Geronimo, the Catalina Macaw, has found a great life at SC-CARES
Here at the S.C. Coastal Animal Rescue and Educational Sanctuary, there are 153 resident animals, with 53 of them birds. Sadly, we’ve turned others away that we just don’t have room for at the moment.
Parrots are so unique in the ways that they deal with being in captivity, and oftentimes, they suffer from what we might call posttraumatic stress disorder. Geronimo would be one of those parrots.
Parrots have so many natural instincts that we tend to see as problems, such as destroying wood or objects they can chew to bits, biting at humans just to see the reaction, climbing to get around (of course, they’d prefer to fly) or talking (yelling loudly) to get attention. Geronimo is called a Catalina macaw, which is a manmade species of parrot. Someone years back decided to breed a Blue and Gold Macaw and a Greenwing Macaw, and then called them Catalina. Because of that, these parrots are hybrids and not found naturally in the wild.
Bred and sold in pet stores and by private breeders, these macaws are larger than most of the other breeds of macaws. Larger bird, larger beak, which is pretty intimidating, especially when you’re aware of the damage and bite pressure they have. Macaws typically have a bite pressure of 300 pounds per square inch (it only takes about 200 to break most of our bones), and their beaks are very sharp. They can crack a Brazil nut in seconds with no thought to it.
To have a bird this size with the ability to do such damage is more than people can handle. Geronimo is a product of the passing around of parrots. When Geronimo arrived at SC-CARES, he was only 5 years old, which is still very young for parrots that live to be 80 to 100 years old. The most horrifying part of this is that SC-CARES is his fifth home. This poor bird had been sold, returned, sold again, placed in another home and passed to another home. All of these changes in his environment, housing and the people he was introduced to had an emotional effect on him.
Thankfully, Geronimo isn’t one of the birds that started plucking his feathers, like some of our other residents have after being in stressful situations, but his coping mechanism was to bite. Who could blame him? With what had happened to him, he no longer felt that he could trust humans, and that, I completely understand.
When Geronimo arrived, I’ll admit, I was intimidated for sure, but I could see how nervous he was and probably scared, too. He was trying to be tough so I couldn’t see how truly terrified he was. Seeing this fear in his eyes gave me determination to prove to him that not all humans are bad, that I have compassion for him and what he’s been through, and that I just want him to be happy, feel safe and enjoy his life. I had to be very careful working with him; his beak is very large and sharp, he moves with rapid speed, and I prefer to keep all of my 10 fingers.
It was apparent after a few weeks that this misunderstood boy only wanted to be loved and accepted, and I was determined to give him just that! These macaws do talk, oftentimes repeating what they’ve heard, and Geronimo had quite a library of language — most of it profanity or ugly words like “shut up.” This told me a lot about what his life had been like prior to coming to us; I was horrified to think of the situations he must have been in.
Geronimo would lunge at me and try to bite me, then let out some of the ugliest words you’ve heard, and I could picture how this scenario had played out. Working with abused and troubled parrots, it’s been my experience that the least attention you pay to a bad habit, the quicker it will usually cease. Ignoring foul language and bad behavior is hard for humans to do, but it really is the best thing to create an atmosphere of peace.
These parrots are very intelligent beings and seek attention, be it good or bad, so walking away from a lunging bird will stop the behavior much faster than trying to reason with them. Of course, going back to show them loving attention is also key. They crave our attention and want to be noticed, so after walking away from negative behavior, I would try going back and start singing and dancing with him. This turned out great!
Geronimo is one of the first macaws that will start bobbing back and forth when I sing and dance for him. When we play music for the birds, and I start singing and dancing, there are lots of parrots that join in, some singing, some dancing and some doing both! I don’t think any of us will end up on “America’s Got Talent,” and I’m sure it’s quite a sight, but we do have fun doing this.
Once we moved Geronimo into the aviary with the other macaws, he quickly took up with Buzz, another Catalina we had taken in. These two birds are inseparable, and you can see that the bond they have is very strong. They preen each other, feed each other and are together 24/7 and have been for five years now. We’ve not had a DNA test done, but I would guess that one is male and the other is female since they get along so great!
We are still under construction with the new indoor/outdoor aviary (if anyone wants to help with this, please contact us), and I’m so excited to give them their new home. We have plans to give Buzz and Geronimo some space of their own since they love to cuddle each other constantly. We have treat day at SC-CARES, and for the parrots, it can be grapes, apples, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, sugar snaps — whatever we have an abundance of.
Geronimo is most appreciative of his treats. I remember giving them cherry tomatoes on Geronimo’s first treat day, and he let out a loud “UUMM” and wanted more. It was music to my ears to know he was happy! Although he had a rough start in his life, Geronimo is one of the lucky ones. I wish we could help them all; maybe one day we can, or better yet, one day there won’t be any parrots that need help!
To get contact information and to learn how to get involved with the work at SC-CARES, go to www.sc-cares.org.
This story was originally published September 30, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Geronimo, the Catalina Macaw, has found a great life at SC-CARES."