The First Weekend With The Parrots

Brian is keeping a log of their behaviors and recording the parrots aggression on a scale of 1-10. Ten being the most aggressive.

PePe:


Pepe (the Military Macaw) is adapting well to his new home. He still has not reached his full vocalization. He toured his whole cage, which we setup exactly like his cage at Ken and Diane's, since he is blind. Pepe has been on a diet of :

• Harrison's Life Coarse
• Zupreem Avian Maintenance Natural Diet
• Zupreem Avian Maintenance Fruit Blend for Large Parrots/Macaws
• With varying additions of Almonds, Walnuts, Apples, Grapes, Broccoli, and Scrambled Eggs (his favorite)

Noah

Noah, the Blue and Gold Macaw, on the other hand, has many issues to work through. He is 11 years old and very aggressive. His aggression is partially due to being in prime mating season, as well as negative reinforcement training. He is extremely territorial over his food bowls. We are attempting to get him to stay on the other side of the cage using positive reinforcement, when the food bowls are replaced. We are following the methodology of Barbara Heidenreich (Good Bird Inc). He also screams for his food at dinner time as well as at dusk. Apparently the dusk scream is normal, it is for herding the flock. When they scream you are suppose to ignore it and keep doing what you are doing or stop dead in your tracks. It can be a bit much, Brian has started wearing ear plugs...I may have to do the same.

Starting with Parrots.

Well I hope this blog can be an exchange with many people about their pet birds. I intend to share my learning experiences with our Macaws. I should say from the start, I have never had a pet bird until now. I have always had the more tradtional dog and/or cats. My husband, Brian, on the other hand has had birds and even bred them for a time. I came into the picture shortly before he stopped breeding...birds that is :).

How we ended up with Macaws, Part I:

Brian had been talking about getting a bird for about a year or so, but with our work load we just didn't see how we could fit it in. Well this summer we are re-vamping our business and have some down-time. Brian started looking online for parrots. He came across a Mickaboo, a parrot rescue organization in the Bay Area. He read the story of this sweet 51 year old Military Macaw named PePe. I saw a picture of PePe and read his story, and felt we should at least help. Pepe is blind due to cataracts, but has a very good chance of recovering most of his sight with surgery.

We have pursued potentially adopting Pepe with Mickaboo. As part of the process with Mickaboo we must take a class, have an in-home visit, and visit and obtain approval from the foster parents. I think the worst part of the class was finding out I must part with my Grill/panini maker and my teflon pots and pans. I checked out the enameled cast iron the other day and the one upside is I'll have great arms well into my eighties...who knew?? Well I have more to write...we now have a Blue and Gold as well. More later...