Hello! New Hahn's Macaw

[afrench]

Hi everyone!

Just last week I bought my first Hahn's macaw and called him Guapo! He's such a sweetie!
I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips on the Hahn's macaw, such as training.
One thing is that when I try to get him out of the cage he won't step up onto my hand and I have tried to get him to step up with treats but he still won't. He's not afraid of him because I let him climb out of the cage himself and then he'll step up onto my hand. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas of how I can train him to step up?
Also I am meant to feed him fresh fruit and veg everyday but he won't eat it! Does anybody know why???

Alexandra

[Wolf]

How old is your new friend? As for training, I would not get in a hurry to begin training for tricks and such as you need to focus on gaining your birds trust before any other thing at all. If he remains healthy you will have him for upwards of 40 years, which should leave you plenty of time for training. Once he trusts you more he will step up for you almost anytime that you ask him to and probably more times that you don't ask him to, as you are likely to become one of his favorite perches.

In most cases the reason that a parrot does not eat fruits and vegetables is because they do not recogmise them as food because no one has taken the time to teach them. They are not born know what to eat, this is a thing that ma and pa bird start teaching them about shortly after they fledge. Try sitting down with him and start eating a fruit or vegetable, that you have also cut up some in small pieces for him, in front of him, but don't share it right away. Hold off on giving him a piece of it until he is not only begging for it but actually demanding a piece of it. His parent birds would make him steal a piece of it before letting him have any of it, they would make it easy for him to steal a piece or to take it away from them, but he would still have to try to take it. You don't have to go that far but you want him to at least want it badly enough to impress on him that this food is very, very good, make it seem like it is the most special food in the world. Even with doing this there is a good chance that he will not eat it right off and it may take several tries before he will eat the first piece of it. The older the bird is the harder it is to teach them to at least try a new food, so for many of us this is one of those ongoing projects.

Welcome to the forum, I hope that this will be useful to you.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum! He IS stepping up. He is just not doing it from inside his cage which is perfectly good. People are not supposed to stick their hands in their cages anyway, it's better to allow them to come out and then ask for a 'step up'.

If you have him in the same room as the other birds, he will learn to eat produce from them. As Wolf indicated, parrots learn from other parrots and you already have some so it's just a matter of time that he learns to eat veggies and fruits just be seeing the others do it (they do eat produce, right?) The only thing you need to take into consideration is not giving him produce next to protein food because, if you do, he will eat too much of the protein food and too little (or nothing at all) of the produce.

As to training a Hahn's, it's like training a conure/parakeet and, again, you already have some of those. They are called 'macaws' but, in reality, they are closer to conures in habits and vocalizations than they are to the big macaws.

[afrench]

Thank you! That's really helpful!
He's 4 months old, it never even crossed my mind that he didn't know that is was food!
I've been putting capsicum, corn, peas and apple into the cage for him. Are these the right sort of foods and/or is there anything else I should try and teach him to eat?

[Wolf]

I thought about your question concerning what you should include in you birds diets and although you asked the question only in regards to your macaw, I thought that the best way to answer it and for all of your birds, not just the macaw would be to provide you with this link.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521

Beginning on the second page of this topic there is a listing of foods, woods, household plants, trees and household products that are toxic or good for your birds. Any food in this lists that is shown to be good for your birds should be considered for all of them and if it is listed as toxic it should be avoided for all of them as well.

I hope that it not only answers your question, but that you find it to be helpful in other areas as well.