My new Illies

[vilnukoy]

Just got them last Friday, were flewn in from Georgia. Took them to the vet the next day to get them checked and chipped. They are a bundle of joy and keep my sorta busy when I come home from work in the evening. Hope you guys/gals enjoy the pix

[Tishrei]

That first picture sure is awefully cute. It looks like they are just staring into each other's eyes as if they are in love -- LOL ... it's is too precious.

[vilnukoy]

Thanks

Now, I have 2 questions.

1) How soon is too soon to start them training (one of them is showing some slighlt bossy behaviour sometimes)? Since they are babies, I dont want put to much stress on them.

2) Should I train them together or individually (if i split them, they start calling each other)?

Thanks for your suggestions.

[birdsnreps]

they sure are cute!!

i think you can start now, as long as they seem like they are settled in at your place. i would do a little bit of training with them together, but i would do more one-on-one training with each one separately, just to help you to bond with both of them individually, and to keep them from maybe bonding too strongly to each other and not to you.

[vilnukoy]

birdsnraps thanks for the suggestions. i tried it yesterday and what should i say, didnt went that well. the older one (by 2 days), is the one who is showing this slighly bossy beahviour. when i seperated him from the younger one (went into another room), he/she started calling for the other one. i tried to distract it with toys and treats but didnt really worked. since there was no way in for about 10 min i went back to the other room and tried to train him/her there within eyesight of the 2nd one. wasnt really successful either since all it wanted was to be together with the other bird.

what do i do to sperate the bigger one from the smaller one and make him/her concentrate on me and the things i want to show him/her??

[birdsnreps]

yea, it sounds like they are already very bonded to each other already. if i were in your situation, and i really wanted them to be bonded to me, i would separate them, in diff rooms, and spend more time with each one, one at a time, each day, and maybe let them play together for a short while. at first, they will prob scream back and forth to each other, and they will prob act like they dont wanna spend time or play wtih you, but you need to work with them both one on one so they can bond to you, and you can teach them that you are the boss. if you just let them stay in the same cage all the time, they will prob just go wild and not be very good pets at all :(

but, after you have established a good strong bond wtih each one, you can let them play together still, or possibly even let them live in their own cages, side by side in the same room. just my opinion though, i wouldnt let two pet macaws live together in the same cage...i have seen SO many tame, pet macaws become wild and aggressive towards their owners when caged together.

[vilnukoy]

i never said that they are in the SAME cage. each bird has their own cage within eyesight to the other cage. the problem is, that i dont really have a lot of space to move one of the cages around oh well, i guess that will be my task for the weekend to figure out a way to seperate them.

[birdsnreps]

ahh, ok, i thought they were in the same cage i think just spending time with each bird separately will do the trick :) they are still new and dont know you yet, and they are young, i think it will be easy to train them :)

[vilnukoy]

when i do the training, should i go to a seperate room andhope that the screaming will get less and stop? i dont want to upset my neighbors too much. i know i have to do it and it will be sort of intense.

[birdsnreps]

yea, they will still be noisy, but they wont be as bad as they are now, once they bond with you :)