Fledgling 13 Week Macaw

[Bliss0619]

Hi everyone, so I have many years (20 years) of large bird experience but all have been rescues. So most of my experience has been with helping them to trust and eating better. I recently got a 5 week old B&G who I am enjoying very much. She is now 13 weeks great eater very sweet and simply amazing. She recently took flight and is eager to fly all day that she stopped eating as much as before but I knew this was coming. My question is how do you keep them from getting hurt? I now have all my curtains drawn to protect her from windows. I do the cage for short periods but she wants to climb and hang and I'm afraid she could fall and hurt herself. She still sleeps by my bed in her bin which she stays in all night without getting out, but will not stay even for a minute during the day. Second question is if she is eager to out and about how do I introduce new foods to her. I put some pellets in a bowl, and switch to veggies and fruit but I have to sit there with her and hand it to her because she is more interested in walking around and now flying.

 

[Laurasea]

I think exploring food spread around in shallow large dishes ( casserole),or on a plate best.

It could be time to set him up in his cage wjth only low perches available

 

[Bliss0619]

Thank you, she does have a cage and I set up the perch low but she climbs the cage and the I have to rescue her when she gets tired. I'm afraid of her dropping and hurting herself.

 

[Littleredbeak]

She sounds unbelievably adorable! Congratulations on your little bean!
You can set up a platform near the top and maybe cushion it with fabrics, Timothy hay at the bottom, crunched brown paper or a small pillow? When I created a platform I used long perches, cardboard and zip ties to secure. The perches held the cardboard up and I used zip ties for extra security. And on the very top I secured a giant Timothy hay hut - it’s for guinea pigs. She could use the hut to climb on and go in to give her healing ankle/foot a break from perching. I did all this because my parrot had trouble staying perched and couldn’t fly sO my parrot need the extra safety precautions. While your bird isn’t injured it may help until she fully becomes flighted. Congrats again!

 

[Bliss0619]

Thank you she is, but such a handfull. She love snuggling in bed but now her thing is exploring the house.