Yellow Collared Macaw Info?

[MonicaMc]

I just found out she in 12, not 2.5 yo. I was worried that she is trying lay an egg at a young age. Now I need to find a male to breed her sometime in the future.

A little late to respond to this... but just because a hen lays eggs doesn't mean she'll have any interest in breeding with a male. I have a female that is 17 years old soon, has been laying eggs for most of her life (but not a chronic egg layer), and she has never had any interest in a male, even when one was interested in her.

Not only that, but if you do manage to get a male and female to bond, there's no guarantee that they would make great parents and on top of that, they may no longer be pets.

 

[EllenD]

Truth, if you want to keep your current bird as a pet that is closely bonded to you, then the last thing I recommend doing is getting a male to "breed" her with. First of all, there is absolutely no guarantee at all that the two birds will bond closely with each other. They may hate each other and be aggressive towards each other and you'll have to keep them separated at all time, or they may just tolerate each other...Or, they may like each other but not bond closely enough to start mating. The last possible outcome is that they do what you're trying to accomplish, for whatever reason, and that is they will bond closely with each other and start to mate, and if this happens, chances are that you will lose your relationship with your current bird and any chance of having one at all with the new bird, and you'll no longer have "pet" birds, but rather a bonded breeding-pair of Macaws that you cannot interact with at all...This happens quite a lot, as it's extremely difficult for a person to have a close bond with a bird that is part of a breeding-pair...which makes sense, after-all, if they have the choice between bonding closely with a human or with one of their own, they are going to choose the other Macaw, and that is typically the end of them being friendly, cuddly, loving pets. Usually their people can no longer even handle them, which is exactly why you see breeding-pairs of parrots sold as just that-"Breeding-Pair" of parrots, NOT PETS, not friendly, etc.
And as already said, why do you think you have to "get a male for your female to breed with" just because she is mature and laying eggs? Again, if you care about her and you want to stay close to her and have a relationship with her, then the best thing you can do for her is to not bring home a male of the same species, as all you'll accomplish in the end, if they do happen to bond closely and start mating, is create just another "Breeding-Pair" of Macaws, pumping out baby birds, and you'll lose your loving pet and family member...They don't "need" to breed. And the other issue is that you seemingly have no breeding/hand-raising/hand-feeding experience at all, and it's very irresponsible to allow your birds to breed and allow the eggs to hatch when you are not at all prepared, educated, or trained in how to take-over feeding and raising the baby chicks if the parents decide to kick them out of the nest box, stop feeding them, start to become violent or aggressive with them, or if the mother hen dies in the process from Egg-Binding, an infection, etc., which unfortunately happens quite often.

Just keep your loving, cuddly family member, and do your best to put her on a Natural Light Schedule and try to curb her egg-laying, as it's not good for her health to begin with.

 

[Hawaii]

It was lovely knowing your experience with Hahn’s. I have one, an year old now, named Hawaii. Any suggestion on the best size of Aviator Harness for Hahn’s macaw (my baby is 140 grams right now)? I tried the XS (as recommended by the weight in Amazon link for the Aviator harness) but seemed tight for my Hahn’s and returned it but I could also be wrong as Hawaii din’t really let me put it on completely on him even after 3-4days of trying gently - he was got tangled in the process so I thought XS was too small for him.
Thank you in advance.