Picking up our 1st B&G Macaw in 2 weeks

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the big parrot world(had a few budgies as a kid). We just put a deposit on a 3.5 month old B&G Macaw yesterday. We took the kids to an exotic pet show and fell in love with these 3 sweet babies that were out sitting on top of their cage meeting dozens of people. Ours should be fully weened in 2 weeks and we will pick him up then.

Any special tips or suggestions of where we can get as much information as possible. I'm getting alot of great stuff from this site so far.

Thanks,
Paul

First Question.

What do you have in the way of cage set up?

A room that is the birds? Or a large cage in view of everyone in the house?

What noise levels are you comfortable with?

Are you prepared for the destruction your new baby is likely to encure?

Large parrots are not like most pets you have had, though they can be rewarding and wonderful pets...

They require a large amount of time, at least 6-7 hours a day of out of the cage time and personal interaction. They do not like being left alone, and you have to train a bird to entertain itself.


Its a big step up from budgies I fear, but congratz on your new baby :3

Thanks for the info, we bought a 40x40 cage with a nice canopy and play area on top. He will be in the main kitchen/family room part of the house where we spend 90% of our day. We have two 6 year olds and two 8 year olds so we already have a noisy home.

I dont think 4 months old would be fully weaned? My guy was 7 months when he was fully weaned! Usually breeders keep them until 6 months!

Big cage, lots of toys! Try different types to see which one he likes.. and LOTS of foraging opportunities

Give him lots of love and you will get lots in return!

Bonding can take weeks or months!

I suggest lots of training! Tricks/flight.. It really helps with bonding and keeps their brain thinking!

Yes those three B&G are sooooo sweet!!!!! I played with them for a bit when I was there Saturday. And I'm with Tab there, he may or may not be fully weaned and he still may regress to being hand fed again. Make sure no teflon pots and pans! And read read read!!!!!

Mickey, I saw you lived local and figured you might have been there over the weekend. Melinda, the Breeder said she likes to play it safe and wants to make sure the bird is fully weaned. We told her we are in no rush and would rather wait to make sure. How would we know for sure?

Also I have been reading quite alot and keep seeing warnings about Teflon and Non Stick Pans. What does that mean? Keep the bird away from the pan?? Don't feed them anything made in the pan? Or would cooking with the pan cause some type of fumes??

Thanks!

Hi there PaulD and welcome to the forum.

I brought my Niko (B & G) home at 4 months. His breeder kept him until he maintained his weight for an entire week AFTER being weaned. However, they don't all wean at that age, some take a whole lot longer. I believe it depends on how they are raised and fed, and if there are other birds they learn from. A single baby mac probably takes longer to wean than several baby macs all raised together around older big macs.

Pauld said:

Mickey, I saw you lived local and figured you might have been there over the weekend. Melinda, the Breeder said she likes to play it safe and wants to make sure the bird is fully weaned. We told her we are in no rush and would rather wait to make sure. How would we know for sure?

Also I have been reading quite alot and keep seeing warnings about Teflon and Non Stick Pans. What does that mean? Keep the bird away from the pan?? Don't feed them anything made in the pan? Or would cooking with the pan cause some type of fumes??

Thanks!

Click to expand...

It means that NO Teflon (non stick cookware of any type) is allowed! Non-stick cookware gives off gasses that will kill birds. When it is heated above a certain temp. You should throw away all of your pans, I know it's hard! I was very sad about throwing away a brand new gorgeous set of pans and I still don't like cooking on my new pans but it is part of parrot ownership.
I also want to touch on a couple of other things. It was stated that you should have your bird out of cage 6-7 hours a day. I want to say that I think that is a bit of an overstatement and could possibly scare most people out of owning a parrot. Yes, you need plenty of out of cage time, but that would be a hard schedule to keep. I want to say that when brining home a baby it is vital that you do not spend more time cuddling, holding allowing it out of cage than you feel you can do in a year or two down the road. This is the quickest way to end up with a bird that does not know how to occupy it's self in the cage. Your baby should be supplied with plenty of toys (all different types, wood, plastic, metal etc.) I want to warn you that macaws can destroy a $20 and up toy in an hour. They are very expensive to keep in toys and this you need to prepare for. You need to expose your new baby to many different types of activities. I would start by harness training and allow your baby to go out and meet people. This is a good way to keep your bird emotionally stable. I would also say that TAB had good advice on trick training! She has been extremely successful on working with her bird! It's so exciting to bring home a new baby, we love pictures! Read, Read, Read!

know any wood workers they usually have tons of scrape pine to make toys from also if you use regular wooden dowels for perches expect them to go fast

Welcome and congratulations, I'm new to this myself but love my baby girl Rio BFA, already thinking about a possible 2nd one maybe after Xmas : )

Your questions have been answered! If your baby kept begging then you know he's not weaned. What is she feeding him other then formula right now. I don't know her well but on the same area since its an long line little bit further down is the breeder I know, James. Where is Melinda base out of? James is in Dickson.