Hey!

[GandhiParrot]

Just rescued a yellow collared mini macaw! I'm 17, and any advice would be well appreciated. While he has a band on his foot, signaling he once was from a breeder, we know nothing else about Gandhi's(that's his name!) background. The vet says he's at least 10 years old, and minis can live to about 25, right? I found him in a parking lot on saturday, and while he's totally spoiled now, I'm still really new. Can't wait to learn some tips!

[Wolf]

Actually the Yellow collard macaw can live to about 50 years according to The World Parrot Trust.

First I want to thank you for rescueing him, secondly I would like to welcome you to the forum. Now for the part of this that I hate, I need to ask you to try to find this birds owner, the one that he escaped from. They should be looking for him and feeling really heartbroken over this. Call any avian vets office in a 50 mile radius from where you found him and do a public service announcement on local radio stations and perhaps talk to the newspapers in your area all in an attempt to find his humans. You should not mention the species of macaw that he is nor should you give out the information on the band as these can be used to identify him. If you get no answers to these attempts then he is rightfully yours to keep. Although this is the hard part it is the right thing to do and I know that if he were yours and some how had escaped into the human world that you would want whoever found him to try and find you as well. Please disregard this if you have already done these things.

I would really like to help you so I need to know what you are feeding him as he can not remain healthy on a diet of seeds or pellets alone, he is going to need to have fresh fruit and vegetables, preferably organic so as to avoid as many pesticides as possible not to mention all of the other chemicals that are put on our foods while they are growing and or processed for sale.

Here is what The World Parrot Trust has to say about this macaws diet, consider it as a starting point

Diet:

Dried figs soaked in water a few hours, two or more per bird daily, with one drop of Konakion (Roche) or other vitamin K additive, once daily; fruits forming at least 50 percent of diet; soaked sultanas; berries (elder, mountain ash, pyracantha); spray millet; small seed mix with: canary, oats, safflower; cooked pulses; rearing food with: hard-boiled egg, wholegrain bread, low-fat cheese and carrot, all ground to crumbly consistency; for breeding: live food (mealworms) if taken; commercial insectivorous food; variety of vegetables; walnuts; complete pellet.

Please make note that this bird needs to have a daily vitamin K supplement and please be aware that not all of these foods are appropriate for this bird due to his age, for instance he does not need rearing foods and mealworms would only be needed during his breeding cycle.

Parrots are photoperiodic ( research this) which means that several of their annual cycles such as molting and breeding are largely controlled by the type and amount of light that they receive daily. They can not adjust to a human light cycle so it is up to you to see that they are exposed to the twilight periods of both dawn and dusk daily to keep their internal biological clock functioning properly, these times must be without any artificial lights on to interfere with the light at these times. This means that they need to be on what is referred to as a solar light schedule just like the wild birds outside, getting up with the sun and going to sleep by the time it is dark outside as well.

Since this bird is about 14 inches long or a little loner he has a wingspan of about 28 inches and so he needs a minimum cage size of at least 30 inches and tall enough that a perch placed about 16 inches from the top will be about your eye level or close to it. This is the smallest cage size for this size of bird and is only adequate if he gets out of the cage for a minimum of four hours each and every day.

He is going to need a lot of toys, especially ones that he can chew up and destroy, blocks and sticks of untreated white pine or fir would be about the cheapest wood that is bird safe to begin with for destructible toys. If he does not know about toys then you will have to teach him.

I don't know how much you do or do not know, but you said that you are new so I have been taking this from a beginners starting point.

If you have not already discovered this the hard way, then you need to know that parrots bite, all parrots bite, mostly out of fear but also as a means of disciplining us. A bite from a bird of this size and beak strength is no laughing matter as it can cause some serious damage. Now you know how pirates got their eye patch and holes for their ear rings Until you get to know this bird better please don't let him on your shoulder although that is probably where he will prefer to perch when on you.

You have a lot to learn and the faster you learn the better of you and the bird will be. Here is a link regarding toxic and non toxic things that you need to know, the listing begins on the second page of the link and covers many things from foods to household items.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521

This will give you a starting point, please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

[liz]

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for saving him from the parking lot. He is probably very grateful. There are many birds trying to survive on their own. I don't believe they are all escapes but have gone through experiences that took them away from their human. Please take time to look for the greeving human. In the meantime do what you can to bring him back to health. If no owner shows up you will already have already started bonding.

Follow Wolf's lead on this. Since you are new you need to learn neutrition and lighting as well as personal contact. When he is relaxed with you he will teach you what he already knows and who he is. At his age his personality has already been established but he will do his best to adapt to you.

[Pajarita]

Welcome, Gandhi and human! Please do make an effort to find the owner. I know that you must be all enthused about finding such a gem but we, parrot keepers, get real attached to our birds and they to us so finding its owner is the right thing to do, my dear.

I have to say that I don't agree 100% with the diet the Parrot Trust gave for a mini macaw. I suspect this was the contribution of a breeder and done quite some time ago (why 'dry' figs or sultanas? And why a vit K supplement when there are so many foods that can provide it naturally?) but they are right in the 50% fruit diet (macaws eat A LOT of fruit in the wild). Why don't you check our diet section? We have all kinds of good advice and recipes on it.