Introducing Catalina Macaw into house

[ILSMARGAUX]

I have an 11 year old Citron Cockatoo. He is awesome. He does not like men at all. His prior owner abused him. I have had BooBoo for 3 years now. He is very social and very loved. I had a friend that has an 11 month old Catalina Macaw. He is giving Lovebird to me because he has his mother in law who is sick living with them. They can no longer have the Macaw. They bought Lovebird and hand fed and raised her.

My question is how to introduce Lovebird into the house.

[Ashling]

Congratulations! You are so lucky to get a macaw! You'll have to quarantine him at first, so he'd have to live at the other end of the house. BooBoo and Lovebird will probably scream at each other from both ends of the house until they meet each other though!
When they meet, make it first through the cage bars on opposite sides of a room. Make sure they both gets lots of praise and rewards, so that they think "new bird= a good thing!" When they seem comfortable with that, gradually move the cages closer. Soon the cages should be almost touching- but not enough that one bird could bite another through the bars in any way. If they get along fine after being next to each other in the cage, then they can be introduced outside the cage.
Make sure there are lots of other distractions and toys that they can occupy themselves with, so that it isn't a one-on-one interaction just yet. When the presence of the other bird is considered normal, or a good thing, you can let them slowly interact. Make sure they both are able to retreat if they feel threatened, cause if they can't retreat, they will do the next best thing: BITE! You may have to go back a step, if something negative happens, and this could take days, weeks, months etc. It's better to do it slow than fast, cause it only takes one chomp!
Make sure you give your Too the same amount of attention as usual, or he will likely become jealous. Good luck with them! :D

[kali]

aww my bird is named booboo too! <3

cepot he is a sun conure.

i am so jealous of your two birds, i wish someone would give me a macaw!!


<#

mel's advice is good, listen to it :) she is prett smart for 16!

anyway just wanted to say show JEALOUS i was :)

good luck!

[kellywess]

I would not recommend introducing an already established too (who is the alpha bird) to a macaw outside of the cage until they have lived under the same roof for quite some time if ever at all. I think alot of too owners would agree that this could have disastrous results. Just my opinion, I probably wouldnt even attempt it. In fact after the quarentine time is over I would keep them at oppositie ends of the room.