tommyn

Today is D-Day, Meiko's first visit to the vet :unsure: Wish us luck!

Thanks for your reply Pat, all of your advice is very much appreciated. In a couple of hours we're bringing him to the avian specialist for the full health check and hopefully on the way back get him a playstand and some toys, so from this evening onward he should pretty much be out of his cage most of the day and just in his cage at night! Undoubtedly I'll need your suggestions and advice again, thanks for your help Karma to you! Tom

Meiko is about 8 months old now, I'm not intimidated by him anymore and when he goes to bite (he does grab my fingers very hard) I push against the bite, to the point where he actually pulls away. He constantly comes over to the side of the cage and grabs my hand and starts regurgitating, so I'm getting mixed signals from him. :laugh: He also WON'T stay put on my arm. He pulls himself up onto my shoulder and will refuse to get off sometimes, he's managed to pull himself up onto my shoulder and bite at my glasses and even bite clumps of my hair :pinch: I've had times where I couldn't get him off my shoulder/back and had to call my sister to get him off. If he does bite hard, I'll say NO and put him back into his cage, but again I'm standing there with my arm in the cage and he just won't get off.

He's an absolute beaut I have to say though, I can't see myself (at the moment) being able to play with Meiko the way you do with Darius, he doesn't seem to be very receptive of playing. He's not very touchy feely and doesn't like being touched anywhere except when giving him scratches on the back of his head, he does love being petted on the back though. He even starts to fall asleep when I do it Perhaps it's because he's young, but I can't see myself playing with him rolling around on his back like a lot of other birds I've seen! Anyway, sorry to ramble. You have a lovely bird there :cheer:

Beautiful macaw Tycos_mom (Apologies, don't know peoples names on here yet) That's a huge toy, I haven't been able to find any big toys like that here, any I've seen are fairly small.

When he looks in the mirror and says Oh my GOD is priceless. :lol:

Yeah, I was looking at that because it was very big and sturdy looking, regardless of sturdyness he'd still reduce it to saw dust I guess! I'll wait and see what the breeder has to offer. I'll post some pics of him and his stand this week

Out of interest what sort of playstand would be best for a macaw? As I said in a previous post I'm dropping into the breeder I bought my macaw off on the way back from the veterinary clinic. I think his ones are mostly big metal ones with one or two wooden perches, however I was looking on ebay and saw a large one made of pine complete with large cargo net. However, this guy as most parrots are..is a notorius chewer and will even chew the only perch he has from underneath himself Will he absolutely destroy a pine playstand, or could he be distracted from it if there's plenty of toys/interaction? Or should I just buy one mostly made of metal? Thanks Tom

Thanks for your reply Jay.

Thanks for your post Dave, your input is appreciated! I do feel bad when I see birds like that outside and indeed I intend to get a harness for him eventually, but the problem is him flying inside and injuring himself, there's simply no room for him to fly in here without bumping into something and injuring himself, as well as that my family is extremely nervous of him when he flies and go running for cover when he does so. It seems like the best thing to do at the moment, and I fully intended to get him a harness once he was more used to being handled by me and trained to stay and play on his stand.

Yep it's Bairbre O Malley! I'll update this post next week and let you know how Meiko gets on

Thanks luvparrots. I'll post some pics of his new playstand when I get it on Wednesday.

Thanks judygram, basically I know that if he continues the way he is now he'll end up hurting himself so I think it's necessary, at least for the time being.

Thanks for the reply she, you've pretty much summed up why I'm moving him to another room. Another reason for getting him clipped is that I've had him in the living room, playing with him on the floor etc but he takes off randomly, and nearly knocks down photos/crystal off shelves. I'm hoping having his wings clipped will get him more used to the enviroment in the living room and the house in general regarding noise etc. He's getting very attatched to my sister too, way more than me but unfortunately she refuses to handle him because he tries to go up on her shoulder (He gets onto my shoulder and onto my back and refuses to get down sometimes, and has even started biting at the back of my head/glasses. I'm hoping with him relying on me more for interaction that he me warm up to me a little bit more. I don't think this wing clipping thing will be a regular thing however, as I agree with many of the reasons people are against it. Though at the moment it's safer for him as he won't be injuring himself off windows/walls and I won't be made get rid of him for breaking expensive ornaments :laugh: The vet I'm bringing him to is one of the only exotic animal and avian specialists in Ireland, she was even on Animal Planet's 'Animal Hospital' on TV. Everyone I've encountered so far has reccomended her and I indeed had dealings with her myself with my cockatiel that had bone cancer, I even got a card in the post from her apologising that there was nothing she could have done and with her deepest sympathies which I think says something about her. Thanks Tom

Hi guys, I've had my 8 month old B&G macaw for nearly 3 months now and he's settled in great and we couldn't be happier with him. Unfortunately his cage is in my room and this is the only place I've been able to let him out. He's started to fly and bump into walls/windows/stop midflight and fall down behind things lately and we've come to the decision to have his wings clipped, he's also getting slightly cage aggressive now when he's out and refuses to step up even if he's been out of his cage for hours. So what I want to do is take him away from his cage to a neutral area where he can be out pretty much all day in the living room where there's someone ALWAYS around. This will eliminate his squawking when he's left alone upstairs too, as theres always someone in the living room or at least going in and out. I've booked him in for a full health check next wednesday, all the necessary tests, nails trimmed and wings clipped, and on the way back I'm buying him a big playstand from the breeder I originally bought him off. I just posted to see everyone elses opinion on wing clipping, and any suggestions for after he's clipped! Thanks Tom

Will do luvparrots, it wasn't bleeding or anything when it was done, nor has it since..so hopefully its just that it got a little too close to it. I'll let you know what happens.

The vet said it could be that when his nails were clipped, the tip of the quick had been touched, or from struggling he may have strained his leg. I'm hoping it's nothing serious!

Hi Ranaz, no swelling, no change of colour, he's still moving around loads, and today he's been extremely playful. I called the avian vet earlier and she said leave it for another day and if it isn't looking ok by then to bring him to her. I'll try get a picture tomorrow if he's still holding it up. Thanks. Tom

Hi guys, 2 days ago I brought my macaw to get his nails clipped. I noticed yesterday that he was holding his foot up, he's walking around on it but when he's sitting still he raises it up, he's behaving normally apart from this. Could it have been strained when he was getting his nails clipped? As far as I know he hasn't got it caught in anything as I've been here the whole time.<br><br>Post edited by: tommyn, at: 2009/07/28 17:47

Well he's coming out on my arm every time now, but always goes to pick at my hands and gives me a few 'hard' bites, enough to leave a mark on my hand which only fades after a few minutes. He lets me scratch behind his head etc, but still does this biting thing with my fingers, and always tries to get as close as possible to my fingers when I'm getting him to step up. My sister is slightly afraid of him as he keeps staring at her when he's out the cage and looks like he's wanting to fly to her. He goes crazy when she comes into the room, saying hello, and bobbing his head up and down. Does he just like her and wants to interact with her? She's worried he's going to fly down at her and attack her.

Pics! Close up: I only cleaned out his cage this morning and already he has it messy! :laugh:

He's given me a good few HARD pinches with his beak, though he was actually going to draw blood earlier but he didn't, yet he still gets up on my arm and lets me pet him. I suppose it's good progress to say I've only had him 3 days!<br><br>Post edited by: tommyn, at: 2009/07/04 20:09

Will get some more pics up soon! He lets the odd squawk now, but after reading a parrot behaviour book I say 'No' in a stern voice, leave the room and close the door and he stops. When I come back in 5 or 10 mins later he seems to be a lot quieter and wants to interact more, for instance a few minutes ago he let a squawk so I closed the door, went downstairs and he stopped...when I came back up he was saying hello non stop and muttering replies to everything I said :laugh:

I've managed to get him to step up on my arm a few times now, with no lunging, he still picks and grabs hard at my hand but doesn't seem to want to injure, I've also been petting him and his eyes are closing when I do it, and hasn't been squawking since.

I'll try tomorrow again, I had him up on my arm today which was a big step!