Safira
New member
Disclaimer: My experiance is with older Macaws, this is my first baby bird. ALSO THIS IS LONG
Background: I have had Safira since October11. She was hatched in June 11, I got her from a breeder. Safira has a clean bill of health from the vet.
Question(s)/Concern(s): Safira to me, seems very slow in developing maturity. I know that she is still very young, but I have a few concerns. The first is her constant begging motions, like she wants to be hand-fed all the time. She eats her pellets, has begun to eat more of her fruits and vegetables so I kow she's not starving. I had hoped that the behavior would cease after a few months, but it hasn't. Now I'm wondering if she was weaned too quickly, and if so how to fix it? Should I just continue to ignore it, or spoon feed her some warm oatmeal or water once a day? Is this normal baby behavior for Macaws under 1 year old?
Her begging behavior is the head rolling back, wings staying folded but quirking them upward, feathers fluffed and throaty coo/chirp noise she makes that's very soft.
Nightfrights. I've posted about this twice now, they haven't stopped. We've changed cages, rooms, tried covering/uncovering, put a light with a blue bulb to simulate moonlight, changed perchers. She almost always has at least one, sometimes multiple. She'll just give out a few short screams, then a THUD as she dive-bombs to the bottom of her cage. I'm nearly out of ideas, and its a rare night anyone in my house can get 8 hours of sleep without the inturruption.
This odd but cute.. thing she's doing. It seems whenever I am around that she (while making this little throaty chirp that's very soft, same as when she's begging) she'll grab the end of her last long tail feather (the nightly drops to the cage floor has broken the rest) and put her wing over her head like a hat. It's ADORABLE.. but she stays like that, making the soft cooing chirp noise.. for like 20 mintues or more. Sometimes she adds a head scratch with her foot (those I know about.) But the holding onto the end of the tail baffles me. I want to think it's a comfort thing, like a baby with a pacifier. Baby behavior?
Screaming Ha! it's not a problem. In fact besides the night-frights, she doesn't make any other noise besides the cooing/chirping, throaty noise she makes (the begging noise.) Though she -has- started to become a little louder if I'm having a conversation in another room. She'll give this dull half-hearted flock call. I know it won't last long and eventually she will find her voice but coupled with the things above make me wonder about her development. Eventually she will become the vocal bird i know she can be (Just hopefully not excessive
)
So.. I know that was lengthy so I went ahead and included pictures of the tail holding, wing over head thing. It's adorably cute, she's saluting you! But it's a constant, like thumb sucking..
Is this all baby behavior? (minus the night frights, those are baffling me.)
She let me take like 20 pictures of her doing this, right up in her face.
On another note, watching the CAG's eat their fruits and veggies has really got her into doing it. She doesn't play with her toys often. She knows what they are, she's destroyed a few before, but she picks at them occasionally. She likes the ones on her Java tree better (mostly cause she's out of her cage i think,lol)
Background: I have had Safira since October11. She was hatched in June 11, I got her from a breeder. Safira has a clean bill of health from the vet.
Question(s)/Concern(s): Safira to me, seems very slow in developing maturity. I know that she is still very young, but I have a few concerns. The first is her constant begging motions, like she wants to be hand-fed all the time. She eats her pellets, has begun to eat more of her fruits and vegetables so I kow she's not starving. I had hoped that the behavior would cease after a few months, but it hasn't. Now I'm wondering if she was weaned too quickly, and if so how to fix it? Should I just continue to ignore it, or spoon feed her some warm oatmeal or water once a day? Is this normal baby behavior for Macaws under 1 year old?
Her begging behavior is the head rolling back, wings staying folded but quirking them upward, feathers fluffed and throaty coo/chirp noise she makes that's very soft.
Nightfrights. I've posted about this twice now, they haven't stopped. We've changed cages, rooms, tried covering/uncovering, put a light with a blue bulb to simulate moonlight, changed perchers. She almost always has at least one, sometimes multiple. She'll just give out a few short screams, then a THUD as she dive-bombs to the bottom of her cage. I'm nearly out of ideas, and its a rare night anyone in my house can get 8 hours of sleep without the inturruption.
This odd but cute.. thing she's doing. It seems whenever I am around that she (while making this little throaty chirp that's very soft, same as when she's begging) she'll grab the end of her last long tail feather (the nightly drops to the cage floor has broken the rest) and put her wing over her head like a hat. It's ADORABLE.. but she stays like that, making the soft cooing chirp noise.. for like 20 mintues or more. Sometimes she adds a head scratch with her foot (those I know about.) But the holding onto the end of the tail baffles me. I want to think it's a comfort thing, like a baby with a pacifier. Baby behavior?
Screaming Ha! it's not a problem. In fact besides the night-frights, she doesn't make any other noise besides the cooing/chirping, throaty noise she makes (the begging noise.) Though she -has- started to become a little louder if I'm having a conversation in another room. She'll give this dull half-hearted flock call. I know it won't last long and eventually she will find her voice but coupled with the things above make me wonder about her development. Eventually she will become the vocal bird i know she can be (Just hopefully not excessive
)So.. I know that was lengthy so I went ahead and included pictures of the tail holding, wing over head thing. It's adorably cute, she's saluting you! But it's a constant, like thumb sucking..
Is this all baby behavior? (minus the night frights, those are baffling me.)
She let me take like 20 pictures of her doing this, right up in her face.
On another note, watching the CAG's eat their fruits and veggies has really got her into doing it. She doesn't play with her toys often. She knows what they are, she's destroyed a few before, but she picks at them occasionally. She likes the ones on her Java tree better (mostly cause she's out of her cage i think,lol)
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