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I have wanted a Macaw for years! But I know I'm not ready. I do have my loves and a cockatiel and also I split ownership on some cockatoos, but I have always wanted a Macaw!

I am wondering if it would be alright if I was to live vicariously thorough one (or all) of you

In about 17-20 years I will be ready for a Macaw. I am going to build my own house then and I will have the room, the kids will be out of the house, and I will have more "fun"money available. I am hoping to get a Military Macaw - if anyone has one on here I would love to hear the good and bad of them. But also I have played with the idea of a rescue Macaw. I know there is always birds that need homes.

I am a relatively new owner of a greenwing macaw. sh is 7 months old now and is really a love.I have two boys 10 and 12 and she goes to both them and my husband.As a matter of fact, they all took care of her and my 3 other birds when I was gone last week-end.She is still being hand fed but eats everything.Even at this age, I am having to be sure to keep her beak busy. She gets into everything.Her beak is 1/2 the size it will be and is formidable now. She tests me on how hard to hold my fingers in her mouth.She loves to go onto my African grey's cage and yesterday he gave her a kiss on her beak. It was really cute.
I kind of think of her as the Great Dane of birds and take socializing/making her go to strangers very seriously.Someone said on this board that her age is the equivalent of a one year old human baby so I am trying very hard to take advantage of her gentleness and curiosity before the terrible twos hit.We all adore her, though.She loves to roll over on her back in my lap(one time she did it and rolled right off!)or on the floor to play with toys.She loves to be cuddled which is great because none of my other birds do.
I am getting use to having to pick up bird poop with a paper towel whereas before I was used to using kleenexes. I can't wait to get rid of my carpet for that reason and put in hardwood.I know there are people on this board who have had macaws for years but I thought you might be interested in what a newby had to say!

I also have a young green wing & because he is such a love bug we now have a B & G & she is even better.

Where do you live?

Hi Swin,
I live in Folsom, Ca.How old is you B&G?

She is about 7 months old.

Sorry, I meant to answer your post here and got a little confused.

Of all the birds I have raised, I have to say macaws are my favorite and of the large macaws, Blue & Golds are my favorites. I love them, and they are so much fun.

Thanks everyone. Now I have a few photos for when I day dream of My Macaw.

I have a Scarlet and she is an out and out BRAT!!! I wanted a cuddley bird and one that would roll over for me and she is none of that. She is also my favorite. She is unbelievably smart, talks non-stop, stubborn and LOVES me. I would swear she learns a new word or phrase every week. He old owner says she was never aggressive and I never saw Ciara bite her, but she also was going through a divorce and said her ex-husband used to tease her, so I suspect that when Ciara threatens or when she does nip (it is never a full on bite) it is just nerves. She is starting to sing. She sings Row, Row, Row - sometimes she just gets stuck on Row. . I'll write more later, but for now I will just say. She changed how I thought about birds and taught me to appreciate her for her and not what I thought I wanted her to be.

She changed how I thought about birds and taught me to appreciate her for her and not what I thought I wanted her to be.

I think that statement sums up beautifully what a relationship with a bird should be.

Too many times, people expect the bird to fit into a mold of expectations and never really appreciate the bird for the personality that it exhibits and it's individual character.

I also know of many birds that have been rehomed because a bird did not live up to the expectations of the owner. Not that the bird was a "bad" bird, but it wasn't what the owners "wanted."

I promised I would write more. Let's see. Ciara ordered me out of her cage the other day. I usually yell at the cat to get out of my bedroom if I didn't pull the door shut. I just yell "out". I was changing Ciara's water and as I opened the feeder door she ran down the cage and yelled "out" at me. Then one night my daughter was having trouble sleeping becasue Ciara and our amazon were talking and whistling. It was still pretty light out, so I threw a king sized sheet over Ciara's cage. It covered all but the bottom 18" of the cage. She of course got really quiet. Than I started to worry. I never cover my birds and I worried she was petrified. So I crouched down and peaked under the sheet. Ciara was hanging upside down from her lowest perch trying to see out of the space and a soon she sees me she screams "HiYA GOOD GIRL" and starts flapping. We have had to buy (expensive) stainless steel clips for all her doors - she opens them and lets herself out. We have had to re-hang all her food cups, she knocks them off. Then one day she realized she couldn't knock off the food cup and dump it, so she stood next to it, grabbed a whole foot full of fruits and veggies, looked me right in the eye, dropped the food everywhere and said..."Uh Oh". Like whoops - did I do that? I had to leave the room so she wouldn't see me dying laughing. Ok I'm done. My point was that I tried to get this sweet, demure little creature that would sit on my arm for scritches and give kisses and what I got was a clown who amuses, suprises and delights me everyday.

I love macaws too. I have five with two new babies on the way - a Buffons and a Scarlet. I keep them in a large heated Aviary building with many casement windows so they can fly free and interact. Tess, the military is just a gorjeous bird. the Militaries have this iridescent green that is dazzling! She is friendly and loves to fly and play with her toys. My two Green wings are very smart and trainable. I take Rudy into my two story barn and he will fly to me upon request. Or fly away from me if I say "Fly Rudy!" (of course all the barn doors are closed) Then I have two blue and Golds, both males. I don't know what my scarlet baby will be like yet, or my girl baby Buffons macaw. I'm eager to meet them. Friday I drive down to pick up the Buffons baby from her breeder, and next month my Scarlet baby will be arriving. These two should be good buddies for each other in time. I hope they will like each other. I have kept my macaws in an aviary for seven years and find that with slow supervised introductions they all get along well. Of course there must be several feeding stations and lots of perches and toys. It's lovely to sit and watch them play - except that I usually end up with all of them perched on me! Chris

I got my Buffons macaw baby last week. She is a gorjeous green, not that differant from my military macaw but she is much bigger. IN personality she is very calm and confident. She sat in my arms for nine hours on the ride home. I took her out at almost every rest stop. (My girlfriend drove) She never pooped on me once, always waited for the rest stop.
At home she immediately started playing with her toys. I'm not ready to let her out of her walk in cage into the open aviary with my other macaws - unless I'm there to supervise. But so far so good. Several of my other birds are very interested in her and are being nice to her. So far she is the calmest, sweetest and most secure Macaw baby I've ever had. We'll see what she's like as she gets older. I don't know why this type of Macaw is not more popular.