Scarlet Macaw

kai bengals

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Ruby, a Central American Scarlet Macaw will be joining our family this month.
She's 5 months old, hand fed, weaned and just as gentle as can be.

We've had parrots before, but none as big as a Macaw. Ruby will be seperate from our bengals, for their safety not hers, unless we are there to supervise. Ruby is a BIG bird and has a massive hookbill.

We will be traveling to Florida, mid September to pick her up. In the mean time here is a pic of her at her home.

 

clixpix

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Holy cow! What a beauty!
I love parrots, but I have a healthy fear of handling them due to that big bill!


You're amassing quite the menagerie, aren't you!
 

yam102284

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Wow, she's beautiful!
I remember my grandfather having a macaw, but I don't know what kind he was. All I remember was he was blue and yellow, and he squawked real loud
 
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kai bengals

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Originally Posted by carolinalima

She is beautiful!!! Was she bred in captivity?
Yes, the breeders are a small operation and only have 2 adult macaws. They had two hatchlings, Ruby and one other.
 

cococat

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Wow! What a gorgeous bird. I have always admired birds in awe, having met some I can say they are quite charming pets and I wouldn't mind owning one someday. My lone kitty is AWFUL with my reptiles (my dogs are great). I will be very curious to watch how your bird blends in a Bengal home.
 
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kai bengals

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Originally Posted by cococat

Wow! What a gorgeous bird. I have always admired birds in awe, having met some I can say they are quite charming pets and I wouldn't mind owning one someday. My lone kitty is AWFUL with my reptiles (my dogs are great). I will be very curious to watch how your bird blends in a Bengal home.
She will have her own space to start off, with some bengal vistors as time goes by. We'll see how a big bird and the bengals interact. It will be a learning curve for all of us.
Ruby's safety and the bengal's safety will be paramount in all interactions. We have the space for all to co-exist apart and in complete safety, but we would like for there to be some species inter-action if it is safe for all.

A bit of a new adventure for us after breeding bengals for so long. I plan to look into some sort of free fly aviary for her, where she can stetch her wings some. Or maybe even a free-fly club. A little afraid of that, because they are totally free and may not come back.
 

arlyn

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I am curious as to why she was handfed?
Parent raised birds are so much more stable, personality-wise.
And bond just as easily when hand weaned.
Assuming of course the parents are tame, otherwise I do understand handfeeding.

My macaw was parent raised then weaned by a 9 year old girl, as a result, his speaking voice on the rare occasion he talks, is that of a little girl


Congrats on your gorgeous bird.

Parrots actually do quite well trained for free flight, just be sure and keep copies of her band numbers on file 'just in case'.
I plan to flight train my next parrot.
 

709juggalette

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She is beautiful.
But I will admire her here from home.
Macaws are so loud...the few I have met gave me a headache!

So I rather admire from afar!
 

yosemite

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She is beautiful. I actually love seeing these gorgeous creatures. At one of the pet shows a lady put one on my shoulder as I was standing there admiring them. It was lovely.
 

arlyn

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Originally Posted by 709Juggalette

She is beautiful.
But I will admire her here from home.
Macaws are so loud...the few I have met gave me a headache!

So I rather admire from afar!
Macaws can be loud, but usually, as long as they are mentally stimulated and with their 'flock' (owners) they are actually not very vocal birds.

My boy hardly makes a sound unless he's upset by something.
He's even quiet when I'm not at home as long as I tell him "bye-bye" before I leave.
He's lived in condos and apartments and my neighbors were quite surprised to learn I even had a bird
 

gingersmom

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Only 5 months old? You'd better revise your will, because that girl (surgically sexed so you know for sure?) will be around for a MINIMUM of 60 years. Talk about a long term commitment!

I knew a couple of Scarlets and a Blue & Gold, and the ones I knew were quite the characters. Lucy was the female Scarlet and she absolutely adored McDonald's french fries. She swore like a sailor, too, so be careful what you say around Ruby, LOL!

She's very beautiful - I'll look forward to meeting her as well!


Wonder how long it'll be before she starts talking like a Bengal...
 
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kai bengals

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

I am curious as to why she was handfed?
Parent raised birds are so much more stable, personality-wise.
And bond just as easily when hand weaned.
Assuming of course the parents are tame, otherwise I do understand handfeeding.
I was told the parent birds are tame. I don't know much about hand feeding/weaning baby birds and am just going by what I've been told.

Is there something I should be on look-out for, behavior wise as she/he gets older?

Since you have a Macaw I may call on you for advice, if you don't mind!


Originally Posted by GingersMom

Only 5 months old? You'd better revise your will, because that girl (surgically sexed so you know for sure?) will be around for a MINIMUM of 60 years. Talk about a long term commitment!

I knew a couple of Scarlets and a Blue & Gold, and the ones I knew were quite the characters. Lucy was the female Scarlet and she absolutely adored McDonald's french fries. She swore like a sailor, too, so be careful what you say around Ruby, LOL!

She's very beautiful - I'll look forward to meeting her as well!


Wonder how long it'll be before she starts talking like a Bengal...
No Betsy, we don't know the sex for sure, but hate calling her/him "it". So Teri picked a gender.


Yep, we have to modify our wills now, to provide for Ruby. It is my understanding that well taken care of Macaws can go 70 to 100 years. But I plan to live to 148, so no problem.


The swearing.......boy will that be tough to curtail with bengals in the house.
We will do our best to keep the cursing down to mild oaths.

At least Scarlets don't have the vocab. that the Greys and Yellow Napes do.
I hope to teach Ruby to say: "Stop that", "calm down" and "have you lost your mind, get down from there", so she can keep the bengals in check when we're not home.
 

sarahp

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Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

At least Scarlets don't have the vocab. that the Greys and Yellow Napes do.
I hope to teach Ruby to say: "Stop that", "calm down" and "have you lost your mind, get down from there", so she can keep the bengals in check when we're not home.
Well if that's not a reason to get a smart bird, I don't know what is!


I LOVE big birds - we plan to get an Eclectus Parrot once we get settled in Australia again.
 

arlyn

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Nial, Murphy is a little macaw, but he is all macaw and the personality traits are shared across the board with all macaws.

Biggest issues I can name off the top of my head:
Do not spend any more time with her then you plan to spend with her for the rest of her life, she will come to expect it and birds take to change even less than cats do


Macaws are known to become stress pluckers (Murphy does this), if it happens, identify the stressors and correct immediately, the longer a macaw plucks, the more likely they will start to self mutilate.

Once she reaches sexual maturity (I think around 7 yrs) she will become very moody, by then I hope you know how to read her and can avoid ticking her off

If she gets too nesty at this time, reduce the amount of 'daylight' she gets, this will simulate winter and should bring her out of nesting behaviors and aggressions.

Set routines early and stick with them! While it may seem boring for us, it is what keeps a bird happy.

Spend a few hundred dollars on toys: Puzzle toys, cuddle toys, foot toys (Murphy loves his bird Kong) and toys specifically to be destroyed.
Rotate them out weekly so that there is a new batch of toys always.

And get her DNA sexed, it will help you immensely in the future in recognizing gender specific problems (such as egg binding in females).
 

709juggalette

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

Macaws can be loud, but usually, as long as they are mentally stimulated and with their 'flock' (owners) they are actually not very vocal birds.

My boy hardly makes a sound unless he's upset by something.
He's even quiet when I'm not at home as long as I tell him "bye-bye" before I leave.
He's lived in condos and apartments and my neighbors were quite surprised to learn I even had a bird
Thats interesting.The ones I have met were super loud and noisey.They must of not been getting enough attention or stimulation.Either way...these guys are definatly not for me!

I will look forward to seeing more Ruby though,they are really beautiful birds.
 
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