First Macaw

[MenomaMinx]

"
My calico Kumiko is extraordinarily gentle. She doesn't bite. She will bludgeon

your body with her beak hard enough to bruise, which is apparently a macaw thing,

but the lack of blood drawing is apparently uncharacteristic of macaws. Other macaw

things include:

blushing

purring (yes, like a cat, with a body vibration if you're touching under the

wings-- it's rare, short-lived in my personal experience, and easy to mistake for

something else if you're not actually touching the bird)

lunge to bite fake outs(didn't see this one, but she did it to my friend Jackie)

hyper flexibility in legs(which allows for things such as"hair combing", nose

picking, and even a version of parrot Bulimia if you believe my vet-- fortunately I

only experienced the first two)

Tailwagging when happy(like a dog)

Eye pinning(my bird does it in slow motion -- very creepy looking)

The "ark" sound(this is the loud macaw squawk everyone's heard it's ever been in

the pet store has heard-- it means panic or displeasure and is extraordinarily rare

without provocation. You may not know the reason at the time it happens, but I

assure you there are always reasons that make sense to the bird in question. All

other innate macaw vocalizations are at or below the sound of normal crowded room

volume human speech-- leaning towards quieter end of the spectrum).

The beak trimming(added to your nail and feather grooming duties)

Lactose intolerance(it's not all macaws, but enough of them to make it totally not

worth tempting fate)

Allergies-- mostly dust and other species bird dander (again not all macaws, but

it's a good reason to get yourself a good hepa filter air cleaner, considering it

can escalate to a lifelong illness}

Actually this list is a bit longer , but I wanted to get some calico specifics.

Unless I have the Einstein of calico macaws, their mimicry of human voice can rival

that of a CAG: it's the motivation that's lacking in the calico to maintain the

sound quality to the original voice, as far as I can tell. They also don't seem to

care for any word or phrase they don't know the meaning of enough to repeat it.

Kumiko has imitated my voice once," what", which my friend heard directly after I

said the same during a phone conversation across the house. Kumiko can also do a

dead on woman's voice(which I presume to be the former owner)," I am a bad bird".

This happened during the making of smoothies by my friend with a very loud food

processor, followed by a very loud "ark"macaw noise ,to which I responded, "indoor

voices please",which got us the horrorshow that was my bird calling herself a bad

bird. Now everything's stopped and we're both running to the birdcage telling her

over and over again with a good bird she is. If I didn't know, I would've thought

the voice was a human. I haven't heard it since, but I've already decided I don't

particularly like this human.

Kumiko's own speaking voice tends to sound gravelly, and she forgets where words

begin and end as she is stringing them to form complete sentences. She occasionally

drops syllables. She rarely uses this voice or complete sentences.

Kumiko's most common speaking voice is actually an extension sound wise of the

noise macaws make when they are being hand fed or begging to be. As always, she

uses pronouns correctly, but rarely bothers with more than two or three words at

once in this voice. It's also the least clear of her voices.
"

 

[MenomaMinx]

Sorry for the repetitiveness and the strange narration, but these were literally cut-and-paste out of conversations I had with people that are only kept for my voice recognition software to analyze my speech patterns for –- the actual cheat sheet has far more information, far better detailed, and is much better organized.

Also, being old communications, I've learned some new info that wasn't represented in these. Hopefully, this will help you a little bit until I can get myself organized

 

[BruceV]

Thank you! I've got some time on my hands today, so I'll spend some time reading these.

 

[BruceV]

Here's my biggest fear right now...or a list of them.
1. Simba arrives tomorrow and I don't have a play stand and can't afford one currently. I have a perch stand that I started working on, but won't be ready for another week or so. Fortunately,there's a stand on top of the cage, so he can have some outside time.
2. I don't know how he'll react to me getting him in an out of the cage. I can't see leaving him cooped up for days until he's used to me. Or do I?
3. The sheer size of this bird is somewhat intimidating to most people, sometimes to me as well, and I want to make sure I can control him.
4. I want him to love me. My Conure does, so I'm pretty sure he will too. According to the foster mom, he picked me. He's seen other potential adopters before, but he picked me.
5. Hope I don't screw it up.

 

[Birdman666]

Here's my biggest fear right now...or a list of them.
1. Simba arrives tomorrow and I don't have a play stand and can't afford one currently. I have a perch stand that I started working on, but won't be ready for another week or so. Fortunately,there's a stand on top of the cage, so he can have some outside time.

Or he can use his "human play stand." i.e. your arm.

PVC Pipe is cheap, and easy to work with. You could probably rig up a temporary playstand for him without too much trouble.

2. I don't know how he'll react to me getting him in an out of the cage. I can't see leaving him cooped up for days until he's used to me. Or do I?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! Use two fingers on the beak, just in front of his nares, when stepping him up and putting him back to control the beak, and make sure he doesn't attempt to latch on to you. Macaws make really good lap birds... Set him down on your leg. Play those beak play games with him...

3. The sheer size of this bird is somewhat intimidating to most people, sometimes to me as well, and I want to make sure I can control him.

Use a firm hand, and don't take any $hit from him. You can't be wishy-washy with a macaw. You need to handle them with confidence... Again, two fingers controls the beak.

4. I want him to love me. My Conure does, so I'm pretty sure he will too. According to the foster mom, he picked me. He's seen other potential adopters before, but he picked me.

Macaws behaviors are very similar to conure behaviors, just on a larger scale. Same basic rules apply.

5. Hope I don't screw it up.

Well, we all do! You raise a macaw the same way you raise a human toddler. Firm hand, boundary setting, nurturing guidance. Set up a routine with him, enforce the boundaries, don't let him get out of control, and he won't be.

 

[BruceV]

Thank you again, Birdman! You sure do make it sound easy. I know it's going to be a pleasure to have him in my house.

 

[Birdman666]

Thank you again, Birdman! You sure do make it sound easy. I know it's going to be a pleasure to have him in my house.

For me it's sort of second nature by now... and I do stupid things with them that a lot of people don't get away with. I don't know why. We understand each other.

Personally, I think they're easy birds to work with. I'd rather work with a big mac than a U2 (For example), in many respects.

Big thing is beak play and getting this bird comfortable with being handled by people. Starting with you.