Center for Avian Rehabilitation & Education

Here is a picture of Hector, a severe macaw, less than two weeks after being surrendered to us. See Hector's intake picture here. Hector was surrendered in a very small cage with no toys AND NO PERCHES! Perching may sound like a natural parrot behavior, but Hector did not know what to do with perches once he was in his new, large cage at the Center.

We soon discovered that he loved almonds (as you can see in this picture). He would hang upside down from the top of his cage, and when we'd give him an almond, he attempt to eat it while still hanging upside down by one foot.

Hector quickly began perching when he hid almonds all around his perches so that in order to get the almonds, it made sense for him to perch. After about a week, he will comfortably perch on one perch in his cage -- we are still working on the others!

Another thing we are working on with Hector is teaching him how to play with toys. As previously mentioned, he is not used to playing with toys, but you can see from his intake picture that he needs to learn to play with toys, especially chippable wood, so that he can keep his beak in good shape. We developed the above toy just for him. Almonds are drilled and put on a wire, along with 2X4 slats. We're hoping that he will accidentally chew on some wood while getting at his almonds and decide he likes it, as has happened with other parrots in the past.

He has made amazing progress in the two weeks he's been in our care. We expect that by the time he is adopted into his new family, he will be unrecognizable from the scared creature we first encountered.