Macaw housing

[Squawk]

For a bigger bird, such as a Green wing or a B&G, what are the recommended dimensions of the space needed for the bird to be comfortable? I'm planning on designing/constructing a play area in my bedroom for the bird along an unused wall. How would you suggest I protect the walls from chipping/biting? I don't want the bird to eat paint. I was thinking of hanging a cheap cloth tapestry up and build the playground on a rolling platform, so I can move it where I want... The jungle gym would be made out of PVC with rope wrapped around the bars to provide grip. What would be the diameter of the PVC pipes for the bird's feet?
To anyone who can answer these questions, many thanks.

[Wolf]

To begin with I would not use PVC for perches or much of anything else. As a perch it has the same drawbacks as a wooden dowel in that it is a smooth circular surface and as such it always places pressure on the exact same spot on the birds feet and along with an inadequate diet can cause bumblefoot in your bird. In addition to this a macaw or B&G is strong enough to break PVC when they chew on it and this leads to dangerous sharp edges that can injure them externally or internally if they swallow any of it. Some of the larger species of parrots such as the large macaws can bite through chain link fencing.
As for the materials for containing them you don't want to use livestock fencing or construction type hardware cloth due to the possibility of heavy metal poisoning. That leaves you basically with two materials to choose from and these are aluminum and stainless steel. As far as size goes the minimum is twice their wingspan in any direction. From that point you need the largest that you can find a way to afford for them. They range over about a 50 square mile area in their natural habitat.

[Michael]

I think about your bed room would do

[Pajarita]

LOL - Michael is right, when it comes to macaws, the 'area' needs to be BIG so, most likely and unless we are talking about a HUGE bedroom, we are talking about most of the room (besides, it's never a good idea to put a bird in your bedroom, not healthy for them because you can't have high moisture and heat in it -too uncomfortable for humans). PVC is a no-no, it's cheap and convenient so people use it but it's not good for parrots, you need to use wood. And you can cover the walls with fiberglass panels, that's what I had in Pa (and what I am planning to use in the new birdrooms) and it prevented the cockatoos from chewing holes in them and toos are more destructive than macaws so you should be OK.

[Tman007]

A little insight on PVC perches the pvc is to smooth, they can't get a good grip on it. But if you go and get medical rap it will go around the pvc and give them something to hang on to. That's if you go with pvc. but it's better to have different size perches for their feet. It helps with the feet muscles.

[Elaihr]

In Sweden, a macaw (any bird above 76cm from beak to tail) must have a cage that's at least 180cm high, 360cm long, and the width/depth must equal the bird's length from beak to tail x2. Which means if you have a green wing macaw that's around 90cm long, the cage must be 180cm wide, at least. And there's a minimum requirement of 45cm width/depth regardless of bird size, so even if your bird is very tiny the cage shortest side must be at least 45cm.

In feet/inches I think this means the cage must be around 6 feet high, 12 feet long and 6 feet wide/deep. Give or take (I used a converter and I'm not sure it's right, but I think it's close at least).

I have no idea what it's like in other countries but in Sweden this law pretty much makes it impossible to find a cage for a macaw (nobody sells cages that big), so you need to house your macaw in either a room or in a large, custom made aviary. Which is great really, when it comes to parrot health, size does matter (cage size)!

[Pajarita]

YAAAAAAYYYY SWEDEN!!! America can learn a thing or two from you!