Macaw newbie. What do I need to know and look for?

[Cambios]

After a lot of research, thinking, planning, debating with ourselves, our family is very strongly considering adding two birds to our family (myself, my wife, and 2 daughters - 12 and 8 years old). One of the birds is a female blue and gold macaw (born this July, not ready to come home with us for a few more weeks).

A few things I am curious about:

1) Are there telltale signs about the healthiness and condition of a macaw? She looks healthy and happy as far as I can tell. She's extremely friendly, steps up just fine, likes being held, and is incredibly gentle with her beak. Here are some pictures of my daughters holding her:

http://www.frogdice.com/misc/bird-macaw.jpg

http://www.frogdice.com/misc/bird-macaw2.jpg

I really like the breeder/shop and every bird we've seen there is extremely friendly. Even the older rescues there that I have interacted with have been quite friendly (though not as much as the babies, for obvious reasons). But I have no idea how to tell if a bird seems to be healthy and starting off in great shape.

I know what to look for in dogs, and ways to test their personality (seeing how they respond to being on their backs, for example). If there is anything you can check for with birds (or a macaw specifically), I'd love to know!

2) Our goal is to not only spend time with her at home, but also take her with us to work often where she'll also meet more people. We own a video game development company. We don't have customers at our studio, but we do occasionally have visitors in addition to the people who work there. Any concerns here?

3) Assuming we spend a lot of time with her and heavily socialize her, what can we generally expect as far as negative behaviors? I know birds are all individuals and can behave very differently. So I am asking in general terms. Here I am asking about things like biting, messiness, destructiveness, loudness, and things we need to worry about.

To what extent can these "negative" behaviors be mitigated with good training, socialization, and discipline on our part? (by discipline, I mean OUR discipline - not spoiling her, putting her away if she is bad/loud/destructive/etc.)

4) Again, assuming all the above, what can we generally expect as far as positive behaviors? It is my understanding that b&g macaws are "lap birds", and love to be held, have their bellies rubbed, and that sort of thing.

I also understand they they tend to be good talkers, can learn a lot of tricks or ways to communicate (blowing kisses, waving, singing, etc).

5) Any other things I really should be thinking about or considering here? Personality tendencies I should consider, specific things we should do in preparation before adding her to our family, or really any advice or suggestions would be very welcome.

Also, in case it is a factor: the other bird is a sun conure. The two birds were babies together, are used to each other, and often each from the same bowl. I know the size difference is significant and we will always be watching them when they are out and about. We have a corgi so that's already something we know we have to do any time we have the birds out.

Thank you!

[Pajarita]

1) Are there telltale signs about the healthiness and condition of a macaw?
No. The only way for anybody to know whether a bird is healthy or not is to have a complete first exam at an avian vet and this means blood work: CBC, chem panel, contagious disease testing. You can tell when a bird is REAL sick but you can't tell if a bird is an asymptomatic carrier of anything or if the problem is there but has not reached the critical stage.

2) Our goal is to not only spend time with her at home, but also take her with us to work often where she'll also meet more people.
I don't agree with taking birds that are not fully mature out of their familiar environment but, once they are and as long as:
a) it's done VERY gradually
b) the bird is not stressed out by it
c) there is no physical contact or a lot of human traffic
d) the bird has it's own 'place' at her 'second home'
e) AND you can still keep the bird at a solar schedule,
it should work out with a B&G


3) Assuming we spend a lot of time with her and heavily socialize her, what can we generally expect as far as negative behaviors? I know birds are all individuals and can behave very differently. So I am asking in general terms. Here I am asking about things like biting, messiness, destructiveness, loudness, and things we need to worry about.
Yes to all of the above. All parrots bite and are messy, loud and destructive no matter how well trained, socialized and loved they are. The larger the bird, the more difficult it is.

To what extent can these "negative" behaviors be mitigated with good training, socialization, and discipline on our part? (by discipline, I mean OUR discipline - not spoiling her, putting her away if she is bad/loud/destructive/etc.)
You can't mitigate natural behaviors with training or socialization. You can re-direct some of them which will make thing easier on you but you can't eliminate or mitigate the behaviors. They are part of their genetic make up and short of doing brain surgery on them, you can't make them disappear. And there is no such thing as 'discipline' for a parrot. They don't live in a hierarchical society so discipline is a completely foreign and impossible to understand concept to them. Especially if you are trying to eliminate what is a natural behavior! The bird will never understand that you are 'putting her away' because she is loud or destructive because both are perfectly normal behaviors. And parrots are never 'bad' as far as they are concerned. Everything a parrot does that we consider unacceptable (pooping all over, screaming their heads off, chewing and destroying furniture, draperies, wires, etc -even biting!) is perfectly acceptable and warranted to them. Discipline works for dogs but not for parrots.

4) Again, assuming all the above, what can we generally expect as far as positive behaviors?
Well, having expectations is a bit tricky when it comes to parrots... I have a lot of birds, most of them came to me because they had 'issues' that made them difficult to handle and all of these birds 'failed' their owners when it came to their expectations of what the parrot was going to 'do' for them but they are all great birds. Expectations is something nobody should have when it comes to parrots because too many things affect the outcome: parents, breeder, handfeeding, weaning, handling, schedule, diet, light are just some of the things that affect directly the bird's personality so although macaws are generally considered laid-back, affectionate (by the way, you should NEVER rub a bird's belly!), social birds, there are many out there which don't say a single word but scream all day long, that pluck/chew their feathers and bite anybody who approaches them.

5) Any other things I really should be thinking about or considering here? Personality tendencies I should consider, specific things we should do in preparation before adding her to our family, or really any advice or suggestions would be very welcome.
I think you should seriously consider getting more hands-on experience before you tackle owning such a large parrot. A baby is one thing. Babies are pliable, sweet-tempered and easy. But babies grow up and become large birds with HUGE beaks and claws and, if you messed up while the bird was growing up because of inexperience, you end up with a BIG problem in your hands.

[Wolf]

Since you are considering putting such a large bird in a position to be in contact with humans with little to no knowledge of parrot, there are a couple of things that you may wish to consider, one is that all parrots bite and the second is that the macaw you are considering can bite hard enough to bite through a chain link fence. Think for a minute what that bite would do to a human, and then talk about it to your insurance agent.

[Cambios]

(by discipline, I mean OUR discipline - not spoiling her, putting her away if she is bad/loud/destructive/etc.)

And there is no such thing as 'discipline' for a parrot.

The part in parenthesis is critical. I was talking about us, the humans, being disciplined as far as providing consistency.

The bird will never understand that you are 'putting her away' because she is loud or destructive because both are perfectly normal behaviors.

This is interesting as you're the first person to say this. Everyone else we have spoken to, owners, vets, etc. all say that birds can indeed learn to behave "better" if you put them away in "timeout" when they are "bad." Is this not true?

(by the way, you should NEVER rub a bird's belly!)

This is another situation where you are saying something for the first time that hundreds of people have said the opposite. I've even seen people pet the bellies of their pet birds and the birds seemed to absolutely love it.

[Harpmaker]

Welcome Cambios! B&Gs are such pretty birds!

It sounds like you are doing a lot of research to learn what you are getting into. If we sound discouraging it is because we have all learned that whatever research we did before we got birds was not enough. We assume whatever you do can't possibly be either. A firm commitment to the bird's welfare covers a multitude of sins

The bird will never understand that you are 'putting her away' because she is loud or destructive because both are perfectly normal behaviors.

This is interesting as you're the first person to say this. Everyone else we have spoken to, owners, vets, etc. all say that birds can indeed learn to behave "better" if you put them away in "timeout" when they are "bad." Is this not true?

I see the confusion. The bird will in fact learn from your behavior, but it will learn to be loud or destructive when it wants to go back to its cage. Maybe that's not what you meant to teach? Check the Parrot Wizard's articles on positive reinforcement, and why negative reinforcement doesn't get the results you expect with parrots.

(by the way, you should NEVER rub a bird's belly!)

This is another situation where you are saying something for the first time that hundreds of people have said the opposite. I've even seen people pet the bellies of their pet birds and the birds seemed to absolutely love it.

Indeed many do love it, but it is an erogenous zone for a parrot and, like the back and tail, should be stimulated only by a mate, during normal mating season. Keeping the poor bird in a continual mating frenzy isn't healthy for it.


These are generalities for all parrots, not just macaws. I am neither a breeder nor a trainer, just a parrot keeper who makes fewer horrible mistakes this year than last year.

[Wolf]

There are many things about parrots that are considered to be the normal way to take care of one's birds that are really detrimental to their well being, and we have only recently become aware of them due to the continuing research, part of which came about due to the large number of birds in rescues. They were there and we needed to learn why so that we could prevent some of it and we have learned that we have done many things wrong and caused our birds to be difficult and overly aggressive. This may account for many of the differences that you are encountering now. Several of us spend time every day learning and researching our birds behaviors, diets, and whatever else that affects them.

[JaydeParrot]

I'm very fond of taking my Sennie to a volunteering job, my Sennie came to me as a terrified dangerous bird who I had to handle while wearing welding gloves (her bites would still hurt). Two years down the line she's harness trained and puts up with shoulder riding while I walk her through streets, on a bus, through a town and eventually into a volunteer job.

Like many have said, I wouldn't instantly start taking her to work, I would however, start harness training her as soon as possible (the younger a bird is when it learns, the better it will be at putting up with the harness for longer amounts of time and not chewing on it).

You should spend the first weeks you have it just bonding with it, teaching it to step up, accept food from your hands, ride around on your shoulder, learn the word 'no' (try not to overuse that word or the bird will just start ignoring you) and just basically teaching her a daily routine.

Slowly invite visitors over but tell them to wait and ignore her for five to ten minutes. My birds don't take well to vistors who immediately bounce over to their cage, they need time to process that a new person is in the house, most animals (including birds) don't take kindly to sudden changes or suprises. I also always tell people to never stroke a bird under it's beak, most birds I've seen chew or bite someone's hand for that. The best place for vistor to give a bird a stroke is the top part of the beak or the top of the head.

The first part of getting your bird used to the idea of going to your work place would be if you could take her there a few hours before you have to be there/ when it's very empty and quiet. Bring her in a carrier, (sounds silly but), 'carefully' carry the carrier around the workplace on your shoulder, she'll get the view she's going to have when she's out of the cage.

If you have the harness with you, lock yourself in a small room, take her out of the carrier and put the harness on her, put her on your shoulder and walk around the place for ten minutes to half an hour (depending upon how calm she is and how deserted the place is). After that I'd take her home and repeat the process every other day if possible, making the out of carrier time longer each time she visits.

Eventually you can start introducing her to people you see the most and bring her at more crowded times for short intervals.

Just remember that even if your parrot doesn't bite, they still use their beaks for climbing which some people can see as a 'bite'. Some of my family have had my birds use their beaks and claws whilst climbing up their bare arms, although I just shrugged seeing it as a few playful scratches, other members of the family didn't see it that way. I also had one family member very interested in having a bird on her shoulder, she wasn't too pleased about an accidental poop though and was even more put off as she reckoned that their claws sticking into her shoulder felt like a 'giant moving spider'. What I'm trying to say is that being a parrot owner is sorta similar to being a parent, everything you see your child do is endearing and you're quite happy to put up with their annoying habits, trouble is outsiders don't tend to be as happy- Though admittedly outsiders will put up with suprisingly more from a parrot than they will from a child.

Anyways if you have your mind set on a macaw good luck!

P.S: No matter what, always take food and a carrier with you when taking the bird outside, a hungry/thirsty bird is a grumpy bird, also, having a carrier will insure you have somewhere to put the bird provided it gets fed up of shoulder riding/being stared at by onlookers.

[Pajarita]

You are going to find A LOT of contradictory information when it comes to parrots because keeping them as pets is such a new fad that we are in the infancy stage of learning how to do it right (not that it can ever be done 'right' until they are domesticated but that's another subject).

You are going to find people who tell you that ignoring a bird screams is the way to teach them not to; that clipping them is for their own safety; that free-feeding high protein food is OK; that touching them in erogenous zones is fine; that keeping them to a human light schedule is harmless, that you should not allow them on your shoulder or to perch higher than you because, if you do, they will think they are your boss, etc etc etc. And, my old time favorite! that how you keep your birds is a matter of opinion (I love that one! as if an ignorant human's opinion -and, when it comes to birds, we are all of us ignorant- can trump evolution!).

Some sites are devoted to fluff (lots of pictures and no real teaching), some are nothing but mutual admiration societies ('Oh, you are such a good parront!" "Your birds are soooo lucky to have you!") and then there are a few that actually look to science for its info, tell it like it is, and have the birds' wellbeing as their primary goal - this is one of those.

[BlueDog1210]

[quote="Pajarita"]You are going to find A LOT of contradictory information when it comes to parrots because keeping them as pets is such a new fad that we are in the infancy stage of learning how to do it right.

To that point I had a sulfur crest named "Cluck" that did not like women. I worked with a "pet expert" for quite a long time trying different techniques to get her to stop biting at women. To jump to the end of this tale . . . Cluck did not respond to any of the behavior modifications. Definitely worth the effort -- but in some cases the expert advice you receive on the internet may not work. In Clucks case till the day she died she did not like to be around women! Always do much research as possible from credible sources, but as Pajarta pointed out at some point you will have to do your own evaluations and I would say this blog is one of if not the best for unfettered information.

Hope this helped.