Red Shouldered Macaw

[Cypress]

Can anyone talk about their macaw? I am considering adding this beautiful bird to my home and wonder about their qualities and characteristics. What sort of habits do they have?? What's their worst habit and their best?

Thanks for your time.

[mschrisgo2]

My brother has a macaw that he bought it about 14 years ago for my niece, who was 12 at the time. When she moved out she said she'd get the bird "later," then "later" she decided a macaw and 2 kitties and several bunnies... too many animals and the macaw has never gone home with her.

Destiny is a very loud and very messy bird. As soon as someone gets on the phone, she starts talking and shrieking and goes through her whole repertoire of noises; she is so loud that closing the door does not help. She also makes a huge mess of her food, spitting and kicking the shells of the nuts all over the room; this has posed problems when there are visiting toddlers and dogs, who both like to put the things they find on the floor in their mouths. She's very picky about food, and sometimes will not touch what she just ate the day before. And she is a very social bird, who would be happiest living in the kitchen area where everyone congregates at that house, but there again, she's so loud that she's socially disruptive. All of that having been said, she is beautiful and very smart. Would I get a macaw? Not to keep in the house. If I lived somewhere tropical and the bird could be outside, maybe.

[iris lilies]

I don't know about red shouldered Macaws, but our friends are bird people and have rescue birds. They've got a Macaw named Irving. His beak is deformed and that's why they ended up with him. He's a young bird, I don't know what will happen to him when they are elderly. He was very sociable as a young bird but even then would nip--hard--sometimes. They made a serious effort to have him meet a variety of people. Now he's not very social and no longer gets along with the man of the house--he likes only the mom. It is difficult for them to find a pet sitter (well, they have a couple of other birds as well as dogs) since Irvin doesn't trust anyone else. For about 2 years DH was one of Irving's friends because DH was there every day, working on their huge house and he could be a bird caretaker when they were gone.. But now IRving doesn't remember him and would likely attack him.

Also, they have to have his beak ground down every 6 weeks and that's very painful for him, poor guy.

I would not get one of these birds. They live too long, the big birds are noisy screamers, and they just seem difficult.

[sweetana3]

A macaw is an exotic pet that does not belong in the physically and socially deprived environment of a domestic situation.

We saw neighbor's up in arms over the noise from a pet parrot owner across the street. I asked them was the horrid noise was when I visited.

It is sad to see these birds discarded like furniture or other inanimate objects when the owners get tired of them, get sick, or die and no one wants them. Check out the bird sanctuaries and how many they turn away.

[puglogic]

I have lived with macaws and agree with all above. Red-shoulders are much smaller, more like a smaller parrot than a full-sized screamer, so it may be one of the only ones I'd consider.

But all parrots need a tremendous amount of social contact, be it with people, birds, whatever. If you have a job and plan to leave this bird alone in the house all day, I'd consider that cruel for almost any parrot, cockatoo, macaw. They are intelligent, social, long-lived creatures, more like having a dog than a small bird, and their loneliness may play out in bad behavior, ill health, and self-mutilation.

Yes, beautiful. But consider their needs, noise, neighbors, and their lifespan before doing this, as well as where the bird was obtained.

[iris lilies]

I'm glad to hear that others recognize the problem of this being an "exotic" pet. My bird rescuing friends say the pet bird world is over populated, birds are badly treated, don't support the industry buy buying a bird. Get a canary or a budgie, they are better in domestic situations and do not live forever.

[JaneV2.0]

Heidi Fleiss rescues parrots, and she says all her clothes are full of holes because her charges pick at them. I guess they mostly keep her out of trouble, though. I don't think they should be kept as pets.