Adopting a Severe Macaw - Help Please!

[anvaughan]

Hello! I am considering adopting a Severe Macaw that I was told is 7 years old from a reputable bird store. She was owned as a breeder for these years and was finally given up by her owner because she would not breed. Despite this she is very sweet and does not bite at all. She is extremely nervous and the slightest noise will cause her to take off from your hand trying to fly away but she has never been aggressive or displayed a desire to bite. I almost think she might have been full flight and was recently clipped? She acts like she is very sure she can fly and then very confused when she cannot. She apparently doesn't like playing with toys at all, but luckily she hasn't displayed any plucking or anything like that. She is very quiet and doesn't click or talk or scream. Most concerning to me she is on an all seed diet, won't take pellets at all and barely picks at fruits and vegetables when they are fed to her. When I first started visiting her she was extremely flighty and nervous, but after an hour or so she warms up completely and gets very comfortable me. I am absolutely in love with her and want to bring her home but I am unsure about what I should do to try to correct some of her bad behaviors.... does anyone have any advice? What should I do to encourage her to eat pellets and fruits and vegetables? What should I do to encourage her to play with toys? Will she ever become more vocal, is it possible still for her to learn how to talk (not super important, I am just curious)? Does anyone have any other advice or things that I should think about before making this decision?

[Wolf]

I am not really sure what you are referring to as bad behaviors. The lack of playing with toys as well as not eating a good variety of foods is all most likely due to not knowing what the foods are and what the toys are or what to do with them. They are not born knowing these things and have to be taught.

I have no idea about the talking, even if the bird was much younger and had been raised as a companion bird instead of as a breeder bird there is no way of knowing if it will ever talk in human words.

When the bird first fledges the parent birds take the young bird out to the feeding grounds and have them perch on a branch and watch while the parent birds go and get some food and bring it back. The parent birds then show this food to the young bird and then eat it without offering to share it with the young bird. They do this repeatedly until the young bird finally tries to steal the food from the parent birds. The parent birds make it easy for the young bird to steal the food but will not share it despite the young bird begging and demanding some of the food, the bird must put forth the effort to rake the food in order to get any of it. I use a variation of this to teach my birds to try new foods. Granted my birds are older and have already passed this part of their life cycle, so it does not work as quickly as it would have if done at the right stage of the parrots development but it still works far better for us than any other way that I have tried.

Parrots in the wild don't usually have toys to play with and I have never seen anything related to it from wild parrot studies. Still all is not lost as parrots tend to want whatever you have that you play with or use for any period of time and then tend to claim that it is theirs. They like to think that everything that you have is theirs and you can capitalize on this by playing with whatever thing that you want them to play with. If it is a foraging toy then you need to play with it to show them how to use it. You may have to play with it and place it across the room from them but where they can easily see it, except for while you play with it in front of them, until they get past any fear of the strange new thing, but they simply need you to fill in as the parent and teach them.

Breeder birds are not socialized like companion birds are and since they usually have very little positive contact with humans they can be very difficult to convince that you are their friend and to earn their trust, but getting them to trust you is the most important thing that you can do for the bird, because for all practical purposes without their trust in you, you really have nothing, trust is everything with a parrot. If you can win this birds trust then it would be well worth the effort in accepting this bird, but I would not count on it being easy.

I do not know how much you know about parrots or how much experience that you do or do not have with them. I worded everything as if you have limited experience and knowledge so that I could be sure of making it all easy to understand and as complete as I could and should not be thought of as my thinking that you have no experience at all, it is worded the way that it is simply for clarity.

[Pajarita]

If she was in a breeding environment for 7 years, I seriously doubt she will ever talk but who knows? They are very intelligent animals and they do feel the need and desire to communicate so there is always a chance.

Now, her diet will take time and effort but you can improve it - no doubt about that! I don't feed pellets because I don't think they are the healthiest dietary option for them, I feed gloop and have successfully transitioned -literally- hundreds of birds to it without a problem (not to my credit, mind you, it's that birds like gloop) so that's a possibility for you to consider.

Now, I am not trying to dissuade you from buying her, quite the contrary, I think it would be great if you did! but you need to take into consideration that the behavior you see in the store is not what you are going to get after what we call the 'honeymoon period is over. She is now scared and confused so she is now on her best behavior but this will change as she feels more comfortable in your house. Personally, I would take her straight from the store to an avian vet for a complete check up because a breeding bird that did not produce in 7 years and is so tame that she can be handled raises a red flag in my mind... I could be wrong (of course!) but, normally, breeding birds are not 'nice' to strange people (or even the ones they do know ).