Paco, a Hahn’s macaw, was hatched December 15, 2003. He was purchased from the breeder at 5 weeks and was hand fed until he was about 12 weeks old when weaning started.
He was DNA tested to determine his sex using the service provided by Avian Biotech.This method was fairly simple and involved collecting a drop of blood from a toenail onto a test card. This would have been a real simple way to determine his sex had I not tried to stop the toenail bleeding with powdered sugar instead of cornstarch. Long story…
He is quite talkative and uses words correctly. During a rainstorm today he was at the window shouting “water” over and over again. He knows when to get exactly what he wants by saying “I love you”. But, his favorite phrase is “good morning”. He greets us all day long with that phrase. I’ve been trying to teach him to say “buenos dias” but so far he refuses to be bilingual.
We have been somewhat successful in getting Paco paper trained.We’ll set him on some KageLiner or a paper towel and ask him to “make caca”. Mostly he obliges us. He now knows to “make caca” before we pick him up. This is good.
Recently he was becoming a little bitey. Probably because while he was young I let him bit and nibble on my fingers. Now it’s not funny anymore. The absolute best article I’ve read on how to stop this painful habit is at http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/biting2.html His is much improved.
I came up with the KageLiner product because I never had any newspapers around. And, when I did use newspapers my hands were left black with ink. I tried the pages from old phonebooks but that was cumbersome. So, I came up with this easy, smart way to keep his cage clean.
The white tissue also helps me monitor Paco’s health by making his dropping clearly visible. My first bird, a conure, passed away due to an illness that I was not aware of. Now I know what to look for.
Hope you enjoy the product and find it as easy to use as I do.
Cheers!
