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| Name: |
Mac
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Age: |
2 1/2 years old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Blue and Gold Macaw
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| Home: |
Arizona, USA
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Mac,
also known as "The Feathered Monkey," is a 2 1/2 year old Blue and
Gold Macaw. Although not DNA tested we call Mac a "he." We nicknamed him
the Feathered Monkey due to some of his antics on his play perch.
We went to a local pet store because my wife had talked about having a
large bird for quite some time. Mac was one of several available large
birds at the pet store. We visited the store several times visiting Mac
and my wife became very concerned with his well being. The birds were in
an open area inside the pet store and anyone coming in could handle the
birds with very minimal supervision.
After the third or fourth visit my wife did not want "her bird" being
handled by other people. At the time Mac was not weaned. We went to two
"training sessions" and learned how to feed him and brought Mac home to
live with us. We completed the weaning process ourselves.
Mac loves to chew on ice cubes. We'll put a few in a dish in the bottom of
his play area. He will make his way down to the floor, take one or two and
carry them back to the top of his perch to crunch up.
Mac is definitely a part of the family. He travels with us on vacation and
doesn't get left alone for very long. He spends most of his day in a play
area in the living room of the house.
Mac is still developing his vocabulary. Good boy, I love you, love you
back, Hi Baby night-night, sleepies and what are his favorite words. He
talks when we are around but doesn't say a lot to other people yet. Mac
chatters a lot in the evening when he is ready to go to his cage to go to sleep.
Now, with that being said, we took Mac with us on vacation to the Grand
Canyon in May. He attracted a lot of attention and a lot of visitors took
his picture and asked questions about him. Mac was not being very
talkative. While we were standing under a shade tree taking a few minute
break, two young ladies walked past us. Mac decided to exclaim "Hi Baby!",
a term my wife uses toward him a lot. Luckily he doesn't sound like me or
I'd still be sporting a black eye!!
The learning curve has been rather intense. The more we learned about what
is safe for large birds, the more we became concerned with the toys and
products being marketed. We currently make all of Mac's toys ourselves and
we are developing 100% bird safe toys that will bear The Feathered Monkey
name when we are ready to sell them to others.
View more images of Mac!
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