Macaw tails

kme3388 · May 17, 2026

I’m never going to have beautiful macaw molted tail feathers. It’s a race against the clock. If I don’t get to them before he does he destroys them. I seen he had a few new tail feathers growing in. I have tried to time it. I give up

osklvste · May 17, 2026

I wish I had a suggestion. Nameliss used to bounce her bottom grate. I was afraid of beak or toe injury. I removed it. No problems collecting tail or flight feathers after. She now bounces while holding on side of cage, tries to push the pull out grate. Kinda hard to win with some parrots.

texsize · May 17, 2026

osklvste said:
I wish I had a suggestion. Nameliss used to bounce her bottom grate. I was afraid of beak or toe injury. I removed it. No problems collecting tail or flight feathers after. She now bounces while holding on side of cage, tries to push the pull out grate. Kinda hard to win with some parrots.

Don’t understand what you mean by “bounce the bottom grate”. Does she grab hold and flap her wings?

My Bella never goes to the bottom of her cage. She flaps her wings on the outside of her cage.

osklvste · May 18, 2026

Nameliss uses physics. She pulls. It bounces. She catches, drops, bounces higher, she moves up and repeats until she's at whatever desired height and pushes. No wings at all. That's how she destroys food dishes. Natural. Honestly I thought it was normal behavior. She's done it since 10 months. That's why I removed her grate. On outside she goes to floor corner and pulls to opposite and pulls to middle and repeats. I had to put a piece of wood out of birdie range it create resistance. But Bella likes to fly for mischief. Nameliss likes to walk and climb for hers. Different tastes to keep owners alert.

kme3388 · Jun 18, 2026

I’m never getting a complete macaw feather. I’ve thought about collecting his feathers to sell online in hopes that people stop killing them for their feathers in the wild. I can harvest feathers if Blue was a participant without harm being done.