We brought Mardy home at the end of June last year. We took her (yes her) to the Avian Vet for a full checkup and sexing. We had my daughter's birds also checked and sexed at the same time. Mardy and MacKenzie are girls, and Nigel is a boy. All were pronounced healthy by the Vet, although she did advise me to get unsalted nuts because Nigel's sodium levels were high.
The birds are all doing great. Mardy came home with her flight feathers trimmed. She had also developed a habit of putting feathers 5 and 6 behind her head. She mostly did this with her left wing, but did occasionally do it with her right wing as well. The result was that feathers 5 and 6 always looked ratty and had be broken off rather short. I've been working with her since she came home and have nearly broken her of the habit. I'll still catch her a couple of times a day with the feathers from her left wing up behind her head, but rarely her right wing. Her flight feathers have completed grown back in and she is now fully flighted. When she raises a wing to get our attention the right wing looks full, but the left wing still shows a gap where the damaged feathers have yet to grow in. I'm hoping that by the next time those feathers molt that she will no longer have the habit of sticking those feathers behind her head.
Mardy is very talkative. She says "hello" has her standard contact call. Whenever she reverts to her natural squawk I leave the room and close the door. After a minute of silence I say "hello" to her through the door. When she responds with "hello" instead of a squawk I come back into the room and reward her. As a result she rarely squawks--maybe twice in the morning and again twice in the evening. If you've ever heard a Macaw at full volume you can understand why this is so important. Unlike a dog's barking which can be irritating, a Macaw's squawk can set your ear drums to ringing.
Mardy also says "want a nut?" and "love you". She meows, barks, clucks, laughs, and whistles like a boy trying to get the attention of a girl walking down the street. Oh, and she sighs. She picked up that sound from me cleaning her cage and playground.
Mardy loves showers. She also loves the sound of the vacuum cleaner. The noise level of those two common activities brings out her own natural noisiness.
A few weeks ago I spilled coffee in my home office. This is the same room I have Mardy's cage and playground. I got down on the floor to clean up my mess. I was using a couple of the towels I keep around her cage to catch whatever the seed guards miss. Next thing I knew Mardy was down on the floor with me trying to wrestle the towel away from me. I don't normally let her on the floor, but this one time she was just too cute to put back on her playground. My son captured most of the session in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6JtHG4Mq1U
