Parrot macaw: species, rules of keeping and breeding

The macaw belongs to the birds of the parrot family. These are rather large birds, the distinctive feature of which is their bright plumage in red, blue, yellow and green shades. Such pets are very popular in home maintenance, but caring for them has a lot of subtleties and rules that you should know before making a decision about buying such a bird.

About all that concerns macaw parrot, you can say "the most-most." And in fact - it is the largest bird of the parrot squad, the most vividly painted beautiful feathery, the owner of the strongest beak of all who live on its continent and even on the planet, but also it is one of the most hardy birds in the world.

By the way, this behavior fully corresponds to the peculiarities of the internal organization of this beautiful bird - the ancient Indians used this ability and held macaws as guards. Parrots endowed with high intelligence knew every inhabitant of a village or village well and raised a loud cry, seeing the uninvited guests.

Talking about the beauty of these birds can be for hours, but still dwell on some of the characteristics of birds of this species. On the sides of the head has no feather cover, the same applies to the areas around the eyes. The end part of the wings is quite elongated and pointed at the ends. The tail is wedge-shaped, and it is much longer than the body of the bird.

The beak is sharp, hooked, compressed on the sides. As the data of ornithologists testify, it is incredibly strong, strong and powerful - no other bird can compare with it in hardness, so you should carefully weigh all the pros and cons before having such a strong man in homes where young children live. A macaw can split fruit bones and hardest nuts in seconds.

These birds have very sharp eyesight - the macaw's capabilities are much higher than the human ones in the speed of viewing frames per second. For comparison: in humans, this figure is 24 frames, and in parrots - 125. The macaw is distinguished by its monogamous vision and can use its eyes independently of each other.

Birds of this species have the ability to self-heal. Living near the muddy shores, they eat particles of clay, thereby cleansing the body of harmful substances that come with rotten, damaged fruits. In addition, the viscous substance is a source of micronutrients necessary for the organism macaw.

In total there are about 15 species of macaw parrots. The most common are several of them.

• Chestnut, or, as it is also called, chestnut-browed. The distinctive features of such birds are reddish-brown or yellow iris. The frontal zone is dark, the beak is almost black, the cheeks are little feathered, painted white. Paws of a saturated gray shade, claws almost black.

• Red. This species in science is known as Arakanga. An adult individual has a pale yellow mandible, and at its base is a pronounced dark spot. The mandible is black. The beak itself is curved, very strong, its shade is yellow. Cheeks without feathers, have a creamy tone with small reddish spots.The legs are dark gray, almost black, with two fingers pointing forward and two back.

• Green Wing. Bird with a large wide head, the beak is very large, powerful, black. The iris of the eyes is light yellow, the region of the upper mandible is pale pink, the lower mandible is dark. The cheeks have a rare plumage with claret-thin feathers. Paws are gray.

• Blue-eyed. It is a mountain macaw with a peri-orbital ring of a dark gray color that is distinctive for this species. The beak is strong, black. The iris is yellow with a noticeable red border. Paws of fawn color, unremarkable.

• Blue-throated. A parrot with an iris of a light yellow color, the cheeks are rather small, almost bare, covered with very thin feathers of blue color. The beak is very large, black. The paws are dark gray, the tail is elongated, at the end there is a pronounced narrowing. Feathers on the forehead of a rich blue tint. The same color is present in the plumage of the neck and throat of the bird.

• Red-bellied. Parrot with a small black beak, cheeks whitish-yellow, naked. The paws are colored dark blue, the overwhelming color of the plumage is rich green, the terry feathers and the forehead area are blue, and on the abdomen there is a pronounced brown-brown spot.

The macaw is a large exotic bird with its behavioral features and physiological needs; therefore, its content in captivity requires certain knowledge and skills. However, this bird feels quite comfortable at home and will almost never experience anxiety and stress. Before buying a macaw parrot, you should first prepare an open-air cage for it, the minimum allowable the dimensions of which must correspond to 2 meters in width and 1 meter in length, the height is desirable not less than 2 meters, optimally - as well as the walls.

Placement of an animal in a smaller cage is allowed only if the birds in the aviary are only at the time of feeding and for a night's sleep, and the rest of the time the macaw spends in free flight around the house or apartment.

The cage should be equipped with high-quality locking devices, better locked with a key. Keep in mind that standard snaps and simple hooks for birds with such high intelligence, as in macaw, are no good - the pet will open them at the first opportunity.

The tray under the enclosure should be retractable - this will help better cleaning of the cage and timely removal of all waste products of the bird.

Be sure to include in the aviary poles, toys, and tree branches. The macaw is a bird that is extremely demanding of attention from the owner's side, therefore, so that the pet is not bored in the absence of the owner, it is worthwhile to equip the aviary with all kinds of ropes, ladders, labyrinths and puzzles.

Keep in mind that the macaw likes to hang upside down, so place toys and vertical structures should be higher, so that the bird does not hit the bottom of the enclosure. Do not forget that these parrots are great lovers of water procedures, therefore a small bath should be installed in the cage.

All feeders and drinking bowls, poles and toys should be kept clean and tidy. They should be cleaned at least once every 2 days, whenever possible daily, the cage itself should be washed once a week, and every 4-5 months the aviary plunge into deep disinfection using chlorine-containing agents. If necessary, you should remove outdated accessories and replace them with new ones, better ones and necessarily eco-friendly.

Separate attention deserves nutrition parrots. In their natural habitat, macaws feed on nuts, exotic fruits, juicy fruits, corn and seeds. Animals kept in apartments, It is necessary to give fresh juicy fruits: banana, apples, soft pears, as well as grapes and rowan.

To meet the need for vegetables usually offer feathery corn, cucumber and carrots with pumpkin. Be sure to include in the menu juicy greens - young shoots of fruit trees, germinated cereals, beet and carrot tops, as well as dandelion leaves, chard and garden celery.

70% of the diet of macaws should be grain food - oats, millet, and also flaxseed and canary seed, nuts (hazelnuts, peanuts and pumpkin seeds). Food can be purchased in the store, and you can make grain mixture yourself, but in this case, you must additionally introduce vitamin and mineral supplements that help maintain the health of the birds, its full growth and development.

Keep in mind that in nature, parrots eat rather heavy food, but one should not forget that in natural habitat the bird has the ability to quickly and productively consume calories. In captivity, there are no such opportunities, which is why the inclusion of walnuts and pine nuts in the diet should be rare and strictly dosed.

Additionally, in the diet of birds, you can enter porridge. It is best to cook them in water without oil and sugar. Usually pets are treated with buckwheat, millet rice porridge, as well as pea and chickpea. From time to time the menu includes egg yolks and crumbly cottage cheese.

But coffee beans, avocados, parsley, onions, garlic, spicy herbs and sweets in all forms should be excluded from the diet. It is also not recommended to treat macaws from your table, especially if you eat fried, smoked, salty, fatty and pickled foods.

The macaw nesting period usually begins around April - at this point the parrot becomes overly agitated and sometimes even aggressive, so you should be patient and treat your feathered calmly and compassionately, avoiding any negative emotions.

For successful reproduction of macaw in captivity, it is necessary to create suitable conditions for the pet:

• maintaining a constant temperature at about 20 degrees with a humidity level of about 70-80%;
• 15-hour daylight hours - in addition to natural lighting, it is necessary to resort to additional illumination, for this purpose fluorescent lamps are bought, but the most common ones will fit;
• the size of the enclosure should be not less than 1.9x2x2.5 m, the floor should be covered with a layer of river sand, and the turf should be placed on top;
• The nest is placed in the upper part of the cage, it is best to use ready-made containers of 70x50x50 cm in size, optimally wooden ones;
• the size of the round entrance should be about 150 mm, its height relative to the bottom - about 20-30 cm;
• it is desirable to use medium-sized sawdust or wood chips as a bedding litter.

We draw attention to the fact that as soon as the female ara has laid eggs, it cannot be disturbed. Constant noise and loud noises should be excluded - a quiet and calm atmosphere should be maintained around the bird. Otherwise, the feathered may abandon its offspring or even destroy it.

Only birds from 1 year old, healthy, with brilliant plumage are allowed to breed. Usually mating parrots are preceded by mating games.At this time, birds begin to gently touch the feathers on the head of each other, as well as on the neck and near the tail.

The parrots invariably accompany their actions with loud gurgling sounds, after which the male begins to dance a little. Such call signs act on the female - she sinks to the bottom of the cage and falls backwards, playfully fighting off the male flying up to her. These actions are repeated several times, after which the pairing takes place directly - the parrots retire in the nest or on the perch, turn around to each other with their tails, and then touch the cloaca. Usually this is repeated several times a day.

3-4 weeks after mating, the female lays the first egg, then all subsequent ones with an interval of 3 days. As a rule, there are 2-3 eggs in the clutch.. Immediately after the appearance of the first of these, the female moves to the nesting house and begins to hatch them. At this time, the provision of her food takes on the future father, who is all the time nearby and brings the grain in his beak.

Hatching normally lasts about 24-25 days. At first, newborn chicks entirely depend on the mother - she feeds them with goiter milk and fragments of crushed food pieces. Autonomy birds acquire only 3-4 months after the birth. Grown up birds remain with their parents, expanding the flock and strengthening the relationship between pets.

The macaw parrot is a very active, extremely curious creature, it always eagerly comes in contact with the breeder.

Parrots of this species require continuous attention from the owner, they are intelligent birds, which are more like a small child in character. They are quickly tamed and easily find contact with any person.

The macaw is a bird with a very high intellect, so it quickly learns new words and can easily and correctly use them to communicate with its owners. Such creatures may ask their owners to drink, eat, play, they are able to greet their master at a meeting and say goodbye at parting.

The macaw has a rather sharp voice, it is unpleasant for human hearing, but the bird rarely screams for no reason, therefore the sound always serves as a signal of a problem. By eliminating the cause of discomfort, you can quickly return the feathered to a good mood.

Keep in mind that for many family members and even neighbors from another apartment, such sounds can be simply unbearable, therefore it is better to keep the bird in detached cottages and apartment buildings with good noise insulation.

The macaw always remembers his ill-wishers and offenders well. The bird is able to take revenge on them, while the bites of such a pet can be very painful and even injure. It is best to stop immediately with a bird in the position of friendship, but you should not encourage the habit of pinching and biting, otherwise the parrot will use this trick as the main method of attracting attention to itself.

Macaw parrots are brave and very brave birds. If they are attacked, they give the surrender. But by their nature, these birds are quite friendly, they are good both to people and to other pets.

It should be noted that breeders' responses about these birds, as a rule, are only positive - the parrot clings to its owners, but people also feel in response to the connection that has been established between them and this amazing pet. Some breeders even claim that with time these birds begin to feel like a full member of the family and behave accordingly - sometimes it looks very entertaining.

There is an opinion that it is better to acquire an adult individual, which for a long time has grown among its relatives, since the human outburst will begin to demand tireless attention. In the conditions of modern life, it is usually not possible to ensure this.

If you treat your macaw with warmth and tenderness, then be sure that he will answer you with the same coin. It is necessary to react to any noises from a bird exclusively with calmness. If you intend to wean your pet from any pleasant habit - just ignore it, making it clear that you are not going to go on about the birds, and all the games will start only after they change their behavior.

If, in response to his loud cries, you will also raise your voice or give some sedative medicine, the effect will be the most opposite. Your scream, like a drug, is perceived by the macaw as an encouragement to such an action and later you will not be able to wean the bird from the addiction.

On the mental, and the physical health of the pet has a serious impact sensitive owner. No less important are the conditions of detention, diet and feed used. In birds of this species, such unpleasant problems such as severe peeling of the skin, coordination dysfunction, general weakness and swollen joints quite often appear.

Beautiful and spectacular macaw parrots are prone to sinusitis and allergic bronchitis. In such diseases, they experience difficulty breathing, mucous discharge from the nose and swelling of the sinus area. The fact is that the bird is very sensitive to air quality, so it will be useful to use ionizers and household humidifiers in the room.

Very often, the birds show all the signs of self-salting - this often happens if the animal experiences psychological discomfort in the face of lack of attention from the owner or his rough handling.

From viral infections, macaw most often falls prey to papillomatosis. In this case, the process of defecation is disturbed, problems arise when swallowing food and a cloaca can fall out. It is dangerous for the feathered and ornithosis, leading to the defeat of the respiratory and central nervous system.

All about the macaw parrot breed see below.