Looking for personal input from macaw owners.

[Pim]

Hi.

I am posting on behalf of a friend but would also love to know myself. We are wondering exactly what it is like living with a macaw, preferably just one. She used to have 2 sun conures and is now considering getting a macaw. She used to have just 1 and a year later got another, before getting the second conure her sunny would only scream for 5 or so mins in the morning and the same when she got home, or maybe when the bird saw something that spooked it or got excited, but not 24/7 screaming, it was very loud but not brain numbing. Since she had two, the noise and mess was of course doubled, but screaming seem to be more frequent. We are wondering if having just one macaw is like noise and mess wise. Does (a well adjusted/trained macaw) only scream in the morning or when you get home as well as randomly when playing etc or are they much more vocal? From mine and her experience with birds they are vocal but not constantly, especially while not at home.

Also, just how loud are they? I have a cockatoo and cannot imagine anything louder, my sun and jenday are loud but not more then my cocky, but more high pitched. my ekkie isn't very vocal at all. She is thinking about getting a blue and gold as they are her fave, but thinking about a greenwing, too.

In your opinion, what is it like day to day life with a macaw? are they energetic like conures and cockatoos or more laid back like ekkies? my conures could play and fly all day where as my ekkie prefers to play for a bit but more happy to sit and watch people or sit in your company.

What is it like living with a flighted macaw? we are both pro flight but worry how such a big bird would move in a house, are they very mobile? again, we find conures to be flying a lot but bigger birds to be more laid back and happier to sit on things or waddle/walk somewhere, or jump.

thanks for your answers we look forward to hearing them!

please feel free to add any extra info.

 

[ali1]

You can deifnately train a macaw not to adapt to the screaming behavior. It's rare that my macaw screams, only when he sees a squirrel or rodent on the balcony that he feels threatened from. The biggest mistake you can do is respond to his screams. If he screams and you run to him, then you lost your own battle my friend. Macaws, like cockatoos, often use screaming as a behavior during the first weeks of living with it. After you ignore his screams and show him that his screams will not receive any attention, then he will find other ways to get your attention (i.e. saying words, doing tricks and dances, mimicking human phrases). These large parrots need to see a pattern for them to acknowledge " hey, this specific task that I do, brings attention"

As for louder screams, my mollucan cockatoo screamed louder and was more ear-shattering than my macaw. I find macaws to be more calm than cockatoos. At anytime during the day, I interact with the cockatoo, he will drop what he's doing and play with me. If my macaw is busy cleaning his feathers or playing with a toy, he will not drop what he is doing.

When my macaw leaves the house, I have him on a harness for a few safety reasons. When he is in the house, he can fly anywhere he wants, but 99% of the time, he is content with the hanging tree stand I have for him in the living room.


I would say going from a conure to a macaw is a huge step and change. You will need to spend more quality time with a macaw of any type.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[Sulphiria]

We had a sun for a short time and a B&G now. I would take 5 B&Gs over one little sun. But the screech the suns have *really* hurt my ears. Mojo (our B&G) has only been here a couple days, and he can be loud but usually isnt. He does a turkey call which sounds like a seal but doesnt have the high pitch to it. It depends on his mood as to whether or not he wants to interact. Yesterday he was out and away from his cage and everytime someone walked by he would spread his wings for pets, it was pretty adorable.

I would recommend the macaw to someone if they are willing to do the research and have the time and patience.. and money!

 

[KBEquine]

The problem with macaws - or any bird - is they all are individuals & another macaw owner's experience may not be yours. We are lucky - we live in a single-family house with lots of air-space between us & the closest neighbor, so we can't annoy the neighbors the way we could, if we were in an apartment or neighborhood with close houses.

Our greenwing screams in the morning & evening. Not bad (to my mind) and not long. But other people have had different experiences - I think if you search the macaw forum, you'll find a thread where a macaw owner said she wished new macaw owners were warned they could scream so loud it almost makes your ears bleed.

The greenwing also has learned to mimic the sound of the closet door opening (because his chew-wood is kept in the closet, so to him the gad-awful screech of the hinges is a welcome sound - means I'm getting him a toy). THAT noise isn't loud, but like fingernails on a chalkboard.

And the wood chips from the destroyed toys . . . very, very messy.

Our macaw also speaks, often very articulately. And when I whisper, he whispers. And he and our African Grey have learned some of each others' words. When he wants attention, I hold him & he lays his head on my shoulder and says, "Aww . . ." and I thoroughly enjoy him.

So, that's been MY experience. But I think if you ask 20 macaw owners, you will get 20 different answers for how loud and messy they are.

So while to me, it has all been worth it, but read the screaming threads on this forum, and the rehoming forum - or contact your local parrot rescue & ask why various macaws have been turned into them for rehoming. I think every single owner of one of those macaws in rescue believed it wouldn't get as bad as it did for them.

So to me, the question is unanswerable, due to the different personalities of the birds themselves, and because different people can tolerate different things in their own individual situations.