The Mini-Macaws – Who Needs Them?
The author rises to the challenge of raising new species with mixed results.
Story and Photo by Nancy Neil-Chambers
There are no experts in aviculture. Even those most accomplished and successful breeders of parrots and other exotic birds will tell you that the final chapter hasn’t been written.
A Breeder’s Beginnings
When I first got into bird breeding, an event which makes me scratch my head and wonder about my own sanity, several well-respected breeders suggested that I go heavily into mini-macaws, which had a high success rate compared to other parrots, such as Amazons and African greys. I was told that they are among the easiest parrots to breed.
Events led me into another direction, serendipitously causing a leap into the large macaws, which actually led me further into parrot breeding, since I had almost instantaneous success with greenwings, of all things, and then blue & golds.
Now, bear in mind that I lived then in a three-bedroom New York City apartment. I was given two macaws by a woman who just couldn’t keep them any longer. They were a greenwing and a blue & gold, both of which turned out to be hens. Within a few months I was given another greenwing, and I never even had to have him sexed. The two greenwings spotted each other, pinned their eyes, and began to copulate—on top of a budgie cage! Within a couple of months I had my first two greenwing babies.
While this breeding activity was going on with my growing collection of large macaws, I also acquired several lone Amazons, which I sexed, set up and left alone. It was six-plus years, before they ever produced any babies.
Mini macaws, such as these baby severes, are popular with many clients because of their big personalities in small packages.
Introducting Minis
Meanwhile, slowly, over time, I acquired several mini macaws. I began with severes, and after sexing the two terribly in love ones I had, I discovered they were both overly friendly males. One was a baby I’d purchased at retail, simply because I fell in love with “her.” When I had an opportunity to get an older one, at far less than retail, I snapped “him” up. Two same-sex birds! Naturally, as all breeders know, the bird you need is the bird you can’t find.
To save cage space I left the two little guys together, and there they stayed for another year until I happened to find myself in California at an Avian Research Fund Conference and found two little unrelated females, ages 6 and 9 months, at the Feather Farm up in Napa. I bought them, packed them up and brought them back to New York.
Now, even though the scuttlebutt is that mini macaws will breed at an early age, sometimes as young as 18 months (hey, I’ve heard that about blue & golds too, but that doesn’t make it so), I knew that by starting out with baby hens, I’d have a long wait.
One of the most difficult parts of this situation was separating the males. I actually had to set them up in different rooms so they wouldn’t see each other. Hmm. They could still hear each other. Ever have two screaming severes in a New York City apartment? Not a happy neighbor scene, believe me.
They did eventually calm down and realize they could be friends with their intended mates. Eventually the foursome got along so well I was able to quad them up in one large cage, which was left open most of the time. This gave the little group a lot of freedom with overhead swings and climbing trees. It was a jungle in there.
The interesting thing about this experience is that it gave me some time to study their behavior, and, to my surprise, over the course of the next two years they seemed to switch mates several times. Then, one day, after I’d had the first bird four years, I realized that the older male, which may have been 10 or so, had paired up with the older female, which was still only about 3. I set them up together in earnest. By this time I had moved into a little building several blocks away, and the breeding birds had a very large airy room the whole length of the building all to themselves.
At that time the collection consisted of greenwings, blue & golds, a pair of Buffon’s, militaries, severes, yellow collars, nobles, Hahn’s, blue fronts, napes, double yellowheads, red lores, orange wings, lilac crowns, mealys, spectacles, green cheeks, a single pair of citrons, several pairs of conures (since moved out) and small numbers of the little birds, such as moustaches and of course cockatiels and lovebirds.
I set up the breeding floor so that the different types of birds had their own areas, and I made a special effort to stagger the population so that no two pairs of the same type were housed in direct eye contact with each other.
Breeding Successes and Lessons Learned
I now had two pairs of severes and yellow collars, and one pair each of nobles and Hahn’s macaws. Within the following year, after investing more than four years into them, the original pair of severes had three infertile clutches. Then the second year in the new location, which was their fifth year with me, they finally had a clutch of two fertile eggs. I was elated. I pulled the two eggs, put them in the incubator, and they hatched on the 24th day for each, both with no problems.
The babies were 12 and 11 grams. I probably patted myself too hard on the back. Another thing we aviculturists have to learn is to never do that. The pair, Blackbeard and Sparkle, did go back to nest, and the eggs were fertile, three eggs this time. I had them slated for pulling on a Saturday. On Friday night I heard this horrendous crash from the breeding floor (I live on the floor above), and I ran down there in my nightshirt to find the nest box crashed on the floor and the hen crushed under it. Dead, of course, along with all three eggs.
The male was stunned but unhurt. However, he was never the same again. He began to feather pluck. I found him another mate, but he was abusive to her and continued his plucking, taking it to the point of self-mutilation. Eventually he died, and everyone on my staff, myself included, is convinced that he was simply heartbroken. The younger male, the one I’d gotten as a baby and was then 6, never has bred, and his mate is now with another male. A later pair I’d acquired has since bred, just this year, and given me four babies in two clutches.
The babies we got from them were beautiful, perfect babies. I incubate all my babies. We hand-raise from Day 1, since I am a terrible sleeper and I may as well be feeding babies since I wake up every two hours anyway.
These birds may breed like rabbits for other people, perhaps in outdoor environments, but here in NYC, where we have huge success with the large macaws, and moderate success with Amazons, they don’t do as well. With such a small “collection” of mini-macaws, I hope some little kernel of observation will help someone.
Our minis and our Amazons are housed in 30- by 36- by 30-inch welded wire flights. These are double stacked on a wooden wheel base for ease of movement within the breeding floor, in case we have to get at the backs of the cages or move a double unit for any reason. There is a set-in boot-style nest box, (see photo) and a feeder station on the floor of the cage just big enough to hold two ceramic crocks.
The cages are built with a 2-inch bottom space allowed for a tray to fit in, and we generally use newspaper in the trays. If the birds decide to pull up and shred the newspaper, we switch that pair to a substrate of corncob. I prefer not to use that because if we somehow miss changing the substrate on the scheduled day it tends to grow mold, and I simply cannot tolerate my birds getting sick through human error (or stupidity).
Different things happen indoors than happen outdoors. My friends in Florida and California have to watch out for their birds getting out and flying away. I never lose a bird from it escaping. But I have lost them to getting their toes bitten off by landing on another cage, especially if they do this overnight, when nobody is around. Living upstairs I can hear if there is a problem during the nighttime hours, but I really have to catch them fast.
The Mini Personality
My birds tend to be relatively tame, and many of them, especially my second-generation babies, will come to me if they get out. The mini macaws don’t seem to want to get out of their cages. They are generally content to stay in with their partners.
All of our birds get swings and toys. Life is too boring without stimulation. We replace these as they wear out, and you can tell they are appreciated by the joy with which new ones are accepted.
I’ve noticed that the mini-macaw pairs are more timid and shy than many of the other birds when kept in a breeding situation. The Amazons will come at you and threaten to eat your face off. The large macaws will pretty much accept whatever you put in their face, even allowing the cleaning crew to go into the cages to change perches toys. The minis tend to hide in their nest boxes or in the far corner of the cage when the humans come around to clean or feed.
All of our birds get the same diet, and I’m waiting for someone to convince me that our diet isn’t right or to suggest something better that can be easily handled in an indoor situation. We feed 30 percent very high-quality seed mix, with no black sunflower. We use California grey stripe and a mixture of other seed, as well as dried fruit, chili peppers and a small amount of peanuts. In addition we add about 20 percent high-quality colored pellet mix, usually Zupreem. I do this on purpose, believing fervently that parrots are attracted to color, and that the pellet manufacturers must know what they’re doing, nutritionally.
Then we add the fresh stuff. Depending on the season our birds can get a mixture of carrots, zucchini, apples (no seeds), grapes, pears, oranges, green peppers, sweet potatoes (cooked), pasta and rice. Every day they get a second meal of corn on the cob, which serves the purpose of giving them all the “eyeball” before we all go home, and occasionally we do the rounds with walnuts, almonds, pecans, and other goodies such as scrambled eggs. We’ve had less success with our mini macaws than with some other species, such as the large macaws and Amazons. An interesting thing I’ve found, probably just with my own little flock, is that of all the birds we have they are the ones that tend to feather pluck the most. Generally it’s the males, and both my noble males are nearly bald.
I’ve also found that the mini-macaw babies tend to be just a tiny bit more fragile than some of the others. They seem to be more susceptible to stuff (a technical bird breeder term) in the environment. Noticing this a few years ago has actually served me well. That little tendency has made me go back and examine my own flock and neonate management protocols and make improvements for the benefit of all my birds.
We have, over the past eight years of being in our own little building, produced only 15 mini macaw babies: six severes, four yellow collars, two Hahn’s and three nobles. In contrast, we’ve gotten about 40 large macaw babies. My Amazon pairs just started producing three years ago, and then only one pair, the mealys. (Of course I kept the first baby) The following year, the sixth year of being set up, we began to get double yellowheads, napes and blue fronts.
But, our success rate with the minis is paltry in comparison, and now that I see that, I can begin to examine the reasons why and try to rectify the situation. After all, if these are one of the easiest types to breed, it’s time to sit up and take notice. We’re located in Manhattan, where there are lots of people who want to “move up” from dogs, which are lots of work, and cats, which aren’t noted for being very interactive. Many of these people think next about an exotic bird as a companion. Some of them have in their minds a vision of a large, colorful parrot. The reality of a large macaw, which is what they might be visualizing, may be a bit daunting, and their next consideration is usually one of the minis. Whether it be a severe, yellow collar, noble or Hahn’s, they fit the bill.
I’ve not spoken about red-bellied macaws, which I understand can be very delicate, and are extremely difficult to breed in captivity, and the Illiger’s, which is seldom seen in the “pet trade.” Mini macaws are wonderful companion parrots. As far as my “market” is concerned, they answer the problem of size in a parrot that is as huggy and tactile as the large macaws. We should be getting more of them. The babies are just adorable. Tune in next year to see if things improve. I’m willing to be that they will, now that I’ve sat down to write this and realized we should be doing better.
We do need mini-macaws! They’re wonderful.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.