My journey with my PARENT-raised B&G macaw

[triordan]

I can't wait for the video, very interesting idea~ however macaws do take a lot of time and having a young child that needs you as well.... just saying... this is how I got my bird, not enough time once the kids started coming
I will be looking for updates, good luck!

 

[azdesertrhino]

A very interesting thread to this point.

Our situation is:

My wife works at home so MAC has someone at home 90% of the time. Even when my wife has company meetings, she is only gone for a few hours.

MAC is human raised. We got Mac at about 10 weeks old and finished the weaning process ourselves.

Mac is a family member to us. Decisions made in the household always consider Mac. (sometimes he has difficulty explaining his point of view!!)

Mac goes on vacation with us. He has a room of his own and probably 20% of the living room for his play area.

When we got Mac he had already had a lot of human interaction. I'm not sure how it would have been getting him at a year old and he had limited human interaction.

Anyhow, I will follow this thread with great interest just for the educational aspect!!:22:

 

[AllAboutQOL]

Thank you all for your interest and encouragement!

My apologies for the delay, as technology has failed me tonight, but I am pleased to reveal the first few videos of my time with Skye today (Day 5).

I generally show slow body language and use as calm a voice as possible when interacting with Skye (but it's a bit dull so I will be sure to perk up for future videos!)

Skye has been cageless since we got him (last Wednesday), and is fully flighted. The perch was made by the breeder and given to me until we made our own arrangements (tree is in the making). He is currently in a Gym with various household equipment to simulate an indoor domestic environment, but there is no cage in the room. I try to spend half an hour with him at sunrise and again before sunset.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9DQxxRP6VM"]Video 1: Meet Skye[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wcjGsE2nkI"]Video 2: Our progress so far[/ame]
Video 3: End of the session (see link below)

As promised, I said I would give a balanced view because owning any Macaw has its drawbacks.

Here are pics of my bites from the first three-four days that drew some blood (Note: this could happen whether parent- or hand-raised)

* See post below for pictures *


Important: Though this is quite rightly being coined an 'experiment', I by no means am treating the birds like test subjects. Whether I lose a finger or not, they are with me for life...

QoL

 

[henpecked]

That bird was parent raised,never handfeed ? unhandled? in a breeder cage for a year?

 

[Echo]

That bird was parent raised,never handfeed ? unhandled? in a breeder cage for a year?

The initial post says that he was housed in an aviary with his parents and that the breeder handled him when he was a baby so he is used to some human interaction......He is not a wild caught or a strictly parent raised bird. He seems to have been loosely co-parented which I guess is the subject of this thread?

PS: Correct me if i'm wrong in my assumption.

 

[AllAboutQOL]

That bird was parent raised,never handfeed ? unhandled? in a breeder cage for a year?

Hi Henpecked, yes, yes, no and yes! Remember, I mentioned he was handled in the nest by the breeder from time to time (just because the breeder loves handling babies!) so he is not 'unhandled', but this was not regular/daily and he had no intention of selling Skye as a pet. Skye also spent a good month with the breeder (away from his parents) before coming to me, which may have a part to play in his tameness.

That said, I trust the breeder did not handfeed but I have no proof of this. I'm not sure what he would gain by being dishonest here though.

Overall, I'm sure you were surprised by Skye's behaviour, because I know I was!

I believe he has learnt his behaviour from his Parents, who themselves are absolutely tame. Skye (according to the breeder) has never been taught to eat from the breeder's hand, to fly to the breeder in the aviary or to step-up directly, he learnt to do these indirectly by watching and copying his parents!

His parents being tame is a prerequisite to allow co-parenting (i.e. Skye to be handled in the nest) in the first place. To this end, the breeder says he can have his Greenwinged parent birds eat from his hand, even whilst on eggs!

In short, the breeder invests a lot of time in his breeding pairs so the chicks of these birds are naturally semi-tame, as they learn human interaction from their parents. Skye is the product of this breeder's (pretty awesome) system.

The other side to this of course is that, because of Skye's relative success, the breeder is going to charge me the full hand-raised price on the co-parented Greenwinged! Which, I guess, is fair, as you only get what you pay for...

QoL

 

[Echo]

Well I understood right. And being a breeder who only co-parents, I already know the ending of this "experiment"!

All kidding aside, I am only familiar with the species I breed so I will be keeping up with your progress.

 

[Echo]

PS: I don't know if it is just me but the pictures are not showing.....

 

[AllAboutQOL]

Hi Echo, and thank you for your posts!

You are absolutely correct. However, I purposefully did not call this the 'co-parented' thread as that implies daily handling and raising with the intention of becoming a pet... Skye was as 'parent-raised' a macaw as I could find! But strictly speaking he has been loosely co-parented.

And being a breeder who only co-parents, I already know the ending of this "experiment"!

As you already know, I am honestly humbled by your conviction to lead the way on co-parenting! Your data and opinions are invaluable to our discussion.

PS: I don't know if it is just me but the pictures are not showing.....

My apologies if this is the case for everyone.

Please find the pictures attached:


**Quote start**
As promised, I said I would give a balanced view because owning any Macaw has its drawbacks.

Here are pics of my bites from the first three-four days that drew some blood (Note: this could happen whether parent- or hand-raised)

Lateral palm: Photo 1

Tip of little finger: Photo 2

Middle of middle finger: Photo 3

I also did a silly (rookie) mistake of letting him on my bare arm without his claws being trimmed...

My left arm: Photo 4

In contrast to my right arm: Photo 5

Which do you think he has spent more time on??
**Quote end**

QoL

 

[AllAboutQOL]

Here is the last video from yesterday, I had to re-upload it and change the privacy settings, my apologies!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfheFUsvr8"]Video 3: End of the session[/ame]

Before having him fly from me I always count from 1 to 3 and you can see he has already picked up on cue. It is not ideal to launch him in this way and I hope to eventually put this on a verbal command, but for now he does not seem distressed by it and I have noticed his confidence soar with regards to his ability to fly indoors (now he will fly to me at will [at times unexpectedly] when I enter the room, as you can see in the first video).

I cannot describe what I looks, sounds and feels like to be right next to a Macaw in flight. It is truly a remarkable experience...

QoL

 

[MacawGuy]

Good for you. I like all the videos. Looks like he is doing really well. I think I read this but when did you. Go pick him up. And what is his name

 

[sodakat]

BUMP!!! What happened to the rest of the story?

My parent raised birds want to know!