Don't know where to start...

[PrettySisqo]

Just over a month ago, I rescued a Male BFA, approximately 8 years old. He came out of a really bad situation. He was used as a fighter bird. Basically a cock fight, but with parrots instead. His beak got injured pretty badly by a Macaw, and he also has a toe bitten off. We are getting a prostethic beak made for him because his beak will just deteriorate as he gets older. Now that you have some background...here are my many issues:

He hates to be toweled. We need to clean out his beak every few days, and getting toweled really stresses him out. It's as if we make progress where he trusts us, and then we towel him and all trust is gone out of the window. He has gotten to the point that when he sees me folding towels in the living room (where his cage is), he will jump off his cage and hide in the corner.

He will also not step up on a stick, or a hand. This makes it very hard to clean his cage. He will not get off of it, and instead tries to bite me.

I have another Male DYH who is an angel. I try to make sure that the BF sees me towel the DYH every day and play with him, and put him on his playgym and his dinner perch. I guess I'm trying to show the BF that we aren't going to hurt him, so if he sees us do this with another bird, then maybe that will sink in.

Also, he bit me in the face a few weeks ago. I was standing close to his cage talking to him, and he just leaned right over and bit my lip before I even realized this. It was quite a shocker to me, because he didn't display ANY of the normal Amazon behaviors when they're about to bite, and I make sure to keep an eye out for them. Also, he wasn't in a position where he was backed into a corner. I was on the opposite side of his cage, so he could have gone inside if he didn't want to deal with me, or could have even backed up. Instead he ran right over to the edge and bit me.

I know that he can sense my fear, but it's a challenge for me to muster up the courage to deal with him again because I can't see any signs of his impending bite.

My main problem is probably that I am trying to work on building trust, but it goes out the window when we towel him (which we have to do @ least 3 times a week). Also, when he does get his new beak, we will have to towel him daily to administer antibiotics, but after a few weeks it won't be necessary.

Should I just wait until the new beak gets here to work on the whole trust thing? That way I won't have to ruin it by towelling him?

Any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciated.
I've also tried to look up Avian Behaviorists in Michigan, but can't seem to find any.

[jriley]

That's so great of you to take him in, especially with all the challenges with his care.

I'm certainly no expert, but I did have a very aggressive Tucuman Amazon male for some time and learned a few tricks for dealing with him that might help you.

As far as step-up, a behaviorist I met gave me the great hint of using a two-perch method. She suggested I use natural perches rather than dowels, so he would feel very secure with his footing and tilt the one he's standing on so that the higher end is away from me. The second perch is used to encourage him onto the perch and to defend my hand and arm from his biting (he used to get onto a perch and then run over and bite the hand holding the perch!). It worked great and gave me a lot more confidence in handling him.

As far as the toweling goes, what I did with Tucci was to take him out with his perch, take him into another room, set him on the floor, and then gently place the towel on his back and the loosely wrap him. I allowed him to stay right-side-up in the towel and just held him in my lap without doing anything to him for a few minutes and then would backtrack through the process.

Is there a way to mess with his beak without toweling him? Maybe if you get a large natural sponge you can soak it in warm water and make it a sort of game to wipe his beak with it. Tucci really enjoyed different games we'd play even though he never accepted being touched or held.

Tucci also did the bite without warning thing. We all had to make sure to walk well clear of his cage because he'd lunge out and grab people. Changing dishes or cleaning his cage was always a major ordeal because one person would have to distract him from biting the person trying to do the chores. People had always told me that birds are not naturally aggressive, but he sure was! A breeder told me that Amazons are very territorial and will try to drive people away from their cage. I've never been afraid of large birds before I had him (and I've had larger birds before him), but now I won't go near an Amazon. I wish I had had experience with sweet 'zons before I met him!

Julie

[tielmama]

You are very kind to try to rehabilitate that poor bird. It's a challenge that most people wouldn't want to face. I don't know enough to help you, but I want to applaud your efforts. I didn't realize that birds like that were used for fighting. That makes me so sad. Such evil! I hope you get some good advise, but it sounds like you have some very good ideas. I hope you and the bird get past this hard part, and he will realize that you are his friend.

[PrettySisqo]

Originally Posted by jriley

As far as the toweling goes, what I did with Tucci was to take him out with his perch, take him into another room, set him on the floor, and then gently place the towel on his back and the loosely wrap him. I allowed him to stay right-side-up in the towel and just held him in my lap without doing anything to him for a few minutes and then would backtrack through the process.

Whenever we try to towel him (on his cage, in his cage, on the floor), he immediately flips onto his back, ready to bite. I tried before to remove the perch that he was standing on, and instead he jumped right off of it. However, whenever we do finally get him toweled, he calms down and will even let us give him scritches. However I don't know if this would be more like flooding and he's just tired of fighting with the towel or what...


I'll definitely try the perching and the sponge thing. Those sound like they might work, and he does love to pay tug of war kinds of games...so maybe he will like the whole sponge thing. Whenever you say 'encourage him onto the perch', what exactly do you mean? Do you go behind him with the perch? or do you hold it out in front of the perch you want him to step up on, to kind of bite it?

[jriley]

Well, he usually would step right up on the perch when it was offered, but if he was trying to avoid it, I would move the "extra" perch behind him at the top of his legs and gently tap. Only problem with that move is it leaves the "official" perch hand unprotected LOL. I have never in my life seen parrot bites that are as vicious as that little devil put on me! He used to grab the skin and twist and pull! I hope your guy isn't that aggressive!

Julie

[Michelle8822]

I do not know if this will help you or not, but my bird also hates to be toweled. The vet will normally gently grab his head in order to keep him from bitting and then flip him over onto his back. From there the assistant will hold him while the vet does the exam.

I do not know if this will work because I am not sure if you can get that close to him.