You were wise to stop the curtailing of the food - that is a lot to lose, especially given that they're in a stressful situation to begin with as they moved to a new home. If you're going to keep these guys together, they will probably never be all that interested in having much of a relationship with you. That can be fine though. If you wanted to up your odds of bonding with them, you could try splitting them up - separate cages, separate rooms, no visits, the works. It would take up a lot of space in your home, and double your "work load." If you DID split them up, then you'd really need to commit to forming bonds with them - they need relationships, just like the rest of us. You may never be able to handle them without certain precautions either, so be well aware of that. You should probably look into training them to step onto a T stick - this will offer you the most protection, should one decide to bite you. These guys can do serious damage, so please err on the side of caution until you know the lay of the land. One nice thing about macaws is that they are rarely "unpredictable" if you are paying attention to their body language. Cockatoos have a reputation for being much more unpredictable, but I really think that it's because we humans don't discern their "tells" as readily. Sally Blanchard has some good techniques for handling difficult/dangerous birds (though I don't love everything she talks about). Having a distraction ready to hold up in their face is a good technique to avoid a bite. Even tame and friendly macaws can be overly beaky sometimes, and I'd bet that we all use the distraction idea at times. I've read Michael's book - it was so-so in my opinion. In my opinion it focused far too much on control and manipulation than forging a bond (I just think you CANNOT really appreciate a bird without an actual bond), though I know he has good success with taming birds. Barbara Heindrich (sp??) has some really good training materials as well that may really help you out. You may need to learn how to safely wrap them in a towel to place them in a carrier for vet trips - how did you get them to your house and into their current cage? Can they fly? Do you let them out of their cage now? Will they come out of their cage? Will they go back in? Just spending undemanding time with them is a good start - sit by their cage and open the mail, read a book, etc. Give them a treat occasionally as you sit there - scrambled eggs, nuts, fruit, and a bit of junk food might go a long way to befriending them.
If you get a cockatoo, your macaws may suffer health consequences for the dust exposure. Blue and golds seem to suffer more than others, but it may be that B/G's are just more numerous than the others. An air filter can solve that problem though, and distance within your home will also help.
