Anyone own a macaw?

cazs

Hi
Have been keeping my little fishies for 3yrs now and thinking of getting a Macaw parrot. Does anyone have one themselves and can tell me their experiences? Pros cons tips etc. THANKS

pelirocco

Friends of ours have one , it destroys everything in site , they can be aggressive to people they dont know They are extremely noisy and like a lot of attention they also live a long timem.

Think long and heard before getting one

Mupette

Imagine a 3 year old, a naughty one that needs a lot of attention

Madbags

We have various sorts of birds/parrots ourselves. A Macaw isn't one of them sadly so I can't help on that aspect but buying birds is not for someone who makes quick decisions.


Firstly I wouldn't just go " I want to get a Macaw " and buy the first thing you see. We did that years ago with a Ringneck Parakeet and it was a huge mistake and we ended up selling him back to the store we got him from. It was sad but we had absolutely no enjoyment, it just wasn't tameable and believe me we tried very hard.


The birds we have now are lovely though and a few we bought hand reared and some of our budgies we hand tamed ourselves.


Nowadays I would always go for something hand reared, it will cost more but it will save you a lot of time. Also you want to try and establish the sex of the bird you are going to get if you can as it can determine who it will take a liking and disliking to. (Our amazon parrot for example won't let anyone but me rub it's head and it wont step up on demand for my partner etc. Our female Green Cheek Conure also tends to bite my partner's finger if she puts it in her cage to rub its head, but not mine and always comes over for a nice head scratch).


Another issue is of course as pelirocco says, the noise. Our birds go from quiet, to chirping, to talking to full blown squawking the house down at various times of the days and I know that Macaws can be very loud as much as any other parrot. Put it this way our amazon parrot has learned to say "Be Quiet" and "Noisy Bird". It tends to make the most noise when we leave the room as it loves our company.


You will also find if you get birds from a young age they will go through their hormonal development at some point and this can be very touch and go with their aggressiveness and noise. It does end eventually but you need a lot of patience.


In a nutshell - It's a huge step up from keeping fish. But if you ever need any advice, feel free to PM me. We are quite experienced bird keepers.

cazs

Madbags wrote: »

We have various sorts of birds/parrots ourselves. A Macaw isn't one of them sadly so I can't help on that aspect but buying birds is not for someone who makes quick decisions.


Firstly I wouldn't just go " I want to get a Macaw " and buy the first thing you see. We did that years ago with a Ringneck Parakeet and it was a huge mistake and we ended up selling him back to the store we got him from. It was sad but we had absolutely no enjoyment, it just wasn't tameable and believe me we tried very hard.


The birds we have now are lovely though and a few we bought hand reared and some of our budgies we hand tamed ourselves.


Nowadays I would always go for something hand reared, it will cost more but it will save you a lot of time. Also you want to try and establish the sex of the bird you are going to get if you can as it can determine who it will take a liking and disliking to. (Our amazon parrot for example won't let anyone but me rub it's head and it wont step up on demand for my partner etc. Our female Green Cheek Conure also tends to bite my partner's finger if she puts it in her cage to rub its head, but not mine and always comes over for a nice head scratch).


Another issue is of course as pelirocco says, the noise. Our birds go from quiet, to chirping, to talking to full blown squawking the house down at various times of the days and I know that Macaws can be very loud as much as any other parrot. Put it this way our amazon parrot has learned to say "Be Quiet" and "Noisy Bird". It tends to make the most noise when we leave the room as it loves our company.


You will also find if you get birds from a young age they will go through their hormonal development at some point and this can be very touch and go with their aggressiveness and noise. It does end eventually but you need a lot of patience.


In a nutshell - It's a huge step up from keeping fish. But if you ever need any advice, feel free to PM me. We are quite experienced bird keepers.

Thanks, that's kind of you.

cazs

Mupette wrote: »

Imagine a 3 year old, a naughty one that needs a lot of attention

Would you say you regret getting one if you don't mind me asking. Is he or she that difficult?

littlegreenparrot

I don't have a Macaw, I have a Green cheek conure, which is a lot smaller. He makes a lot of noise, mess, and demands a lot of attention. I love him dearly and have never regretted it.
Before him I had a couple of budgies. I learnt a lot when keeping them, and did loads of research before taking the plunge with the conure.

If you havn't kept birds before it seems to me a massive leap to go directly to that, so please think carefully.
You might find https://www.northernparrots.com helpful, they have a blog and a magazine. You will be able to get an idea of how much the cage/food/toys etc cost.

They are beautiful, I understand the attraction, but they are a massive commitment. Its also surprisingly difficult to find someone to take care of them when your going away.

Paradigm

My sister had a Blue one many years ago, a beautiful looking thing but that's as far as it went. It was the size of a Jack Russell, had a beak to rival garden shears, when it was in it's cage & being ignored it would throw anything it could (bits of fruit, nut shells etc) out onto the room floor... it made more mess than any 3 yo child.
If the throwing didn't get it any attention it would start screeching & that was LOUD, it was like having a Police car siren in the room.
When she let it out of it's cage it caused mayhem! From what I can remember it shredded 2 sets of curtains, ripped a hole in her sofa, chewed up a large corner of carpet & found her husbands wallet which had £60 plus the usual cards in it... the bird soon sorted those out into tiny little pieces. Did I mention that it learned to open cupboard doors? Yep & anything in said cupboard was a target!
Trying to get it back into it's cage was like something from a monster movie.
In the wild they are social animals living in flocks so IMO not suitable as pets unless you have a large aviary to house several of them, 1 on it's own is asking for trouble as they are very intelligent & without the company of others, quickly get bored leading to some or all of what I posted above.
I wouldn't have one given me!