Possible New Bird

[Doyle'sMommy]

Hi everyone! Yesterday Evan came home and told me that one of his customers has a blue and gold macaw that is a couple years old. He got it for his daughter when she was in high school, but she is in college now. He/she is getting to be alot to take care of without her there so they asked if we wanted it. Nothing is definite yet at all, we have only had Doyle a little over a month.

Any advice for me? Are they generally nice birds? I think we lucked out with Doyle, because he is just so sweet and unafraid of everyone. Do you think he would ever get along with Doyle if he really hasn't been around other birds? Thanks!

ETA- I don't really know alot about these birds, but I am very willing to learn. I'm going to check out the library this weekend.

[FeatherLover]

I tried looking up golden macaw and everything that popped up was either blue and gold macaw or yellow-collared macaw.

[The Outlaw]

I don't know of any golden macaws either. Do you mean the Blue and Gold macaw?

Here's a shot of my two boys.

If you mean Blue and Golds (BG macaws) they are big, sassy and smart macaws that are my personal favorites of the big birds. My boys weigh about 1100 grams and are about 33" beak tip to tail tip.

They tend to work well in most family settings and are probably the most user friendly of the commonly kept larger macaws. However, this isn't really a bird for a novice. They can be bullies if not handled properly. I have 4: 2 males and 2 females in addition to my other two macaws: a greenwing and a Severe.

These guys are non stop excitement, very active, good talkers and have a great sense of humor. They require cages no less than 36" x40" by 6 ft. tall and should also have a large playstand. You will go through toys on a WEEKLY basis. I usually replace two toys per week per bird. I can sometimes recycle parts, but for the most part, I'm making toys weekly for them.

If you can handle a bird with a big personality, the capacity to really pack a wallop when they bite and the curiosity that often gets them into all kinds of mischief, then you couldn't do better than a BG. They are notorious for destroying wood trims, chair rungs and anything else they can get their beaks on, so remember to supervise them when out of cages. My house is a classic example of what can go wrong.

[Doyle'sMommy]

yep, I meant a Blue and Gold Macaw, sorry. Thanks for the info.

[Conure & Macaw Mom]

I've always wanted one. I play with everyone that I come across. If you do get him just be careful with him around Doyle. They do have big beaks & Dolye is a small baby. One bite from these guys could do alot of damage to a small baby. Keep us posted. Crystal

[Doyle'sMommy]

Originally Posted by Conure & Macaw Mom

I've always wanted one. I play with everyone that I come across. If you do get him just be careful with him around Doyle. They do have big beaks & Dolye is a small baby. One bite from these guys could do alot of damage to a small baby. Keep us posted. Crystal

Oh don't worry, I would be very careful when he's around Doyle. I am going to go to the library today or tomorrow and get some books and read up on him.

[Alyce Johnson]

IME You will need to primarly be careful of how *Doyle* treats the macaw.

I had a foster bird here for awhile, the now infamous "Charlie-saurus". He turned out to be a mitered conure (also aratinga genus). I also have 3 GCCs. Conures are incredibly spunky. One reason we are clipping wings today on the GCCs is that I had to *rescue* my youngest Amazon from my youngest GCC last night!
She had flown over to the amazons' playstand and was quite cheekily (& successfully!) bullying the zons!

Conures have zero fear and even less common sense when it comes to interacting with larger birds. Charlie ended up being probably a $1500 foster bird (I'm not joking) because he attacked Berta, my blind macaw! And he went after her again a couple more times later on, even though by that point in time he had already lost half his lower beak to the original attack!

Conures are just incredibly spunky, as I say. And in their own minds, they're giant macaws!
They seem to envision themselves as the avian equivalents of Godzilla!

So IME your problem is going to be protecting your conure from his own lack of wisdom.
The B&G probably wouldn't go after your conure. But it will defend it's turf, when (not if) the conure manages to figure out how to pay the B&G a "friendly" little "home visit"!

[Doyle'sMommy]

Oh wow, I didn't even think of Doyle being a bully. I was thinking today about Doyle getting jealous. He is very klingy and likes to be held and played with constantly- and is very determined (always flying off his perch to be with us, a big no-no!). Hmm...

[Alyce Johnson]

If he can fly well (and it's virtually impossible to clip many conures well enough to actually "ground" them) you might have to keep the poor macaw in another room - with one of those hanging bead screens or something in between. It also depends on the bird. Charlie was also very clingy! But my GCCs (who consider themselves a "flock") are far more independent, and while my little girls initially played "let's go tease the blind macaw" they did *learn*. After mama GCC Emerald got one toenail bitten off, that is.

So it somewhat depends on your bird, how stubborn versus adaptable he is.
But if you're going to get the macaw, you'll need to plan for separating them, just in case.
The conure could torment the macaw thru the cage bars, if the conure was loose and the macaw caged.
I've seen it done. So you're talking cages in separate rooms, potentially. And of course, separate times out of the cage, especially if the little one is a strong flier.

You could also try a more intense clipping method. PM me if you're interested. Some folks don't recommend it, but on my conures, it's almost a necessity to get an *effective* clip! Even the fairly extensive (but still "standard") clip I did today on my GCCs will only slow them down and make it possible to catch (and cage) them when they're sporting a major attitude.

[Doyle'sMommy]

Do you think if he had a teasing nature that he would tease my dogs? They are small dogs- 5 and 6 pounds each. He is nice towards them and doesn't seem afraid. I just don't think he would be a bully. The only thing he is really stubborn about is baths and flying off his perch (he only usually tries about 2-3 times before he realizes that he has to stay there until I can hold him again).