I am so excited!

[Morthy]

I am gonna be a parront in 2 months.

He will be a B&G Macaw, I can't wait. I am gonna have him at the age of ~6 weeks. The breeder said that I'll need to handfeed him 4 times every day. I'm nervous because I have no experience in handfeeding, but I will visit him every week for advices.

Now all is about making the house bird proof, and preparing everything.

I have a lot of time, but I am still shaking.

 

[tab_xo]

Woo hoo!! Congratulations

The wait will be horrible, but getting everything sorted and decorating his cage and play areas will make it go fast

Have you got a name picked out?

Your life will be very different hehe :09:

 

[JerseyWendy]

Many congrats, expecting parront!!

I don't want to sound like a negative nelly or ruin the homecoming party, but please consider waiting until your new baby is fully weaned. Raising/hand feeding a macaw is no simple task. Experienced and responsible breeders will tell you that it can often be difficult feeding young macaws. Many have quite the feeding response, and you have to know what you are doing with the syringe/spoon so that the bird doesn't aspirate (gets the food into his lungs).

The temperature has to be right, the formula has to have a certain consistency, you have to watch out for sour crop, you have to make sure the crop empties properly, you have to weigh the chick daily and keep records, etc etc etc.

Again, I don't want to sound negative. I've raised enough babies to tell you that big macs can be quite difficult to even experienced hand feeders.

 

[Johnny]

Congrats ! I hope you will become a happy family
Be sure to snuggle with him a lot!

Don't worry about hand feeding that much, it was such a happy time for me when I was hand-feeding my baby macaw And it was also first time for me. You are going to do well ! Just be very cautious like Wendy said.

Best luck with you future buddy !

 

[Morthy]

Thanks

Wendy: I wasn't sure if I want to handfeed the baby or not, but he is one of the best breeders in Europe, so I trust him. He'll give us everything we need to handfeed the bird properly.

I haven't picked a name out yet, it is very hard.

 

[brianlinkles]

Morthy, congratulations! That is exciting! Please listen to Wendy about the handfeeding, I am not going to say not to do it because I did it on every baby I bought. Just heed her advice seriously. Macaws are quite difficult to feed just because of the feeding response. I would suggest using a small paper cup, it is easy to puncture the throat of the macaw because they eat so aggressively. That makes using a syringe quite challenging for someone new to weaning. I used a small paper cup kind of creasing the edge and allowing the bird to taste the food while it was going into it's mouth. This said, it will make feeding slower but safer. I would also suggest going often before bringing him home and learning from the breeder. Have fun and whats the name of your new baby?

 

[antoinette]

Morthy it is exciting wow

My suggestion: PLEASE TAKE WENDY'S ADVISE

I did so much research about hand rearing a bird, I THOUGH I WAS READY FOR IT

I hand raised Mishka (my African Grey) from 6 weeks old, had never hand raised a bird before.
It was frightening each and ever feed, not knowing if the he had enough, was the temperature correct for feeding, was it thick enough. I was so confused by his crop, not knowing whether it had emptied properly, fearing he would get sour crop.
I feed him by syringe, praying I do not get food into his lungs. I did weigh him each day...

BUT I did phone the breeder each day, about 10 times... no jokes, just to make sure I was doing everything correctly.

I never slept for the first month, checking up on him constantly, was he sleeping, was he going hungry.

Your bird's life in in your hands, if anything had to happen would you ever forgive yourself.

 

[Morthy]

I know that it is dangerous, and I wouldn't have made this decision by myself. The breeder told me that it will be the better way. I've read a lot about the dangers of handfeeding, and I didn't agree with the breeder first. But then I asked him a lot of questions, and he told me that everything is gonna be ok, and if I want, I can go to him, and handfeed his birds to practice.

I am very afraid of handfeeding, so it is not 100% sure that it is gonna be that way. We'll see.

 

[Morthy]

We've talked to the breeder, and we made a decision;

Our relatives and this breeder are very good friends, so we decided that I am gonna move into our relatives' house for 2-3 days, and go to the breeder to handfeed some of his chicks to learn.

What do you guys think about it?

 

[Abigal7]

If you are going to hand feed this bird then I would make sure you have the breeder around and a avian vet that you can see. I would heed the warnings everyone is telling you. If you are hand feeding the bird because you think it will bond with you I will tell you a young weaned bird can bond with you. I wouldn't want to lose a bird to an accident. Also no money is saved if the baby bird dies.

 

[Morthy]

I didn't choose the handfeeding, the breeder told me to do so, and I'll may accept it or not. I am not doing it for the money or because I think it'll bond with me.

As I said it, I am thinking about it because I really trust the breeder, because he is the best in the country, and he is a very good friend of the family. I am gonna move right next to him for a couple of days to work and learn. Also, a very good avian vet is in our town so that problem is solved.

Please don't think that I don't listen to you guys. Thank you for all the comments, I really appreciate it. I won't forget about your posts, and I am gonna mention them to the breeder, and I'm gonna ask him why I should handfeed my bird. I am aware of the hazards, and I want to make sure that everything is gonna be ok.

I won't take it if I am not experienced enough in handfeeding, and if I couldn't raise him properly.

 

[sssaucey]

I just wanted to add that most reputable breeders will not sell an unweaned bird, for me that would be a red flag since it seems like the breeder is pushing you to handfeed.

I really don't want to take away the thrill of getting a new bird, I think we all just want you to have a happy ending instead of something going terribly wrong.

Good luck with what ever you decide!!!

 

[Morthy]

I am not sure if I can share any information about him, considering that he didn't want me to upload pictures to the internet.

He bred many incredibly rare kinds of parrots, and he has clients even from New-Zealand.

If he wasn't this successful and if I haven't seen his wonderful birds, I wouldn't trust him so much. But he has to know something that the rest of the world doesn't know. He has been successfully breeding for about 30 years now, so I guess he didn't have problems with his methods so far. (He may be wrong, I am not trying to be offensive, I am not saying that you are wrong. I just don't know who should I believe.)

 

[sssaucey]

I'll just say go with your gut, it's completely up to you if you think this is a good breeder.

I'm not trying to offend anyone either haha, just trying to be of help lol

 

[Morthy]

They rather come to him to learn and talk than to bring birds home.

He used to have workers just working for the knowledge and not for the money. We saw them, so it is true. (Of course the workers were from Hungary)

I don't really get the point of handfeeding either, I just trust him. But the life of my bird is more important than the trust in a breeder, so I am gonna talk about it with him. And if he can't say a good reason why should I do it, of course I won't be so stupid to do it.

By the way it is really good to see that this community wants the best for prospective birds owners. Thanks for every advice. I won't forget them, I'll mention them to the breeder to see what he says.

 

[Mayden]

Nope nope nope.

Don't buy it, he's spouting lies and lies and lies.

Sorry to rain on your parade but you CANNOT import birds into New Zealand.
Here is the NZ Government website:
Birds | MPI Biosecurity New Zealand
"Birds
New Zealand does NOT allow pet birds from any country to be imported.
No pet birds of any species from any country have been imported into New Zealand since 1997. Imports were suspended following an avian disease outbreak, and remain in effect due to the risks associated with live bird imports."

They may well have come to 'train' with him - but there are plenty of adequate breeders in NZ for me to not believe this story either.

Reputable breeders will not push ANYBODY to hand feed a bird - with training or not. If someone is not feeling comfortable, they will simply say "Okay, no problem, they'll stay with me, feel free to visit, I'll let you know when he's done weaning." Reputable breeders will only EVER sell an unweaned baby to someone who is very experienced (most likely a bird breeder themselves) in handfeeding.

Please look elsewhere, I'm sorry to be a killjoy but this person is spouting lies and giving you bad information. You say you have an avian vet in the town, which is great. Find another breeder, use that vet. 6 weeks old is incredibly young for a macaw, a lot of birds are weaned around 8 weeks old, but macaws are "pesky little buggers" (as my breeder said) and can take up to 16-20 weeks to wean, just because they will wean and then revert for no reason.

No photos? Does he say why? That usually means the birds are not being kept in top notch condition or is actually a bird mill. Any breeder will be happy to show anyone their beautiful flock, the excellent parents and their lovely healthy chicks (through pictures with chicks because of health reasons, if they don't feel comfortable in person!). They are happy to show you their breeding setup, nest boxes (if they are comfortable disturbing parents), chick pictures from egg to after weaning. I know a fair few breeders and I get to see every little special moment from the parents courting to the chicks being sent off to their new homes.

Please reconsider. He sounds so so shifty and pushy or money and hiding his real motives - money. Would he give you a new macaw free if this one was to die from bad handrearing?

I did not handrear Merlin, neither did my partner Andrew. But you can gaurentee in a room full of people (and Merlin is a VERY sociable bird) that it will always be me and Andrew that he'll come back to, because he sees us as his flock. You can get a bird at 15 years old and still develop a deep bond with them. So if he tries using "bonding" as an excuse, that is also rubbish.

Again, please just find another breeder, visit the bird until he's weaned, take him home and enjoy life together. As Antionette said, every moment of making that bird formula up is terrifying, you'll probably have anxiety attacks - some even have minor nervous breakdowns because they are so uneasy with feeding their own bird. Supervision is all well and good and makes people feel confident, but when you're home alone with this precious new life (that you've just paid an awful lot of money for too!) it's an entirely different ball game.

So: lies about his New Zealand clients, no photos, pushing for handfeeding.
Any one of these reasons would put me off a breeder alone. Nevermind all three.

 

[JerseyWendy]

We've talked to the breeder, and we made a decision;

Our relatives and this breeder are very good friends, so we decided that I am gonna move into our relatives' house for 2-3 days, and go to the breeder to handfeed some of his chicks to learn.

What do you guys think about it?

Morthy, it didn't take me 2-3 days to learn how to handfeel properly, it took me over a course of many MONTHS to feel comfortable enough to take in some of my GF's babies and rear them in my home when she was going through a rough time in her life. She used to breed numerous birds, and believe me, I didn't start with macaws. If you go on YouTube, I'm sure you'll find clips of people handfeeding baby macaws. Have a look at the feeding response on many of them. It "can" be a scary thing.

I promise you, we ALL want you to get your B&G baby, I truly think we all have your AND the bird's best interest at heart here. We don't want you to set yourself up for a possible heartbreak or unnecassary vet bills.

Yes, there are MANY people who have hand reared thier own mac baby and it all went well. There are just as many (if not more) where something went terribly wrong, but we often never hear of the sad endings.

I promise you that a weaned baby can bond to you just as strongly as a wee little one. Our Tab and Fargo are prime examples for that.

 

[Mando]

I agree with everything mentioned above !
Don,t do this !
It can only turn out in heartbreak and manny vet costs.
I,m from europe as wel, if you wish I can contact my breeder and ask him if hè knows a breeder in you,re aria ho sels weenend macaws.

 

[sssaucey]

Well I'm glad someone caught the shipping to New Zealand part because I didn't, for me that would be a complete deal breaker and I would look for a different breeder.

 

[Mayden]

Well I'm glad someone caught the shipping to New Zealand part because I didn't, for me that would be a complete deal breaker and I would look for a different breeder.

If he had said any other country in Europe I'd probably have believed him, but to claim NZ is as far fetched as it gets. They're the strictest country in regards to importing animals, Australia is bad for it, New Zealand is worse.

Could not trust a breeder who lies through his teeth to me. Sorry!