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6 Steps To Using Tree Limb Perches For Your Blue And Gold Macaw by Ryleigh Cantrell

From perches to foraging toys I make the inside of my Blue And Gold Macaws cage as wild and natural as I know how.

I take a tremendous amount of pride in making my Blue And Gold Macaws cage as wild and natural as I can. I honestly believe doing so has paid huge dividends in avoiding common problems associated with my Blue And Gold Macaws behavior and health such as screaming, plucking or foot problems.

Foot care for my Blue And Gold Macaw is and has been very high on my list to keep him healthy. I believe doing so has been very key in keeping him active. We have never suffered a foot problem.

My Blue and Gold Macaw (Shadow) is 31 years old. I actually purchased his egg. So we have had a great deal of time to learn from and about each other.

During those years we learned very active Macaws tend to be just a little bit quieter than those with little to do and to much alone time on their hands.

Unless I am caught in a bind almost all of the wood in Shadows cage comes from trees. There is nothing at all wrong with the dowels sold as perches other than each dowel is uniform. The circumference of the perch never changes unless the bird changes perches.

Tree limbs tend to help eliminate that problem. Nearly every step along each limb fits his feet differently allowing him to always find a comfortable place to perch much like a bird in the wild.

With the help of my brother a long distance trucker. I maintain a good stash of mesquite wood from his Texas ranch. I have two grapefruit trees I have never sprayed that also yield wood. These keep me in good shape for perches. My brother uses the same Mesquite wood for his own Blue And Gold Macaws.

Because I know where the wood comes from I worry mostly about parasites, fungus, living things in the wood and not so much about pesticides etc.

What I have learned to to do to protect my Blue and Gold Macaw before introducing wild tree limbs to his cage.

1. A Google search for safe or harmfull wood for Macaws will steer you away from either harmful or even toxic branches. Surprisingly there are many.

2. After selecting I soak all the limbs in water covering them with a few gallons and a teaspoon of bleach. I let the branches soak for about an hour large branches an hour and a half.

3. I use a soap free pot scrubber firmly scrubbing each limb down as it soaks. Scrubbing just enough to clean the limbs.

4. You must rinse thoroughly and when you believe that is enough rinse some more.

5. Small branches are dried at 250 degrees in my oven. Baking them for an hour, and thick ones an hour and 15-20 minutes. Don't raise the temperature the wood could ignite.

6. Those branches to large to be dried in the oven get dried in the good old Florida sunshine.

By following the above steps my Blue and Gold Macaw has survived his first 31 years without any sort of foot problems. He stays happy and very active. I have noticed that other than at night he doesn't seem to have a favorite perch.

He always goes to the upper most perch at night. The perch is 48 inches long and he will change his spot several times during the night.

Hint: I also frequent garage sales looking mainly for old wooden baseball bats. Sanding off any finish they make tremendous perches.

Much is made of diet, exercise, what you can and cannot do, what you should and should not do for your pet bird? I just try as much as is possible to duplicate nature safely.

Some information seems very opinionated though a great deal is pretty much set in stone. Anything you may do to for or with your Blue And Gold Macaw should be thoroughly researched first.

Ryleigh Cantrell has owned his Blue And Gold Macaw (Shadow) since 1978. There are two guesses as to the birds name. The two are inseperable. They have learned a great deal from each other in those 31 years. To learn more about Blue And Gold Macaws

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 1:10 am and is filed under Medical, Mobility and Special Needs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.