Hello all! I am new to the board, and have an awesome blue and gold macaw named Jack, non-creatively enough, lol. (Captain Jack Sparrow 
) He is about three years old, and I have had him a bit more than a year.
I am not brand new to parrot care, I have worked in a lot of pet stores where parrots were raised from babies, of course have done a lot of baby feeding myself. Even had to "bring work home" a few times. I never dreamed I would actually be able to afford one, or at least not a big macaw like I have always wanted...but these days I grow coral for a living (if anyone needs advice for their reef tank feel free to ask) and I was lucky enough to run across someone who was willing to trade one hobby (birdkeeping) for another (reefkeeping) Honestly, it was tough to find enough to trade him, but the deal went down, and 800 in trade later I was the proud owner of Jack, his nice big cage, and some assorted food and supplies. The guy who raised him knew I could give him an awesome home, and he barely had room for Jack's cage, let alone a nice big playstand.
I started with Jack out in the living room, cage and all...then realized macaws need rest and sleep, and we were going to keep him awake watching TV. Then I tried the bedroom...but again I was not satisfied because now he is clanking around keeping us up, and even with a cage cover on we were disturbing him turning on the light.
Well, Jack needed his own room, that's all there was to it! We have a small office or storage room adjoining our kitchen, so we ripped out all the shelves and most of the cabinets and put his cage and playstand in there, and just left the door open in the daytime and closed it at night. Perfect!
Well, almost. Soon I started to wonder what the point of ever stuffing him in a cage was, and it sure was a pain to clean the cage and lift the playstand up to change paper under it. Scrubbing the pvc legs of the stand...another idea began forming.
Rather than go through a step by step of what I did, I am going to post a pic and invite you to ask questions about it if you have any. Just as soon as I figure out how, lol..it looks like I cannot upload directly here and may have to do some legwork.
Thanks for looking, I appreciate any tips anyone wants to give!
) He is about three years old, and I have had him a bit more than a year.I am not brand new to parrot care, I have worked in a lot of pet stores where parrots were raised from babies, of course have done a lot of baby feeding myself. Even had to "bring work home" a few times.
I never dreamed I would actually be able to afford one, or at least not a big macaw like I have always wanted...but these days I grow coral for a living (if anyone needs advice for their reef tank feel free to ask) and I was lucky enough to run across someone who was willing to trade one hobby (birdkeeping) for another (reefkeeping) Honestly, it was tough to find enough to trade him, but the deal went down, and 800 in trade later I was the proud owner of Jack, his nice big cage, and some assorted food and supplies. The guy who raised him knew I could give him an awesome home, and he barely had room for Jack's cage, let alone a nice big playstand. I started with Jack out in the living room, cage and all...then realized macaws need rest and sleep, and we were going to keep him awake watching TV. Then I tried the bedroom...but again I was not satisfied because now he is clanking around keeping us up, and even with a cage cover on we were disturbing him turning on the light.
Well, Jack needed his own room, that's all there was to it! We have a small office or storage room adjoining our kitchen, so we ripped out all the shelves and most of the cabinets and put his cage and playstand in there, and just left the door open in the daytime and closed it at night. Perfect!
Well, almost. Soon I started to wonder what the point of ever stuffing him in a cage was, and it sure was a pain to clean the cage and lift the playstand up to change paper under it. Scrubbing the pvc legs of the stand...another idea began forming.
Rather than go through a step by step of what I did, I am going to post a pic and invite you to ask questions about it if you have any. Just as soon as I figure out how, lol..it looks like I cannot upload directly here and may have to do some legwork.
Thanks for looking, I appreciate any tips anyone wants to give!
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