zackothecatalina
New member
- Jan 2, 2020
- 6
- 0
Hi there!
I am glad to find parrotforums.com, and this is my first post.
I am the new daddy to 7 months old Zacko. Zacko is a Catalina Macaw who has come to our home somewhere around a month ago. I am reaching out as I am seeking some advice.
I am still hand-feeding Zacko (Harrison’s Juvenile hand-feeding formula), and he doesn’t have any fear of unknown objects or human hands. He allows me to handle him, step up, fly on cue (and even without cue), and pet him too.
At first, I used to pet Zacko a lot for the first week as he seemed to enjoy it, but then I read that it could be inappropriately stimulating, and so I have gone cold turkey on it, with occasional and brief head scratches. Since the last 15 days, I see some “symptoms” which I have listed below:
1) He is continuously staying in a fluffed state (head feathers raised), and becomes unfluffed only when flying or playing with some toy.
2) He keeps bobbing his head up and down, slowly, while continuously making a specific, soft sound. His wings are also dropped.
3) He jumps in his cage at the site of me, and starts screaming. I avoid paying any attention to the screaming in order to not encourage it.
5) None of the toys seem to excite him. We have tried rattling toys, toys with bells, shreddable toys, wooden blocks, foot toys, etc. He plays with them briefly (like for 10 seconds), and then flies back to me.
6) During the occasional head scratching that I give him, he seems to frequently twitch his wings outwards and back inwards, quickly.
In the beginning 1-2 weeks, he did not stay fluffed and did not droop his wings like he does now since I started with petting. He is beginning to try new foods, and is extremely sweet and gentle with everyone in the house.
I just wanted to reach out and see if you had any advice. Am I doing something wrong? Is this normal behavior? Maybe all of this is absolutely normal and I am just overthinking. I didn’t want to take any chances.
Head bobbing video 1: [ame="https://youtu.be/qf_bqzRz6ss"]Zacko head bobbing 1 - YouTube[/ame]
Head bobbing video 2: [ame="https://youtu.be/jK0hncboe8k"]Zacko head bobbing 2 - YouTube[/ame]
I am glad to find parrotforums.com, and this is my first post.
I am the new daddy to 7 months old Zacko. Zacko is a Catalina Macaw who has come to our home somewhere around a month ago. I am reaching out as I am seeking some advice.
I am still hand-feeding Zacko (Harrison’s Juvenile hand-feeding formula), and he doesn’t have any fear of unknown objects or human hands. He allows me to handle him, step up, fly on cue (and even without cue), and pet him too.
At first, I used to pet Zacko a lot for the first week as he seemed to enjoy it, but then I read that it could be inappropriately stimulating, and so I have gone cold turkey on it, with occasional and brief head scratches. Since the last 15 days, I see some “symptoms” which I have listed below:
1) He is continuously staying in a fluffed state (head feathers raised), and becomes unfluffed only when flying or playing with some toy.
2) He keeps bobbing his head up and down, slowly, while continuously making a specific, soft sound. His wings are also dropped.
3) He jumps in his cage at the site of me, and starts screaming. I avoid paying any attention to the screaming in order to not encourage it.
5) None of the toys seem to excite him. We have tried rattling toys, toys with bells, shreddable toys, wooden blocks, foot toys, etc. He plays with them briefly (like for 10 seconds), and then flies back to me.
6) During the occasional head scratching that I give him, he seems to frequently twitch his wings outwards and back inwards, quickly.
In the beginning 1-2 weeks, he did not stay fluffed and did not droop his wings like he does now since I started with petting. He is beginning to try new foods, and is extremely sweet and gentle with everyone in the house.
I just wanted to reach out and see if you had any advice. Am I doing something wrong? Is this normal behavior? Maybe all of this is absolutely normal and I am just overthinking. I didn’t want to take any chances.
Head bobbing video 1: [ame="https://youtu.be/qf_bqzRz6ss"]Zacko head bobbing 1 - YouTube[/ame]
Head bobbing video 2: [ame="https://youtu.be/jK0hncboe8k"]Zacko head bobbing 2 - YouTube[/ame]