Owning a Severe Macaw

   This is a small article about my experiences with my severe macaw. Like people, birds have different personalities and abilities. What I've experienced might not be what you have or what you will. Take it as a personal recount of my life with Havoc. Most of this will consist of stories of her behavior, etc.

   Havoc is a female severe macaw, hatched in May of 2006. Keep in mind that the severe macaw is the largest of the mini macaws. I had originally wanted a yellow collared macaw, but, well, what are you going to do. :) I did purchase Havoc from a pet store - but I was one of the managers at the store. I specifically ordered her for me, and when she came in, it was love at first sight.

   Personality. Havoc is my first large bird. I've handled many, but she's the first I have owned. She does not like being handled by anyone else. I tried mightily to socialize her, but everyone was scared of her big beak so she has become a one-person bird. My roommate can handle her if I am not at home, but that's about all he can do. Inside her cage, anyone can rub her head or play "got your foot," but you still have to carefully watch her body language. Sometimes she'll stick her foot on her head while you're rubbing, which is awfully cute, but it's really there to grab your finger when you're not looking so she can bite you and you can't escape.
   There is a lot of biting with Havoc. On average, out of ten, I'll rate her biting at a 4. Not really anything to complain about, but it isn't painless either. Every once in a while she gets me with a 9, but it's usually because I ignored her body language or the situation. Sometimes if I just ignore her she'll run over and give me a whopper. They don't like to be ignored. She will also bite me if she is in a situation where she is scared. If I am taking her to my room and a dog walks up, she throws herself against me and bites whatever is handy. HARD. If I'm doing something she is very opposed to, she will bite me. HARD.
   When I walk by her cage without paying attention to her (which is hard to do, as her cage is about 6' tall, 3.5' wide and 3' deep) she will make a "WAAAAAH" noise and throw herself at the bars, trying to bite me. If I am doing stuff to her cage and she can reach my shirt, she will grab it and make the same noise (it's quite loud), then let go and look to see if I noticed. She's really like a little kid that jumps up and down while the adults are talking screaming, "look at me, look at me!" I should also mention she's scared of the color blue. I don't know why. But she will start screaming horribly and biting if she comes into contact with bright blue. Makes buying bird toys really fun.

   Games and Fun. Havoc is extremely playful. I can flip her onto her back whenever I want, and I can even toss her a little into the air (don't try that at home!). She loves to grab on with a toe or two and be swung high and low, crying "WHEEEEEEE!" She is really big into wrestling. The rougher, the better (within birdie reason, of course). We have a game called "got your foot" in which the point is, miraculously, to grab her foot without being bitten. She loves it, she will even ask to start playing. Sometimes I will be carrying her and randomly she'll bite me and cry, "GOT YOUR FOOT!" And no, she has never bitten my foot. My face, my fingers, my arm... but never my foot. She doesn't bite hard for this game, it's a play bite.
   Havoc loves to be tickled. She asks for it. "Tickle Tickle Tickle!" Especially if she's flipped onto her back. She asks for headrubs, too. I've been trying to teach her neckrub but she seems to prefer headrub. When I am relocking her cage after a play session, she grabs the chain and starts playing tug of war with it. If I open her food door to grab the water bowl, she scrambles over and thrusts her body out so I can't close it without picking her up.
   Other fun game-type things she's learned is to go "HONK" when I grab her beak. It was easy to teach - just sort of pinch her beak and say HONK every time. I've been trying to do "Ding Ding" just as long, which involves a tugging on her tail. She does not like ding ding and will not say it.

   Food. Havoc is not particular at all about food. Her favorite thing in the entire world, more than mommy, life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, is dried papaya. She will do anything for dried papaya. She gets it with every meal. On the rare occassion that I run out of papaya, she will react in a manner that makes it obvious I've screwed up. Once she started screaming for a long period of time when she saw no papaya in her bowl. Another time she sat on the bowl, looked into it, looked at me, looked into it, and started muttering under her breath. Another time she grabbed everything in the bowl, one by one, and dropped it onto the floor.

   With other animals. I do have other birds, as well as five dogs. Havoc does not like dogs, but she tolerates a few. She doesn't interact with them outside of her cage, but, being dogs, they do come over to her cage for a few sniffs. She likes my Old English Sheepdog, but when she gets tired of him being near her, she bites him on the nose. He is pretty big and pretty sensitive, and he learned to not linger too long and wear out his welcome. If I have her out, she will lunge for some of the dogs she does not like, all of which are at least 30# and some of which have been known to try to eat small critters. Havoc does not like my other birds. The idea of going into my bird room causes her to throw herself into my shoulder with all the force she can muster.

   Vocalizations. This is probably the part everyone's been waiting for. I'm sure you've caught on that Havoc speaks very well. And very clearly. She can use phrases appropriately as well, primarily because we use them appropriately with her. But before I indulge you with her speaking talents, I would like to mention screaming. Havoc is a very quiet bird. If I had to rate her against a macaw, from 1 to 5, with 5 being as loud as a b&g, she'd get a 2. If I had to rate her against a cockatiel, which we'll say is as quiet as a 5, she would get a 3. The only complaint I have is when she screams. She may scream once or twice a week. Just for the joy of screaming, I'm sure. Or if I go outside. She hates if I go outside. But the screaming is so loud, I want to leave the house. I want to get my car keys and drive away so she can scream without me. But of course you can't do that. As I understand it, she is unusual in that she rarely screams. She tends to speak more than anything. Sometimes she yells, but usually she mutters. If I leave the bird room door open, she'll talk to my quaker and hold little nonsensical conversations.
   Okay, okay, the talking. For the simplicity of it, I am going to just list the words that Havoc says so you can get an example of her vocabulary. She does mix the words to form her own sentences too, but I will just list her favorite words and phrases. In addition to speaking she: burps, farts (yes, sadly she does), goes WHEW, laughs, evil laughs, perfectly imitates my cell phone when I get a txt message, she pretends she's on a cell phone (yeah, uh huh, yep, okay!), barks... I think that's it. She does not whistle. She calls all my dogs by name (they ignore her) so you will see those in the list too, along with any variations she calls them. She knows one of my other birds too, who also chatters incessantly.

Hello!
WHAT?!
Go away
Poor Havoc
Pretty Bird
Pretty Girl
Pretty Boy
Pop Pop
Popper
Roo bear
Roofus
Murphy
Merlin
Blossom
Bad Dog
Go outside
Come here
Get in here
Tickle
Pickle
Headrub
Got your foot
Want out?
Help
Wheeeee!
No (a favorite!)
Yes
Yep
I Love da Pop Pop
Yeah
Uh huh
Okay
Jerk
Stop it
No biting!
Night Night
Goodbye

   That's just a few that I can remember. As I think up more I'll list them on here. She has a few undesirable words as well that I can't repeat - but she usually doesn't say them. It's amazing what they pick up when your roommate watches football on TV...

   Well, I think that's a pretty good depiction of Havoc. She's a blast and I love her, even when she bites me. Mini macaws aren't for everybody, and I definitely think one's enough. They take up a lot of room, eat a lot of toys that you have to constantly replace, need a lot of attention, and sometimes, are extremely loud. But that's just kinda how it is. If you want one bad enough, you'll learn to deal with the negative things.