Destructive birds

I have two parrots that I have had for quite a few years now. Max is an African Grey and I have had him a good 15 years and Mango is a Blue and Gold Macaw and she is 4 years old now. I don't know why , but I have always been fascinated with parrots and their ability to talk. Maybe I was a pirate along time ago.

They are very destructive birds though and I have to tighten the bolts on the cages frequently. I learnt the hard way with Max as his cage collapsed after about a month after getting him. he had systematically undone all the screws one by one until there was nothing keeping it together. Those were easy ones though as they had a bolt and the monkey nuts that make it easier to undo.

Mango's cage is slightly different and she only manages to open the latch on the door. She can come out whenever she wants and most mornings she has let herself out and is parading around on the top. Luckily their beaks aren't strong enough to break the bars like the Hyacinth Macaw. You know how strong these beaks are when they can crack Walnuts.

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This birdcage was a temporary cage and 6 mm bars. His old one had 5 mm. They built him a new cage out of stainless steel bars. The problem is it takes him 2 days now to snap the weld so it has slowed him down , not by much though.

My friend has a breeding pair of these exotic birds and unfortunately they are on the endangered list today with less than 2500 left in the wild. There are only known to be a few breeding pairs in captivity today and he has one of them. The eggs fetch a staggering $10 000 -$20 000 each so you can see why they are highly sought after.

The story behind his breeding pair was by a chance phone call. Someone in Zimbabwe had an avery which was in fact an enclosed tennis court. They asked him if he wanted the birds and he should come and collect them. There was a Hyacinth Macaw with the other parotts but they are hard to sex so he had no idea what he had. He had a male already, luckily it was a female and he has had eggs fairly regularly over the last few years.

I will try and get down there to his avery's as they are closed to the public even though it takes a good few hours to walk around. I will speak to him this week as it is mind blowing what he has.