DNA is in

[chasroth]

My new baby RF macaw is a boy. I am so excited. Here is a new picture. 6 weeks old. Now I gotta think names.

 

[aliray]

Handsome little fellow, congrats

 

[JerseyWendy]

AAAWW!!! What a cutie pie!! Congratulations!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

How exciting!

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Oh i love him!!! SO stinking cute.

 

[noblemacaw]

AWWWWWWWWWW...such a tiny BABY! I wanted to name mine Santiago but Lupe didn't like that name. She wanted to name him Mateo but her blue budgie is named that so I was confused why she would want to use a name a pet already had. She also wanted to name him Jorge or George but she wants to name every male pet that. LOL

I vote for Santiago and call him Santi for short. Valentino and your baby could be brothers. LOL

Wait for the stage when suddenly the baby gains weight. It took me about two months to get him from 405 grams to 435 then in for three weeks he turned into a eating machine and went up to 474 grams. I think he might still grow more too. He is almost too big to hold in my palm.

If he were to squirm he would easily wiggle out of my grasp. My hand is now too small to have a good grip on him in this position. LOL

 

[DallyTsuka]

oh wow the baby macaw is just adorable!! congrats on the little boy

 

[chasroth]

Awww Noble I love Valentino. I cant wait to bring my baby home. Thanks for the name suggestion. I like Ramsay I think that what I might name him. Thanks Everyone he is one cute baby.

 

[noblemacaw]

I LOVE your name choice. Now I will be thinking of your baby as Ramsay. Tell the breeder that is what you are going to call him. The breeder will start calling your baby by your chosen name and he will learn it. Because Wendy started calling my baby Valentino while he was still with her it ended up being my connection of familiarity with him. At the airport when I picked him up I saw them bring in the carrier with him and I said "Valentino?" and he called out to me. During the ride home I sat next his carrier in the back seat and sung to him all the way home using his name in the song. After I got home and took him out of his carrier for the first time he stepped up onto my hand calm as can be because I kept using his name that he already knew.

This picture was taken moments after I took him out of the carrier for the first time. He had never met me before this day. Look his head feathers fluffed as I was petting him. I was also crying because I was so happy.

I can't upload the video Lupe took of this moment because I am embarrassed by my crying. I wonder what Valentino was thinking.

I also can't wait to hear about your RFM baby after he comes home to you. I also look forward to pictures of your journey with him.

 

[chasroth]

Thanks Noble I told the breeder what I decided the name will be. He said baby Ramsey is very active and vocal. I said are they normally vocal at that age. lol. Maybe he will talk early. He is up to 426 grams and is 6.5 weeks old. He will be a nice size red front. Here is a new picture of him. I cant wait to kiss that little face.

 

[noblemacaw]

I want to kiss your Ramsey so bad too. LOL. What a cute little fuzzy butt..Okay not so little I guess. Valentino arrived to me at 402 grams. Granted Wendy sent him to me a week earlier than she had planed but because I have experience with fully weaned parrots regression and can hand feed she agreed to send him to me. I was also worried about it getting to cold for him to be shipped since it was already early December. Be as it may the day he arrived we were having a very bad snow storm. Took us over an hour to get to the airport and even longer to get home.

This is the day Valentino arrived home. That night I weighed him and he came in at 402 grams. This is Lupe in the picture not me but it is a full body shot of the little freak.

Last night I weighed him before his before bed nite time comfort feeding hand feeding by syringe. (I have switched him over to pulverized adult pellets instead of using hand rearing formula because he was WAY past needing the baby formula) Valentino weighed in at 474 grams. I admit the sudden three week weight gain of over 30 grams concerned me a lot.

Not sure if this is a good size reference for you but this was taken last week

I was wondering how old and how big Ramsey's parents are? Valentino's father Sundar is 20 years old and his mother Mylar is 9 years old. I have asked for their weights but I don't think they weighed because they live outside in a huge flight and are not taken inside.

Here are Valentino's brothers from the season before his hatching. The parents raised them for 8 months which I find interesting because of how long the babies stayed with the parents. Makes me wonder how long they stay with babies in the wild.
Here is a picture of Sid and Silas

I would LOVE to know more about your Ramsey and his parents. His weight at this stage astounds me! HUGE PARROT! LOL

Valentino started talking clearly about 3 weeks to a month ago. It was very sudden too. First all I head was jibberish but suddenly he started speaking clearly at about 7 months. I have read during my research that RFM babies are very loud with squawking and screaming when babies but mellow out with age. I admit I was concerned that Valentino would be too loud to live in a town home. Even though I have a end unit I can hear him screaming from the bottom of my driveway and his cage is in the opposite part of the house. Now I KNOW my attached neighbor will be able to hear him. They just moved in over the Easter weekend so I wonder if they will say anything after the weather warms up and I have my windows open. I did ask the breeder about my concerns with baby RFM's loudness but when she told me a client had two of them in an apartment I didn't worry anymore. Yes, Valentino can get loud calling out to me but it is not consistent and he is mostly quiet during his independent play/cage time while I am working in my office. I guess I don't help matters when I egg him on either by getting him all worked up. LOL

 

[chasroth]

I emailed the breeder to see how big Ramsay's parents are. Valentino is adorable. My green wing needs to gain weight. I am trying not sure what to feed him that will help. How old was Valentino when you brought him home?

 

[noblemacaw]

Valentino was hatched on August 12th and he flew home to us on December 9th so he was just a few days shy of 4 months old. Valentino came to me weaned but I was not happy with how much he was eating on his own so I began to hand feed him 3 times a day the baby hand rearing formula Wendy uses. She sent me some in one of those gallon zip lock bags she shrink wrapped then duck taped to the carrier. LOL.

Four days later I took him to the vet and he weighed in at 405 grams so in four days with a parrot that was still adjusting to us and his surroundings (He had a hard time adjusting to his cage and would roost on the grate so he slept in his carrier on top of my high boy in my bedroom for the first 4 nights until he started roosting up on a perch) he gained 3 grams. I hand fed him three times a day about 30 cc's or more each feeding until he started to refuse them. He started refusing the morning one at about a week in because especially after he adjusted to his cage he ate his fresh mix so well and was eating his pellets. The dinner hand feeding took a little bit longer for him to begin to refuse. That went about another two weeks. It took about 3 weeks for me to feel good enough for how much he was eating on his own verses to his refusing the hand feedings during the day. He still takes his before bed night feeding though and after I feed him his night feeding the other night he weighed in at 505 grams!

I am wondering about the huge range in "normal" RFM weights of between 450 to 650 grams. That is a wide range to me and I wonder if there are sub-species within the RFM for size? Ummm??? food for thought???

I forgot to ask. Are you keeping Ramsey flighted. I asked Wendy not to clip Valentino because I wanted him to be able to fly and I set up my home for him to fly all over in it. There is nothing like watching a RFM fly because I have never seen another parrot with the skills these RFM have in flying. As a baby he was able to hover, make quick turns in flight, fly sideways, backwards, just wow. I had to teach him to fly down to me. That was the only flying skill he didn't really know was how to fly down to me from the second floor of my home to the first floor.