Hello everyone!

[Keelasmama72]

Hello everyone! I'm a first time bird/parrot owner. I have a beautiful 1 1/2 year old greenwing macaw named Tequila Rose. She is wonderful and has brought great joy to my life. I brought her home in May from the pet store I work in. ( please no judgement I would be more than happy to post how we bonded later. ). I am also a registered veterinary technician and have a quite a bit of knowledge on bird care and did a lot of research before I brought her home. Please know that I didnt choose her she chose me and I am very happy she did. I want nothing but the best for my girl so I am always looking for advice and reading everything I can. However i am stumped on some of her behavior. She has a ridicoulous amount of toys I rotate out for her but seems to not care about any of them and spends a great deal of time trying to take her cage and stands apart and when she is not doing that I am her personal jungle gym and chew toy. Mind you she does not really bite me and its not preening or beaking me but I find it odd and dont know exactly how to stop it. We have to watch what we say around her because her vocabulary is starting to become more of what I would think an African Grey would have versus a Macaw. She is so smart and I need activities to stimulate her mind. Keep in mind also she is not lacking attention, she gets hours of interactive playtime a day, and is very well socialized with different people and places. Any ideas would be welcome.

[Wolf]

I suppose that you would get a lot of not so great feedback about your parrot being from a breeder or even worse a pet store. And while I do agree with it in principle, the world is just not all black and white, I know that I have been guilty of voicing my opinion against them, but there must be room for this on any forum and I will assure you that regardless of how, why or where your bird came from, we will do all that we can to answer your questions honestly and as accurately as we can. With that welcome to the forum.

[liz]

Welcome to the forum.

When a baby picks you all you can do is bring it home.

Being a vet tech you know the feeding schedule and light schedule, right?

[Keelasmama72]

Thank you all. In reply to feeding and lighting right now i have a full sprectrum bird light hanging above her cage and one above her playstand so they are on about 12 hours a day. When the weather was better she got to go outside a lot. I feed her chopped veggies and fruits in morning. Supper is different every night I like to mix it up and she likes it too. And she gets Zupreem Smart Selects and Zupreem naturals. She gets a few nuts throughout the day also.

[Wolf]

Hi again, since I do not have any macaws, I thought it best for me to double check my information before sounding off. I was checking about nutritional information for macaws and thought that you might find this useful. http://beautyofbirds.com/macawfood.htm
Alarms go off in my brain when I read about people using full spectrum lights with their birds. Don't read this wrong, I am not saying to not use them as I have one and do use it. What I am saying is to be cautious with them as many of them are just repackaged reptile lights that may burn or blind your bird. So it is best to check out the actual output of the tubes or bulbs to make sure that you are getting the right one. You are looking for a K Temp of 5000 to 5500, a CRI of94+, And a low UVA or B output of around 2. here is a link on full spectrum lights for you viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13243
Do you have any free standing perches or play areas for your macaw that are separate from its cage? This might help with her chewing on you.
Most parrots that show little or no interest in all of the wonderful toys that we get them to destroy have not been taught to play with them and it is up to us to teach them how to use them which is best done by us playing with them and showing them how to use them. We often have to show them what a foraging toy is as well as showing them how to find and get the treats that we place in them. It is really a simple parrot see, parrot do type of thing. You will know when you are getting through to them as they will start asking for it and that is when you hand it over to them to try out.
I would now like to back track just a little as I wanted to talk more about lighting and your bird and then I will leave you in peace, hoping that I have been helpful to you and your bird. For a long time it was thought that the best way to control our birds breeding cycle, due to the hormones produced at breeding time that contribute to their biting was to put them on a schedule of 12 L / 12 D, sort of like in the tropics near the equator. This seemed to help but really not enough, so it was back to the drawing board to try to find out what we were missing. Although the 12L/ 12D is the most popularly accepted schedule to put our birds on to help with hormonal issues, new research indicates that our bird respond much better to a minimum of 10 hours of sleep time with full exposure to the light that occurs during the predawn twilight period and the corresponding twilight period that occurs at dusk and then fade to full dark and sleep. It seems that these periods work together to work sort of like a start/ stop button on a stop watch and this is how they are able to measure the length of day/ night and it also serves to readjust the internal biological clock bringing it over a period of time into synchronization with the seasons of the year. This new approach results in a better control of the breeding cycle and its accompanying hormonal surges.

[Keelasmama72]

Thank you for the information! I have been using the zoo med avian light but am now see I should switch to the Feather Brite. Personally I prefer to take her outside for natural sunlight But that is not an option in 30 degree weather. I do have 2 free standing perches plus her cage. Even with that her personal preference is to be perching on me and chewing on me. When I first brought her home she destroyed her toys she loved them. Now 10 minutes shes done and wants her Mama. I have given her foraging toys they sit there. Some of them I have made shes scared of. She will go out of her way though to walk over to her cage and start trying to remove the bolts. I have found some bird puzzles online so I was going to try those give her some sort of a challenge.

[Pajarita]

Welcome, Keela and Mama!

You might want to look for a better light than the Featherbrite because that one has a CRI of 91 only and the higher, the better.

Wolf is right about the light schedule. Macaws are low hormonal birds but that doesn't mean that one should keep them at a breeding light schedule all year round and I am afraid that 12L/12D is just that. You, been a vet technician, should know very well that a healthy endocrine system is more than just opportune sexual hormone production, it regulates appetite, sleep, mood, etc all the way to the immune system so, taking into consideration that birds need the special spectral distribution that happens at dawn and dusk in order to get their internal clock in tune with the seasons, I recommend your reconsider the one you have her under right now.

Now, as to her 'unexplainable' behavior... well, actually, my dear, her behavior is perfectly normal and easy to explain: at 1.5 years old, you have a young child in your hands and young children want to be with mama all the time - that's why she climbs all over you and constantly 'feels' you with her beak. In the wild, she would still be living with her parents but would be flying around, foraging and allopreening with them as well as surrounded by her extended family, never leaving the familiar territory where she was born. In captivity, she clings to the parental figure she has: you. Captivity is very hard on parrots... The conditions we keep them under, even when we try our very best and put a lot of time, thought, money and effort into them, is not anywhere near ideal. We can't provide a flock, we can't feed them in their beaks, we can't be there 24/7/365 for them, we can't offer them the exercise they need (macaws need, at the very least, a distance of 30 ft to fly), we expose them to strange places and people, etc. So, whereas a baby in the wild would be naturally insecure and vulnerable, in captivity, this is exponentially multiplied. Besides that (and I am not trying to make you feel bad about it, I am simply stating a fact), birds from petstores are usually bred by not so good breeders which could mean gavage-fed, shipped in a dark box, not weaned correctly, high stress in a particularly sensitive development stage, etc. All pet stores tell you that their birds (dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, whatever) come from local and very good breeders but the truth is that good breeders don't sell to pet stores... they all have waiting lists.

So, I am afraid that my advice to you is to put up with her behavior. I know it must be a pain in the neck because even if she is still a baby emotionally, she is also a big-ass bird I have a LSC that does the same thing and I well know it's no joke to have a big bird hanging from one's neck... sheesh! one can hardly do anything! I usually have to 'flip' him over my shoulder so I can, at least, see what I am doing because he leans forward and puts his head right in front of my face as he does this when I am working in the birdroom.

Now, there are ways you can make things more manageable. I have a very strict routine so I always do the same things in the same order. This helps him know not only that 'his' time will come but also when it starts and when it ends (I also use words like "Wait" and "Almost done" when he gets impatient as well as "OK, byebye" when he is to let me go so I can leave the room) and posting.php?mode=reply&f=5&t=14930#each interaction also has a word or phrase so, for example, he knows that when I say "Papapa?" we will do something he loves: he perches on a special high perch that puts his head a bit higher than mine, bends a bit over, turns his head -always to the right- and putting his upper beak on my upper lip, he clicks it by opening it and closing it fast while I do the same thing and at the same rhythm with my mouth by clicking my teeth while he stares into my eyes and I hold his right paw in my left hand and caress the top with my fingers). I have no idea what this means to him or what the significance of it is but he loves it and asks for it when I take too long to do my chores Another thing we do together is the "WEEEEEEE!" where he hangs on with his claws and beak from some kind of material (could be a towel, could be my sweater or a T-Shirt) that I swing around and up and down so he can flap his wings real fast (he can't fly at all). So I suggest you sit down and plan your days so you can have the same routine all the time and plan some 'special' activities in them that would 'mesh' with your and her schedule...Just as an example, you can uncover her cage before dawn and open it so she can come out at dawn, take out her dishes and clean it (without turning on any artificial lights until the sun is out), serve her the raw produce - turn on the lights - serve her breakfast (could be gloop, could be a chop with grains in it, etc) - do a cuddling session or give her a bath (always cold water in a warm room) so he can spend some time preening and give you a couple of hours to do some chores - do some flying or some other kind of 'tiring' activity - put her in her cage for his noon rest (this will give you time to do your stuff) - take her out and allow him to climb in his gym (I recommend natural tree branches he could also chew) - do another activity - cuddling session (mind you, the cuddling session can be nothing more than have her on you while you work on a computer, for example) - turn off the lights - put him in his cage - serve him dinner - let night fall so she can fall asleep naturally - and voila! You have a good day for both you and her!

[Keelasmama72]

Thank you all for the info. You have been very helpful. I just want to say that I am in no way complaining about my girl's behavior I'm just trying to make sure it is normal and that I am doing everything I can to enrich her life. Bringing her home was by no means a whim. I bonded for months with her and once we started bonding I began the process of researching everything I could on her breed, her care, nutrition, if she would fit into my lifestyle, fit with the family, all the pros and cons of taking care of a macaw for the rest if my life. But just because I spent 6 months of research or the fact of what I do for a living still doesn't make me an expert. I feel I've gained more knowledge after bringing her home by far. I knew what I was getting into and I have cherished every moment with her. I am so lucky to have her with me.
I am really grateful for the lighting info I have been stressed about it even though I didn't mention it in my first post. Just because I learned one way doesn't always make it the right way.

[Pajarita]

Oh, indeed! And you will find that, when it comes to parrots, you need to constantly do research as well as carefully observe her and make mental notes of what action or event precedes which behavior so you can keep it in mind for future use because you will find that you will need to go back to square one, rethink and tweak your husband for the rest of her life (and this is no reflection on you, mind you! - it's a fact that we all have to live with). You just started but anybody who has had parrots for a long time can tell you that all the stuff we thought was the right thing to do years ago, we later found out was all wrong! We have learned HUGE amounts of information in the last 15-20 years about their nutritional needs, their physiology, anatomy, behaviors, housing needs, pathology, etc and we haven't even began to scratch the surface! Thankfully for us, they are extremely loving and forgiving animals and even when we make mistakes, they love us all the same!

But don't worry about her behavior, it's perfectly normal and she will, in time, become a bit more independent as she matures and acquires more self-confidence.

[Wolf]

I would like to add that there is no such thing as an expert when it comes to parrots other that the parrot itself. We really don't know that much about them and the actual scientific research on them only began about 25 years ago, despite having had them in captivity for hundreds of years. Although we try to give the best answers that we can and are constantly researching about our birds, this will never replace you doing your own research and using that as well as our answers to help you to make your own choices in regards to your parrot and your relationship with it.