mate or human in order to get them to move away from any other human or bird that they think is a rival for their attention, when you have a bird like the large Macaws even what would be a gentle nip for them can produce a fairly serious bite for a human. But the occasional nip and pretty much constant chewing on wood and cloth is normal behavior. Just like Pajarita, I have clothes that I wear only around the house because my birds chew holes in them all of the time and I often have several different toys on hand to use to distract them from some of the chewing. I have them in several different sizes and textures because I have bird that are very small like the budgies and parrotlets and up to the size of Amazons.

I would like to be of more help to you than I am, but Pajarita has much more experience and knowledge than I do and for now, I am holding back a bit so that we don't cause any confusion with our different styles of taking care of our birds.

[SkyBirdie]

Have you ever watched the wild birds in your area? They all get up with the first light in the morning and then they all go to roost around dusk and are asleep by the time it is dark, Now that is what the birds do where I live and it is pretty much what a solar light schedule is and it is very important in that it is the primary thing that controls a parrots breeding cycles. Now I don't know how many hours od daylight and darkness that you have throughout the year, but if you live far enough north so that during the summer months there is very little night or in the winter that there is very little day light then you will have to resort to using a full spectrum light set up that Pajarita has much more experience and knowledge about how to set it up than I do. If you live far enough south that the natural lighting would run close to what it would be like in New York city then you will not need to set up the same type of lighting system. So where do you live in Norway? This is so that the right lighting can be suggested for you and your birds to bring their systems back to where they should be.

It is very common for parrots to be jealous of their mates and of their chosen human and in these cases they will nip their own mate or human in order to get them to move away from any other human or bird that they think is a rival for their attention, when you have a bird like the large Macaws even what would be a gentle nip for them can produce a fairly serious bite for a human. But the occasional nip and pretty much constant chewing on wood and cloth is normal behavior. Just like Pajarita, I have clothes that I wear only around the house because my birds chew holes in them all of the time and I often have several different toys on hand to use to distract them from some of the chewing. I have them in several different sizes and textures because I have bird that are very small like the budgies and parrotlets and up to the size of Amazons.

I would like to be of more help to you than I am, but Pajarita has much more experience and knowledge than I do and for now, I am holding back a bit so that we don't cause any confusion with our different styles of taking care of our birds.

I'm from South norway, my city is called Flekkefjord.

Ok, so then i should have a set of clothes only for when my birds are out
I've tried having other means of distracting them, but Benio seems to not be so easly distracted...
I tried with a toy dangling above him, he just tries to get it out of the way, and ignore it and still chews on my t-shirt, Guess my clothes are his favorite now...

the day/Night schedules at the moment, it's pretty much light from 07:00 to 21:00
It get's dark fast between 20:30 21;00

[Pajarita]

Well, right now and according to what you tell us about the length of the day, it's a breeding schedule for your macaws. You have to remember that all parrots (with the single exception of the English Budgie) belong to undomesticated species - this means that their bodies have exactly the same needs that the wild birds living in their natural habitats have. Now, macaws are tropical or semi-tropical so they breed with just 12 hours of day and you are now experiencing 14 hours of light where you live - therefore, as far as they are concerned, they should be breeding. Breeding condition is OK, it's a normal thing to happen and nothing to be worried about BUT when you keep the bird at a breeding schedule all year round, year after year, you end up with both emotional and physical problems because no bird body was meant to produce sexual hormones all the time. It messes them up because their sexual organs grow too much and start displacing the other internal organs causing them pain. The combination of constant pain and the frustration of wanting to breed and not been able to is what causes them to be aggressive.

What you are going to have to do is set up a calendar so you can 'fake' seasons artificially manipulating light. For this, it's better if they have a room where they can go to sleep in, separate from the humans. The room should have a window (because natural light is always best) and you should make a note of which walls are East and West. Put a good full spectrum light in the ceiling fixture for during the day and get yourself two lamps, one with a regular white bulb (not full spectrum) and one where you will install a red bulb. There should be a table (I think it will be better if you get something on wheels so you can move it from the East wall to the West one). During the winter, when the days are so short, you should put the lamp with the red bulb under the table and turn it on. Wait 20 minutes (not less, there are studies that tell us that birds bodies register differences of 20 minutes in light schedules) and put the lamp on the table. Wait another 20 minutes, turn on the lamp (on the table) with the regular white light and turn off the red lamp. Wait another 20 minutes, turn on the ceiling full spectrum light and turn off the white lamp (you can set these up on timers and save yourself some going back and forth). In the evening, you do the opposite and from the West side of the room. I would make it so they get around 14 hours of light during the summer and about 9 or 10 during the winter but you can't switch from, say, 10 to 14 from one day to the next, you need to increase or decrease the number of hours of light by no more than 30 minutes each week (because their bodies need to adjust to each step gradually and, in nature, the length of the day changes at the rate of 15 minutes per week, more or less).

As to the diet, you will have to shop for whole grains like oats, kamut, barley, etc, cook them al dente (soft on the outside but still hard in the inside) and mix them with vegetables like peas, carrots, corn (not dried, fresh), sweet potatoes, chopped broccoli, etc -if you look in the diet section, you will find several different recipes for gloop, chop, etc. But, until you have a nice gloop made for them, start by giving them fresh fruit every morning and eating it with them. Macaws LOVE fruit (it's their natural diet) so you should not have a whole lot of trouble getting them to eat it -but it might not happen the first few times because parrots learn what to eat when they are babies and yours have been eating the wrong food for a long time so they got used to it.

[SkyBirdie]

Well, right now and according to what you tell us about the length of the day, it's a breeding schedule for your macaws. You have to remember that all parrots (with the single exception of the English Budgie) belong to undomesticated species - this means that their bodies have exactly the same needs that the wild birds living in their natural habitats have. Now, macaws are tropical or semi-tropical so they breed with just 12 hours of day and you are now experiencing 14 hours of light where you live - therefore, as far as they are concerned, they should be breeding. Breeding condition is OK, it's a normal thing to happen and nothing to be worried about BUT when you keep the bird at a breeding schedule all year round, year after year, you end up with both emotional and physical problems because no bird body was meant to produce sexual hormones all the time. It messes them up because their sexual organs grow too much and start displacing the other internal organs causing them pain. The combination of constant pain and the frustration of wanting to breed and not been able to is what causes them to be aggressive.

What you are going to have to do is set up a calendar so you can 'fake' seasons artificially manipulating light. For this, it's better if they have a room where they can go to sleep in, separate from the humans. The room should have a window (because natural light is always best) and you should make a note of which walls are East and West. Put a good full spectrum light in the ceiling fixture for during the day and get yourself two lamps, one with a regular white bulb (not full spectrum) and one where you will install a red bulb. There should be a table (I think it will be better if you get something on wheels so you can move it from the East wall to the West one). During the winter, when the days are so short, you should put the lamp with the red bulb under the table and turn it on. Wait 20 minutes (not less, there are studies that tell us that birds bodies register differences of 20 minutes in light schedules) and put the lamp on the table. Wait another 20 minutes, turn on the lamp (on the table) with the regular white light and turn off the red lamp. Wait another 20 minutes, turn on the ceiling full spectrum light and turn off the white lamp (you can set these up on timers and save yourself some going back and forth). In the evening, you do the opposite and from the West side of the room. I would make it so they get around 14 hours of light during the summer and about 9 or 10 during the winter but you can't switch from, say, 10 to 14 from one day to the next, you need to increase or decrease the number of hours of light by no more than 30 minutes each week (because their bodies need to adjust to each step gradually and, in nature, the length of the day changes at the rate of 15 minutes per week, more or less).

As to the diet, you will have to shop for whole grains like oats, kamut, barley, etc, cook them al dente (soft on the outside but still hard in the inside) and mix them with vegetables like peas, carrots, corn (not dried, fresh), sweet potatoes, chopped broccoli, etc -if you look in the diet section, you will find several different recipes for gloop, chop, etc. But, until you have a nice gloop made for them, start by giving them fresh fruit every morning and eating it with them. Macaws LOVE fruit (it's their natural diet) so you should not have a whole lot of trouble getting them to eat it -but it might not happen the first few times because parrots learn what to eat when they are babies and yours have been eating the wrong food for a long time so they got used to it.

They both have their own big room, so that's something
It kind of is the same as our living room, just a smaller, so they do have a huge room, which we've set up Tree's and branches

[SkyBirdie]

Hmmm.. i've just found out that Benio really seem to like Oranges...

I have a question of that... is it something that is highly recommended, or that i have to do to the birds?
Have a check-up with avian-Veterinarian?
We've never have a check-up before with Benio and Petra, so if that is something that is needed, that's gonna go slow, with their behaviour at the moment

[liz]

We had a row of 25 feet tall red tip bushes in the back yard in NC. Before daylight I could here the birds talking in there. Many species roosted and even made their nests in them.
In the evening before dark they would go back to the bushes. They talked until dark.
It was so funny to hear all the different languages in the bushes.

We lived in the city limits so our bushes were really valuable to them.

[Pajarita]

Hmmm.. i've just found out that Benio really seem to like Oranges...

I have a question of that... is it something that is highly recommended, or that i have to do to the birds?
Have a check-up with avian-Veterinarian?
We've never have a check-up before with Benio and Petra, so if that is something that is needed, that's gonna go slow, with their behaviour at the moment

All my birds love oranges from the tiny finches to the cockatoos but, most especially, the cardinals -they can eat an entire orange by themselves!

Yes, a check-up is always recommended but you don't have to wait until they 'behave', avian vets are used to birds that bite and know how to towel/handle them.

[SkyBirdie]

so... they've found their place in my closet -_-

and, that's actually a problem :/

They completely change their behaviour when they come into my room, an in the closet...

In the living room, they are calm, till one of them (Petra) decides she really want to go into my room... and if she don't get into my room, she screams, which is not okay :/

And when they both are in the closet, they are mad at all times, they lunge at me with intend ot nasty bite, which hurts alot...
First time that i've ever bled so much from their bite before :/

can anyone please tell me what their problem is, to why they really want to be in that closet?

First time they were in the closet, they were fine, but not anymore :/

[Wolf]

I would close off the closet and probably keep them out of the bedroom as well. Sine the closet is small and closed in enough to be easily defended and provides some darkness I can only surmise that they have chosen it to be their nesting area and they will defend it from anyone and anything. This makes this closet a dangerous place for you.
Please take notice that if you take this one from them that they will look for another place to be their nesting areas so you should keep the doors to the areas that you don't want them in closed. These birds are large and powerful enough that if they decide to attack you they can be a serious danger to you.

[Pajarita]

My dear, your birds are overly hormonal from the diet and the light schedule they've been living in for the last 7 years. The closet has become their nest. You can prevent them from going there as Wolf suggested but that is not going to solve the problem because they will continue to be hormonal and they will continue to look for a nest.