I am looking at getting a 2 year old female B&G Macaw from a lady who cannot spend enough time with her and wants to regime the bird. I have experience with rescuing an Amazon and had to revoke her prior to PCSing to Japan, now that I'm home for good I want another feathered friend for the family and have decided with the wife on a Blue and Gold.

Any good resources for them? Any tips?

How about some pictures?

I got her!
I'm throwing her into the "rescue" category even though I bought her. The previous owner loved her but knew she didn't have time to care for her. She is already becoming more social. You can tell she was social before and she will lift her foot for "Step up" then gets mad when she realizes I'm trying to dupe her.
Last night


This morning

She was excited to be out of the cage and shredding paper.

No help but nice pics. Have a cockatiel here.

No help here either. I do love a pretty macaw. I've wanted a Hyacinth for ages, but the spousal unit flat out refuses.

Good luck, and pretty bird!

I have a Greenwing Macaw.  The best advice I can give you is to handle her daily and keep her mind active.  When Macaws get bored they get very destructive.  Keep plenty of toys ready for her to tear up.  She'll also figure out any type of lock you put on the cage.  The first thing my Macaw did when I got her was take apart the lock on her cage and drop it in front of me.  I took that as an act of defiance.  Sort of...here's what I think of that idea.

Handle her daily.  If you don't then you will regret it when you decide one day you want to handle her.  Macaws bite hard!  When you handle her, get her so she's comfortable with you touching her feet, her wings, face, just basically anywhere.  It'll make it a bit easier on her vet and it will be easier for you to check her out for injuries.

This and a good diet will do wonders.

Well it's been 48 hours, my hands are chopped up but she is doing much better.
I still cannot get her out of the cage voluntarily so I wait till she gets on the pine 1x2 I have in there and take her out on it. She still is unsure but is allowing me to handle her.

I think she's more into my wife since the bird lets the wife pet her through the cage bars, me she bites at usually. She's saying "Hello" to us and  stepping up a bit more but I can tell she is still unsure of our son.

"Don't bite my damn ears off!" We are still building mutual trust.


Exercising this morning

Give her about a week to get used to her new surroundings.  Don't push it.  Her world has been turned upside down and it'll take her a bit to think of this scary new place as home.

Do NOT let her on you shoulder.  If she's on you shoulder then she's in a position of advantage.  It makes harder for you to control her.  It also means she can do some serious damage to your face, eyes, ears, etc.

+1!

Why do you think all pirates have those eye patches?  

<--- (Greater Sulfur Crested Cockatoo, Blue-fronted Amazon)

The only time she's gotten up to my shoulder has been when she quickly scurried up there and I take her down most Ricky tick for the exact reason you guys mentioned. Tess isn't being nearly as difficult as the Spectacled Amazon I rescued in HS, this one just has a big fucking beak.

Me and a few other classmates when I was doing Veterinary Assisting were in charge of taking care of a rather aggressive Blue & Gold Macaw named Tommy. He only liked a select few people and wouldn't hesitate to attack. Before we had him he was abused and such but he developed a good relationship with me and another classmate rather quickly. It's very hard to gain their trust and takes time and patience just like any other animal. I highly suggest NOT putting the macaw on your shoulder, at least not yet. She will have the upper-hand on you and will think she's in a place of dominance on your shoulder. You have not asserted your dominance over her and you need to develop that first as well as trust. I also highly suggest, if you haven't, looking up behavioral body language of macaws. They do some strange behavioral things and it's best to know what they are. I also hope you have lots of throw away shirts because if she's a biter she'll wreck your clothes. Keep her busy as much as possible with lots of toys and enrichment and handle her as much as she'll let you within a day. Get a nice bag of mixed nuts with brazilian nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, (for treats only though so don't over-do it). Exercise those wings too!! Treat her as if you have a pet dog. She'll understand you and when you tell her "NO" and "STEP UP" and other sorts of commands. Just lots of patience and love. GOOD LUCK!!

Thanks for the input! I'm actually thinking of looking into becoming vet, I love animals and especially birds and reptiles, I just need to look into if it's a career I can live off of, I already know id enjoy it.
I've got a pretty good read on some of her cues already, every time I go to get her to step up I say it to her, and when she bites or tries to I say no in an assertive yet level tone, as well as put a finger on her beak (unless she is really pissed and looking to take it off).

We added more toys to her cage to include a plastic one you hide treats in that she has to twist to open... She had it open and not spilling treats a quick!

Also what are good macaw books and what do you use to line the shit-pan

A good book on Parrot behavior is "A Guide to the well behaved Parrot" By Mattie Sue Athans.  http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Well-Behaved-Parrot-Barrons-Mattie/dp/0764136674

For lining trays I just use newspaper.  The other stuff is expensive and doesn't do any better of a job.

So... Seems she likes the wife more than me at the moment.

wow, looks great.

I have a yellow collared macaw and she is a great bird. Very hyper and social. She loves to be out and with me or the GF whenever we are around. She does still bite us both daily but we at least know how to handle it now. I would just say talk to your bird and interact as much as possible. Keep him busy and make sure he has toys or things he can play with/destroy.


Best of luck.

We have been taking her out of the cage every day for at least three hours. She is a lot more vocal with her whistles and talking. She's surprised us a few times by mimicking what we have said.
The other day my wife and I were talking about how far she has come in such a short time and the wife said "I think she's happy here" and Tess said "Happy here" clear as day.  but the. She will ramble a bunch of shit we don't understand.

We wrap her homemade PVC pipe with rope and she works to take it off every time, we figure it's a good mental game for her.

We've run a rescue and an aviary in the past and currently have about 30 feathered friends( down from 300). We have 3 B&G so we've been there. If the macaw thinks she can buffalo, she will. Do not ,whatever you do, let her be at or above eye level, it's a "who is on the higher perch thing". I promise, she can sense fear as well as any dog. True story, the first time ever going to the house belonged to my wife( dating before the ring), she brought the B&G of hers out and introduced me...that dang bird promptly nailed me....to show me I was not wanted anywhere near her owner...well, that went on about 2 years. I could not even be in the same room when she was out as she would come at me with claws out, wings flapping and jaws snapping.... Well we had several macaws, green wing, my baby, a rescue harlequin and this dang B&G...We had built a flight for them and one day, it just felt right, I walked out there, put out my arm and said "UP Murphy" and we've been good every since (about 10 years)

I just lost my boxer last weekend, he loved my B&G Cairo as long as there was a treat in it for him.

Well Tess had her first vet visit today. The doc was amazed that she didn't fight, bite or scream even once the whole time. Her wings clipped, toe nails trimmed and passed with good bill of health.
  I plan on eventually letting her fly but don't want to risk losing her ATM.


I will post pics soon.

Let's see if I can embed this...

Well my wife sent me a message while I was at work... The silly girl wanted to go to bed so she actually flipped the light switch!
Her cage is next to four light switches, three exterior and one that is right above her cage. We thought it was far enough away that she couldn't reach it but apparently she could.
The bird was doing her "time to sleep" noises when all of a sudden the light switch was flipped off. LOL

Sounds like she has made herself at home.  You've done a great job with her!  She's happy and feels safe.  You're in for a fun ride.

Thanks! She was singing to the wife whom she (the bird) seems to be building the bigger bond with.
New behavior exhibited by Tess was that while sitting on my wife's lap on the couch she buried her head between the couch and my wife's side and then rolled on her side a bit.

This Macaw is a blast and just a big goofball.

ETA: I see you have a Crimson... Gorgeous birds.
Eventually we will get/rescue another macaw and I hope it's a crimson, they are beautiful.

Scuba's bird is a green wing and absolutely the best outside of the uber expensive Hyacinth Macaw. If I ever buy anther baby, it will be a green wing, I had one once and she was the best. We recently took in a rescue Cockatoo, an umbrella Cockatoo and I'll say, she had changed my mind about Cockatoos, she is awesome

Whoops, still learning the different types of Macaws.

We were wary about ours when we saw how aggressive she was in her cage but when the owner smacked the fuck out of her we decided there was no way we were leaving the bird there. I figured it'd take at least six months of finger shredding for her to come around to us but it hardly took two weeks. Now she plays with all of us including my 8 yo son.

Unfortunately we are still fighting a bacteria infection and it's looking like she needs another round of meds. We have already spent over $1000 in vet bills but we hold no regrets.


She has stopped chewing her wood perches in half and has been enjoying kicking the shit out of her rope ball lately.

She doesn't like an audience when she's playing though.

job well done sir

Thankyou.

Well I done fucked up and went searching CL for macaws again.. One 2 YO male B&G w/ cage for $1000 and one highly aggressive miligold free to anyone willing to rescue. I want the male blue and gold but am tempted to rescue the aggressive. I fucking love parrots and my first was an aggressive rescue.
The wife is already considering the male blue and gold, she is completely in love with ours.
Crap.


As it goes our Tess is doing great and is just a hoot. They truly are clowns.

Being lovey: