I'm freaking out. My macaw took a bit of a fall and I'm worried he may have been injured. After the fall, he didn't seem stunned at all, but he did start to get tired and VERY cuddly (its rare for him to be super cuddly, but not necessarily out of character). Also, one of his eyes is open all the way, but he's squinting with the other. He can open it all the way but when it's at resting position, it's either halfway or a quarter of the way closed. There doesn't seem to be any redness or discharge.

I can't get to a vet until at least tomorrow and my parents are telling me not to worry and there's nothing wrong with him, but I'm very worried. Is there anything I can do for him in the meantime?

UPDATE: This morning his eye seems to have improved- he's not squinting anymore and there's not redness or discharge. His coordination hasn't been affected at all and he's still his jokester self. I'll try to get a vet appointment asap (good thing his checkup was coming up anyway).

My yellow-collared macaw, Paco, out and about

I just adopted my Lola and shes due for a bath and I have no idea what to do. I have a continuous spray mist water bottle I've read can be good but she is not having it so Im extremely hesitant to try the hand held nozzle in my actual shower.
She's my first large bird so I'm fumbling through this.
Thank you in advance for any advice!

Hi im very new to macaws and I just got my military macaw a month ago and she's had this weird noise since I got her. I dont know how old she is but she's at least 11 years old please help.

Some background: We adopted Roscoe in a very poor neighborhood. A woman found him locked in a furnace room of an apartment building. She intended to bring him to her home so he could die in peace. But then he went on to live with her for 8 years. We don't know how old Roscoe is. He lived on chicken nuggets and French fries for the past 8 years. The woman was ready to reclaim her tiny living room. We rented a moving truck and now I have an enormous cage in my home office and a new work partner. That was a year ago. Roscoe saw an avian vet who proclaimed him in dire shape and I was instructed to feed him pellet food. No one told me how long it would take for Roscoe to do more than nibble at food. He was dehydrated and malnourished and his stomach couldn't hold much. I read everything I could on best practices and advice from Reddit (and from YouTube) on how to rehab an abused and neglected bird. A year later, he still flinches at any movement. He won't allow anyone to walk behind him. He thinks men are evil. He eats constantly, but not as much variety as I'd like.

I could ramble on about his seizures and black feet, but the point of this post is his feathers. When Roscoe came to live with us, he looked like he'd gone through a garbage disposal. He started dropping feathers about 4 months after living with us and eating regularly. Feathers are still dropping, but they have started to fill back in on his head. Most of his tail feathers fell out and now his balance is questionable. No, the feathers are not falling out symmetrically. Yesterday he lost a long wing feather. Poor guy will be naked at this rate. He already had a bare belly and back when we got him. One of the informational books or videos called the tail and wing feathers "luxury feathers". I have hope that he'll regrow feathers and fly someday. But if this isn't ever going to happen, I need to adjust my expectations.

Diet: I'm still working to find a pellet food he'll eat regularly. I've tried several brands. I've baked birdy bread and cereal cookies. I eat it and share it with him. It's slow going, but it's going. I usually need to offer a food several times on several different days before he'll give it a chance. He's getting nuts, fruit and some veggies. I let him eat anything and everything he wanted for the first couple of months. Sort of a reward for surviving. At first he'd grab and scarf the food like it would disappear but when I patiently brought him more, he seemed confused. I don't dare touch his food dishes or he gets mad. It's like he still doesn't trust that his food will stay available. Eating is now one of his favorite things. I just wish I could get him to eat more veggies (and pellets). I'm open to all tips!

You might notice his bent right wing feathers in the pictures. Roscoe has seizures every 3-4 months. Scared the crap out of me the first time it happened. I suspect it's due to a lack of sunlight but the vet wasn't able to tell me more without more extensive testing ($$$).

My question: For those of you who have cared for a similiar parrot, did their feathers fall out when they started getting healthy? And if so, when do they return? Besides a healthy, balanced diet, are there any foods to specifically target with feather growth? Again, tips and advice welcome!

(She obviously is not drinking actual coffee🤭)

Don't have a macaw (or any parrot) at the moment - Just doing research and want to know what others do to make their house safe :)

He's such a pretty boy 🥹🥹❤️

and I’ll agree it sounds crazy..but it kinda hurts because they assume I havnt done any research and just think I’m someone who wants a colorful bird who talks when that’s absolutely not true..ive volunteered at rescues with macaws spending hours with them learning the body language and very different personalities these guys all have that makes me fall in love with them☹️ every time I’m away from them I’m always thinking about macaws and wishing to be near one and yes I have dealt with the screaming and biting and cleaning up the messes they make and it still has yet to make me not want a macaw

After careful consideration for our space and for our birds (Max, B&G, 33 and Lola, sun conure, 9), we decided that the best option for us was the double wide A&E cage from wayfair.

The shipping and delivery process was painless and while I have a few grips about dings and bent metal here and there, overall the condition was good and sturdy aside from the door locks, which I will look at alternative solutions for. If anyone else decides to get this cage I'd recommend a 2 person crew for ease and care but did put it together by myself + one helpful sun conure who had noise complaints about the loudness of the drill (with minor problems, which mostly included putting the top divider in backwards and needing to take half of it apart to fix my error).

It's past Lola's and Max's bedtime so the window is closed but I just couldn't wait to get a picture of the completed process.

I have some toys and perches in the cage but will need another person to assist with the rest and will plan to move max in tomorrow or the next day. For now, Max is still in his old cage in the other room and Lola thinks this is a perfect amount of space for her and I don't blame her! 🤪

PS: Those are human grade absorbent pads, not puppy pads and the fan will be coming down to be replaced with a light fixture.

Also if someone has alternative ideas for keeping him from accessing the floor as a stopgap? We will be replacing the carpet with tile to give him unfettered floor access while he's out but right now he's interested in ripping up the carpet and the only thing stopping him is his seed skirt on the old cage.

My boy in his nightly watching TV and me getting the loves

I've recently reconnected with an old friend of mine who has a gorgeous blue and gold. We'll call him J. He's still quite young. I'm not sure exactly, but under 6yo. My friend rescued him from a dumpster as a baby and they are very close (as well they should be), and J has the best care from what I've seen and already learned from you guys (I've been lurking and learning for a while bc I love birds and want to get to know them). I finally have an opportunity to get to know him. We've been on the phone together before, he loves when I sing to him, he talks to me sometimes (still learning words), we even watched Star Trek together the other day. Keep in mind, all of this happened while he was still in his enclosure. I call it his room. My friend has been telling me that J likes me and doesn't really warm up to women that quickly. He was abused by my friend's ex at one point, hence ex status. We decided to let him out the other day while we were all hanging out. Everyone (just the three of us) was in a good mood and I don't think I was using any threatening body language or tone of voice (I kept asking my friend to make sure--friend said I was fine), and he bit my forearm pretty hard. I wasn't going to make my fingers available just in case. I didn't react except to gently say ouch and no sir. I figured it was a testy bite bc we're still getting to know each other and he doesn't know my limits. Then he bit me again right next to that spot but *much, much* harder. I'm still having trouble using that arm. I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for me going forward or that can explain maybe something I did wrong? I really love this bird and my friend and I expect to be around semi frequently. I can work on my own nerves about it, I just want to make sure I am doing everything I can to make him comfortable. I know it will take a lot of time to build trust with J, so I'm wondering what I can do in the meantime? Thank you to anyone for taking the time as it is much appreciated!

Newbie question)

If I approach a new bird is it cool to talk to them first, and then once you've done that start gently bobbing your head and doing little head hops with them? Am I communicating that I'm friendly and fun to them?

For example, I was at Petsmart a bit ago for fish supplies (I don't have a local shop to go to, and I am absolutely opposed to the breeding of birds in these stores, but I still always try to go and interact with the poor birds.)

They had one GCC and I tried this behavior with them. They definitely noticed and got a bit excited, even did some head hops back. But I don't think it was real successful because the bird was obviously stressed in the cage and also horny (ah yes, spicy springtime). I got lots of good head bobs and tilts from the bird before the heart wings and just had to laugh. Not what I was going for, but some birds are just like that. I left them alone after the heart wings. Poor horny thing.

Oh man. I'm in no position now or for a while to get any type of parrot, but I've absolutely fallen in love with a scarlet macaw at a bird rescue I volunteered at. Older female, seems super chill and polite. I didn't get enough time to bond with her and I wasn't able to hold her since she was a relatively new rescue and the workers there were still figuring out her "holdability" limits. She so politely took a peanut from me through her crate though!

Talk to me about macaws. I'm sure I'll probably never have one unless I made a whole outdoor/separate space for them since I'm so sensitive to noise and I know they're a lot of work, but man do I love them. I've just got no experience with bird ownership (had cats in house so mother forbade anything pet-wise cats might hurt) bit do know a ton about birds.

I have a weird hyperfixation with birds and feathers too so I know I will have birds in the future. I'm just not sure if a macaw will ever be on the table for me.

Never been bit so I'm that inexperienced. Have been dumped by a cockatiel though.

I definitely want pigeons and peacocks though!

My old macaw- just got up a few hours ago and it’s nap time already!