Needs a home

[Zoe's Mom]

I thought I would pass this along. I was browsing and thought maybe someone here may be interested.

Blue & Gold Macaw

[Nehocmom]

I have a 7 year old female blue and gold. Does anyone have any experience with bringing another female into the house?

[FoxersArtist]

In my opinion there might be a higher risk of having undesireable issues with introducing male and female birds as they may decide that you are a third wheel and then you have lost your long-time companion or jealousy issues over you may occur. My experience with most macaws is that if you give each one enough space to be who they are and pay attention to all of them equally, they are typically laid back enough to where there are no major issues that cannot be worked out with little adjustments. What I have noticed is that some macaws, namely those who seem quite impressionable (like my dear sweet Peggy Sue), tend to be more prone to picking up any bad habits that another bird might have: neurotic body language, feather distruction, screaming, language. Also, a niave bird may discover that they have not reached their full potential of macaw-dom, meaning that if another bird displays something really cool and macawish that the first bird had not previously discovered (like flinging an entire meal out of one's bowl just to hear it hit the floor) they will learn from each other. My Peggy Sue did not learn to scream like a real macaw until we bird sat a friend's (very obnoxious) macaw. Now she screams, chews through her toys, flings food everywhere, and even strikes out just to see if she'll get a reaction. These are not exactly negative behaviors per-say because they are natural behaviors that are expected. It just seems like some birds fail to see the bigger picture of who and what they can be until another bird comes along to show them!

I think if you have the time and space to give them enough room to feel comfortable, without forcing them to interact with one another, all will be well if you expect that there may or many not be some behavioral changes in both birds. If your current macaw seems more attached to the idea of being a bird and not so much a human's companion, I might worry a little more that the bird will suddenly want to be with this new bird. If 1 (or both) birds is very enthusiastic about his/her people, my experience is that there is rarely an issue. The bottom line is that birds will do what birds want to do.

I hope that some of that is at least mildly helpful. Having more than one macaw in the household can be lots of fun also, especially if they learn to have a conversation with eachother or learn that they can sing opera together. Above all I would encourage you that, if you should decide to adopt this macaw and the bird will be shipped, you go into it with an open mind so that if the macaw is not happy with you, you will be able to find a place where the bird can truly be happy. Then everyone is happy. :)
-Anna

Originally Posted by Nehocmom

I have a 7 year old female blue and gold. Does anyone have any experience with bringing another female into the house?

[Nehocmom]

Thanks for your comments. I was voted down at the dinner table. For some reason my family feels a U2, B&G and senegal are enough for now. I'll keep working on them.