The main thing will be showing your macaw it can be fun to be by himself. Reward him and praise him greatly when you do get him "pried off". Work with small time steps at first. Immediately when you take him off of you onto his stand, etc praise him, for the first couple times only leave him down for a few seconds then pick him up and praise him. Gradually getting a bit longer each time. Once he is sure you will always come back he will begin to accept longer periods of time away from you. Try not to award screaming (I know can be really hard) but do reward him stepping onto his stand or cage. Find small toys that will give him immediate reward such as a vine ball with a nut inside or a whiffle ball stuffed with paper. Something that will get his immediate interest and can be destroyed in a short time, possibly something with a treat included like a nut or a couple pumpkin or sunflower seeds etc. This way he can have basically immediate gratification for not being attached to you. He will see he gets something new and ready to destroy (or a treat if that works better for him) when he is off of you and then can always come back for more attention. Be patient. He is of course still very young and will need to test his boundaries and see what he can get by with and what he is allowed to do. Helping him do this in a patient way with lots of rewards will show the most results. Since he is so young it may take a while to figure out whether just praise, praise and treat or praise and toy works best on him but just keep trying. Work in small steps and you will see the results.



Let me know how it goes!

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