Without further ado...

[ame=http://youtu.be/qgIHp839Ti0]Parrotforums.com Introduction! - YouTube[/ame]

Bonus fun:
[ame=http://youtu.be/qn4zxZqsHd8]"ROLL THAT BEAUTIFUL [PREEN] FOOTAGE!" - YouTube[/ame]

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Disclaimer: No birds (or humans) were harmed in the making of these motion pictures. Viewer discretion advised. PG13

Such a pretty bird . Welcome

Christinenc2000 said:

Such a pretty bird . Welcome

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Danke! :-D

I guess the second video took much longer to go through than the first... Oh well, at least we got our goofy heads together for an attempt. Was hard to coordinate during that video, normally goes alot smoother for me.

Oh my goodness WHAT a super precious Scarlet baby!! And look at that feeding response, HAHAHAH!

So his name is "Max?"

You both like super happy together.

JerseyWendy said:

Oh my goodness WHAT a super precious Scarlet baby!! And look at that feeding response, HAHAHAH!

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Yeah, I get that response at each one of the syringe feedings this guy wants per day. I thought they got 10-15% of their weight in CC's: not double or triple.

JerseyWendy said:

So his name is "Max?"

You both like super happy together.

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Yep! Max 'the Macaw', haha. I don't know about him, but *I* am happy. I'm researching and trying my best to be an effective communicator with him, though there really isn't alot there (yet?)... I have to see the body language for different things so I know what it is. I do my best to be consistent, without being predictable. As someone around here said, "every interaction is basically training - even if he doesn't 'get' the clicker".

So far to say, he doesn't beak or make much noise (aside from exactly what's in these videos). His volume is only loud at first light. He doesn't do much of anything really, even play with me. Just sits there (or on my hand) and stares. So, I'm just being patient. Every day is a new adventure!

Max is just beautiful. I love the colors in a Scarlet! Nice to see a video intro too!

Max is adorable! His feeding response is normal for a mac. I had to hold Rosies upper beak while handfeeding her.

Are you heating his food and taking the temp before giving it to him? I remember getting Rosies formula the right temperature and keeping it warm was the biggest pain with handfeeding.

Max is still a baby so just cuddling and being with him and building a bond is key for now. Before you know it he will be getting into all kinds of crazy mischief!!

Enjoy him, he seems like a super sweet guy!!!!

kendrafitz said:

Max is adorable! His feeding response is normal for a mac. I had to hold Rosies upper beak while handfeeding her.

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Yea, I have to hold his head sometimes. That's why I cut the video; today was more animated than usual. What a ham! Normally if the end of syringe gets in there, he doesn't move much (though will flap and 'coo').

kendrafitz said:

Are you heating his food and taking the temp before giving it to him? I remember getting Rosies formula the right temperature and keeping it warm was the biggest pain with handfeeding.

Max is still a baby so just cuddling and being with him and building a bond is key for now. Before you know it he will be getting into all kinds of crazy mischief!!

Enjoy him, he seems like a super sweet guy!!!!

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Yeah I take it to 103-107*F, which is easy to get to - but not to stay at. The bottom will stay warm while the top cools off, so I syringe from the bottom to keep residual heat (bottom warms the top). I also stir it frequently, though the whole 125g+ amount is usually gone in about 30 seconds. Pretty ravenous for not being a raven, lol!

Pic is one day's worth, give or take a syringe (mine are marked up to 20cc, but I fill with probably 30cc). And that's after subtracting the weight of the cup.

As for cuddling...I mean I can hold him all day. And he goes nuts if I leave the room. But that's about it. I've starting training him to be okay with being on his back. So far no overly negative reaction. He won't play. Like, at all. Peekaboo, nope. Chase-the-ball, nadda. Flapsies, GetTheHeckAwayHuman. *sigh*

Good thing is, he has yet to destroy the woodwork in his room. Though he camps out behind the door when I have to leave.

dr1124 said:

Max is still a baby so just cuddling and being with him and building a bond is key for now. Before you know it he will be getting into all kinds of crazy mischief!!

As for cuddling...I mean I can hold him all day. And he goes nuts if I leave the room. But that's about it. I've starting training him to be okay with being on his back. So far no overly negative reaction. He won't play. Like, at all. Peekaboo, nope. Chase-the-ball, nadda. Flapsies, GetTheHeckAwayHuman. *sigh*

Good thing is, he has yet to destroy the woodwork in his room. Though he camps out behind the door when I have to leave.

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He's still a little young for that stuff yet. He's not all there yet... but it won't be long before that baby blank stare will be replaced by that I'm up to something gleem in the eye... give it another month or so.

Now is the time to have fingers in and around the beak, and get him comfortable and trained up on bite pressure. Other than that, this is lap bird time...

Soon it will be hyper lap bird time... so enjoy it while you can.

I have fingers around his beak all the time. Not necessarily "in" just yet, but work in progress. He's not aggressive, I guess I'm just nervous about it. He got me on the arm and the ear, and I lived. But I don't work with those in my career...

Anyways, I guess I'll almost have to make him bite my fingers. He doesn't chew on them or anything. Clothing seems to be the only thing he cares to beak with. I clean his beak all the time with my fingers and there's no reaction. I'm nervous because I keep getting told Scarlets are the most negative species of the bigger birds. I didn't know that when I 'rescued' him, but it does prompt me to take a more cautious approach. One of the main reasons I really try to ensure I don't send the wrong signals.

I still twitch a little when he full-on screams in my face. I'm not used to the volume. I originally flinched a slight fraction when he would make quick motions (usually the wings), because my synapses are tuned for that from combat; It's involuntary.

I'm determined to get this right. I don't care if he bites me; even if he took off a finger, I've had worse. I have to stop the hyper-reactivity! Ughh, so frustrated and mad at myself.

Don't be hard on yourself, it is a big beak and can be unnerving.

Since he is such a baby I wouldn't worry too much about him trying to hurt you. When he pinched your ear and arm, was it because he was unsure or losing balance? He could have been grabbing you in a panic to try to regain his balance. From what I have seen and read, baby macs can be a little clumsy, just like human babies. So if they feel like they are going to fall, they grab the closest thing to them with their beak. Which could be your face if he is on your shoulder (one of the reasons why many people will not allow their parrots on their shoulder).

The way I think of Rosie's beak is like an extra hand. They use their beaks for everything, and babies love to explore everything with their beaks and tongues. This is probably the best time for you to get used to his beak since he is so young. I would think he would be more interested in exploring with his beak than playing lunge and scare the humans at this point. Birdman666 and lots of other more experienced members can give you lots of advice and I believe there are threads on bite pressure training. My hand is always in Rosie's mouth. For the most part it is like her security blanket and her personal toy. But she also will put pressure on my fingers when I am preening if I hit a sensitive spot. If she gets too rough when playing, I just hold her upper beak and tell her Gentle! That is what works best for us.

I don't think the screaming thing ever gets better (unless the screaming into your ear while on your shoulder causes hearing loss - which is what happened to me). My daughter still cries when Rosie goes into a full blown Mommy get back here! screaming tantrum....and we have had her with us over 2 years!!!

Again, don't beat yourself up. You will become more comfortable as time goes on and you develop a bond. When that happens, you won't even remember a time his beak made you nervous!!

kendrafitz said:

Don't be hard on yourself, it is a big beak and can be unnerving.

Since he is such a baby I wouldn't worry too much about him trying to hurt you. When he pinched your ear and arm, was it because he was unsure or losing balance? He could have been grabbing you in a panic to try to regain his balance.

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He bit me on the arm the first time I met him. It's still healing. That was more of a "I wonder if you're edible/how you taste" nip. He bites slow, taking like 2 seconds to close the beak....but when he does, it feels like he's trying to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop!

kendrafitz said:

From what I have seen and read, baby macs can be a little clumsy, just like human babies. So if they feel like they are going to fall, they grab the closest thing to them with their beak. Which could be your face if he is on your shoulder (one of the reasons why many people will not allow their parrots on their shoulder).

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He seems pretty stable, though not on the Java tree lol. The branches are smooth and bigger than his feet by a good margin. When he tries to go up the angled parts, he slides right back down. I think the same kinda thing as said above is what happened with my ear; it always seems like he's in slow motion when he does it (like when taking something from your hand).

kendrafitz said:

I would think he would be more interested in exploring with his beak than playing lunge and scare the humans at this point.

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Yeah, not looking forward to that...

kendrafitz said:

Birdman666 and lots of other more experienced members can give you lots of advice and I believe there are threads on bite pressure training. My hand is always in Rosie's mouth. For the most part it is like her security blanket and her personal toy. But she also will put pressure on my fingers when I am preening if I hit a sensitive spot. If she gets too rough when playing, I just hold her upper beak and tell her Gentle! That is what works best for us.

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I saw that, and read up on it. But even though I kiss on 'em and put my fingers around the beak - he doesn't seem interested in playing with them. He has yet to bite at my hand. It's usually the climbing the clothes or trying to get him to let go of my clothes that he gives me any kind of guff.

kendrafitz said:

I don't think the screaming thing ever gets better (unless the screaming into your ear while on your shoulder causes hearing loss - which is what happened to me). My daughter still cries when Rosie goes into a full blown Mommy get back here! screaming tantrum....and we have had her with us over 2 years!!!

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I can do like 0-60% of his maximum dB. Over that, and yeeeeeeeeah...

I could/should have had bad hearing by now, being surrounded by loud things my entire life. But I was always overly cautious and wore ear plugs or over-ear hearing protection. It's not just him that sets my ears ringing, I can't go to concerts and the firing range requires doubling up on PPE. But he is the only one that makes me flinch, mostly because of false sense of security.

He's all nice and quiet, acting calm and content. Usually for hours at a time. Then, out of nowhere, he will KA-SQUAWKKKKKK - and then look like he is surprised as well (expecting me to believe that didn't just come from his lil birdyface)! Munchkin...

Ahhh...ok. Macaws are slow biters, they grind down slowly. Which is good bc it gives you a chance to.stop it. When that happens, maybe try to get your thumb and index finger in his beak. If you put your index finger under his upper beak and thumb above the lower you can open his beak by opening your fingers up. Just do it as gently as possible. I have done that with Rosie, while telling her to be gentle. He probably has no idea how hard he is chomping.... If you just pull away from a bite like that you will have a nice cut or worse. As soon as it gets uncomfortable, just get his beak open gently. He has no idea at this point what is too hard. That's where the bite pressure training comes in. He needs you to teach him.

The rap on Scarlet's is that they tend to be the "beakiest" of the macaws. Where other macaws tend to put their tongues on everything, Scarlet's explore things with their beaks. They use their beaks to communicate more than other macaws do. Which tends to mean "pinchy."

They are very smart and they can be beaky and opinionated.

I don't mind that, should it prove true. I think it's individual personality dependent.

I'm trying to get him used to me. Since he's so....passive (for lack of better terms), it's hard to get a read on what he's thinking. Like "hrmm, do I like this 'showering'? Do I like this 'playing with beak'?"

His only complaint is being left alone. For all of 10 minutes after he's left alone, he cries. After that, he goes quiet. There's a mirror in his room, and he is always messing around with that. I have seen him beaking it, I can't tell if he thinks he reflection is real. He stands parallel to the mirror surface touchimg the mirror, and puts a wing straight up while trying to nudge at his reflection. It's weird.

I want to get some training accomplished while his mind is still developing so it becomes a good set-in memory/routine. But he seems to just sit and bob his head whenever I come spend time with him (since he won't play, I just carry him around on my hand and gently shake him so he flaps and gets exercise). Really wish he could fly...

They don't stay passive very long. That's a baby big mac thing. Now is the time to start gradually exposing him to new things, so that he is more inclined to accept them later on in life...

Because, trust me, once the "attitude" sets in...

The best thing you can do at this age is handle them a lot, and gradually expose them to new things, and new people.

Is taking them out to places okay? Since I live in a quiet community, which is currently 20° below freezing, I'd be taking him out to pet stores and the museum. I don't get much in the way of visitors up here.

How can you tell if your socialization is being successful? I hear the babies will allow unpleasant experiences to happen without much reaction, only to become more paranoid and whatnot as an adult.

He's transitioned to eating his goop out of one of his bowls; mainly because the syringe broke and he is exceptionally messy to feed by spoon. I don't think he'd like a shower every day. Speaking of, you can't air-dry them can you? I tried a hairdryer on low, but the sound seemed to spook him. I didn't burn him.