Right now, his hormonal urges are manifesting themselves mostly in zealously guarding Beeps's cage from any attempts made by the humans in the house to walk by said cage. Unfortunately, Beeps's cage is located to the only entrance to the living room, which results in interesting confrontations more frequently than I would like.
This is what I imagine is going through his head right now: "Are you thinking about entering your own living room? And walking by Beeps's cage? Look at how big and scary I am! And I will jump on you if you turn your back or don't have a stick with you! Watch me bang this ladder against the cage! I think I'm going to bite you!"
He's jumping Thomas and me with alarming frequency (one of us will get jumped about once a day). I'm thinking about trimming his wings again, but am hesitant to do so since I still have hope he can learn to fly, get exercise, and behave himself. Instead, I'm hoping to wait out his hormones. It might be a false hope. He may end up clipped tonight.What's funny is when he jumps us and he misses (usually because he's aiming for our heads and we instantly squat down), he doesn't try to come back and attack, he just nonchalantly walks back to his own cage, laughing. Thomas said yesterday it's like he's saying, "You got me, bending down like that. I didn't get you this time. Well played!"
In addition to being very protective of Beeps's cage, he's been hanging out under our food cart, destroying wood, the newspaper we keep for changing cage papers, and anything else he can get his beak on. He even took another chunk out of the fish tank yesterday, before we could stop him.
The mess! It's just killing me. This picture doesn't begin to capture it. I'm hoping this ends soon because I'm not sure how much more we can take. I would not wish a severe macaw on my worst enemy.
5 comments:
Do you have suggestions, or can you point me to some of your blog posts about having a flighted bird? Harley has most of his wing feathers back, and I love the idea of having a flighted bird. But he needs some practice landing. And I haven't had a flighted bird since Peanut the parrotlet - he was so small, that his flying was a very different thing than Harley. No territorial issues so far, just a bigger, flying, clumsy bird.
Thanks!
Rocky sounds a lot like Harley macaw. But I sure wouldn't trade Harley macaw for anything, destructive or not! I wish I could say outright I would take Rocky.... I do love Macaws, snotty aggressive noisy little brats that they are..... but, I just don't know.
Don't keep him just because you feel you must. Birds are still pets, and subordinate to humans. If you are that unhappy with him, then he needs to go.
Mary, I'm so sorry you're having these issues with the boy; I know it's breaking your heart. I think you've gone to amazing measures to accommodate Rocky, and you shouldn't feel bad about feeling bad, or frustrated, or angry.
I'm amazed at your dedication and your heart, and hope you know that you give everyone else hope. After all, if you've gotten this far with your guys, surely I can keep my Sennie from menacing my CAG, right? :)
Big time good vibes coming your way...
And I thought amazons were bad! I only get attacked about twice a week.
Well, Mary, you sure are in a pickle, aren't you? Two of my three male parrots are very hormonal now also, though it's surprising me. Perhaps the beautiful warm sunny days of fall make them think it's spring? (Though the sunny and warm have now fled till next spring.) But a cockatiel is much easier to handle than a macaw, and Sam my Jardine's Parrot is mainly mooney and nesty, not aggressive. So I have nothing to complain about when I see what you have gone through for so long. Poor you, poor Rocky! It's heartbreaking not to be able to get at the root of such problems!
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