I guess I'll do one of these. They are so fun to read!
Val is a female GW. She'll be 8 on Valentine's day. She is a multiple rehome bird. She is flighted and not caged. I'm a college student and she lives with me in my apartment or in my parents' house when I visit for Holidays/summer. I've had her for 6 months and she is my first bird.
The Good
~She is very hilarious and affectionate. She makes a lot of funny sounds and body gestures.
~Beyond the initial cost of cage toys, the bird, new baby vet check up.....she has not been expensive to keep. Sure things cost but there are ways to lower the costs dramatically. She's a very easy keeper.
~She's beautiful and when she molts, you have lots of beautiful things to make with her feathers. She also smells like fruit loops. She loves showering and she smells extra fruity after her being in the shower
~She is quiet and can be very independent if I plop her on a T stand/chair/table/tree/whatever while I clean, practice oboe etc. She'll play, talk, preen, or nap.
~She enjoys following me around the house and running up to greet me when I walk in, squweeing and talking all the way. She will rival any cockatoo in a snuggle/preening session. If I've been gone for the day or on a trip for the multiple days she'll be a Velcro bird when I get back.
~She loves to train and learns quickly. She's potty trained, knows tricks, flight training in progress, easy to clean/groom, grab and hold her on her back, socialized etc
~She is not scared of new things, places or people/animals. If she is, she gets over it very quickly especially if I interact with the scary thing or if I make a training situation out of it.
~She goes in the car and outside to the schools and stores almost daily and practically anyone can hold her regardless of their age or sex.
~I really don't care if a bird can talk but if that is a plus for you, she is a very good talker/speaks in context.
~She eats anything. She'll beg by talking and doing tricks if she's mooching from you. She's not picky and eats her food/isn't messy. She loves to forage.
The Bad
~She is territorial in the house. She is flighted but never flies or climbs down to attack people. She just sits there and postures or asks to step up to me. After awhile she just preens or ignores the new people or wants me to snuggle and play with her. The people are often happy and relax at this point too. This isn't really bad I guess BUT her size, being a macaw, intimidates a lot of people so they never give her a chance even once she is being calm on the couch with them or ignoring them etc. They don't want to do a training session with her so she can trust and become friendly with them while in the house/she changes the initial territorial behavior. That's the bad part.
~She's moderately destructive. I don't have to keep her caged or anything but every once in awhile she'll play in the laundry pile and a shirt or a towel will have a hole in it.
~Since I have adopted her, I have taught her to talk instead of scream for attention(I live in an apartment with her so that came in handy). She is very quiet and hasn't screamed in a very long time but as a rule about macaws, their volume is high. The pitch is lower though and their screams tend to be infrequent (morning and evening) compared to the little fids who seem to constantly chatter so it isn't really that annoying.
~Sometimes when she gets "in the mood" she's all over me/my feet wanting to hump or regurgitate. She rarely brings anything up though so that's good. I just walk away or grab her, flip her over/cue a trick etc. She gets out of her mood very easily. Some birds, especially males do not though and can get aggressive if they become too frustrated.
~You have to sweep and change poopy papers to keep her area tidy but beyond that, she is not a messy bird.
The Ugly
~Nothing really ugly. I guess the bruise she/a macaw or large bird can leave because of their large beak. She's never bit me or anyone outside though. She has bit my mom, dad, and brother once or twice. Although they were angry, they weren't really bad bites and they understood why they got bit.....they were teasing her, they made a training mistake with the body language, they tried to make her do something, you parronts know.
That's pretty much it. I know I tend to put a positive onto any negative, sorry, but I'm an easy going person and I often like to make everything good or find a solution for everything. Val has been one of my easiest pets to own and care for. A lot of her positive behavior came from her training. She didn't do a lot of these things when I first adopted her but if you put some love and time into them, your fid, macaw or not, can become very well behaved and a joy to live with.