B&G macaw behavior (new)

Question
QUESTION: My 10-year-old B&G macaw is exhibiting a new strange behavior.  She stands on her perch, grabs her tail with one foot and seems to pull it forward, all her feathers on her head stick out, she puts her head down and makes a low, guttural noise.  She doesn't respond when I talk to her or pet her, almost like she is in a trance.  After a half minute or more, she stands up and seems normal.  It's quite disturbing.  It's happened three times in the last two weeks.  I've looked all over the web, any idea what she may be doing?

ANSWER:  All other activities are normal?  She's still eating, drinking as usual? Her droppings are healthy?
 If so, then embarrassingly, what you're likely seeing is that she's found a new way to, well, feel as if there's a mate with her.

Over the years, a lone macaw (both male and female) can get pretty creative.  We have one permanent resident who is often overly friendly with a toddler's toy that consists of a big acrylic ball with another, smaller ball that has a bell in it, inside.  When our girl isn't loving it like a mate, she's bashing it around like the toy it is meant to be.

To avoid the possibility of her ending up egg laying as a result of these encounters, it's a good idea to distract her.  Just don't expect her to be thrilled with it.

www.4AnimalCare.org



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you!  The only thing that has changed is she is aggressively chewing my clothes when I pick her up, but I have begun addressing this by immediately putting her back on her cage and ignoring her.  She has always been easy to handle and loves being held, petted, and played with.  She would occasionally chew off a button or pick at lace, but it has never been a problem.  Now she is gathering up the material in her beak and refusing to let go.  She has never laid an egg even though she exhibits a lot of mating behavior with her chosen humans.  I'm beginning to suspect she may really be a male, but have no way of knowing for sure other than she doesn't nest or lay eggs even when she is desperately 'in love' with whoever is paying the most attention to her.  Her diet is fine, drinking lots of water, etc.  One thing though, her bottom beak seems a little longer than usual.  Her beak doesn't close all the way anymore.  She gets lots of wood to chew, has a rough perch, and a cuttle bone, so I don't know if this growth is normal or she is not wearing down her beak efficiently.  I've wondered if this new chewing on clothes is related to that.  Thanks for reassuring me about the behavior, though.

Answer
Yes, that's related. It's very, very common. As a matter of fact, one of the in house permanent residents here (a blue and gold girl just about 4 or 5 years old) is a big clothing chewer - and any other material she can get her beak on!  It all goes to the instinct of nesting and the need to shred for nesting material. Even if she's not doing anything with the material, that oral fixation is typical.  

The one thing that concerns me is the beak growth.  While all of her actions are explainable and I've seen them before collectively, once you add the abnormal beak growth, I'd like you to have her seen.  Just play this safe ok?  It sounds like she's on a good diet so there's probably no concern that the beak issue is the result of too many seeds (which is common) - but I'd like to find out what's going on, perhaps have it corrected however the vet decides (some will file it with a special tool) and double check the rest of her systems.

I have our birds checked twice a year no matter what.  This way we know we'll be known if and when we need to call that vet for an emergency in the middle of the night.  And the peace of mind with a good report twice a year is priceless.

Let me know how she makes out ok?