I've given bits and pieces of information about Chilli in various posts, but here is her story up until the present time:
Chilli is 4 years old and a female Scarlet Macaw of the subspecies that has a large patch of yellow on the wings.
Chilli likes people very much but got spoilt by my dad who, when I wasn't home, let her perch on his shoulder for LONG periods of time while feeding her biscuits. So now she likes to fly straight for people's shoulders, which I am trying to prevent using behavioral techniques.
Chilli is mostly very sweet and, if you let her perch on your shoulder, will gently preen your hair for you. This actually feels quite good, but, unfortunately, is not something I want to encourage because I want to prevent overbonding and/or hormonal issues in the future.
Chilli took 12 months to wean. I think her handfeeder, who was an employee at the facility where Chilli was bred, was perhaps somewhat inexperienced with scarlet macaws at the time, so she might have erred on the side of overbonding to Chilli rather than letting Chilli become more independent. I think my breeder knew this, so he told me that Chilli was very loud and had offered me one of Chilli's siblings instead, but I, for personal reasons, decided to stick with Chilli. When I went to pick up Chilli from the breeder, after we put Chilli into my car, I noticed the handfeeder had tears in her eye. About a month after Chilli came home, she started to scream whenever she realized that I was leaving her. I tried to not reinforce this screaming, but her screaming initially escalated. At the worst, it lasted for 2 hours non-stop. Finally, it began to reduce. I then tried to modify the immediate antecedents and differentially reinforced some incompatible behaviors, and her screaming had almost extinguished. However, even now, if I forget to apply these techniques, well, everyone in all the surrounding streets will know...
I recently moved house, and Chilli had to board at my avian vet's office for a couple of months. She was moulting at the time, and also, I could only visit her once a week because I was so busy with moving and also, my mom had a fall at the same time and broke her hip, so I had to spend a lot of time with her as well. The vet noticed that Chilli began to pluck some of her feathers. Thankfully, one of the vet nurses there took an interest in Chilli and was also interested in behavioral techniques (she is going to spend some time this year learning bird training from Steve Martin). She did a lot of target training and started flight training with Chilli, and this limited the degree of the feather plucking. Chilli came back to her new home a couple of months ago. At first, I noticed that her screaming had gone right back up, but I quickly re-instated what I did before, and now the screaming is back down to 5 minutes or less in duration. I am also letting her forage a LOT more. She used to forage for treats, but now, I'm letting her forage for her staple diet as well. When I employ ALL the behavioral techniques, sometimes, Chilli even forgets to scream completely even when I am leaving her. Her feather plucking is also reducing.
Chilli is a VERY messy eater. She usually brings her food to eat in front of the water bowl, and her water gets dirty within 5 seconds of me changing it.
If Chilli WANTS to destroy a toy, she can destroy a macaw-sized toy within an hour of me hanging it up.
Chilli is very mechanically minded. In my old house, I had a cage for her that had a small hatch door on the side (I think it's supposed to be there for people who want to place a nestbox). It had a latch that was VERY difficult to open, but Chilli figured out how to open it from the inside! Chilli loves to undo the quicklinks I use to hang her toys. Then, she is strong enough that she can lift the macaw-sized toys which don't fit in with her interior design scheme, and throw them to the ground. Chilli then plays with the quicklink as a foot toy. I think quicklinks are her favorite foot toy. I have learnt not to hang up acrylic toys for her anymore, because she breaks them this way. Side-mounted acrylic toys have not been broken so far.
Chilli is very keen to learn human speech. I hear her practising human speech a lot when she doesn't know I'm listening. However, she has not had too much success so far. She has a rather deep bass voice naturally, but she strains herself to make herself sound more like a baritone/tenor in order to match my voice. So far, she says, "Hello", "Good", "Bye Bye", "Wei?" (which is what we say in our language when we pick up the phone). She says all these things 100% of the time in context. As soon as the phone rings, or even when I press the numbers on the phone (she only has to hear the very soft beeps even if I'm in the next room), she'll say, "Wei? Hello?" Recently, she has been practising her own name, but she is not quite ready to say it in front of people just yet.
Chilli is VERY enthusiastic and loves to do trick-training. So far, she has learnt to turn around, wave, climb over a ladder, pick things up and bring them back to place in my hand.
Apart from her indoor cage, Chilli has a HUGE outdoor aviary where she can play and fly.
Chilli takes up a LOT of my time, physical and mental energy, but I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!
Chilli is 4 years old and a female Scarlet Macaw of the subspecies that has a large patch of yellow on the wings.
Chilli likes people very much but got spoilt by my dad who, when I wasn't home, let her perch on his shoulder for LONG periods of time while feeding her biscuits. So now she likes to fly straight for people's shoulders, which I am trying to prevent using behavioral techniques.
Chilli is mostly very sweet and, if you let her perch on your shoulder, will gently preen your hair for you. This actually feels quite good, but, unfortunately, is not something I want to encourage because I want to prevent overbonding and/or hormonal issues in the future.
Chilli took 12 months to wean. I think her handfeeder, who was an employee at the facility where Chilli was bred, was perhaps somewhat inexperienced with scarlet macaws at the time, so she might have erred on the side of overbonding to Chilli rather than letting Chilli become more independent. I think my breeder knew this, so he told me that Chilli was very loud and had offered me one of Chilli's siblings instead, but I, for personal reasons, decided to stick with Chilli. When I went to pick up Chilli from the breeder, after we put Chilli into my car, I noticed the handfeeder had tears in her eye. About a month after Chilli came home, she started to scream whenever she realized that I was leaving her. I tried to not reinforce this screaming, but her screaming initially escalated. At the worst, it lasted for 2 hours non-stop. Finally, it began to reduce. I then tried to modify the immediate antecedents and differentially reinforced some incompatible behaviors, and her screaming had almost extinguished. However, even now, if I forget to apply these techniques, well, everyone in all the surrounding streets will know...
I recently moved house, and Chilli had to board at my avian vet's office for a couple of months. She was moulting at the time, and also, I could only visit her once a week because I was so busy with moving and also, my mom had a fall at the same time and broke her hip, so I had to spend a lot of time with her as well. The vet noticed that Chilli began to pluck some of her feathers. Thankfully, one of the vet nurses there took an interest in Chilli and was also interested in behavioral techniques (she is going to spend some time this year learning bird training from Steve Martin). She did a lot of target training and started flight training with Chilli, and this limited the degree of the feather plucking. Chilli came back to her new home a couple of months ago. At first, I noticed that her screaming had gone right back up, but I quickly re-instated what I did before, and now the screaming is back down to 5 minutes or less in duration. I am also letting her forage a LOT more. She used to forage for treats, but now, I'm letting her forage for her staple diet as well. When I employ ALL the behavioral techniques, sometimes, Chilli even forgets to scream completely even when I am leaving her. Her feather plucking is also reducing.
Chilli is a VERY messy eater. She usually brings her food to eat in front of the water bowl, and her water gets dirty within 5 seconds of me changing it.
If Chilli WANTS to destroy a toy, she can destroy a macaw-sized toy within an hour of me hanging it up.
Chilli is very mechanically minded. In my old house, I had a cage for her that had a small hatch door on the side (I think it's supposed to be there for people who want to place a nestbox). It had a latch that was VERY difficult to open, but Chilli figured out how to open it from the inside! Chilli loves to undo the quicklinks I use to hang her toys. Then, she is strong enough that she can lift the macaw-sized toys which don't fit in with her interior design scheme, and throw them to the ground. Chilli then plays with the quicklink as a foot toy. I think quicklinks are her favorite foot toy. I have learnt not to hang up acrylic toys for her anymore, because she breaks them this way. Side-mounted acrylic toys have not been broken so far.
Chilli is very keen to learn human speech. I hear her practising human speech a lot when she doesn't know I'm listening. However, she has not had too much success so far. She has a rather deep bass voice naturally, but she strains herself to make herself sound more like a baritone/tenor in order to match my voice. So far, she says, "Hello", "Good", "Bye Bye", "Wei?" (which is what we say in our language when we pick up the phone). She says all these things 100% of the time in context. As soon as the phone rings, or even when I press the numbers on the phone (she only has to hear the very soft beeps even if I'm in the next room), she'll say, "Wei? Hello?" Recently, she has been practising her own name, but she is not quite ready to say it in front of people just yet.
Chilli is VERY enthusiastic and loves to do trick-training. So far, she has learnt to turn around, wave, climb over a ladder, pick things up and bring them back to place in my hand.
Apart from her indoor cage, Chilli has a HUGE outdoor aviary where she can play and fly.
Chilli takes up a LOT of my time, physical and mental energy, but I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!
