Its nice to be back:) and have a few questions please

Chicken canoe has given the same advice that I would. These birds are near impossible to GIVE away. The people that are buying them as youngsters are not experienced and almost always lose interest. I worked at a parrot sanctuary for many years during high school and college. The story behind the birds was often sad and many of the birds ended up with serious psychological issues.

If you cannot commit to keeping potentially four scarlet macaws forever, then you should not breed them. Not to mention the fact that you run a high risk of killing these birds through feeding mistakes just due to the fact that you are new at this. Even the professionals are hesitant to take youngsters away from the parents before a week or two.

Not to mention, macaws can be incredibly moody and very dangerous. Raising any animal by hand puts the animal at risk for severe psychological deficits because they won't know how to be a bird. This makes these animals potentially more dangerous, despite the fact that hand rearing is supposed to make them friendlier. Come spring time in an adult parrot, forget about it. I think even committed owners have doubts about owning parrots during breeding season! Sexually charged parrots are incredibly unpredictable (something to think about if you are thinking about breeding)

A shelter should never be an option when entering into the breeding of animals. Shelters are there for strays and circumstances when people absolutely cannot keep their animals. Any other use of a shelter (especially when someone just gets tired of an animal and gives it up) is inappropriate and these people should not keep animals in the first place.

I would definitely suggest thinking long and hard about this. If you want parrot experience, find a sanctuary to work at or volunteer at. You will either realize how much work (and how loud) these birds are and realize you never want to have one as a pet, or you'll fall in love with some of the residents and want to adopt them. I know it's hard to deter someone from doing something they are excited about, but hopefully you will realize that this endeavor is not worth it. (Also, the cost of an avian vet is incredibly high. If something goes wrong with the babies, you will have to be prepared to take the birds to the vet.)

Avian vet visits, if you can find one start at $100 and can quickly swell into the thousands.
A friend of mine allowed a turkey hen to brood too long and the bird could no longer move. She took it to her vet (where she worked and had a family discount) and it still cost her $3,000 and the bird still died.

They are incredibly loud. Imagine 500 macaws at feeding time.

Volunteering is an excellent idea and I had been thinking about suggesting that.
For a real experience, there are breeding and release programs in Australia and throughout Central and South America and Africa that are always looking for volunteers. Immerse yourself in the culture and the work. Not just for macaws or other threatened birds but animals of all kinds, reptiles, amphibians, big cats, etc.
There's even a couple in MO. One breeds and releases hellbenders and another for the burrowing beetle.

http://www.oneworld365.org/activity/animal-volunteer-projects

http://www.waza.org/en/site/conservation/conservation-breeding-programmes


DON'T BREED, DON'T BUY, ADOPT!!!
http://www.mickaboo.org/

If you are wanting to make money off animales, you are kidding yourself. Especially selling to the public. Everyone wants one until you actually have them, then they decide they just can't do it for whatever reason. Odds are, you will never make your investment back. Stick with chickens. At least, with them and rabbits, you can eat your mistakes.

Oh, great -- another poultry person who wants to translate hatching chickens to hatching parrots for resale. Here's some things to keep in mind:

1) Chickens and other domesticated poultry are precocial upon hatching -- this means that their eyes are open, they have feathers, and they eat on their own. Parrots and many other species of birds are altricial -- this means that they hatch with closed eyes, have no or nearly no feathers, and must be hand-fed virtually around the clock.

2) Many poultry eggs ship well. Parrot eggs don't.

3) Domesticated poultry lay large clutches, usually several times a year. This is why they are so easily bred and reared. Most parrot species lay between one and seven or so eggs per clutch -- sometimes once a year, sometimes not every year, sometimes a few times a year. Generally, as body size goes up with parrots, clutch size and frequency go down.

4) Serious parrot breeders would rather raise babies themselves than sell fertile eggs for far less than weaned offspring are worth. However, since there are gullible people out there who think birds are birds, and success at hatching chicken eggs means it's just a matter of setting the incubator to different parameters for parrot eggs, some unethical breeders will sell non-viable eggs as a scam. Since the incubation rate is already low, especially if eggs are shipped, the seller can simply blame lack of success on that -- knowing full well that the eggs wouldn't hatch even if left in the nest.

5) Want to know why chickens are cheaper than parrots? Because chickens are easier to breed and raise than parrots. Experience with chickens is of little to no help with parrots.


Do I sound harsh? I hope so.

Notice that OP hasn't been back to comment. Hopefully has moved on to other ideas.

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lazy gardener said:

Notice that OP hasn't been back to comment. ...

Click to expand...

That's always the way.