Not a macaw owner, but I would suspect that in the past your macaw might have been mistreated by a woman, or perhaps was only handled by a male for part of his life so he is not as comfortable with women. Some general tricks for getting a bird to accept a less favored family member would include having your wife be the only one to give him his favorite treats, having him step from you to your wife (you be the one to get him off his cage and hand him off to her), and having her try to give him some attention without you around to distract him (once she can handle him somewhat).
Problems getting off the cagetop seems common in macaws because the cages are so tall. He knows you can't reach him easily so by running away he gets some attention from you and some extra time out of his cage. Just keeping a chair or stool by the cage that you can stand on can help. If you can reach him easily it isn't as much fun to run away. Also, try giving him a treat when he does step up nicely. Try sometimes just picking him up off the cage top, giving him the treat, and then putting him back on the cage top... so he doesn't learn that stepping up equals getting put back in his cage every times.

Karen
Chico (conure) and Pippin (budgie)
WI

The reason he may not like women may not necessarily be an abuse situation. Sometimes people scare birds by mistake (ie dropping a pan) and the bird associates it with a woman thus being scared of all women. Like Karen said he may have been handled by mostly men thus the bond to men.

Our CAG is definitely a womans bird. He will let my girl friend scratch through him, but will only rarely let me touch him.

One thing you may try with your Macaw on the cage is trying the stick train him. I'm over 6' so I usually don't have an issue with getting our B&G down but he is very food motivated so all we have to say is "wanna snack" and he comes running anyway.

That's the weird thing, his last owner was a woman and he absolutely loved her, and would have nothing to do with her husband. Also, I am 6'3" and am still taller than him when he's on his cage, and he only gets on his stick occasionally. Once I force him inside the cage with his stick, he'll get on my arm

How many homes has he been too? Rereading your first post it doesn't sound like the woman you got him from was his first owner. I would say just make sure that your wife continues handling him. Have him step up from you to her, have her give him food and water, etc. He will learn that she is helpful to him and with time he should come around. He may never be as affectionate with her as he is with you but some sort of relationship should start to form.

Thanks for the advise everyone. I am actually his 3rd owner. The first was an old man that had him the first 15 years of his life and died of emphysema ( My macaw, Bubba, still mimics his raspy cough and sometimes acts like he's smoking a cigarette ). The second owner, whom I got him from, has had him for the last 5 or 6 years

I hope he's finally found a forever home :).

We adopted a B&G (6 yrs old) and in his previous home he loved the husband and would lunge and bite the wife.
Since we've had him he is now bonded to me (wife) and hates and lunges at my husband.
We've been working on this with limited success.


I think most parrots choose someone as a favourite and try to dominate and threaten the perceived rival.
Some birds seem better able to share themselves with different people.

You certainly need a plan and strategy to turn this around.
Sadly, many birds get rehomed because of this "divide and conquer" behaviour.

Barb

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I have a Macaw. First an older bird will bond with one person more than another. In a new unfamiliar situation man or woman won't matter. He is probably more comfortable with you because you have interacted more. Number two the cage thing is the height. I have to climb up so I'm at his height then he steps up readily. The two best familiarization tools is the neutral room and not to have the birds chosen person in the room. The second is tough since these big birds are intimidating and we want the support of the person who can handle them. If the person is not used to birds they may have to accept not handling the bird. A bird of this age will know when you are uncomfortable with it.