Macaw Stories

[Turquoise]

So continuing the story of how I became owned by my macaws. While I was waiting for Roscoe to get old enough to come home I knew he would like another larger parrot around for companionship. I only had 3 parakeets & didn't think he would view them as sufficient buddies. I contacted his breeder inquiring about a baby SI Eclectus. I had owned a male before & he was a sweetheart. I was a little late in checking and the baby was spoken for. I asked to be put on her waiting list for one of the soon to hatch eggs, not caring if it was male or female.

About a month before Roscoe was scheduled to come home I found out about his older brother, Angel. I read about Angel's disabilities on a FB page and asked the breeder Vicki to tell me more about him. Vicki sent me a couple of short videos showing Angel's leg deformities & his ability to climb with no problem. I asked to be considered a suitable home for Angel. It didn't take Vicki long to decide after I sent her a photo of the parakeet I once had with deformed toes. I made her Mesquite bark ramps she could waddle up & feel like she was perching on the limbs with her cage mates.

So in Jan. of 2012 I not only brought Roscoe home, I also brought my special boy Angel home & have enjoyed every bit of having him in my life! He was 9 mo old and actually was already bonded to Vicki. She had spent a lot of time with him. He does love me & I can hold him, but he is not totally bonded to me like my rotten Roscoe who is a total clown.

Angel in the foreground on his play perch a month after coming home.

Angel in Sept. enjoying a scritch.

 

[Turquoise]

Now we come to the last saga of my macaw stories. Even tho' I love my two boys, I still wanted a Green Wing. Something that I have never quit wanting since I saw my first photo of one a very long time ago.

So, after joining this forum & mentioning my obsession to own, ummm be owned by a Green Wing & not knowing any breeders in my state, I was given contact info from Wendy. I did contact the breeder & am currently on her waiting list for one later in the year when her birds start nesting again.

In the mean time, of course I like to window shop as I am female. And on one of my window shopping excursions I happen to find the cutest little baby girl Green Wing & had to inquire about her. I found out she has a slight disability in that her Dad bit the tip of her left wing off when she was 1 day old. Her breeder Kitty said despite her rough start in life it did not affect her sweet personality & she is a very happy girl. Again I was hooked & am now waiting for my first GW to come home sometime in Feb. or could be March when she is old enough to be shipped. Unfortunately she is in Washington state and will have to fly home to me. I will pick her up at the Dallas airport.

I am still planning to get a baby from the breeder in my state later this year & then I will have my flock complete. After all I will have to fill the other half of the aviary I will be putting up on the opposite side of the living room like I have for Roscoe & Angel. I love having macaws in my life & for the most part, my two boys are nice to me & allow me to sleep during the day on work nights. I don't expect that to last, but I will eventually have a room added that I will move my bedroom in. Then the now bedroom wall will be opened up to allow more space for all the play perches & other fiddie stuff.

Turquoise Ruby Jewel showing her slightly imperfect wing.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Angel in Sept. enjoying a scritch.

I have goosebumps looking at this picture. HOW precious!!!!!!!

 

[JerseyWendy]

Oh my GAAAWD....look at that face!!!!! Ruby Jewel will be the luckiest bird in the world.
You are a SUPER special birdy mom, Turquoise - no doubt!!!!! :10:

 

[Alwese]

Wow what a response! Three whole pages of stories to tell makes for a good thread. We all have been profoundly impacted by our relationships to these magnificent creatures. That head scritch picture looks a whole lot like my Clifford in the enjoy mode Turquoise. Click on Thumbnail to enlarge

 

[Sambamama]

I love to read these stories about how you all met your macaws. I also like to read how the ones with special needs are placed into loving homes.

 

[Turquoise]

Thanks Wendy & Alwese. Clifford does look adorable getting his head scritched. Isn't it awesome how they really get into the scritches something on the lines of euphoria. My two boys love to preen me or should I say my clothes. Neither is too fond of my long hair tickling them & Roscoe will shake his head & scratch if he gets any around his beak. I wear a special jacket now that it is cold that has a broken plastic zipper just so they can 'pick' my pin feathers off. At least that is how I view their enjoyment of picking at the zipper part. If I ever stop long enough to do some thinking, I want to take an old shirt & fasten little ropes with wooden toy bits hanging from it & old buttons for the 'kids' to pick at when they want to preen me.

Here is my latest two photos of Ruby Jewel the breeder Kitty sent me yesterday. She says Ruby Jewel is a real cuddle bug. She is growing in a hurry & is is super cute!

 

[plax]

Thanks for posting the new pics, Turquoise... Ruby Jewel is such a pretty baby

 

[MikeyTN]

Beautiful, heart warming stories, Alwese.

THIS is how Niko and I "happened".

I was running and maintaining a 180 gallon reef tank, and it was really starting to wear me out, not to mention our monthly electric bill was almost twice as much as it was before I started reef-keeping (and I was NOT using Metal Halides, but T-5s).

So on a whim I decided to sell the entire setup as a whole, much to the delight of my husband. Little did he know that I was actually dreaming about having a Macaw. :54:

I visited several nearby stores, placed many phone calls, played with bunches of babies, looked and admired several dozen Macs that needed rehoming, and finally drove to South Jersey (70 miles one way) to visit a breeder/store who had some older babies.

Walked in, walked around, talked to the Macs, felt slightly intimidated by most, and then walked by a glass enclosure and peeked inside.

OH MY WOLRD...there were 2 small B&G babies in there, not even 2 months old, not even perching yet. I asked if the enclosure could be opened, and the owner complied. One of the babies waddled over to me immediately, while the other one stayed by its stuffed animal, looking at me, tilting his head a little bit.

I only had a few bucks in my wallet and begged her to take all of it as a deposit. She did.

I then drove down to that store 2-3 times a week. On my 4th visit, the "shy" baby decided to waddle on over to me and attempted to climb onto my hand. That was it! My decision had been made, and I never had a single regret.

Niko finally came home with me when he was a little over 4 months old.

I couldn't help but laugh about your fish tank sale for a bird, when we sold our saltwater reef tank setup, we got our ekkies....lol....It's a BETTER trade off and I was getting exhausted from maintaining the tanks.....

 

[MikeyTN]

We've had Willie for 9 years now. When I finally was settled again I asked my partner if we could have a bird in the house which I missed my birds when my ex give them all away behind my back but I kept one out of that deal....But that one bird was at my family's house and they didn't want to let him go so my partner got me Willie for my birthday. We were just checking Willie out to begin with. The owners told me Willie never liked any strangers that comes into their home and IF Willie pick me, he is negotiable. I walked in the house and within seconds I stick my arm out to Willie and he step up for me instantly. It was love at first sight. The owners were in shock when they saw him step up for me, the lady handfed him herself. We proceed to leave so we can discuss it on the way home, the lady called me and told me to take him as they've never seen him like that with anyone else. She was working a lot in her new job as they needed the money. But I know she loved him dearly. I tried to give her updates but it upsets her as her husband got mad at me for calling to give her update several years later. So I never called since.....At least I know Willie came from a loved home, not in the best messy household and a beat up cage, but he was loved by the lady owner. I can see it in her eyes she was very sad to give him up. Willie made my life whole again as I was missing my birds. I do love Willie very much no matter what he's done when his hormone hits cause I know deep within, he loves me very much and is loving again after the hormone period is over.

 

[horsesculpter]

I guess it is time to tell Sunny's story, "The Best Christmas Present Ever." We sure didn't know it at the time though. We had a beloved little Quaker Lulu who was really my husbands bird, and I had told him I would like an African Grey. He would always tell me two birds were too many to travel with which I thought was true. We travel with a trailer for about four months each year with our business. Space is obviously limited. A grey was as big a bird as I would consider. Certainly, I did NOT want a macaw. It was about a week before Christmas, 2010 and we had agreed not to buy each other Christmas gifts except little things and wait until afterwards to maybe get something for the house. That evening as we sat watching TV, I turned my computer on and opened Craigslist just to browse. At that very same time a family made the decision to part with their bird in hopes of getting her a better home. I had never heard of or seen a Catalina macaw and there she was! Included was her 3 by 4 by 6 1/2 ' cage, three stands, and assorted stuff, all for a rehoming fee of $350. Had she had a macaw price, reality would have bit, and I would have gone on browsing, knowing a macaw would never fit our lifestyle. As it was, taking complete leave of my sanity, I asked my husband if we could rethink this Christmas thing. "What do you want?" he mumbled not really paying attention. I turned the screen of my laptop toward him. He sat up stared and said "can you get it?" Within a couple of minutes, the deal was made and the ad was removed. Three days later we were off to town with the pickup to bring Sunny and a full pickup load of her stuff home. I should have noticed that it took carefull loading to get all that to fit in the back of of that big dually truck, but I was too interested in the bird. We took a wire dog crate for Sunny to ride in the backseat. Sunny was polite when we met her, but coming home she was sure she was kidnapped and turned into a growling, screaming, monster trying frantically to bite through the wires of the crate. I turned and tried to talk soothingly to her. At the top of her lungs she screamed "SHUT UP!" First words she ever said to me. We went through several weeks of a very angry, heartbroken and frightened bird, that did at times make me wonder what I had done, but we all worked it out and now have the companion of a lifetime. I know some of you have read Sunny's stories already. She loves to travel and entertain people at the shows, has her own Facebook page where her funny sayings get recorded, and has fans around the country who come to see her and take her picture. She rides between us in the truck, has her own nighttime cage in the trailer, has been canoeing with us, to garage sales, Home Depot, First Monday, Petsmart, and anywhere else she is allowed in. She has a vocabulary of around two hundred words and phrases which she uses very appropriately. We were her fourth home in her first two and a half years. She spent the last year before we got her living in a back yard next to a school bus stop and we think she got her big vocabulary talking to the kids. This one was meant to be! Me? I'm still looking for that old African Grey in need of one last home, who would enjoy the company of a very adorable Catalina. Lulu is gone now, RIP, and much missed. Last fall a professional photographer came by our booth and was so taken with Sunny she sent me this picture. This is the work of Laurie Haughton of Epona Portraits. And as Sunny would say to all the above "dats a fact".

 

[josiesmom]

Last year, around this time, my sister told me that her friend has a B&G macaw and her husband wasn't getting along with her. I mentioned to her that I would LOVE a B&G...it is my dream pet. Fast forward to May. The previous owner was going away and asked me to bird sit Josie at my house. On June 1, she dropper her off and never came back for her. They went on their vacation and while they were gone, one of their dogs died, so she asked me to keep Josie and give her a good home. She felt that she could not take her back for fear that her husband would really start pushing to re-home her. Apparently, Josie did some damage to their home and did not like her husband at all. We have never had a problem with her destroying anything because we watch her like a toddler when she is out. As it turns out, her husband wears a baseball cap quite a bit and Josie didn't have a problem with him as much as she hated the hat. They have been over to visit and if he doesn't wear a hat, Josie will go to him. She freaks out whenever anyone with a hat comes near her. So, Josie has been with us for a little over six months and we could not be happier to have added her to our family. She was only 2 years old when she came to live with us, so we are hoping for many years together. Now, the husband keeps hinting that he wants us to watch their 15 year old amazon this year for vacation.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Well....I have a story to tell now:
Went to a "not" so near store today (1 hour away). They had 3 GWs, all in cages, 2 of them housed together, and none very friendly (to put it mildly).

Since there was hardly anyone in the store, I asked the girl in charge if I could take out one of the GWs. Her reply was: "They're not so friendly, but go ahead and try, but at your own risk."

Well, stupid Wendy opened the cage with the 2 GWs, and both were ready to take off my head.

I approached the cage with the lone GW, sweet talked, and the GW came REALLY close, sticking out his foot. I stroked the foot. I then opened the door. He lunged. I pretended I didn't see him lunging and asked him to STEP UP. He did! And THEN he tried to nail me. :54: I invaded the bite by moving my arm, and walked away from the cage. Found a toy, handed it to him. He played happily, perched on my arm. I put him back in his cage. GREAT! Took him back out. MUCH easier the second time around. Put him back and walked away for 10+ minutes. Came back to him, opened cage, and he stepped right up. :11: NO patting though or I would have lost a limb.

To make a VERY long story short(er): He will be mine!

I named him Ripley (...believe it or not...). He IS a boy. His hatch date is June 10th, 2011.

He is big. He is gorgous. And he is timid. He is fully vetted also. Comes with a health guarantee. He has a HUGE beak.

I just phoned in the deposit....and excuse me...because now I'm ready to faint.

Ripley should be HOME by this weekend. :32:

 

[plax]

Well....I have a story to tell now:
Went to a "not" so near store today (1 hour away). They had 3 GWs, all in cages, 2 of them housed together, and none very friendly (to put it mildly).

Since there was hardly anyone in the store, I asked the girl in charge if I could take out one of the GWs. Her reply was: "They're not so friendly, but go ahead and try, but at your own risk."

Well, stupid Wendy opened the cage with the 2 GWs, and both were ready to take off my head.

I approached the cage with the lone GW, sweet talked, and the GW came REALLY close, sticking out his foot. I stroked the foot. I then opened the door. He lunged. I pretended I didn't see him lunging and asked him to STEP UP. He did! And THEN he tried to nail me. :54: I invaded the bite by moving my arm, and walked away from the cage. Found a toy, handed it to him. He played happily, perched on my arm. I put him back in his cage. GREAT! Took him back out. MUCH easier the second time around. Put him back and walked away for 10+ minutes. Came back to him, opened cage, and he stepped right up. :11: NO patting though or I would have lost a limb.

To make a VERY long story short(er): He will be mine!

I named him Ripley (...believe it or not...). He IS a boy. His hatch date is June 10th, 2011.

He is big. He is gorgous. And he is timid. He is fully vetted also. Comes with a health guarantee. He has a HUGE beak.

I just phoned in the deposit....and excuse me...because now I'm ready to faint.

Ripley should be HOME by this weekend. :32:

WOW! Congratulations on adopting Ripley, Wendy!! I love that name! Did you snap any pics of him?

 

[WharfRat]

That is just AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats!!!!!

Plax, I foresee a ton of questions in the near future LOL

and yea..........PICS?????????

How much bigger that your B&G??

 

[JerseyWendy]

WOW! Congratulations on adopting Ripley, Wendy!! I love that name! Did you snap any pics of him?

No, Plax, sorry, no pictures (yet).
To tell you the truth, I'm sitting here bawling my eyes out. I honestly cannot believe this is happening. It hasn't really sunk in yet....... What REALLY blows is I have a vet appointment with Oscar in 1/2 hour (regular checkup), tomorrow I have to go for Jury Duty (and hope they don't pick me..), but RIPLEY is the ONLY thing on my mind.

I never knew what an utter MESS I'd become......

Emotional overload for sure. If there was no vet appointment today and no jury duty tomorrow, I'd be back on the road right now, picking him up....BUT I have to get a grip! Ripley will get Hunter's cage. I have to get that ready. Hunter will go into the cage that Ripley will come with. A 40" wide cage. :11: (She's currently in a 48" wide = Macaw sized cage).

SO much to do...but it truly hans't sunk into my head yet. :30: Overwhelming - to say the least.

 

[josiesmom]

That is awesome Wendy! I can't wait for some pics. Where is this pet store, I may need to take a road trip and check out the other ones. I'm only in pa.

 

[plax]

No, Plax, sorry, no pictures (yet).

Be sure to snap some when you go to pick him up, and of course when you arrive home with him

To tell you the truth, I'm sitting here bawling my eyes out. I honestly cannot believe this is happening. It hasn't really sunk in yet....... What REALLY blows is I have a vet appointment with Oscar in 1/2 hour (regular checkup), tomorrow I have to go for Jury Duty (and hope they don't pick me..), but RIPLEY is the ONLY thing on my mind.

I can certainly understand your emotions! Uhhh, as for potentially being selected as a juror, you could always happen to be biased or prejudice one way or the other and allow this 'fact' to emerge during their screening question process . They would reject you then .

I never knew what an utter MESS I'd become......

It'll all be worth it once you have Ripley all secure and cozy at home

Emotional overload for sure. If there was no vet appointment today and no jury duty tomorrow, I'd be back on the road right now, picking him up....BUT I have to get a grip! Ripley will get Hunter's cage. I have to get that ready. Hunter will go into the cage that Ripley will come with. A 40" wide cage. :11: (She's currently in a 48" wide = Macaw sized cage).

Wow, stressful! But you'll overcome it and all will be fine (actually, better than fine since you'll have your new baby )

SO much to do...but it truly hans't sunk into my head yet. :30: Overwhelming - to say the least.

I hope you'll find the time to keep us posted at least

 

[plax]

Plax, I foresee a ton of questions in the near future LOL

Hey, no prob ... we can do our best

 

[WharfRat]

Uhhh, as for potentially being selected as a juror, you could always happen to be biased or prejudice one way or the other and allow this 'fact' to emerge during their screening question process . They would reject you then

LOL, my breeder friend was summoned for a murder trial, when they started asking her questions she said "The SOB is guilty, just look at the facts"

Um, she was dismissed