If you hand feed a baby blue and gold macaw will the macaw bond with you later on in life when it becomes an adult? Or, does the hand feeding process label you as the parent and when the macaw reaches adulthood, it will choose to bond with someone else? I have read a lot of conflicting information on the internet regarding this topic. Any information will be greatly appreciated!
Hand Feeding and Bonding
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WharfRat
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IMO, there is no way of determining this, but I also think it makes a difference. On our 2nd GW I let the wife do her handfeeding whenever possible since I was already bonded to the first GW (which happened very quickly at such a young age). It didn't help at all and she bonded with me. Since I stayed away from the Zon's as much as possible, that did work, they are both strongly bonded to the wife (%U^%&$&%#%^). There's just no way of knowing I think. Our first bird (Hahn's) was bonded to the wife for the first 2 years, she now prefers me over her..... So go figure
MikeyTN
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Handfeeding on your own does NOT mean the bird will bond to you!!!! I've said that countless times. Over the years of raising baby birds, about 50% or more of the babies leave me as soon as they are weaned. They would rather go to someone else other then me. VERY few that will stay with me and bond to me. There was a lady at the pet shop that came to say hi while I had Willie with me. She told me she handfed her Scarlet and he ended up bonding to her husband instead and she is not able to touch him at all. But sometimes they do bond with the person who handfed them. But sometimes when hormone hits, they will go to someone else instead. Cause they do see you as their parent who raised them and it is time for them to move on and find themselves a mate.
Thingamagigs
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Not to sound harsh, but if you don't know the answer to that, then you are not fit to handrear a baby bird, let alone a macaw 
Handrearing baby birds is a long and difficult process that generally should not be undertaken by a pet bird owner and should be left to the professionals. A macaw is a complex bird who requires an experienced handrearer.
Some species can take a year or more to handrear and wean. You need to know the signs of sour crop and infection, which can be subtle to the point even experienced bird people can miss them (birdtricks sun conures for example).
More often than not, if you handrear a baby bird it will see you as a parent regardless of who else is around and will not pair bond to you. If its a social species, it may still like hanging out with you. But the second another person comes into the house you are likely to have it bond to or otherwise prefer that other person. Doesn't matter if its now or ten years down the track.
There are no guarantees your bird will bond with you, full stop. Whether you handrear it yourself or treat it like a birdy god... it will bond with who ever it prefers no exceptions (just like I could not make you fall in love with me just because I feed you
). But a sure way to decrease the chance for it to bond with you is to handrear it yourself. Most animals have it deeply embedded in their instinct NOT to pair bond with their parent bird. If you want a social, well adjusted bird you need to have it handreared by a professional who is also handrearing more than one bird. A bird needs to know its a bird and needs to learn how to act like a bird. Rearing them alone with one human may cause future issues especially if you want to bring another bird into the home, or another human.
I bought myself a galah and I spend all my time with her... but she bonded to my partner who spends barely any time with her and never cuddles her. LOL She follows him around and gets worried when she doesnt know where he is. But being a social species, she is happy for me to cuddle and hang out with her anyway (at least at this stage, we will see when she is breeding age and breeding seasons comes back around! I think I will lose my baby </3) Next season I will get a male for myself and keep my fingers crossed he bonds to me It is still possible to be good friends with a bird who is bonded to someone else The only sure way to kill that possibility is to handrear it yourself so it sees you as its parent who gives it unwanted affections. If it views you that way, it may become aggressive with you in order to drive you away.
Handrearing baby birds is a long and difficult process that generally should not be undertaken by a pet bird owner and should be left to the professionals. A macaw is a complex bird who requires an experienced handrearer.Some species can take a year or more to handrear and wean. You need to know the signs of sour crop and infection, which can be subtle to the point even experienced bird people can miss them (birdtricks sun conures for example).
More often than not, if you handrear a baby bird it will see you as a parent regardless of who else is around and will not pair bond to you. If its a social species, it may still like hanging out with you. But the second another person comes into the house you are likely to have it bond to or otherwise prefer that other person. Doesn't matter if its now or ten years down the track.
There are no guarantees your bird will bond with you, full stop. Whether you handrear it yourself or treat it like a birdy god... it will bond with who ever it prefers no exceptions (just like I could not make you fall in love with me just because I feed you
). But a sure way to decrease the chance for it to bond with you is to handrear it yourself. Most animals have it deeply embedded in their instinct NOT to pair bond with their parent bird. If you want a social, well adjusted bird you need to have it handreared by a professional who is also handrearing more than one bird. A bird needs to know its a bird and needs to learn how to act like a bird. Rearing them alone with one human may cause future issues especially if you want to bring another bird into the home, or another human.I bought myself a galah and I spend all my time with her... but she bonded to my partner who spends barely any time with her and never cuddles her. LOL She follows him around and gets worried when she doesnt know where he is. But being a social species, she is happy for me to cuddle and hang out with her anyway (at least at this stage, we will see when she is breeding age and breeding seasons comes back around! I think I will lose my baby </3) Next season I will get a male for myself and keep my fingers crossed he bonds to me
It is still possible to be good friends with a bird who is bonded to someone else The only sure way to kill that possibility is to handrear it yourself so it sees you as its parent who gives it unwanted affections. If it views you that way, it may become aggressive with you in order to drive you away.
WharfRat
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Sorry.....that most definitely DOES sound harsh! We are here to support each other, not belittle or demean.
As I already stated, there is no way to tell, but it dang sure doesn't hurt to hand rear the bird. It worked on one of ours, didn't on the other. Before now I had never weaned a bird before, but after getting detailed training from our breeder, my wife and I successfully weaned 4 birds in all with no issues whatsoever.
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I hand fed my Nanday Conure way back in 1990 & she took a very long time to wean for a smaller parrot. I'm talking about at a yr. old she still wanted to be handfed more so as a comfort. She bonded to me & she loved my son who was 12 at the time. He could do anything with her. She really loved us all.
Last Jan. I brought my first macaw home at the age of 4 1/2 months. He was eating all kinds of foods on his own, but for bonding with him his breeder said to give him at least one handfeeding a day. I did this , tho he didn't eat much of the formula. He did however very muchly enjoy the closeness of me feeding him. I moved from feeding him formula to oatmeal & other warm soft foods to continue the bond we have.
Roscoe is totally bonded to me, tolerates my hubby as long as he doesn't try to hold him. And he will try to regurgitate to feed my fingers at times while calling me Angel which is the name of his older brother. Like Warfrat said, there is no way of knowing which bird will bond to you. They have a mind of their own. I say give it a try ifrstand what it takes to hand feed a parrot. It is a rewarding experience.
Last Jan. I brought my first macaw home at the age of 4 1/2 months. He was eating all kinds of foods on his own, but for bonding with him his breeder said to give him at least one handfeeding a day. I did this , tho he didn't eat much of the formula. He did however very muchly enjoy the closeness of me feeding him. I moved from feeding him formula to oatmeal & other warm soft foods to continue the bond we have.
Roscoe is totally bonded to me, tolerates my hubby as long as he doesn't try to hold him. And he will try to regurgitate to feed my fingers at times while calling me Angel which is the name of his older brother. Like Warfrat said, there is no way of knowing which bird will bond to you. They have a mind of their own. I say give it a try ifrstand what it takes to hand feed a parrot. It is a rewarding experience.
Thingamagigs
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I will never support inexperienced people buying unweaned birds to handrear themselves!
Sometimes people are offended by the truth. But sugar coating the truth only ever aids people in their denial. I did not belittle or demean! I couldn't think of a replacement word for "fit" (now thinking about it "ready" would have seemed less harsh). But I think you took offense based more on the fact I disagree with inexperienced people handrearing birds.
You had a breeder close by to walk you through it, that is not the case for most that seek to purchase and handrear a baby bird themselves. I am quite surprised you would promote people buying unweaned babies and handrearing them themselves!
Selling unweaned birds in Australia is illegal and there is a reason for that. It may be that other countries have not caught up to it yet... that doesn't make it acceptable. There are way too many horror stories about people rearing their own birds and allowing them to unknowingly expire through sheer inexperience or ignorance. They think its just one of those things and off they go to purchase another.
Aside from the fact handrearing a bird yourself is no guarantee of it bonding to you, I will never support inexperienced people buying unweaned birds to handrear for themselves.
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Here's what I think.
Fact 1: There are breeders who will sell unweaned young parrots to anyone presenting the cash. By doing so, these breeders avoid the expense and labor involved in raising the young birds themselves. The result, of course, is that the breeders are able to net higher profits.
Fact 2: Some people who purchase unweaned young parrots are competent and intelligent enough to learn and practice proper hand-feeding techniques while maintaining contact with experts in case of complications.
Fact 3: Unfortunately, there are also people who are not competent and fail to learn what they should know before attempting to hand rear a young parrot. This can, and in some cases does, result in tragedy.
I am not convinced that young parrots of any species are more likely than not to regard those humans who hand rear them as their eternal parents, thus precluding their willingness to bond with those humans (either while young or during adulthood). I think the view that all young parrots are prone to that tendency is more theoretical than anything. There would certainly need to be sufficient study data to prove such a thing is universally true. Moreover, I am aware of many cases in which adult parrots have established bond relationships with the humans who hand reared them.
Fact 1: There are breeders who will sell unweaned young parrots to anyone presenting the cash. By doing so, these breeders avoid the expense and labor involved in raising the young birds themselves. The result, of course, is that the breeders are able to net higher profits.
Fact 2: Some people who purchase unweaned young parrots are competent and intelligent enough to learn and practice proper hand-feeding techniques while maintaining contact with experts in case of complications.
Fact 3: Unfortunately, there are also people who are not competent and fail to learn what they should know before attempting to hand rear a young parrot. This can, and in some cases does, result in tragedy.
I am not convinced that young parrots of any species are more likely than not to regard those humans who hand rear them as their eternal parents, thus precluding their willingness to bond with those humans (either while young or during adulthood). I think the view that all young parrots are prone to that tendency is more theoretical than anything. There would certainly need to be sufficient study data to prove such a thing is universally true. Moreover, I am aware of many cases in which adult parrots have established bond relationships with the humans who hand reared them.
WharfRat
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Actually I'm not really "promoting" it at all, I will be the first to admit that untrained people are not qualified to do this. However, neither of us knows what the OP has been taught in this area.
My point is, they were seeking advice/knowledge and as a community we should be here to answer questions in a positive manner and help as best we can. I can only hope Brooke will continue to participate and learn as much as she can Brooke showed he/she was wanting to learn by coming here, we are here to help her, not tell her she shouldn't.
We were trained and taught by a professional but had never done it before, does this make us "unfit" to own a Macaw? (2 Green Wings, 2 Yellow Naped Amazons all weaned by my wife and I)
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I totally agree with you WharfRat, we are here to assist one another.
One of the reasons somone joins a forum, to gain valuable information.
I did a lot of research and had the breeder's number available if I endured any problems.....
I hand reared Mishka, first bird I had ever hand reared.
Mishka and I have the most incredible bond.
MikeyTN
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"Dixie"LSC2, and "Nico" Scarlet Macaw.
I don't want to quote anyone but the things that are said it seems like some people is promoting to purchase a unweaned baby which I highly disagree! IF someone were to purchase one and come in here and ask questions, what is done is already done, of course we would do everything to help. But for someone to ask first then for someone to said it's ok to do so, then that's a different issue. I would however discourage someone from taking on that sort of task!
For those that weaned a few out of your lifetime does NOT indicate that all birds will be as good as your own. Once you reach hormone stage, then you'll see how bad it can be. Like I've mentioned already, I've weaned a lot of babies, not all are the same. Some stays with me some don't. But once maturity hits, things change....
For the handfeeding task, like plax mentioned, your only benefiting the breeders as they profit more as they can get the babies out as soon as possible. Your only spending more money for the formulas as you've already spent a ton on the unweaned baby on your own that can take a long long periods of time to wean. All it take is one little mistake to aspirate your new baby or crop infection. Then I see post being posted in here, omg what should I do....
Yes we are here to help others but we should also provide with the proper information for them to go by and tell them the good and the bad. Plus the ugly if it gets that far....
For those that weaned a few out of your lifetime does NOT indicate that all birds will be as good as your own. Once you reach hormone stage, then you'll see how bad it can be. Like I've mentioned already, I've weaned a lot of babies, not all are the same. Some stays with me some don't. But once maturity hits, things change....
For the handfeeding task, like plax mentioned, your only benefiting the breeders as they profit more as they can get the babies out as soon as possible. Your only spending more money for the formulas as you've already spent a ton on the unweaned baby on your own that can take a long long periods of time to wean. All it take is one little mistake to aspirate your new baby or crop infection. Then I see post being posted in here, omg what should I do....
Yes we are here to help others but we should also provide with the proper information for them to go by and tell them the good and the bad. Plus the ugly if it gets that far....
Thingamagigs
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Not all subjects are positive subjects and not all answers to all questions are positive answers... otherwise this would be a very happy fantastic world
My first question in such a world would be "can I please have 10 million dollars" lol (if only)
As I have already said, using the word "fit" didn't sound right. I wish I had my wits about me to come up with the very obvious and far more suitable word "ready". The word "ready" would have been more appropriate but I had a brain fart... I'm sure Im not the only one who has ever done so! lol
Why is being inexperienced a negative thing anyway? I'm inexperienced in the area of brain surgery, base ball, engineering and raising baby kittens...
Im not fit to raise a litter of kittens or undertake brain surgery on a patient
It doesn't make me less of a person, its not hurtful or demeaning. I'm probably not fit to interact with humans either because I'm always offending someone! lol
Firstly... I did not say Brooke or anyone else was unfit to own a bird, macaw or otherwise. If I believed... anyone who is not ready to handrear a bird is unfit to own birds altogether... then I would believe no one should own birds lol
Thats just not the case. I believe in putting the birds welfare above our own desires, first and foremost. I wouldn't recommend someone diagnose and medicate their bird either, thats a job for a professional
Secondly... You were trained and taught by a professional. Your comment implies I believe no one should ever learn to handrear a bird. That would mean there would no longer be people to handrear birds... and no handreared birds as pets in turn. Doesn't make sense
I love my handreared birds. I am an experienced handrearer and even I wouldn't handrear my own baby. From my own experience, in most cases the relationship between myself and a bird I handreared is very different to a bird someone else handreared for me. I personally find that having someone else handrear your bird promotes a more balanced bird.
Everyone starts out as a novice. No one starts out with experience. Thats a baffling concept LOL
Learning how to handrear from a professional is vastly different from someone buying an unweaned bird to handrear on their own without knowledge or guidance. I was guided by my neighbour, a well known handrearer who used to work with Bob and Steve Irwin. Even having him next door... it was still a difficult and trying time. Handrearing a baby is stressful when you start out.
I do not condone the sale of unweaned baby birds.
If brooke, after finding out handrearing does not guarantee a bond, still wants to handrear a baby... then I would highly recommend she find a good breeder who can guide her through the process. Preferably someone that he/she can visit on a regular basis. Its complicated and very involved and not something a forum could guide her through, all we can do is merely offer emotional support and comforting words when needed. Seeing as a macaw is potentially 12 months of rearing and eventually weaning... she'll need the support ^_^
Honestly, do you think that an experienced handrearer would be asking if handrearing a bird guarantees a bond with them?
Thingamagigs
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I totally agree with you WharfRat, we are here to assist one another.
One of the reasons somone joins a forum, to gain valuable information.
I did a lot of research and had the breeder's number available if I endured any problems.....
I hand reared Mishka, first bird I had ever hand reared.
Mishka and I have the most incredible bond.
Im sorry, I won't condone the selling of unweaned birds.
You have a success story to impart... that is wonderful and Mishka is amazing.
But with every success there is probably five times (or more) as many untold misadventures. Aside from it being illegal in the country I live in, I find the risks far too high to encourage anyone to go ahead with it.
I totally agree with you WharfRat, we are here to assist one another.
One of the reasons somone joins a forum, to gain valuable information.
I did a lot of research and had the breeder's number available if I endured any problems.....
I hand reared Mishka, first bird I had ever hand reared.
Mishka and I have the most incredible bond.
Im sorry, I won't condone the selling of unweaned birds.
You have a success story to impart... that is wonderful and Mishka is amazing.
But with every success there is probably five times (or more) as many untold misadventures. Aside from it being illegal in the country I live in, I find the risks far too high to encourage anyone to go ahead with it.
I agree with you there are many untold stories, unfortunaley the guardians were not prepared.
BUT before anyone even thinks of hand rearing a bird, think very carefully.
This small innocent little birds' life will depend you on. Each and every decision you make, could be a decision between life and death.
They should approach a breeder, and see exactly how it is done.
If going ahead, make sure your have the necessary backup, if help is needed.
JerseyWendy
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Back to the question of the OP .... :54:
No, you DO NOT have to handfeed a Macaw (or any other bird) to form an extraodinary bond with him/her. There are SO many Mac owners here on this great forum who have rehomed Macs, and their bond and love for each other is truly incredible.
If you are truly looking at a very young/just weaned Macaw, please look at some of Tab's posts. She got her B & G Fargo when he was around 6 months, I believe, and their bond, trust and love seeps through in all her pictures and videos.
And then of course there is "little" moi....who JUST picked up an 18 month old GW Macaw 2 days ago. The store considered him "not very friendly", and this is Ripley and me YESTERDAY, 1 day after bringing him home:
No, you DO NOT have to handfeed a Macaw (or any other bird) to form an extraodinary bond with him/her. There are SO many Mac owners here on this great forum who have rehomed Macs, and their bond and love for each other is truly incredible.
If you are truly looking at a very young/just weaned Macaw, please look at some of Tab's posts. She got her B & G Fargo when he was around 6 months, I believe, and their bond, trust and love seeps through in all her pictures and videos.
And then of course there is "little" moi....who JUST picked up an 18 month old GW Macaw 2 days ago. The store considered him "not very friendly", and this is Ripley and me YESTERDAY, 1 day after bringing him home:
JerseyWendy
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tab_xo
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Oh Wendy, you make me blush! 
hahaha
I got Fargo when he was 7 months, he lives in my room and no one else in my family particularly likes birds, so he bonded to me immediately.. who knows, in many years he might bond with someone i meet! Who knows! I am basically home alone all day, so he has range of the house, but of course no one else to meet, until we start going out on the harness..
But like everyone said, it will all depend on that particular bird.. no bird is the same and you can't FORCE someone to like you.. just like humans..
And look at Ripley!! One night and he already has become friendly with Wendy!!!! That is amazing!
hahahaI got Fargo when he was 7 months, he lives in my room and no one else in my family particularly likes birds, so he bonded to me immediately.. who knows, in many years he might bond with someone i meet! Who knows! I am basically home alone all day, so he has range of the house, but of course no one else to meet, until we start going out on the harness..
But like everyone said, it will all depend on that particular bird.. no bird is the same and you can't FORCE someone to like you.. just like humans..
And look at Ripley!! One night and he already has become friendly with Wendy!!!! That is amazing!
- Thread starter
- #20
Thanks everyone for the advice. I definitely am not going to run out and buy a baby and try and feed it myself. At this point I am simply doing my research and asking as many questions as possible so I can make an informed decision. Per my last post, I was just throwing out a scenario because I was curious if the baby would view everyone in the household as "parents." Or, if the baby only views the parent feeding it as the "the parent." If I were to decide on hand feeding myself, I would only do it if I could train under a breeder for a time (until the breeder feels that I am ready for the task). And each feeding would be done at the breeders facility (if possible) and under his/her observation until the baby is fully weaned and ready to go home. But it kind of sounds like there might not be enough reason to go to this extent-in other words, it may not be necessary for me to hand feed the baby at all if it does not increase the chances of the baby bonding to me as an adult. I will continue my research until I am comfortable and knowledgeable enough to make the decision. Thanks again everyone!
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