Some questions about a beautiful scarlet (?) macaw my family inherited.

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Emus

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Mar 9, 2019
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My mom inherited a macaw. Apparently she is about 45 years old and has never learned to fly?!

She's taken quite well to target training, but does not like to step up. She will step up when I take her out of her cage but not when I take her from her perch to bring her back inside. I guess that will just come with more practice. However, she seems to have really bad balance on my arm. Is that normal when learning to step up? Apparently her previous owner never taught her step up and would just grab her feet and pick her up.

Most importantly I am wondering if I can still teach her to fly. I feel like she should know how, she isn't a penguin! I would love for her to be able to fly from her perch to my hand and vise versa. All inside of course, I don't plan on teaching her to free fly anytime soon.

Do parrots need to get their nails trimmed? Hers seem too long.

Should I give her showers? How often?

How can I tell when the pin feathers are ready to be preened? I was petting her head and she had sooooo many, I can't imagine how itchy she must have been. I can't get them all because some are close to her face and she gets annoyed when I get too close to her eyes. Do warm showers help get rid of the waxy stuff?

I guess that's mostly what I have for now. Thanks in advance for your reply!

https://imgur.com/eB6Q4zz
 
No, not a scarlet macaw. Some kind of hybrid. Not too familiar with macaw hybrids though.

Yes to pretty much everything. Teaching to fly is a great thing, start with target training though.
Nails do sometimes need to be trimmed, you can bring them to a certified avian vet or an avian specialist for that.

Shower maybe once or twice a week? (macaw experts correct me on that)

If you pinch a pin feather and it crumbles, it's read. If it doesn't just leave it be. If it seems to be filled with what appears to be blood, especially leave it be. Those are blood feathers and you don't wanna break those. It's harder to tell on red feathered birds though. Showers can help with pin feathers and itchiness from said pin feathers.


edit: I think she's a shamrock macaw. which is a hybrid of a scarlet and a military macaw. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
 
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Awesome thanks for the info Owlet! I thought it didn't quite look like a scarlet but that's what I was told. The colors don't look as distinct as a scarlet. The shamrock macaw seems to be a lot more on point.

Any pointers/videos/posts about teaching this lovely old bird to fly?
 
Hi there. you want to go to our macaw sub forum, and read all the stickies at the top of the page, especially those by birdman666, who is one of our macaw experts. Also read the stickies on the Amazon forum by Sailboats, much much great info about caring for all types of parrots. Teaching her to fly should be a series of incrimental steps. Be carefull what you wish for as a flighted parrot carries some added responsibilities, like making sure the family knows to close doors an windows like a religion. Why? Because flighted parrots can go sailing right out a window or open door, never to be seen again/ Had it happen to me - it was loosing a child. Good luck!
 
Hi and Welcome, If she's been clipped most or all of her 45 yrs her balance would be affected , she is terrified of falling. Her breast muscle's will likely be non existent . Lots of patience and small steps , even if its just wing flapping that you can get her excited to try to start slowly building muscle tone . At this point in her life she is probably more afraid to fly than the fear that comes of most predators so the treat you use to entice exercising those wings needs to be something she really really likes and that can only be brought out for training. You should have her seen by a CAV just to rule out any injurys or illness that could be related to the off balance your seeing when perched on your arm, How is her balance if she's perched on your hand? I ask because even though the macaws have big feet and can get a decent grip on most forearms our skin will roll slightly with their weight and cause an off balance issue. Personally I like them perched on my hand as I can feel balance ,( direction) they like to steer us and I have a thumb over the toes to stop a fly away. Lots of great info here , enjoy!.
 
I agree with Owlet, there is definitely some miltary macaw there (that lovely bright tuft right above her beak).

Hybridizing macaws really hyped the last 20 -30 years afaik, of course 'accidents' happened long before that.


Get your bird to a certified avian vet (CAV for short) first.
Macaws really have huge feet with relative long nails (american vets really love to overshorten them in most birds anyway, forgetting those are functional, not just decoration).
If your bird has balanceproblems he/she need to be able to have a good grip, so too short is even worse than too long.
(The only one I can see -that photo in imgur- that could use some attention if the left fore-one, that is long, the others are nice and pointy and actually could be a bit longer imho)



But get your birds bloodwork done (it helps to find out male/female as well) and the overall, muscles, joints, ligaments etc. assessed. If those wings are sound you can work towards flight (large birds need A LOT of room to fly, so he/she may just be very polite)

For tips on flying, go to the amazon-section and read the HUGE sticky there (there is a part about encouriging your bird to use its wings and to land safely)


Weird thingy I noticed: because those birds are so freakin' large you think they have an easier time balancing/ sitting on a forarm or wrist instead of the fingers (see the youtubes with the people from BirdTricks, esp the ones with Morgan)- the opposite is true!
They are far more stabile on the fingers than the wristearea!


My handicapped (wingdicapped?) macaw did not believe it either, but she is convinced now.


Oh and mine (B&G) really is part penguin: she loves to swim.
Her feather were a messs so she got showers (soaking ones, not just "misting") every other day (esp when they form a lot of feathers and are itching)- bus she is down to 2 or 3 a week now.
(She would go almost every day... I let her choose.)
 
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Yes most probably A Scarlet X Military (or even the rarer Great Green) Macaw cross. But S/he has the beautiful bare patch of a Scarlet Macaw :red::red::red:
 
Gorgeous Macaw, is it a catalina? I know they have a lot of orange in them.
 
looking at the picture again I see she is fully feathered and appears to be outside without any form of precaution to make sure a gust doesn't take her away. I do see that orange cord going down from the perch? Is that connected to her leg? if so I advise against doing that as such forms of tethering can really injure a parrot.
 
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ChristaNL said:
Weird thingy I noticed: because those birds are so freakin' large you think they have an easier time balancing/ sitting on a forarm or wrist instead of the fingers (see the youtubes with the people from BirdTricks, esp the ones with Morgan)- the opposite is true!
They are far more stabile on the fingers than the wristearea!
Click to expand...

Yeah I have been watching those videos and working on getting her to stay on my fingers with my thumb lightly on top of her feet. She isn't fully comfortable there yet and still tries to climb up my arm, but yesterday she stayed on my hand. It was a nice improvement.

I've found an avian vet in the area and do plan on taking her as soon as I can.

I'm excited to give her a shower, from what I know her previous owner never put her in the shower, only misting with a water bottle.

Owlet said:
looking at the picture again I see she is fully feathered and appears to be outside without any form of precaution to make sure a gust doesn't take her away. I do see that orange cord going down from the perch? Is that connected to her leg? if so I advise against doing that as such forms of tethering can really injure a parrot.
Click to expand...

The orange thing is just an extension cord in the background. The previous owner would put her in the backyard on her perch all the time and she would just stay there, so I thought it was fine. Like I mentioned in the first post, I don't believe she has ever taken flight and has been cage bound most of her life. I doubt that she would even have the muscle to fly.

When I start working on flight with her (probably won't be for a very long while). I plan on seeing if I can get her to work with an aviator harness. I'd love to be able to take her to the park with an aviator harness and a very long leash one day.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Here are a few more pictures I took of her.

http://imgur.com/a/deWj9GE

The third one I took a picture of her bald spot. I don't know the history of this spot. But I was wondering if she's likely to never regrow feathers there?
 
She is a beauty ! The bald spot is in an interesting spot though. Not an area she could pick at herself . Is she still in moult?

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
You've inherited a beautiful Macaw.

Regardless of their age, most Macaws will be like a flying 2 year old toddler for their entire life that will love to socialize, solve puzzles to keep them entertained, play, and also get into mischief.

Quality food and fresh water is essential. No human food. Also many topics here of good foods and the ones that can cause sickness or even death to your feathered one.

All the advice above is excellent. You will find a wealth of information and good people here on the forum.

I would like to touch on the subject of cooking and Teflon cookware (in the event that you have any).
There are many articles on how this can kill a bird in seconds.
Please take time to read the threads here and take the warnings seriously.
If you have anything with Teflon, PTFE, PFOA, seriously...... discard it or give it away. It's just not worth the risk.

Feel free to research and ask any questions. Again, the people here love their birds deeply and have a lot of knowledge to share.

You have a lovely opportunity to share your life with one of God's greatest creatures. Enjoy !!!
 
She is truely a gorgeous looking bird!


Ask the CAV to do a skin-swab?
The bald spot could be due continous scratching or even rubbing against the cage.
So find out if there is a source that makes her itchy (fungus?/ yeast is a well know irritant).


No idea if the feathers will grow back, I do not see many pinfeathers or darkish points in the skin that signal beginning pinfeathers- but you never know, a picture is just a single moment in time...
 
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Flynhigh said:
She is a beauty ! The bald spot is in an interesting spot though. Not an area she could pick at herself . Is she still in moult?

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Hey, I just noticed that your location is Murrieta, CA. I actually live very close, in Fallbrook. I was wondering if you had a recommendation for a CAV in the area? I tried to PM you but I just joined the forum and there is a post requirement before I can send a PM, so hopefully you see this!
 
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