Bird Brain
New member
- May 18, 2011
- 7
- 0
Hello,
I have been lurking for several months while searching for my bird to be. I am bringing home my Blue and Gold Macaw on Tues. Since I have been lurking, I know what you are all thinking...does she have large bird experience?
Well to try and make a long story short...
My husband worked in a pet store that sold parakeets all the way up to Macaws in high school and college. Also, we had a Scarlet Macaw named Rainbow that we dearly loved for about 6 years before we had children. When the twins came and then the (surprise) 3rd right after, we could not give our Rainbow the attention he deserved (probably because we were overwhelmed with all the sudden changes in our lives) and he wasn’t doing well with the drastic change in the household. Fortunately a friend of my mother in law’s wanted another bird. She had other large birds and didn’t work so she had all the time in the world for Rainbow so although it was hard to give him up, we knew he’d be happier there. Now my kids are older and in school and I am fortunate enough to only work part time so I will have much more time for a bird.
We held on to our Animal Environments Macaw Cage and stainless steel ring stand so we have a good start equipment wise.
So about my our new addition. Like I said he's a Blue and Gold Macaw. According to the man that has him now, he will be 1 yr old on June 10th. I found him on CL and fortunately his current home is only 10min from my house! So this is where I want some opinions...about getting a bird from someone off craigslist... Of course I was wondering why the owner was looking to re-home such a "great bird" (as the ad said). He already has another Blue and Gold, a CAG and a Blue Front. He saw an ad in the paper about someone wanting to get rid of their Blue and Gold because they were terrified of it now that is was approaching it's full grown size. He went to just look at it and the poor baby was being kept in an Amazon size cage on a deck (in MD! so no it wasn't warm weather) covered with a plastic tarp. So he brought it home mainly to immediately get it out of it's poor living conditions. After getting it vet checked etc he realized that 4 birds was just too much for him.
I've read about bird flipping etc and I just have a gut feeling that this guy is telling the truth. All 4 of the birds have their own cages which are wonderfully sized and he feeds them a nice mixture that he showed me. Because he is so close to my home I was able to visit once by myself for an hour or so and then again with my kids for a good hour and a half. I really didn't push my self on the bird I just wanted to observe it etc. Well he stepped right up to me and was just so well behaved the whole visit. There were several times the other 3 birds really got going with screaming and he didn't freak out screaming or anything. He showed a little resistance when the guy got him out of the cage.
When I went back with my kids he was again just a joy to be with. I know he won't always be so well behaved and I have been doing my due diligence researching ways to let him comfortably settle in and positive ways to discourage any previously learned bad habits. His current owner is asking for a $400 re-homing fee which I think is fair and appropriate. He wanted $750 with the cage but since I don't need that he came down to $400. We are going to visit him again tomorrow. We already had plans to camp this weekend so we are picking him up Tues.
So just three questions...
1) His name is Buddy but it hasn't always been that. The man that has him now calls him Buddy because he just didn't feel comfortable calling him Budda which was his original name. So can I pick a new name because he is so young and has already had a switch or should stick with Buddy? I used to be a Spanish teacher so I wanted to called him DESEO which means wish in Spanish. He is my wish come true and then the Spanish is an homage to my Spanish past and his South American "heritage"
2) Ok so we have a large 35 ft, 2 bedroom travel trailer and we camp a few days every 2-3 weeks in the summer. We used to take our Scarlet for short car trips but never overnight. We only camp in the warmer weather so I expect that if he came with us he would be "out" with us, hanging outside on his ring stand etc. I would really only put him in a cage for sleeping. So if he was mostly just sleeping in the cage how big does it have to be?
3) Is there any advice or special information I need to know for having a younger bird? Our previous Macaw was already 10yrs old when we got him so I'm not familiar with having such a "toddler" Macaw.
If you're still reading my way too long post thank you so much. I will post pictures next week.
Rachel (aka Bird Brain because everyone calls me that at work because I can't stop thinking about my bird :09
I have been lurking for several months while searching for my bird to be. I am bringing home my Blue and Gold Macaw on Tues. Since I have been lurking, I know what you are all thinking...does she have large bird experience?
Well to try and make a long story short...
My husband worked in a pet store that sold parakeets all the way up to Macaws in high school and college. Also, we had a Scarlet Macaw named Rainbow that we dearly loved for about 6 years before we had children. When the twins came and then the (surprise) 3rd right after, we could not give our Rainbow the attention he deserved (probably because we were overwhelmed with all the sudden changes in our lives) and he wasn’t doing well with the drastic change in the household. Fortunately a friend of my mother in law’s wanted another bird. She had other large birds and didn’t work so she had all the time in the world for Rainbow so although it was hard to give him up, we knew he’d be happier there. Now my kids are older and in school and I am fortunate enough to only work part time so I will have much more time for a bird.
We held on to our Animal Environments Macaw Cage and stainless steel ring stand so we have a good start equipment wise.
So about my our new addition. Like I said he's a Blue and Gold Macaw. According to the man that has him now, he will be 1 yr old on June 10th. I found him on CL and fortunately his current home is only 10min from my house! So this is where I want some opinions...about getting a bird from someone off craigslist... Of course I was wondering why the owner was looking to re-home such a "great bird" (as the ad said). He already has another Blue and Gold, a CAG and a Blue Front. He saw an ad in the paper about someone wanting to get rid of their Blue and Gold because they were terrified of it now that is was approaching it's full grown size. He went to just look at it and the poor baby was being kept in an Amazon size cage on a deck (in MD! so no it wasn't warm weather) covered with a plastic tarp. So he brought it home mainly to immediately get it out of it's poor living conditions. After getting it vet checked etc he realized that 4 birds was just too much for him.
I've read about bird flipping etc and I just have a gut feeling that this guy is telling the truth. All 4 of the birds have their own cages which are wonderfully sized and he feeds them a nice mixture that he showed me. Because he is so close to my home I was able to visit once by myself for an hour or so and then again with my kids for a good hour and a half. I really didn't push my self on the bird I just wanted to observe it etc. Well he stepped right up to me and was just so well behaved the whole visit. There were several times the other 3 birds really got going with screaming and he didn't freak out screaming or anything. He showed a little resistance when the guy got him out of the cage.
When I went back with my kids he was again just a joy to be with. I know he won't always be so well behaved and I have been doing my due diligence researching ways to let him comfortably settle in and positive ways to discourage any previously learned bad habits. His current owner is asking for a $400 re-homing fee which I think is fair and appropriate. He wanted $750 with the cage but since I don't need that he came down to $400. We are going to visit him again tomorrow. We already had plans to camp this weekend so we are picking him up Tues.
So just three questions...
1) His name is Buddy but it hasn't always been that. The man that has him now calls him Buddy because he just didn't feel comfortable calling him Budda which was his original name. So can I pick a new name because he is so young and has already had a switch or should stick with Buddy? I used to be a Spanish teacher so I wanted to called him DESEO which means wish in Spanish. He is my wish come true and then the Spanish is an homage to my Spanish past and his South American "heritage"
2) Ok so we have a large 35 ft, 2 bedroom travel trailer and we camp a few days every 2-3 weeks in the summer. We used to take our Scarlet for short car trips but never overnight. We only camp in the warmer weather so I expect that if he came with us he would be "out" with us, hanging outside on his ring stand etc. I would really only put him in a cage for sleeping. So if he was mostly just sleeping in the cage how big does it have to be?
3) Is there any advice or special information I need to know for having a younger bird? Our previous Macaw was already 10yrs old when we got him so I'm not familiar with having such a "toddler" Macaw.
If you're still reading my way too long post thank you so much. I will post pictures next week.
Rachel (aka Bird Brain because everyone calls me that at work because I can't stop thinking about my bird :09
