I haven't *had* a macaw, but I bonded very closely with a lovely Blue and Gold named Bobaloo where I worked...

2.Do you have trouble keeping them quiet? YES. Their calls are meant to carry through MILES of dense jungle. If you don't have a huge property, I hope you have very forgiving neighbors. Bobaloo did permanent damage to my hearing in just a few months.

3. Do you take it outside. I took Bobaloo outside a few minutes a day. We weren't really supposed to since she was the store's bird, but she wouldn't tolerate anyone being in her cage (the only way to clean it) if she could see it, so I would take her outside where she couldn't see the cage while it was being cleaned.

4.Do they bite alot? Bobaloo never bit me. She mouthed me, threw up on me, and made me bleed with her strong feet and claws (they were filed with a dremel, but she was an extremely clumsy bird, would start to fall, grab my arm, and tear skin). She would, however, lunge at some people walking by me, and I never discounted the fact that she COULD bite me.

Most of the bad bites I've seen were from very loving parrots whose owners either pushed them a little too far when they were in a bad mood, or let themselves get into an inappropriate situation....Ex: if you are holding your bird and go to give your mate a kiss, the bird could get jealous and bite either your mate or you.

One regular customer had her macaw out on a playpen and put on a new piece of jewelry that scared the bird. The resulting bite required plastic surgery to repair her cheek and upper jaw.

I'm not trying to scare you or anything, it's just that...working in a pet store, I met a lot of people who went into parrot ownership taking the risk of bites lightly, thinking that "If I train my bird and show it lots of love, I'll never get bitten", only to give up the bird after the first serious bite. It's part of how birds communicate, and while I wouldn't say it's inevitable, I think it's likely that most birds will give thir owners at least one serious chomp over the course of their life.