We Are Now At Our Witts End With CJ!!!

[LoveMyBeak]

My wife was thinking that she made progress with taming CJ, he would be out of his cage and letting her love on him, and she was very happy with the progress. Since we now have Hannah, he is very jealous and will only let my wife give him scritches throught the bars of his new cage which we bought him last weekend because he has been living in Hannahs cage for the last month and a half, so now that we have Hannah we put him in a cage that is smaller, but I don't think that the new cage is the problem because he is taking to it very nicely.

He still goes over to the corner nearest to where my wife usually sits and begs for lovins through the bars, but when she opens his door and lets him out he will come on over to her acting like he wants lovin and then he lurs her in for the biting to begin. She is at her wits end and now wants nothing to do with CJ, in fact now she wants me to move his cage away from her seat so that she doesn't have to listen to him beg for scritches, she is very angry about the whole thing. on top of all that Hannah is the sweetest thing that ever came out of an egg so now my wife thinks she is a failure when it comes to birds.........What do I do?????.....LMB

[amiestgermain]

One on One time with CJ. Bring a sheet into the bedroom, put him on it, and sit. Read to him, talk to him, sing to him. And just hope he's in a forgiving mood.

[Lisa B]

like Amie said, one on one time. CJ is probably unhappy that there is another bird who is sharing his spotlight, and he has been moved ontop of that, and "that" bird given what was "his".
your wife has to be a forgiving person, or it wont work out. Greys read into people more than other species. they will pick up on what people are feeling. If you wife is throwing off negative vibes, CJ is going to understand that and react.
your macaw is a baby. there will be times of trouble and tolerace with him in the future as well.
Birds are not domesticated like dogs. They are still wild animals that co exist with us in our homes. One cant demand trust or love, its earned. With a grey, its hard to earn and cant be given up on, or it is sure to fail.

Patience is the key.

[LoveMyBeak]

Well I for one am not going to give up on CJ, my wife on the other hand is probably gonna be stubborn on this issue, she thinks for some reason or another that if I get him tamed down then she will at least get to handle him again, but we all know with a Grey that isn't so, he will just most likely end up bonding with me.

we are though making it a point to socialize the two birds together, I figure that if we can at least get the two of them to accept each other, then it might be a lot easier for us when we start hand taming them again..........LMB

[1Sprocket]

CJ is a Grey. They can be like that. They will hold a grudge. They are my personal favorite. If she stops giving him attention he will do nothing but become more aggresive. Like they said, keep giving him love and attention and maybe he will come to and realise he is still her baby. They are funny little buggers and you just have to deal with their moods sometimes. I work in a pet store and had got quite attatched to a Grey we had there. he would not let anyone mess with him but me. Well I had to miss work for a week because my Granny was put in the hospital the same week my mom had a horrible wreck. When I finnally got to go back he was mad at me for being gone and was feeling my bad vibes because of my mood. That is just how they are. He eventually got over it and started being my baby again!

[huntress]

One thing people have to stop doing is "humanizing" our animals. They do not think or reason in any way like we do. If he is getting aggressive it is our responsibility as caretakers to find out why and fix it if possible by studying them more closely not feeling like a failure and throwing in the towel.
You take a wild animal (essentailly)into the home its your responsibility to care for it. Something is irritating him and even though it doesnt seem like its his cage it still maybe the whole house! Another bird has come into HIS territory (his preprogrammed instinct) and took over and is luring away the attentions of one of his mates or family members. That will anger him. If you cannot bite the one you want then bite the one your with!!
You cannot blame him for being what he is.

The part about him "begging for scritches". Look at it as language. he is not "begging for scritches" he has learned in his time with your flock that the noise and sounds and postures he makes get certain results. Certain noises get you to come close and put your fingers near. He has trained YOU to come to a sound and posture. SO, he wants something. He is locked in a cage. He does what works, you come over, he gets to bite out his anger and frustration about the "new guy" in HIS cage. It had nothing to do with wanting scritches.

If it were my bird, I would begin to just let him out on his cage as with everyone else. Offer him lots of attention one on one (in the same room) with no touch at all. Move him around with a stick or perch only. DO NOT touch him if your not ready to take a bite. After a good bit of time with no aggression shown I would wrap my fingers with good tape or vet wrap in a skin color. Anything to protect them (fingers) to give you confidence. Offer him a scritch. If he offers the beak walk away. if he strikes - stand your ground and then walk away. Eventually he will want you. Try again and there will come a time when he will offer his head and wait until you scritch and then maybe strike (this is where the tape helps) stand your ground for the bite quietly. Dont back down btu stop the positive attention and then walk away. Only stay and talk quietly when he is not being aggressive - IT COULD TAKE MONTHS. But in the meantime you cannot disown him, yell at him, or shun him like a bad child or it WILL only make it worse. The best punishment for aggression is to walk away and not preen him. Preening (we call scritching) is bonding.

[featherduster]

"If you cannot bite the one you want then bite the one your with!!"
That is so common with macaw's!

Huntress, you are very "in the know"..:)

[LoveMyBeak]

huntress you are %100 right and last night I had a good talk with my wife, I told her that he bites the snot out of me but I don't disown him, I love him no matter what. I explained that he needs time to readjust and he is, if I am the only one that trains him to live me then it is only going to be me that he likes and that she needs to more understanding of all the instant changes that he went through over the course of just one day. So we have started spending the one on one time with him again and just letting him get used to us like you said.

on another note the smaller cage actually working out better for CJ and he is getting really used to it, also it is WAY more safer then that larger one that he was in cause he doesn't have as far to fall on his Clutsy butt................LMB