Say hello to Sylvester

[JThw8]

My apologies to those who read the Macaw forum to which this is old news.

Say hi to Sylvester. He is a 4 year old Red Front Macaw that will be coming to live with me shortly. I had been thinking of a mini-macaw and looking into them, more to take my mind off my sennie than anything else. My reasearch showed Yellow Collared macaws to be a good choice for what I was looking for so just to further distract myself I set about looking for ones that needed a new home. As luck would have it there was one locally. The owner emailed me all the information and then told me he also had a Red Front macaw which I might prefer. I really didnt know but I looked them up and read alot here and indeed they did seem to be a great bird. I decided to go meet them both today and see if one of them was interested in owning me. The YC was badly plucked and not very sociable, he flew away when I approached and really wouldnt come near me. Then came the RF. He was the most amazingly calm and gentle bird I have ever met. He happily let me give him pats on the head and under his wings. Never a complaint, never any sign of fear. When I asked him to step up his foot was in the air before my hand could even get under him.

The owner is a breeder who bought out another aviary and the RF was an unpaired bird he got in the deal. He was selling off all the unpaired birds. He didnt really have a name but the owner was calling him jeffery just so as to have some means of ID. The bird didnt seem to recognize the name as his so I didnt feel bad in changing it. The name sylvester is a wierd little homage to my sennie george. Think to the old sylvester the cat cartoons and his big friend who always called him george "because I cant say Sylvester, george"

If all goes well he should be coming home next weekend. I still miss my sennie and hurt for him, but my home was empty without a fid of my own and my wifes greycie has been noticably lonely so after quarrantine she will hopefully have a new friend.

[kp_in_scott]

Sounds like Sylvester picked You, huh. That is so nice and he looks like a really nice bird too. Best of luck to you both.

[Tiki]

What a handsome little guy! Being chosen by a bird is the best feeling!

[willowbirdy218]

Congrats!! Sylvester is beautiful!

[ParrotletLover]

Congratulations! Sylvester is beautiful.

[JThw8]

And now for cage shopping LOL.
Anyone have some favorite places to look. Luckily I just sold my car tonight (project, not my daily driver) so I have a little money to do this right.

Bigger is better, doesnt have to be fancy, just spacious. My TAG lives in a 24x36x48 so you can see I like room for them to move.

I think someone suggested 36x36x48 as a minimum and I have been looking at 36x48x52s

The owner is sending him home with a cage but its not that big and a bit old so I want to replace it fairly soon but I have a little time if one needs to be shipped.

[Stizby]

In my book, the best deals on cages are on e-bay. I got 2 of my cages from e-bay and love them. Substantially less, even with shipping, than anything you will find in a pet shop.

[JThw8]

yeah, I did see alot of great deals there, Im just concerned with not being able to judge the quality of some of them. But I did find one ebay vendor who is actually local to me so I may check them out. Their ebay prices are better than their website prices unfortunately the cage I want is only on their website not listed on ebay. The really funny thing is Im pretty sure they are affiliated with a local parrot specialty store which sells the cages in the store and on another website for considerably more....just kind of funny how the pricing game goes :)

[JThw8]

Ok, so I think Ive got it narrowed down to 3, Id love to hear opinions from folks, especially anyone who may have these cages already. Sizes quoted are interior dimensions.
1)
W55xD42xH64 The largest and unfortunately most expensive (anyone seen this for less than $600?) Edit: oooh I just found it on ebay for $310 :) $80 shipping or I can pick up in MD...hmmm, might be a plan.

2)
W40xD36XH60

3)
W40xD32XH63 I like the little veranda door on this one, not sure why, its just cool.

[Doubleyolk]

Congrats to you and Sylvester. He is one handsome boy and glad to see you gave a second hand bird a chance. I'm not a fan of open dome top cages. I have heard of problems with them closing on the birds if the perch comes loose.JMO