skymanfromiowa
New member
- Dec 19, 2017
- 5
- 0
Decided this past summer that I wanted to get life long companion. I have extensive background with working dogs. COE breeder for Rottweilers. Done several shows and achieved several working titles as well. The sad thing with dogs is I get my heart broke with the rather short life dogs live. I had a friend that had to Greys and would house sit/bird sit for him when he went to his condo in Mexico. This was several times a year usually a week to 10 days at a time. My friend passed away from accident and his finance was trying to sell his house and asked me if I wanted his Greys. At the time I had a job that I did a lot of traveling and was not in the position to take this responsibility on. After a job change (no more travel) I am in a much different position for owning a bird. Several years ago I was dating this girl who always wanted a Yorkie and being a COE breeder I did not want to go out and buy a Yorkie from a backyard breeder I inquired with a Yorkie rescue. Within a few months we had adopted/rescued two that came from very bad situations. Today these two Yorkies are two of the best dogs I have ever owned. I no longer breed Rotties and rehomed my last Rotties to Vets returning home from deployment. All this being said when I made the decision to get a bird I was going to get one from a rescue. I made contact with Iowa Parrot Rescue. Originally I had my heart set on getting a grey. The grey they had at the time was not to friendly to men and made several visits but she just wasn't bonding with me. During these visits I would break away from the grey (so i wouldn't stress her out) and would go visit with other birds in the rescue. It didn't take long before a couple Macaws would speak to me. I inquired with the rescue if this was normal for anyone that would come in and was told that normally those two Macaws don't interact like they did with me but on a few occasions they have. It was at this point that maybe I should let the bird pick me. Discussed this with the rescue and after watching me engage the birds on several of my previous visits they felt comfortable with adopting a Macaw. Now it was time to figure which one of the two I would adopt. One is a male B&G(20 years old prev owner older couple no kids) and the other was male second gen hybrid Ruby x B&G (2 years old and came from family with children, dogs, and cat.) After a few weeks of weighing pros and cons I decided on the 2 year old Hybrid named Skittles (looks just like a bag of Skittles). Ordered and assembled giant corner cage 43x43x50. Brought Skittles home with me this previous Saturday. Feeding him mix vegs and fruit in the morning and Zupreen pellets in the afternoon. He is in an empty bedroom with nothing but his cage. Everytime I walk into the room I bring him a nut so he can associate seeing me with getting a nut. At the shelter the only way I saw that they could get him to step up was to have a stick in your other hand and to get away from the stick he would step up. Once he stepped up on the volunteer Skittles would than step up on my arm. Since he has arrived at my home I have not pressed him to step up for me. I am pretty sure if I had a stick in my other hand he would but I don't want him to associate the stick with me. He is adjusting pretty well or at least that is what I am thinking/hoping. He is generally pretty quiet and didn't say anything or the Macaw screetch anytime when I was at the rescue. Once I got him home the only noise he made was climbing around his new cage. The first day I didn't let him out. The second day mid morning I went and opened his cage. At the shelter he would come right out when I did this. The first time at home he just stayed on his perch. After interacting with him for a few minutes I just left the room put a gate up so the dogs could not get in there and left him alone. About an hour later I heard him climbing around his cage. I went into room with a nut in my hand and he was on top of the cage. As soon as he saw me he quickly went back into his cage. I gave him his nut talked to him for a few minutes and left the room again. As soon as I left I could hear him getting on top of the cage again. The next two times I went in the room he went back in the cage but the third time he stayed out. Also on Sunday when I would go in the room and give him a nut or two and talk to him he finally starting vocalizing. To get him back in the cage for bedtime I show him a large Brazil nut and put it in his foot bowl and he climbs back into the cage and I can close it up and turn the lights off and he goes to his perch for the night. I am doing a lot of research on being able to read my bird. Here is a few things I have noticed.
1) He is not eating much. I give him 6-8 nuts in a given day and for the most part this is the only thing he is eating. He has taken a few slices of apples but spits about half of it up.
2) When I interact with him he will take nuts from me no problem. He is pretty good at getting every bit of fruit from inside shell. After he has eaten the nut he will go each corner of the cage (on top) and in one corner he will grip the cage with his feet and bill and flap his wings. After this he moves to the far corner from where I stand and raise his head and sway it back and forth (I say "doing the Stevie Wonder" when he does this. The next corner he we shift weight from one leg to the other (I say "Dancing') than he will come to the corner I am at and lower his head (I am pretty certain he is wanting me to rub his head) I will try to bring my hand around to scratch his head and he will attempt to nip at me. I have tried coming from either side as well as coming from over the top and each time he attempts to nip at me.
3) The only time he volcolaizes is when I am in the room talking to him. Very quiet and if you were not in the room you would not hear it.
4) He does this clicking with his bill every once in a while.
5) His eyes do pin but when he does this its only once and is only pinned for a split second. A minute maybe two will go buy before he does this again.
6) He will walk across the top of the cage press his bill down clipping each bar. He does this in one long swoop of his head and repeats two or three times.
When he walks from each corner he will do this several times. Sometimes he will also go back into his cage walk up his rope perch to his branch perch walk across that than make his way back out of the cage.
I am on this forum cause I have had good experience from finding good info on forums (raw prey diet for dogs and Schutzhund) Most of what I know about this type of diet I found on a forum. I am hoping that I have the same success here.
Pete
1) He is not eating much. I give him 6-8 nuts in a given day and for the most part this is the only thing he is eating. He has taken a few slices of apples but spits about half of it up.
2) When I interact with him he will take nuts from me no problem. He is pretty good at getting every bit of fruit from inside shell. After he has eaten the nut he will go each corner of the cage (on top) and in one corner he will grip the cage with his feet and bill and flap his wings. After this he moves to the far corner from where I stand and raise his head and sway it back and forth (I say "doing the Stevie Wonder" when he does this. The next corner he we shift weight from one leg to the other (I say "Dancing') than he will come to the corner I am at and lower his head (I am pretty certain he is wanting me to rub his head) I will try to bring my hand around to scratch his head and he will attempt to nip at me. I have tried coming from either side as well as coming from over the top and each time he attempts to nip at me.
3) The only time he volcolaizes is when I am in the room talking to him. Very quiet and if you were not in the room you would not hear it.
4) He does this clicking with his bill every once in a while.
5) His eyes do pin but when he does this its only once and is only pinned for a split second. A minute maybe two will go buy before he does this again.
6) He will walk across the top of the cage press his bill down clipping each bar. He does this in one long swoop of his head and repeats two or three times.
When he walks from each corner he will do this several times. Sometimes he will also go back into his cage walk up his rope perch to his branch perch walk across that than make his way back out of the cage.
I am on this forum cause I have had good experience from finding good info on forums (raw prey diet for dogs and Schutzhund) Most of what I know about this type of diet I found on a forum. I am hoping that I have the same success here.
Pete
