Macaws eating and drinking ???

Just wondering if anyone else's Macaws do this?? We have had Tokie about 3 years now, and she has settled in nicely. She has a beautiful enclosure my husband built, out side on our back deck. (we live in Mexico so pleasant year round) We usually eat outside on the deck, and table is right next to her enclosure....she is a BEGGER!!! Worse then our dogs!!!! She has a good diet, of parrot kibble, fruit and veggies along with vit. but yet, when she see's the place mats going on the table, she runs over and literally begs for what EVER we are eating!!!! Her fav's are ribs, steak, pizza crust, the yellow of fried eggs, most anything we eat....she also LOVES ice put in her water, and the cooler water, including licking the ice....anyone else's like this???

parrot logic
you can give them a carrot and have your own carrot but they will want your carrot more. It's just a classic "i want what mom/dad has!"
I suggest not letting him eat what you're having though as it's human food not parrot food. Parrots don't need protein that much so ribs and steak are really not that great for them. Definitely not pizza. Eggs are okay in moderation but not always necessary.

She only likes the crust of the pizza, not the fillings....what ever we give her, she only gets very VERY small pieces....to make her happy.

I still strongly suggest not giving her any of it. it still has a long term affect. There has been a decrease in captive parrot lifespans due to being fed human food that isn't good for them. We are seeing parrots living shorter and shorter lives when they should be living longer lives.

Everything in moderation.

Don't eat the yellow snow!

TokiesMom said:

She only likes the crust of the pizza, not the fillings....what ever we give her, she only gets very VERY small pieces....to make her happy.

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Agreed..... we try to fit in Pizza night for a slice...Mine likes everything. Dont worry folks, this is a very active energetic bird.

Tokie, Rudy has developed certain likes and dislikes. While he gets a steady diet of alternating various nuts and apple. He also gets a small amount of egg each day. My bird is very active. So I wouldn't apply his diet to any bird cage bound. But hey! what do any of us know accept Parrots have personality! Great! and not so great..

FWIW. I believe in everything in moderation.

There are a lot of experts on here. I think what you are experiencing is the "flock" mentality of a parrot. It is wanting to do anything you do including eating. Separation is probably the only thing you can do if your birds behavior is annoying.

Even a movable type of screen might help at dinner time if you don't want to separate the locations. chances are it will smell the food anyhow. Have fun!

our YNA is a beggar. He starts his begging when we start fixing food in the kitchen.
Difficult to pass his cage with food without paying the toll.
what's worse is he is very smart about it. If we have 3 different foods on our plate he is not satisfied unless he gets a small bite of each food.
If you only give him one of the items he wont even go down to his bowl. he just sits there and gives us the evil eye.
if that fails he starts dancing the "look at me " dance.
If we still have not obliged him he will escalate to screaming.

I'll throw in my 2 cents and someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
From what we have read on the parrot approved diet list, cheese (dairy), garlic, and onions are not on the approved list. As far as I know, pizza contains all three of the above items.
I also remember reading that onions can be very toxic to a bird and I believe that was here on the food / nutrition area.
Basically, my point is, they would not be eating this in the wild, why give it to them.
Through proper training, you should be able to break her mostly of the bad food habit, but as mentioned above, if you have an apple and she has an apple, she will want the one that you have
Just be careful with food that has contacted your saliva as it contains gram negative bacteria and birds do not have a defense mechanism against it.

I was gonna say...what's wrong with pizza? My bird new what pizza was before he even saw his first pizza.

Onions yes are bad, but cheese and milk....I've read what people wrote before and...the bird... doesn't seem to care, I think it's an old wives tale. Clark goes nuts for milk and cheese, shows no discomfort and his stool is no different then drinking a lot of orange juice at once (as with milk).

I think it's a lot of crap. Now I'm speaking for a healthy conure....other breeds I know need different diets. But let me put it this way, a little cheese ain't gonna hurt none....

Theres also nothing wrong with meat, birds evolved from dinos and are "opportunistic" eaters. Just don't make it their main diet. but a few bites aren't going to hurt them and is good for them.

Only a small piece of pizza crust, none of the filling....(anything we give her is very small) We feed her an excellent diet, every morning, she is the most spoiled bird I have ever seen. she has a beautiful enclosure, about 8 feet by 8 feet, and her cage is inside, that we put her in at night, and cover her, she has a big playpen, and a swing, and lots of exercise, climbing all over her enclosure.

When we eat dinner my birds know and scream bloody murder till we feed them a tad bit what we’re having for dinner.

gawd.. the diet debate. every species is likely different. What i don't know is how many parrots have gizzards. I know that it is common for Macaws to eat clay. Ive read it has to do with their ability to eat items that may be toxic to others.

Toxicity.. what is that? Because I walk Rudy a lot outside. I know that he will eat things that probably will mortify many. concrete, dirt, rocks, basically foraging for anything he can stick in his mouth.

Yeah I'm sure a science based manufactured pellet would be best. but come on.. he is a bird he wants to fly!!

Do i want something bad to happen as a result of exposing him to so much? ah crappp.. sorry i digressed...

Parrots like to eat with their flock! I'm sure most people will say that their birds want what is on their plate. Whether you are comfortable sharing what you are eating (providing it is non-toxic) is up to you, although I think if it's in moderation, most things are fine once in a while. If you are worried about your bird needing to eat healthier foods when you are eating dinner, you can always have healthy "bites" hidden on your plate specifically for her so that when she wants to share, you can give her one of the healthy bites and she still feels likes she is sharing a meal with you. If you're okay sharing what you're eating with her, then just ensure it is a piece that hasn't had any contact with your saliva because that can carry harmful bacteria.

Are you asking if other's macaws beg for food? Or the ice specifically? Not sure so I'll share about ours...

I have a B&G, Max, who is somewhere between a child and puppy, but like most parrots, when his 'flock' eats, he also eats. If we sit down on the sofa with chips or any kind of snack, he will waddle his blue butt over and climb up and you see the head popping up looking around like, hey you're eating without me, what do you have?? I live with health issues which caused me to eliminate dairy and gluten from my diet, so my 'ice cream' has no dairy, so not the worst thing (tho he does not really get more than a taste), but if I sit down with the little pint containers (only size dairy / gluten 'ice cream' come in!), he will climb up and little pull the container in my hand towards him so he can poke around and see if I got ice cream with nuts which he will dig out. And when my husband eats Scoops chips, swear Max can hear from upstairs and he comes begging

My daughter has a recently adopted B&G, Titan, and we just found he likes ice. The weirdo will grab a piece of ice out of her water and chew / lick on the water cube.

So, you're feathered baby is pretty normal really!!

I actually used the flock instinct to get my little bare eye too girl to eat healthy foods. She arrived to our home never having even seen a veggie in her short barely 3 years of life... she would not eat them out of her bowl, but we quickly found she wanted to eat whatever we were eating. She would think she was 'stealing' food and go running across the table with whatever she grabbed, so I started making a pile of fresh foods on my plate and angled my plate so she could run up and 'steal' something from that pile. She would take off thinking she had the greatest treat in the world, and I just smiled that she was finally eating fresh veggies! After a while she realized no one was chasing her, so she would just sit at the table with us and eat with us.

But it's natural for parrots to want to eat when their family, so bring along something good for him too

We would love to see photos!!

Great example Jenphilly. I neglected to mention that my GWM also eats ice cubes.

I think mine is weird though not only will he eat ice cubes and snow. He occasionally drops these 1 oz alcohol samples into his water bowl and fills them, then drinks from them.

I wonder, where did he that from?

Calisto's favorite is Chinese. He loves chicken and broccoli. I always research the foods I let him eat. There lists that tell me what MaCaw should or shouldn't have so I go by those. So far he is a happy healthy bird. A little rotten but what can I say, he is my baby.

CalistosMom said:

I always research the foods I let him eat. There lists that tell me what MaCaw should or shouldn't have so I go by those.

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Rudy likes egg rolls. that cant be too healthy.. LOL haha I gotta quit eating them.

I worry about the info related to specific families of parrots. especially with where the info comes from. In this day and age with information technology, the monkey see, monkey do fits to a tee. Yes there is a lot of great information. There is also what I call, a very alarmist, naysayer attitude, with little or no facts to back up what we read as "the rule"

While writing the above, my first search "macaw gizzard" turned up this.

Bird tricks
and because other parts of the captive diet are soft and easily digestible, our parrots DO NOT require the addition of grit in their diet to break down their food.

Then..

All about Birds
All birds do have a gizzard, but those species that eat very easily digested foods such as soft-bodied insects, soft fruits, or nectar may have a very small and thin-walled gizzard.

To be more specific... my GWM & the B&G are well documented to flock to the Amazon River Banks to ingest a type of Kaolin Clay twice a day.

Okay.. So what does this mean to me and my bird? It means that I provide him mineral blocks, give him rocks. hell he has a favorite brick!! I am not afraid to allow him to eat wholesome foods. everything in moderation. Never gets a bowlful of anything, its always a mix..

I ate a heath bar today.. I really thought. oh come on... is this little piece of chocolate candy really going to hurt him in any shape or form? OKOKOK.. so i let the milk chocolate melt off in my mouth, broke a piece off and gave it to him.. uh ohh.. he started trying to tongue me! LOL was it the chocolate or the 4000 some odd viruses and bacteria already contained in our mouths.?.

/end rant

I just need to add another thought I came up with while i was wrapping Rudy's cage for beddybye...

Google.. There was a time 10 years I go I trusted top results. Not so much anymore.. by typing in "macaw gizzards" why are my top results basically repeated info from "heaven knows where....

I'm sure I could learn more about how algorithms work and get better results rather than Google who thinks they know what I want.. let me try something different.

Yes my 9 year old B&G eats everything and talks too himself with his head all the way in the food bowl he says mmmm.