New Macaw Owner!

[Goddog_3_75]

Hello all,
Very excited to introduce myself as a brand new baby macaw owner. Yesterday my fiance and I bought a 5 month old baby B&G. He (Barry) is so precious, he is an absolute love bug! We are so happy, we have both wanted a parrot since we were small children! We recently bought our forever home and we are adding our forever bird to the house!

A little bit about me, I am an Army Veteran, I own a business with my brother and father in northeast Ohio. I have an extensive background in all things aviary. My grandmother introduced me to my love for birds when I was a child and it has only grown since! I have spent a long time volunteering at a bird rehab and rescue center. We specialized in birds of prey specifically, but also had the occasional parrot and song birds come through our facility. Again I have dreamt of the day I would own my own parrot (always wanted a B&G specifically), and here I am! Words cant describe my happiness.

We are moving into our home next week, and the day after we move in and everything is settled we will go pick Barry up and bring him home!

I am building him a huge 10x12 indoor flight cage to be in while I work during the day, and I plan on training him to my absolute best ability!

I guess I have few questions for you all;

What are the best training guides out there, is it Barbara Heidenreich? I have read alot of poor reviews on BirdTricks so they are basically off my radar. I want to make sure that I instill the best possible training from day 1 when I bring him home, I want to purchase and study all the material I can during the next week on Baby Macaws and their initial days in the house.

Dont mistake my above statement as me not doing research on this bird, because I have been researching studying and dreaming of this day for decades. I consider myself to have a WEALTH of knowledge on Macaws, I just have no experience raising one from 5 a baby.

Thank you all so much for the help! Talk soon!

 

[wrench13]

Wecome and be welcomed. If you want a good read on macaws, go to our Macaw sub-forum and read all the threads created by or participated by birdman666, who is as close to our macaw guru as possible. I will assume you kow about macaws testing boundaries and how important it is to set those early on and be strict about them. Bite pressure training is especially important with them!

 

[Goddog_3_75]

Wecome and be welcomed. If you want a good read on macaws, go to our Macaw sub-forum and read all the threads created by or participated by birdman666, who is as close to our macaw guru as possible. I will assume you kow about macaws testing boundaries and how important it is to set those early on and be strict about them. Bite pressure training is especially important with them!

I actually saw quite a few posts from birdman666 he seems VERY knowledgeable.

I know that all birds like to test boundaries, I assumed the Macaw was no different! I know they are very mouthy as babies, and I know that is needed to be curbed immediately!

I admittedly do not know about bite force training but I will start my deep dive on that RIGHT NOW!

Thank you for the guidance and reply, much obliged!

 

[wrench13]

Related to bite pressure training, I wrote this some time ago:

Biting and Shunning

Biting, whether intentional or not, just over preening your skin or actually taking chunks of meat out - all are PAINFULL! In the wild that sort of behavior is not tolerated by the flock. They ostracize flock members who continue to act like that. We call it 'Shunning'. This WILL work, but needs to be done correctly to get the message across and it needs to be done IMMEDIATELY so the parrot can associate the bite with the shunning action. And it needs to happen every time and with anyone involved with the parrot.

When the bite or over preening occurs:

• Say in a forceful but not shouting voice "No Bite" or other endearments.
• Immediately place the parrot on a nearby, handy chairback. NOT the cage (that would only teach the parrot to bite when he wants to go back to his cage).
• Turn your back to him and ignore him for 1 minute. No peeking, no talking about or too him, NADA. NO eye contact. No less or the message is lost, no more or the bird will not associate the action with the bite.
• After a minute you can try to re-establish contact.

Rinse, repeat as needed. Most parrots get the message after a few times, some may need more. Also very important - make sure the bite is not your fault. Annoying your parrot, asking him to step up when he is otherwise preoccupied with eating or playing, bothering him during known moody times like mating season, or ignoring the warnings and body language of your parrot - these are bites that you deserve! Learn, and be a better parront !!

 

[Goddog_3_75]

Related to bite pressure training, I wrote this some time ago:

Biting and Shunning

Biting, whether intentional or not, just over preening your skin or actually taking chunks of meat out - all are PAINFULL! In the wild that sort of behavior is not tolerated by the flock. They ostracize flock members who continue to act like that. We call it 'Shunning'. This WILL work, but needs to be done correctly to get the message across and it needs to be done IMMEDIATELY so the parrot can associate the bite with the shunning action. And it needs to happen every time and with anyone involved with the parrot.

When the bite or over preening occurs:

• Say in a forceful but not shouting voice "No Bite" or other endearments.
• Immediately place the parrot on a nearby, handy chairback. NOT the cage (that would only teach the parrot to bite when he wants to go back to his cage).
• Turn your back to him and ignore him for 1 minute. No peeking, no talking about or too him, NADA. NO eye contact. No less or the message is lost, no more or the bird will not associate the action with the bite.
• After a minute you can try to re-establish contact.

Rinse, repeat as needed. Most parrots get the message after a few times, some may need more. Also very important - make sure the bite is not your fault. Annoying your parrot, asking him to step up when he is otherwise preoccupied with eating or playing, bothering him during known moody times like mating season, or ignoring the warnings and body language of your parrot - these are bites that you deserve! Learn, and be a better parront !!

Awesome advice! I will definitely implement this, and be sure that im not the one at fault for the bites when they occur. Thank you!