Need advice

[SkyBirdie]

Hi, i havn't posted here in a while, wonder if someone remembers me and my birds Benio and Petra

Anyways, the issue at hand that has newly happend with Benio.
Benio is much more aggressive than he was before, and now to everyone, not only me.
He will strike by even the slightest of movement, even if it's like a meter off from him.

When they come into the living room with us, they only go down to our couch, and push down some of the cushions, and then try and dig or bite their way there, and that is a no no for us, and benio will strike, even if i sit still...

I'm wondering if they're trying to find a nest, or make one...
I've noticed Petra has been pumping out eggs more than last time, there's been total of 3 eggs now in january. and all 3 of them has had an unfortunate accident, by being broken on the ground when i come in in the morning with breakfast :/


it's a bit difficult to get them to their room, (They have their own big room) after they've been in the living room.
only one capable of getting them back, is me, as petra likes me the most out of all 3 of us...
so if Petra comes, benio soon follows.

I really suck at explaining things, english is not my native language...

[Bird woman]

It sounds like your birds have bonded and are or have come into sexual maturity. This means your the outsider ,im dealing with 2 very aggressive macaws right now that have bonded and pretty much have no use for me. Your pictures depicted macaws is that what you have? I haven't read any of your other posts so I'm not familiar with your birds or situation . BW

[SkyBirdie]

It sounds like your birds have bonded and are or have come into sexual maturity. This means your the outsider ,im dealing with 2 very aggressive macaws right now that have bonded and pretty much have no use for me. Your pictures depicted macaws is that what you have? I haven't read any of your other posts so I'm not familiar with your birds or situation . BW

i have 2 B&G Macaws, that is somewhere around the age of 6-8 years old, don't remember.
And they just recently started behaving like this, or atleast behaved more like this.

What should i do? :/

[liz]

Buy fake eggs and give her a nest. She is determined to be a momma. Fake eggs should replace the ones she is laying and giving her a nest puts them in one place. You can swap out the eggs keeping the same number that she had. She will stop laying to sit and hatch the ones she has. Then when it gets old she will abandon the nest.

[SkyBirdie]

Buy fake eggs and give her a nest. She is determined to be a momma. Fake eggs should replace the ones she is laying and giving her a nest puts them in one place. You can swap out the eggs keeping the same number that she had. She will stop laying to sit and hatch the ones she has. Then when it gets old she will abandon the nest.

Need to wait till tomorrow for fake eggs then, as shops closing soon, or atleast the ones with fake eggs i guess...

But what should i do? should i leave them alone and not have them in the living room?
They do have their own room, and comes into the living room after dinner, usually.

[Pajarita]

SkyBirdie, the problems you mention here are the same problems you had before only more acute so it seems to me that the advice you were given was not followed as faithfully as it should have been. I am not trying to make you feel bad but there is nothing new that we can tell you. Your birds are hormonal and are trying to nest (same thing as before only before they wanted to nest in the closet and now they want to do it in the sofa). All I can do is repeat the same advice again: you need to make it so they have seasons by manipulating the daylight hours (making a 'winter' of short days and a 'summer' of longer ones - I already explained how to do this) and you need to change their diet seasonally (lower protein and carbs during the 'winter'). You have a pair of bonded male and female macaws which have never really been kept as pets (keeping them alone in a room and letting them come to the living room to walk around for a couple of hours is not how pet parrots bond to their humans and remain bonded), they are overly hormonal at an age where they are sexually active - that's why they act the way they act so there is nothing anybody can tell you that it's going to change this. They won't turn into pets unless you change your husbandry and put a lot of work and effort into it - and even if you do, they will remain a bonded pair. They are what nature made them and they will continue trying to defend their 'nest' from anybody who is trying to prevent them from getting to it UNLESS you make it so they stop producing sexual hormones. And, if you continue allowing her to lay eggs all the time (she had already started when you first posted a long time ago), she could become eggbound.

[Bird woman]

I'm not familiar with your past posts so sorry if I ask questions you've already answered. Did you get them together to be a bonded breeder pair in the beginning? It's been my experience that a breeder bird doesn't make a good companion bird and it sounds like you have a very bonded pair and my fear for you by keeping them to there own room and together is going to reafirm the sexual behavior and the aggression will only get worse.The light schedule is the first to address and diet but if there housed together and how you interact with them as individuals will also factor in. I now have to keep my macaws separated as there very aggressive together and especially the one that was bonded to me for 17 years before the new one came in. He is more aggressive towards me than the new one that just got here. I am the enemy now , third man out . Your birds are young compared to these two and I don't know what your intentions are {companion , breeder etc.? } but if you want them for family interaction you had better start working on it now or they can become very dangerous and aggressive. BW

[SkyBirdie]

SkyBirdie, the problems you mention here are the same problems you had before only more acute so it seems to me that the advice you were given was not followed as faithfully as it should have been. I am not trying to make you feel bad but there is nothing new that we can tell you. Your birds are hormonal and are trying to nest (same thing as before only before they wanted to nest in the closet and now they want to do it in the sofa). All I can do is repeat the same advice again: you need to make it so they have seasons by manipulating the daylight hours (making a 'winter' of short days and a 'summer' of longer ones - I already explained how to do this) and you need to change their diet seasonally (lower protein and carbs during the 'winter'). You have a pair of bonded male and female macaws which have never really been kept as pets (keeping them alone in a room and letting them come to the living room to walk around for a couple of hours is not how pet parrots bond to their humans and remain bonded), they are overly hormonal at an age where they are sexually active - that's why they act the way they act so there is nothing anybody can tell you that it's going to change this. They won't turn into pets unless you change your husbandry and put a lot of work and effort into it - and even if you do, they will remain a bonded pair. They are what nature made them and they will continue trying to defend their 'nest' from anybody who is trying to prevent them from getting to it UNLESS you make it so they stop producing sexual hormones. And, if you continue allowing her to lay eggs all the time (she had already started when you first posted a long time ago), she could become eggbound.

I know pajarita, Not a whole lot have changed since 7 months ago :/
i've slowly tried with earlier advice, but there is still some dificulty with them for me.

and don't worry about making me feel bad, i already know i'm a bad parrot owner :/

[SkyBirdie]

I'm not familiar with your past posts so sorry if I ask questions you've already answered. Did you get them together to be a bonded breeder pair in the beginning? It's been my experience that a breeder bird doesn't make a good companion bird and it sounds like you have a very bonded pair and my fear for you by keeping them to there own room and together is going to reafirm the sexual behavior and the aggression will only get worse.The light schedule is the first to address and diet but if there housed together and how you interact with them as individuals will also factor in. I now have to keep my macaws separated as there very aggressive together and especially the one that was bonded to me for 17 years before the new one came in. He is more aggressive towards me than the new one that just got here. I am the enemy now , third man out . Your birds are young compared to these two and I don't know what your intentions are {companion , breeder etc.? } but if you want them for family interaction you had better start working on it now or they can become very dangerous and aggressive. BW

My step-mother Bought the birds on impulse, as it seemed... first came benio, and after a few weeks, or so, petra came to us, to keep benio company, so he was not an alone bird in our house.
in the beginning it was great, everyone played and such.
even tho back then i didn't get to stay at my dad's house alot, i needed to move back and forth between my mom and dad every other week.

as the years have gone by, and the birds behavior changed, both my dad and step mom has lost affection for them... which i hate, as i'm heavily attached to them, but not able to do much alone for them.
only one who does anything with the birds now, is mainly me, but with dad helping with their breakfast, and dinner.

We're all still inexperienced...

[liz]

My birds are on such a strict lighting schedule that I have a timer in case I forget. I have them on fruit, veg and softened washed grain for breakfast and only give seed in the evening for supper to make sure their bellies are full for the night. I have already found 4 eggs dropped just were the hen was sitting and are going unclaimed. Since they are unclaimed I take them out. I am in the process of letting them have nest boxes for those who do want to nest. My fake eggs are ready and waiting.

Years ago when I did not know about fake eggs I used white Jordan almonds of the same size.