Macaw Adventures 2023

[Dartman]

Yep, he knows you are upset with him so he's being quiet and trying to fix things in his own way. Nerd bird was like that he rarely bit and there was always a reason but he'd get mortified that he'd hurt me most times. Lurch on the other hand it was a feature so he usually wasn't so upset with himself after a bite, more like push it this is what you get

 

[BrianB]

It's been a quiet 2 weeks. I had to make another trip to Florida to deal with my father's estate. That's the last of it and I can put it all behind me. The store has been crazy. We've had employees come and go, and these college kids with their inability to manage their time are starting to get on my nerves. If you've scheduled to get your wisdom teeth removed and you need 4 days off to recover, don't let us know the day before. This past Saturday was insane. We had 10 birds surrendered from 3 different families. In total, there were 7 macaws, a cockatoo, a grey, and a caique. One of them is a 30-year-old severe macaw who is the sweetest thing. She's blind in one eye and probably has a respiratory issue. All that we know is the original owner had her all of her life, but had become a drug addict and is now homeless. Who knows what the bird has been exposed to over the last few years but it wasn't good. One of the employees was holding her and when she got next to me so the bird could see me she practically threw herself at me and climbed up onto my shoulder. Once she got her balance she went to the back of my neck and pulled the collar of my shirt down and curled up against my neck. She just wants to feel safe and loved. Another employee took her home because it was obvious the environment at the store was overwhelming. She will keep her at home for a while and possibly take her permanently. Due to her age and physical condition that might be best for her.

Here is the old lady getting some love.

 

[April]

It's been a quiet 2 weeks. I had to make another trip to Florida to deal with my father's estate. That's the last of it and I can put it all behind me. The store has been crazy. We've had employees come and go, and these college kids with their inability to manage their time are starting to get on my nerves. If you've scheduled to get your wisdom teeth removed and you need 4 days off to recover, don't let us know the day before. This past Saturday was insane. We had 10 birds surrendered from 3 different families. In total, there were 7 macaws, a cockatoo, a grey, and a caique. One of them is a 30-year-old severe macaw who is the sweetest thing. She's blind in one eye and probably has a respiratory issue. All that we know is the original owner had her all of her life, but had become a drug addict and is now homeless. Who knows what the bird has been exposed to over the last few years but it wasn't good. One of the employees was holding her and when she got next to me so the bird could see me she practically threw herself at me and climbed up onto my shoulder. Once she got her balance she went to the back of my neck and pulled the collar of my shirt down and curled up against my neck. She just wants to feel safe and loved. Another employee took her home because it was obvious the environment at the store was overwhelming. She will keep her at home for a while and possibly take her permanently. Due to her age and physical condition that might be best for her.

Here is the old lady getting some love.

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Ooh my heart! She looks so sweet and definitely in need of a loving home to live out her golden years. So glad she's with yall now

 

[TikiMyn]

Hope the trip to Florida gave your some closure.
Wow, that is an insane number of rehomes the store took in in one day!! That must be crazy. Good luck managing all of them, I hope they find new homes swiftly. Great that the severe is being cared for by one of the employees at home it must be quite a shock for her. Man, if I lived in the states I would adopt her if the employee won’t. I have a weak spot for blind birds and mini macaws.

 

[Tyrion]

So sad 10 rehomes in one day ....

 

[BrianB]

So sad 10 rehomes in one day ....

It's a sad thing. Our primary business is retail, selling more bird food than anything else. We offer to take birds as surrenders to prevent them from ending on Craigslist. We also have customers that we've had a relationship with for 35 years and they know we will take the best care of their bird when the time comes for them to part ways.

I try not to be judgemental when someone surrenders a bird, but as I've said before, it's really hard sometimes. We ask for information about the bird, but we don't ask why. If they want to tell us, that's fine. Sometimes it's divorce or the breakdown of a relationship. Sometimes there is a death in the family and other family members aren't equipped to take care of a bird. Homelessness, drug addiction, hoarding, abandonment. We see it all. I always presume we're being told what people want us to know, but that isn't always the truth.

 

[howdymjm]

It's been a quiet 2 weeks. I had to make another trip to Florida to deal with my father's estate. That's the last of it and I can put it all behind me. The store has been crazy. We've had employees come and go, and these college kids with their inability to manage their time are starting to get on my nerves. If you've scheduled to get your wisdom teeth removed and you need 4 days off to recover, don't let us know the day before. This past Saturday was insane. We had 10 birds surrendered from 3 different families. In total, there were 7 macaws, a cockatoo, a grey, and a caique. One of them is a 30-year-old severe macaw who is the sweetest thing. She's blind in one eye and probably has a respiratory issue. All that we know is the original owner had her all of her life, but had become a drug addict and is now homeless. Who knows what the bird has been exposed to over the last few years but it wasn't good. One of the employees was holding her and when she got next to me so the bird could see me she practically threw herself at me and climbed up onto my shoulder. Once she got her balance she went to the back of my neck and pulled the collar of my shirt down and curled up against my neck. She just wants to feel safe and loved. Another employee took her home because it was obvious the environment at the store was overwhelming. She will keep her at home for a while and possibly take her permanently. Due to her age and physical condition that might be best for her.

Here is the old lady getting some love.

View attachment 429178

great work. try your best to find them a good home.

 

[BrianB]

I just had a really weird encounter with Chewy. I haven't been able to spend a lot of time with him the last 2 weeks because of life in general. I spend a few minutes talking to him in the morning and I see him when I get home, but it hasn't been much more than that. I can't take him to work because we don't have a free tree for him to be on during the day. This evening I took him into the office with me so I could catch up on some things. He climbs around on his stand and I talk to him while I'm working. When I was done he stepped up on me and started to get a little wound up. Not aggressive, but more in my face than usual. There was some of his growling and beak clicking, then he reached out and tried to tap my arm where he bit me 2 weeks ago. I told him no and he got really loud with me. I moved him back to the arm of my chair and he snapped at me. I said "Are you a bad bird?" and he had an immediate shift in his personality. He became still, put his wings to his side, and lowered his head. He wouldn't even look at me. It makes me wonder what his previous owner did to him to get that kind of reaction out of him. I don't believe he was abused in any way, but it had such an immediate effect on him that there must be some history there. I'm going to file that away as a safe word for him when he gets wound up and overly excited.

 

[SumitaSinh]

It's been a quiet 2 weeks. I had to make another trip to Florida to deal with my father's estate. That's the last of it and I can put it all behind me. The store has been crazy. We've had employees come and go, and these college kids with their inability to manage their time are starting to get on my nerves. If you've scheduled to get your wisdom teeth removed and you need 4 days off to recover, don't let us know the day before. This past Saturday was insane. We had 10 birds surrendered from 3 different families. In total, there were 7 macaws, a cockatoo, a grey, and a caique. One of them is a 30-year-old severe macaw who is the sweetest thing. She's blind in one eye and probably has a respiratory issue. All that we know is the original owner had her all of her life, but had become a drug addict and is now homeless. Who knows what the bird has been exposed to over the last few years but it wasn't good. One of the employees was holding her and when she got next to me so the bird could see me she practically threw herself at me and climbed up onto my shoulder. Once she got her balance she went to the back of my neck and pulled the collar of my shirt down and curled up against my neck. She just wants to feel safe and loved. Another employee took her home because it was obvious the environment at the store was overwhelming. She will keep her at home for a while and possibly take her permanently. Due to her age and physical condition that might be best for her.

Here is the old lady getting some love.

View attachment 429178

Awwwww just melts my heart!

 

[BrianB]

It's been a busy week and it starts all over again tomorrow. We had more surrenders to the store. Small birds this time. There were also a lot of babies that came in so things are a little crazy. It's exhausting. The old lady severe macaw is going to be adopted this coming week. One of the employees knows someone who is disabled and is looking for a bird to spend her remaining time with. Neither one of them get around very well and some cuddles would probably do them both some good. I think it's going to be a good fit.

I was cleaning Christopher's stand and cage today and she had a fit on me. She hates it when I touch her toys and she gets visibly angry about it. She postures at me and raises all of the feathers on her head. I rolled the stand away from her cage so she couldn't get to it while I cleaned it. She was so angry that she climbed down the side of her cage and tried to get down on the floor. She was determined to get me for touching her stuff. I told her she better calm herself down or she was going to find herself in the cage behind a closed door. I took all of her toys off and moved them around to different places on the stand while she spread her wings and snapped her beak at me. Such a rude girl. Here she is going back into her cage when I told her to check her attitude.

 

[BrianB]

Christopher is already having a bad day. She was angry about me cleaning and touching her toys. This morning she was absolutely furious with me. Yesterday I noticed she was chewing on the connector to her rope perch. She spends the night sleeping on a manzanita perch but uses the rope perch to come across the cage to the door. Between yesterday and this morning, she managed to break it and it was hanging from the back wall of the cage. Going around the back of the cage seemed to be too much work, so she sat on her perch and screamed for someone to get her out of the cage. I put her on the stand with her water and chop, then filled the dishes in her cage. The pellets motivated her to find a way back into her cage all by herself. Macaws can be such delicate flowers sometimes.

 

[BrianB]

One of my least favorite things to do. We buy 150 pounds of pellets at a time and repackage them into buckets. A few years ago we had an infestation of pantry moths and I had to throw away 75 pounds of pellets. Now we put the pellets into buckets that seal airtight and we don't have to worry about the moths getting in. I have several bins in the macaw room where I store food. One is usually for nuts, sometimes I'll keep the seed in one, or a treat mix. In another, I keep cockatiel food and then I have a big one for pellets. Yesterday morning when I went to feed the macaws the pellet bin was empty. I had just enough time to repackage 6 bags of food into buckets, feed the birds, and then run off to the bird store. I should have done it on the weekend when I wanted to. The green wings are close to breeding and their appetite increases by a crazy amount when that happens. They will start screaming when the food dish gets empty and some days it's not unusual for them to go through 3 cups of pellets, and chop.

 

[zoo mom]

That is a lot of food.

 

[BrianB]

Here are some pictures of our Bo. She's been with her momma for almost 2 months now and she's doing great.

 

[BrianB]

Christopher tried to kill me today. Not really, but she certainly had mischief on her mind. I was building a new cage for the African greys. They are moving into a triple stack dage so I can get rid of 3 individual cages and save some floor space. I'm putting this cage together in the living room so I put Chewie on his stand so he could see me and I could talk to him or scratch his head when I walked by. Christopher has free reign to move between her cage and stand so she climbed onto her stand and started posturing at me. I ignored her for the most part because she couldn't reach me. Chewie is on his stand watching every move I make. I start working on the middle part of the cage and all of a sudden Chewie screams and spreads his wings. Out of the corner of my eye, I see motion and something coming at me. I turned to the side just in time for Christopher to crash into the side of the cage. She landed on the floor where I made her step up. I put her right back in her cage and told her what a rude girl she it. Chewie is looking at me as if to say "See, I told you she was evil."

We've been invited to another summer school program for the middle of June. I will not be taking Christopher this year because I'm not up for another jealousy bite. I'm trying to teach Chewie to blow kisses on command. We're getting there, but he's more interested in me scratching his head. He's covered in pin feathers and just wants me to scratch him. We're still working on him being nice to Felix. I'll probably have more luck teaching him to blow kisses.

 

[April]

Christopher tried to kill me today. Not really, but she certainly had mischief on her mind. I was building a new cage for the African greys. They are moving into a triple stack dage so I can get rid of 3 individual cages and save some floor space. I'm putting this cage together in the living room so I put Chewie on his stand so he could see me and I could talk to him or scratch his head when I walked by. Christopher has free reign to move between her cage and stand so she climbed onto her stand and started posturing at me. I ignored her for the most part because she couldn't reach me. Chewie is on his stand watching every move I make. I start working on the middle part of the cage and all of a sudden Chewie screams and spreads his wings. Out of the corner of my eye, I see motion and something coming at me. I turned to the side just in time for Christopher to crash into the side of the cage. She landed on the floor where I made her step up. I put her right back in her cage and told her what a rude girl she it. Chewie is looking at me as if to say "See, I told you she was evil."

We've been invited to another summer school program for the middle of June. I will not be taking Christopher this year because I'm not up for another jealousy bite. I'm trying to teach Chewie to blow kisses on command. We're getting there, but he's more interested in me scratching his head. He's covered in pin feathers and just wants me to scratch him. We're still working on him being nice to Felix. I'll probably have more luck teaching him to blow kisses.

Yikes! She was sure determined to get at you. Naughty girl

 

[BrianB]

Yikes! She was sure determined to get at you. Naughty girl

She’s very rude to me. I can take her from her cage and she puts her head on my chest and lets me kiss the top of her head. When she’s on her stand she lunges at me when I walk by. If I get too close to her human she lunges at me. When she screams and I tell her to knock it off and go back in her cage she does what I want.

She might be a cockatoo in disguise.

 

[BrianB]

Boo Boo is finally gone. Two and a half months after I agreed to send him to another breeder who has a female he's been picked up and he's on his way. I'm sad that he's gone, but this is the best option for him. He needs to breed and help perpetuate the species. I just couldn't give that to him because females are so hard to find locally. Hopefully, I'll have an option on a future chick and I can have a baby from the monster bird. Getting him into the carrier was a chore. He's no longer handleable and when I tried to get him out of the cage he started screaming, and all of the others joined in, all 12 of them. I hope he has a good life.

 

[April]

Boo Boo is finally gone. Two and a half months after I agreed to send him to another breeder who has a female he's been picked up and he's on his way. I'm sad that he's gone, but this is the best option for him. He needs to breed and help perpetuate the species. I just couldn't give that to him because females are so hard to find locally. Hopefully, I'll have an option on a future chick and I can have a baby from the monster bird. Getting him into the carrier was a chore. He's no longer handleable and when I tried to get him out of the cage he started screaming, and all of the others joined in, all 12 of them. I hope he has a good life.


View attachment 430085

Best of luck handsome boy! Go make some gorgeous little dino chicks

 

[BrianB]

I'm sad. One of our baby red-fronted macaws, Mango, passed away. She went home earlier this year after a few delays getting her there. It was love at first sight when she finally arrived. Her mom had to travel and she was left in the care of family for a few days. Not long after she got home the bird became ill and the vet couldn't save her. Mom had given her strips of bamboo from her own yard to chew on, so the grandkids thought it would be a good idea to provide Mango with sticks from their own yard. They had the best of intentions, but they gave her oleander to chew on. We've never lost a baby after it left our care and we're devastated. I feel so sad for Mango's mom. She's just beside herself over it.