Macaw Intelligence at work

[Alwese]

In the wild, macaws fly over dozens of miles of range remembering the precise location of trees and plants of their favorite foods. My Macaws are housed in three large cages in my laundry room along with a refrigerator/freezer with the freezer on the bottom that I keep the annual supply of their nuts in the shell and frozen goodies like their corn on the cob, frozen peas, cherries, and fruit slices. Doogie my Catalina has discovered that this is where I store his favorite goodies and now has learned he can open the door himself, pull out an ear of corn and sit there and party. I have duct-taped the door which he has also found he can overpower. If only I could train him to shut the door when he is done everything would be fine, but with it cracked open three times in the past two days I am at risk of thawing $200. worth of my meat. Yesterday I had to install a gate hasp on the door with a padlock to thwart his efforts. I have learned that you never can "unlearn" anything in a macaw, like the ability to climb the back of a ladder backed chair or rip up peel and stick vinyl tiles from the floor. He is just a macaw being a macaw!

 

[JerseyWendy]

How in the world does he get the door to the freezer open? That's just remarkable!

Clever, clever Doogie.

 

[antoinette]

That is amazing wow
Leave a camera on, keep it rolling and perhaps you will see HOW he does it

 

[Aims]

You need to catch this on camera, just so we can all have a laugh. What a clever Doogie.

 

[Alwese]

Our refrigerator door has a magnetic latch that keeps it shut, so if you pull hard enough on it it will open. Since I have installed the hasp with a padlock, he has tested the door to see if it would open many times. Here I caught him again with the camera. What would make a really funny YouTube video is that Doog Monster has a vehement hatrid for mops and spray bottles. I have a feeling he was teased with them by children of his former owner. He has learned to open the two slide latches on his baby gate door you see pictured. He will then climb down his cage and bash the baby gate door with his head moving the large heavy oak chair a quarter inch at a time you see in front of it to get out. All Doog has to do to repeat this performance is SEE a spray bottle or mop on the floor in front of the chair and he will be out in 30 seconds to bite it! As you can see he has "customized" both the door frame molding and "his" chair. I have replaced the door moldings several times, but that is part of macaw ownership. Click on the pictures to enlarge them