Buffon's Macaw

[Hankmacaw]

Yeah, I have an AE (Animal Environments) ring stand and neither of my birds really liked it. Hank hung from the side of his cage door and flapped. Jasper stands on the top of the cage door and flaps. I have the top of my my wrapped in vet wrap so she can hang on.

I think that boy is showing every sign of being a great bird.

 

[aooratrix]

I have the ss AE ring stand. Morgan and Harry slide down the sides and really enjoy it My other birds prefer their Java trees

 

[BrianB]

It's great he's flapping & using his wings. I love his slide dancing. He looks great. I don't think you'll need to transition him to a new cage. I would set the new cage up in front of him, telling him what you are doing & let him check it out. Let it set for a day & then move him into it. I'd put the swing in the middle top & the toys in the same places as you have them now with one or two close enough he can grab them from his swing, but not in the way of him swinging. You might consider wrapping the top half of the circle on the playgym with hemp or sisal rope, which will give your birds a bettter grip area. They may be less afraid of it then & use it a lot more.

I had a blue crown that was really cage aggressive, but very curious. I needed to move him into a bigger cage, so I put it next to his current one, opened his cage and let him climb out. Within a few minutes he was on the other cage and exploring it. While he did that, I started moving his stuff into it. I put everything in the same place as much as I could, and then while he was inside eating, I rolled his old cage away. He looked at me like he knew I had pulled one on him, but he wasn't really sure what I had done. I think something like this with Yuri will work. He's curious and once he's more trusting and confident it shouldn't be too difficult. I'll replace some of his things with new ones. The boing is nasty so it needs to go anyway, and they are not easy to clean. So a new boing in roughly the same place, along with a swing and then his perches and I think he'll be set. I'm in no hurry, and as I said before, I need space to free up before I can do any of this. I don't really want a big birdcage in the living room, but needs must I guess. One thing at a time. I think I'll wrap some rope around the stand to make it thicker and give him a better grip. Thanks for the idea.

 

[BrianB]

I picked up a few more Kong toys for the big guy. He loves/hates them. The blue ball in the video clip has since disappeared. It rolled somewhere and I haven't been able to find it yet. The big red one gets thrown around several times a day. I've also seen his expanded vocabulary. I was playing with him the other day and he got really fired up. He was chewing on a large cardboard ring and pulling it back and forth with me. All of a sudden he said "What's UP" and then "F*ck You". It was totally unexpected and all I could do was laugh about it. He ignores the small kong that's hanging on the chain. He doesn't play with it, but he will sit under it with it resting on his back.

Playing with Kong toys.

I see a lot of similarities between the Buffon's and Military Macaws in terms of personality. We have a young Military at the store that was surrendered. He's a handful and very hormonal at the moment. I took him off of his hanging tree onto my arm to show a customer, and he nipped me. I snapped at him "What's wrong with you. Who do you think you are biting me!". Then he spread his wings out and growled at me, so I growled back at him. The white on his face turned bright red and he tried to regurgitate on me. It's all bluffing and he knows I'm onto him now. Once the hormones pass, he will make someone a great pet. My boy is easily twice his size, but the personalities are very similar.

 

[BrianB]

This drama queen was frightened by the guy who cuts our grass. He came to the sliding glass door to ask me something and this boy started screaming. He immediately jumped onto my arm, but with him being excited I made him get back on top of the cage. I'm not taking the chance of him biting me on the face out of excitement. Now he's cuddled up against the size of his play stand. He even let me scratch his head for a while to comfort him.

Little does he know, he's going to get his nails trimmed this evening. Both he and the red-fronted macaw are getting groomed. I tried to put it off, but I might as well do it now before local restrictions get tighter. One of his nails has too much of a curve to it and he caught it on the top of his cage when he tried to step up this morning. He stumbled and scraped my arm with his beak. It's better to do it now than potentially wait another few weeks and have it get even worse.

The female red-fronted has not been handled but lets me scratch her head through the bars. It's going to be an adventure.

 

[aooratrix]

That picture really shows the size and shape of the beak vs. the military's beak.

Good luck with the grooming adventure. I hope you can keep all of your liquid in its original container.

I don't buy into species generalities, but there is usually a grain of truth. However, there seems to be some disagreement on Buffons. I've heard that they're supposedly gentle giants like Hys and GWs. However, I've also heard the assertion you made regarding militaries. Interesting. The ones I've met have not been interested in interacting with a stranger and made that clear to me. Boy, were they gorgeous, though.

 

[BrianB]

Grooming went off without any issues. There was a lot of the usual complaining but everyone got through it without any blood being spilled.

Yuri has been plucking at his legs a little so while we had him restrained we took a look at them. He pulls the down out but he’s got a lot of new feathers coming in. The groomer thinks he’s molting and hormonal so I’m just going to keep an eye on it for now.

I haven’t seen another Buffon’s in person before this one and there is so little information on them that it’s hard to say what is normal for them. We have a few hyacinths that come into the store and they are all different. Some are calm and collected and some of them are high energy and obnoxious. I think some generalities are accurate but like kids, each bird has their own personality.

 

[Begone]

I love that pic, so beautiful.
Happy it went well at the groomer.

 

[BrianB]

Poor dramatic bird. He’s starting to play with toys in his own more which is a good sign. He was playing with a large cardboard ring and managed to flip it up over his head. Poor boy screamed bloody murder before he managed to get it off. He’s going through a bit of a molt so he’s been a little more grumpy than usual. We don’t have a lot of physical interaction by his choice. He steps up morning and night but isn’t that interested it general touching. That will happen at his schedule.

 

[Matt0071]

Just try to get him on a table and pull his cage out of site and interact with him on the table
My b&g macaw once she is off her cage she is a totally different macaw lol
Shes on her cage she owns her cage haha

 

[Matt0071]

I have had daisy for now 2 months and everyday is a better reaction
I will now bring her out for rides in the truck ect ect
But what I will do especially in the morning is wheel her cage to the side of the table with my chair right beside and she will come down onto the table without bribing her with food anymore
I read her body language but it seems that when shes on her cage she will offer a foot to step up then she will put one foot on my hand but then come down and lunge haha
Shes definitely a macaw that her cage is her home and is stubborn at stepping up on her cage
Once off I can give her head scratches and have my finger around her beak without a issue
And stepping up when she is on the table is a breeze, always steps up when shes on the table
Shes definitely testing but she has got me a few good ones just a nice little pinch
But I can usually now pet her beak and stick my finger around her beak without her biting down hard if u know what I mean

 

[BrianB]

I'm pretty sure this boy was abused or mistreated in some way by his previous owner. He has a mistrust of humans so I'm taking physical interaction on his schedule. He does step up when I take him out of his cage in the morning. Putting him in at night can be a little more of a challenge. He's unsure of stepping up from above, so he hesitates and sometimes he stumbles. When I put him in and he's ready to sleep, he will go up onto his sleep perch and settle. If he's not ready he sits in front of his water dish and looks at me. If that's the case, I leave the cage door open and step away. He will climb out and go back to the top where he was before. I think he likes to watch the television with us until we go to bed, but some nights he's ready before we are.

I am able to get him away from his cage and onto the kitchen island a few times a week. I think the open space makes him nervous since he paces back and forth and follows me hoping I will pick him up. I've put some toys and treats down for him, but he ignores them. I've finally caught him playing with things without my prompting. This is from my previous post about the cardboard ring. He also throws the kong toys around and rolls one of the balls on the top of his cage. I'm glad he's settled enough to be able to entertain himself. He's been with us for about 10 weeks now. Not long enough I was sitting at my computer and I hear laughter coming from the family room. My other half was asleep on the sofa, so I know it was the bird doing it. I have no idea what set it off, but it's good to see him doing his own thing.

 

[Matt0071]

I don't understand why people would even remotely consider abusing a parrot or bird in general it makes me sick
There innocent and they try to please there owners
Even if they end up biting u, who cares, u shouldnt own a bird if u are not once expecting to get bit
I look into my b&g macaws eyes everyday and wonder how ppl can be abusive to them
Again all they want is attention and to please there owner
Then in return they will hit there bird or do something stupid
It floors me how ppl can treat any animal with abuse
I'm a big muscular guy myself any would never lay a hand on my pets what so ever
A human that wants to fight is a different ballgame tho hahaha

 

[Begone]

There innocent and they try to please there owners

Innocent?
Perhaps they look innocent when they have done something bad, but the words innocent and parrot should never be in the same sentence.

Again all they want is attention and to please there owner

Are you sure you have a parrot?
From that description I think you have a dog.

 

[BrianB]

I don't understand why people would even remotely consider abusing a parrot or bird in general it makes me sick
There innocent and they try to please there owners
Even if they end up biting u, who cares, u shouldnt own a bird if u are not once expecting to get bit
I look into my b&g macaws eyes everyday and wonder how ppl can be abusive to them
Again all they want is attention and to please there owner
Then in return they will hit there bird or do something stupid
It floors me how ppl can treat any animal with abuse
I'm a big muscular guy myself any would never lay a hand on my pets what so ever
A human that wants to fight is a different ballgame tho hahaha

I've seen people do stupid things with birds, and some of the surrenders we get in at the store have horror stories behind them. They are too loud, so they get stuffed in a closet and covered with a blanket. The only interaction they get is when they are fed, and that usually involves someone telling them to shut up at the same time.

We take them in, get them a good health check at the vet, and then do our best to find them the right home. Then they leave the store with what we think are the right people to give them the best life possible and that turns out not to be the case. Not long ago a young military macaw went home and within a day he was dead from teflon toxicity. I won't say anything more than that because the whole story makes me both angry and sick to my stomach.

I've been bitten several times from big macaws. It comes with ownership and from working with them. This past week a blue & gold got my wrist, and a scarlet got my forearm. The blue & gold had just been given medication. I was the closest person so I'm the one who was punished for it. She forgave me a few hours later. The scarlet belongs to a friend. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks and she offered him to me. Instead of stepping up like he normally does, he tried his hardest to take a chunk of flesh out of my arm. I've got some scratches and it's going to bruise. She dropped him to the floor to get him to let go, and then I picked him up without a problem. Once I did that, he was back to his old self. I did tell him that he was a jerk and that I was going to bite him the next time. It is what it is.

 

[Matt0071]

Telflon toxicity?

 

[BrianB]

Telflon toxicity?

Non-stick Teflon cookware is deadly to birds. Teflon is everywhere in places you wouldn’t even think of. Just a few things - non stick cookie sheets, hair dryers, irons, ironing board covers, drip pans for ovens, toaster ovens, non stick heavy gauge aluminum foil. If it overheats or burns it releases a toxic gas and microscopic particulates that are deadly to birds. In some cases death is quick, but it’s always ugly.

 

[macawpower58]

Teflon is a very real danger. My friend had her canaries and african grey all drop dead. The canaries fell first, followed by her grey.
She was devastated.
All from an overheated teflon pan.
They'd been cooking, and then closed the windows. That allowed the fumes to build too much for the birds.

 

[Matt0071]

I knew teflon was bad but didnt know it killed birds
Thanks for the input tho I'll keep that in the memory bank

 

[Matt0071]

Do u guys use non stick teflon pans??
I know it's hard to get away from teflon as it's pretty much in everything these days and I know I watched a documentary on teflon and it's pretty bad for u
And what caused this brian?? The pan overheated or something?