Thursday, December 1, 2011

Selecting Your Macaw

By Clare Kinley


Unlike plenty of other birds, Macaws don't breed often. A typical pair of Macaws may breed once each one or two years, lay two to four eggs, and have 1 to 4 hatchlings, depending on the amount of eggs laid, and the health and viability of those eggs. The average number of hatchlings is two.

What this basically means for you is that you find a breeder, and you get on their waiting list. When there are hatchlings, and those hatchlings are just about ready to leave their parents (generally about eight months of age), when your name comes up on the list, you will be called.

Therefore , since the number of Macaws is so limited, most folks select their Macaws long before they're born, by viewing the parents of the forecasted hatchlings in their parrot cage. Hatchlings usually take on the appearance of their elders, and many or most of their personality traits also.

The other consideration when choosing the parents of the predicted Macaw is the breeder. Not all breeders are good breeders or even good Macaw owners. With luck, the breeder in question will live in driving distance, so you can actually visit with the breeder, see their aviary, and get to know their breeding practices, as well as how they handle and socialise their hatchlings.

Manifestly, you want to be absolutely sure that they run a clean aviary, the birds are healthy, and also that his birds are also happy and well adjusted. If you can't visit the breeder in the flesh, you should ask for references that definitely have visited the breeder in the flesh, and make it a point to talk with those references.

As you can see, Macaw selection begins long before the bird is even born, or even conceived, unless you are purchasing an older Macaw. Note, the term older doesn't necessarily mean 'old. ' It simply means the bird has already been bought or adopted by some other person, but now, for any number of reasons, that owner must now get a new family for the Macaw.




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