Preparing your home for a new baby macaw

[The Outlaw]

Preparing your home for your new baby macaw

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When you get your baby macaw from your breeder, he will come trusting and friendly and just a little nervous. He will be used to humans and you will be his life line. Unlike other baby animals, he will be completely at the mercy of your decisions. Consequently, its best to try to think about properly managing his space.

Most of the big macaws will come to their new homes around 6 months old. Many may actually get there earlier, but usually within a few weeks of weaning, they are deemed ready to roll

Be sure to know how to handfeed. Your breeder should be very willing to show you how and provide you with the proper feeding equipment and formula . Many weaned babies regress shortly after being placed in their new surroundings.

Your baby will have learned to honk to get attention, especially when he's hungry. This can drive you insane if you don't understand that not every HONK means "I'm hungry". It often means, "I need some love". Try to meet their needs now, but don't let them train you to come running every single time they get lonely. This will only create BIGGER problems later.

Your first cage will not be your last one. That's because a cage too large offers too many opportunities for baby birds to get hurt. Many young BGs, for example, are often started in cages actually designed for Amazons and Ekkies.
Since cages aren't as cheap as shoes, you can actually alter the interior of a full sized macaw cage with a few ingenious touches. You can either raise your bottom grate or place carboard boxes, bottom side up, on the bottom and cover them with papers to catch droppings. Big baby birds routinely fall. They climb too high and miscalculate a whole lot of things. Hearing your baby crash into the bottom grate will terrify you, I promise. By having the cardboard boxes on the bottom, it creates a cushiony trampoline effect. They may bounce, but they won't bleed.

Say goodbye to that long and absolutely divine tail. Your breeder has carefully monitored a lot of things to insure that your baby is breathtakingly beautiful when you pick him up. In other words, he has restricted his play area. All baby macaws will totally destroy their tails for the better part of 2 years. They are athletic and simply don't really care and haven't yet learned to "drive" them. As they mature and decide to pick up a few "chicks" that will likely change. Plummage, like hair matters.

All babies are messy. You will need to shower often. Start with a very low perch in your shower area in the event of a fall. You may raise the bar as your baby learns the rules. Most birds like to shower and actually prefer water a bit on the cool side.Try to shower early in the day so that he can have ample time to really dry out. Feathers are what insulates him from cold and heat. Wet feathers aren't good insulators. Please, however, don't use a hairdryer. It can dry out feathers and many have Teflon inside. They will dry nicely all by themselves and he will learn to groom himself, too. This concludes lesson number one.

THE OUTLAW

[The Outlaw]

Baby Comes Home-Lesson 2

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Your cage is ready and you're excited. You've told friends and family about this little charmer and you just can't wait to show him off. That's great! If you've ever had a new human baby in your house, you soon learn that its important to keep things calm and very sanitary, and of course you wouldn't expose it to any germs if you could help it. If you've never had another bird or reptile, then you can simply place your new baby in its new cage and OOOhhh and Aaaahh for a few hours and of course take many, many pictures. This little guy will no doubt wonder what the hell has happened and why do the lights keep flashing, but hey, its all new.

That having been said, its exhausting to have to process so much information so quickly and learn to sit properly on a perch and not even fall off. And that brings up tip number 1: Don't cut baby bird nails too short. They are truly like little razor blades and they do hurt, but babies need to hold on. After all, this isn't the jungle and we don't have the kinds of trees with nubby bark to dig into in most cages. I love bottlebrush perches and cactus perches, but you'll probably still use the brand spanking new dowels that came with your cage. My youngest macaw was very clumsy. I literally took rough sand paper and scratched the surface of his perches so he could hold on tightly. His nails had been trimmed by the groomer and he was having a difficult time.

It simply takes some time to learn how to do things well. Kinda like riding your first bike. Now, since we're on the subject of driving, that brings up tip number 2: Learning to drive a long macaw tail is like trying to back up a tractor trailer. Its an art. Its learned and you probably have a few accidents before you get it right. Accidents usually involve broken feathers and tail feathers are the first ones to go. ITS NORMAL TO SEE BABY MACAWS WITH SHORT TAILS AND FRAYED TAILS. Its kind of like a badge of honor. Your first baby bird tail feathers will NOT be suitable for framing. And because this is INEVITABLE, we come to Tip number 3: make SURE you know how to properly pull a damaged blood feather. You should have an emergency first aid kit in easy reach before you even bring him home. I have actually listed the stuff you'll likely need to stock it in the Birdboard FAQ section. I suggest you print it and fill the order the next time you're out shopping. More on removing broken and damaged feathers to follow.

THE OUTLAW
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[The Outlaw]

Baby Bird: Lesson 3

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Your new baby is happily settling in and you've gotten into some kind of routine. Things go well and all is right with the world until disaster strikes. While trying to impress you with his ability to hang upside down like a bat and chanting "Hello, Step Up" he miscalculates and comes tumbling down, on his head and bounces around on the boxes (aren't you glad you paid attention).

Still, being unaccustomed to falling from such a position and not yet knowing how to say "I meant to do that" your baby has somehow managed to break one of those glorious tailfeathers. Of course it would be a blood feather and now you get to find out just how good you are in a pressure situation.

Remember the first aid kit I recommended? Of course you hang on my every word and have it fully stocked. If you still have a piece of feather hanging, please clip that off now with a clean pair of scissors where it is broken. You will then pack the end with cornstarch or flour and that may very well allow the blood to clot. If not, get out that fresh bar of Ivory soap and fill the end with soap. If you have parafin wax, do the same thing.

Rarely will this not stop the bleeding. However, you need to realize that Baby isn't simply gonna sit still and recover. OH NO! He will indeed expect to be cuddled and smooched on having survived the "horrendous injury"(LOL) but he also wants to perfect his dive for the "summer games". That having been said, this could easily repeat itself, and then you're right back to square one.

This is where your hemostats or needle nosed pliers come in. You may require an extra pair of hands if your baby isn't fully trusting. Be sure to first towel him, because he's not gonna like this one bit.

Using the hemostats or pliers, get as close to the base of his tailfeather as possible. Grab tightly and with one swift and firm movement pull it outin a straight line in the direction it grows. Don't be squeamish, its gonna bleed, but if you apply pressure to the wound and give it a few minutes, it will close on its own. Once the magic is complete, you are both out of danger and you will no doubt have lots of explaining to do, Lucy.

If you cannot be home when you try to plug the damaged feather, then you really should remove a bleeding feather stub. The chances of it being jarred and bleeding again are too high to allow it to remain. If, however, you're at home and can stay put for the rest of that day, often it will dry up on its own and a few months later, be removed by the baby bird.

CAUTION: It is generally not recommended for novices to remove wingfeathers. The bones in the wing are very delicate and you could actually break them. In the case of broken wing feathers, simply apply cornstarch and head for your vet.

THE OUTLAW

[Kayaker]

This is wonderful data.Will you be writing lesson #4 any time soon ?
Peace,
Ollie's Mom

[The Outlaw]

Sure. Perhaps later today.

[The Outlaw]

Lesson #4

Teaching your baby to step up.

A good breeder will usually teach a baby bird manners. However, many baby birds forget their manners and need to be re-educated in proper etiquette. The "step up" command is one that you have to constantly drill into their cute little heads. It could be the difference between life of death in an emergency.

You must remember this: birds aren't balanced perfectly. Some are quite top heavy, in fact. Consequently, many birds will happily step up, but not down. They are often too off balance.

The correct way to teach the step up is to place the side of your hand up against the chest of your bird, giving a slightly upward motion and saying "step up". He may or may not oblige you. If he does, praise him to high heaven and move away from the cage and even the sight of the cage. You will now have his individed attention since he's not consumed with his cage and the goodies therein.

If your little angel decides he doesn't WANT to comply, you may have to force the issue. Assuming you are right handed, you would be offering your left hand as a perch. Taking your right hand, go under the perch and tilt his tail upward gently. This will force him to step forward or do a very unceremonious nose dive. Most will opt for the hand. As soon as he complies, again, praise him while removing him quickly from his cage.

I suggest that you then do a series of stair steps, having him step from one hand to the other, each one raised a bit higher. This will reinforce the command. Never prolong the lesson and always end on a happy note. I always make sure to have a treat in the bird dish before I take my birds back to cages. This way, they happily go inside and get their treat without any drama.

[bgmacaw]

Now how about making it a sticky so it's easy to find. there are a lot of points that would benefit all parronts.

[Myst]

Great information - not only applies to Macaws but to any long tailed bird - like Alexandrine Ringnecks.

[Mylo's Mama]

Thank you (again) Outlaw for this wonderful information!!!

[Maui's Mom]

awesome reading. I am so thankful I found this thread and took the time to read it. thank you for the wonderful advice.