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Military Macaw seeks me out specifically to attack me

Jemas

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James
I came to see if there was any update. I have been following your thread and it's really not good that your boss laughs at your fear of his military macaw charging at you. Can he not put Gunny in a place where it's not affecting your safety?
I thought I posted an update yesterday but I guess it didn't go through. Yeah my boss is a.. Weiner, for sure. Gunny is tolerating me more and more since I've been following the advice in this thread. She hasn't charged me but one time since my last post, and when I'm sweeping their room she hasn't lunged at me. I'd say that's a huge improvement.

When we're both behind the counter, as long as she's perched she won't attack. Lately she hasn't gotten down from her perch to attack me, either. I had to use the broom again to keep her from biting me and I'm thinking she is learning that attacking me = being held back by a broom so she's choosing not to attack me lol.

Petri bit me today but nowhere near as hard as the first time. I think she may have thought I was taunting her by holding food just out of reach and then she nipped me, but I was ironically just trying not to get bit.

I'll keep y'all posted!
 

Jemas

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Soo it's been a while and I've posted updates in other threads but not here.

Since my last post on this thread, I finally have felt the rage inside Gunny in the form of several bites to my hand. She was going after my coworker Katrina and I stepped between them so she wouldn't be hurt. Gunny bit my shoes and I decided to get a stick to have her step up so I could take her into her room. I had her step up and she immediately slid towards my hand and started biting it.
PXL_20220730_113437153.jpg

In hindsight, I shouldn't have had her step up but I was overconfident from having had her step up a few times before with no issues, and I should have used a T-stick. Gunny was in attack mode towards Katrina and I made myself the target, I don't blame her. The wounds were just on the surface but I think I'm lucky seeing as how the bite on the top left was right on top of a vein. My hand is fine and it's not infected. Gunny also doesn't seem to have anything wrong with her either.

Other than this incident, she has become increasingly tolerant of me. She still goes after me if Sam is around.. but when he's not, she doesn't hunt me down anymore. On a few occasions she's actually sat on the back of the same chair that I was sitting in and didn't bother me. I would sit on the edge of the seat and move slowly just in case, but I was even able to turn my head and look at her/talk to her without issues. I'm able to remove/replace her food and water bowls while she is on her perch (right in front of her) and she doesn't go for me. She likes to stick her head in the water jug while I'm pouring water into her bowl, so I let her do that every night and talk to her while she does that to hopefully associate me with good things. She's accepted my offers of pizza crust and lets me offer her fruit out of my hand without issues. When she bites my shoes now, her attack only lasts a few seconds rather than going on and on, I stand my ground instead of recoiling and talk to her calmly. When she puffs up or pins at me, I tell her in a sweet/playful voice that I'm not afraid of her anymore. She even tolerates me reaching out to pet her (I still can't touch her) and I make scratching gestures to try to get her to see what I want to do.

I'd say that's progress :) Sam is leaving the country for a week or so sometime in August so hopefully I become the one the macaws go to in his absence. Any advice on what I should do while he's gone, or anything I can do to keep working on Gunny, is always appreciated. Thanks for reading, pals!
 

scrape

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Soo it's been a while and I've posted updates in other threads but not here.

Since my last post on this thread, I finally have felt the rage inside Gunny in the form of several bites to my hand. She was going after my coworker Katrina and I stepped between them so she wouldn't be hurt. Gunny bit my shoes and I decided to get a stick to have her step up so I could take her into her room. I had her step up and she immediately slid towards my hand and started biting it.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have had her step up but I was overconfident from having had her step up a few times before with no issues, and I should have used a T-stick. Gunny was in attack mode towards Katrina and I made myself the target, I don't blame her. The wounds were just on the surface but I think I'm lucky seeing as how the bite on the top left was right on top of a vein. My hand is fine and it's not infected. Gunny also doesn't seem to have anything wrong with her either.

Other than this incident, she has become increasingly tolerant of me. She still goes after me if Sam is around.. but when he's not, she doesn't hunt me down anymore. On a few occasions she's actually sat on the back of the same chair that I was sitting in and didn't bother me. I would sit on the edge of the seat and move slowly just in case, but I was even able to turn my head and look at her/talk to her without issues. I'm able to remove/replace her food and water bowls while she is on her perch (right in front of her) and she doesn't go for me. She likes to stick her head in the water jug while I'm pouring water into her bowl, so I let her do that every night and talk to her while she does that to hopefully associate me with good things. She's accepted my offers of pizza crust and lets me offer her fruit out of my hand without issues. When she bites my shoes now, her attack only lasts a few seconds rather than going on and on, I stand my ground instead of recoiling and talk to her calmly. When she puffs up or pins at me, I tell her in a sweet/playful voice that I'm not afraid of her anymore. She even tolerates me reaching out to pet her (I still can't touch her) and I make scratching gestures to try to get her to see what I want to do.

I'd say that's progress :) Sam is leaving the country for a week or so sometime in August so hopefully I become the one the macaws go to in his absence. Any advice on what I should do while he's gone, or anything I can do to keep working on Gunny, is always appreciated. Thanks for reading, pals!
Wow sorry about those bites! Ouch! But I love that you are making progress! I know the feeling of overconfidence; I just got an Amazon bite from my carelessness a week ago. Gotta be confident, but not too much. Haha. It's a great opportunity that Sam is gone.
 

shanlung

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Birds are empath.
Hopefully you see something here to help you in that relationship.

Check out a U2 Amigo that I assisted her caregiver to stop flying lunges on her son by those principles. Against disbelief of all here, that worked
 

shanlung

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Birds are empath.
Hopefully you see something here to help you in that relationship.

Check out a U2 Amigo that I assisted her caregiver to stop flying lunges on her son by those principles. Against disbelief of all here, that worked
 

Jemas

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Thank you for this. I feel like I follow a lot of your philosophy (do what feels right, basically). I have made significant progress with Gunny but I'm going to step it up with the clicker! I'm about to have a week alone with her to work on it so hopefully everything turns out good.
 

shanlung

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Thank you for this. I feel like I follow a lot of your philosophy (do what feels right, basically). I have made significant progress with Gunny but I'm going to step it up with the clicker! I'm about to have a week alone with her to work on it so hopefully everything turns out good.
Work to her timetable. Let Gunny set the pace. Taken me 5 to 6 months of letting Vorna chomped and nailed me before she decided not to. She attacked and bite this guy for 5 years until she was sold for a song to my friend Charles. And for another 5 years attacked and bite him until he begged me just to take her. Like with my Vorna who can easily fly from one end of apartment to other end (after I spend a year waiting for her to molt and then returning flight to her for first time) , it taken me 3 months to get her to fly the 12 inches to my arm. I so nearly wringed her scrawny neck ️
 

Jemas

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Well, we had gotten Leon to hopefully let him pair with Gunny but she doesn't seem to be interested. Leon seems more interested in Vinnie, the male across from him. Vinnie is a Greenwing like Leon, do macaws usually prefer to stay with their own species when in a flock of multiple different species?

Anyways, Gunny seems to be super bonded with Sam. She had shown interest in another bird before but when that bird was sold she seemed to have turned her fixation to Sam and here we are. How can we go about lessening that superbond so Gunny can be present around people who aren't Sam without attacking them?
 

Jemas

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Gunny finally let me pet her without lunging at me! Ahh this is the moment I have been waiting for. The time away from Sam apparently let her know that I was there to help her and that I'm not a bad presence. Thanks everyone for following and all the advice!
 

Icey

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So happy to hear you are making progress with Gunny.
I guess Sam is still on holiday?
Just be careful when he comes back that Gunny doesn't revert back to her old ways.
Hopefully you will have started to have a good bond with her by then. :heart2:
 

Jemas

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So happy to hear you are making progress with Gunny.
I guess Sam is still on holiday?
Just be careful when he comes back that Gunny doesn't revert back to her old ways.
Hopefully you will have started to have a good bond with her by then. :heart2:
He came back last night, and he was holding her when I petted her for the first time! He put her down on the back of my chair and she continued to let me pet her, it was a shock for me for sure lol.
 

Icey

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He came back last night, and he was holding her when I petted her for the first time! He put her down on the back of my chair and she continued to let me pet her, it was a shock for me for sure lol.
Omg That is fantastic news. Your patience paid off. I am so happy for you. Now you can relax at work. Just hide the broom now lol :loveshower:
 

Jemas

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Omg That is fantastic news. Your patience paid off. I am so happy for you. Now you can relax at work. Just hide the broom now lol :loveshower:
I don't know what's gotten into her but she is perched on my shoulder now. This is like a completely different bird... Not that I'm complaining!
 

Shezbug

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I don't know what's gotten into her but she is perched on my shoulder now. This is like a completely different bird... Not that I'm complaining!
I’d be very very careful, I personally wouldn’t be allowing shoulder time for a bird that was attacking you such a short time back… could end terribly. Shoulder time is a privilege that should be earned by constant trustworthy behaviour.
 

Jemas

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I’d be very very careful, I personally wouldn’t be allowing shoulder time for a bird that was attacking you such a short time back… could end terribly. Shoulder time is a privilege that should be earned by constant trustworthy behaviour.
Yeah I was afraid of that so I made her get off. I was just amazed that she did that.
 

shanlung

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Gunny finally let me pet her without lunging at me! Ahh this is the moment I have been waiting for. The time away from Sam apparently let her know that I was there to help her and that I'm not a bad presence. Thanks everyone for following and all the advice!
Am still waiting for Vorna to allow me to give her head rubs. I must acknowledge you as my Sifu ️
 

scrape

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OMG that is amazing! Congrats! :yah: You have been officially accepted into the exclusive macaw crowd!
 
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