Do you think I should adopt these parrots? [Please read]?

Well, it really does depend if you don’t mind the noise they make, and cleaning out the birdcage every day…
I’ve kept a couple of parrots before (not Macaws) and they could be pretty noisy at times. You could look the information up on google, or get a book on how to keep parrots, it might help.
As for what they eat, that differs with each species. Macaws are quite fond of macadamia nuts.
Here’s a link that you might find helpful. :)

Think VERY carefully before you embark on this project. Parrots are a lot of work, and they live a long, long time. Depending on their age, you very well may be responsible for them your entire life – or until you get fed up and then you’ll have to subject them to the trauma of a new home.

Parrots are extremely intelligent – for animals. They are much like a two or three year old, so think about whether you would like to care for two toddlers forever. They need a lot of care and a lot of attention. Without it, they resort to destructive behaviors – screaming, self mutilation, aggression. By a “lot of attention” I mean several hours a day minimum. They are extremely social creatures.

They are also very messy. Their food, feathers and dust go everywhere, so you’ll be either living with a mess much of the time, or vacuuming your house twice a day. Their dust is death for vacuums, so you’ll be replacing yours once or twice a year, and you’ll want a really nice dual filtered one…another major investment.

Lastly, their cages, toys, vet care and food can be very costly, easily a hundred bucks a month. So think about whether this is something that you will spend a good chunk of money on, every month, for as long as you live or own them.

I am a former bird owner, so I speak from about 15 years of experience. I am now living bird-free, and feed and enjoy the outdoor birds (I’m cooking up a batch of hummingbird food as we speak). I went from loving having birds in the house, to believing that ALL birds should be left in their natural habitat, and that it’s a real crime (well, it should be!) that people imprison them in homes and in cages. Feel free to ask me any questions you like. I don’t mean to discourage you in particular with these particular birds, but I do mean to discourage bird ownership in general. I love all birds like crazy, just as you do – enough so that I want to see them all living free with others of their kind.

I’ve been thinking about buying/adopting a macaw in the future as well, so I’m glad I’ve found this question.

Does anyone with experience owning Macaws have advice on which sub-species they recommend for someone with a young child? I would want to wait until my daughter was older, maybe 5 or 6 (not interested in a two year old AND a parrot). The bird would be mine, of course, and I wouldn’t expect my daughter to take care of it… but I’d like an extremely friendly, social, interactive bird.

I love, love, love birds like no tomorrow and I think it is one of the most egotistical things a human can do…Adopt a bird.
Nothing like saying, hey pretty bird, hey pretty bird. Don’t fly anymore, just stay here in my house and please be quite during my phone calls and dinner dates.
Sorry bud but I think it is a bad idea. As much as I want to cuddle up with some birds and love on them…Not unless you are going to eat them.

Those two birds would be a lot of work. I have a green cheeked conure and they are supposedly one of the most quiet birds you can get but he still makes a lot of noise. Also maintenance on birds is somewhat high since you have to clean out their cage a lot and they throw seed all over the place. He bites every once and a while too. Sometimes he breaks the skin but being a small bird its never that bad but a bird of that size might hurt more. If you’re not careful moths could start living in their food and infest your house, not easy to get rid of. Plus birds “poo” a lot and birds of that size it would be quite large especially in the morning after they wake up. But birds can be potty trained but accidents do happen >_> I knew a woman once who trained her bird to fly back to his cage when it had to go but if you get their wings clipped you obviously cant do that.

here’s a picture of my bird on my very messy desk haha
http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww215/ohVaNiLLaGoRiLLa/DSC01596.jpg

I’ve had him for about 7 years now so if you have any questions feel free to ask.

I think everyone has said everything here is to say. Could you babysit someone’s bird for a while or something to get an idea of what you might be in for?

1. You need some bird experience or at least an expert to call on.

2. Birds need access to their people a lot. You can’t just leave them in another room.

3. Some breeds of birds are noisy. There is no way to change that. Make sure you can live with it.

4. You need an expert to evaluate these birds (by observing them and interacting with them) to make sure they have not been emotionally damaged.

I feel the way @judochop does about birds but since these birds are already captive and need a home, someone will need to take care of them. If you have support in terms of someone knowledgeable to ask questions of, I don’t see why it couldn’t be you. You do need to be very aware of the commitment though.

Can I reiterate, they can be very noisy. So, make sure you don’t have neighbours who are going to complain. My sister had a cockatoo and that bird could screetch and shout and talk very, very loudly. It started chattering and screetching at 4am (outside the bedroom window of the room I was sleeping in).

He also needed a night and day cage. He had a cage to go to bed in and a big, day cage.

@GoldieAV16 is right about how long they live too. Cockatoos are often willed to other people because they outlive their owners.

Make sure you have a local vet who knows how to treat your birds and check out how often you would need to take them for a check-up and what the costs would be.

They need fresh food too. Not just pre-packaged seed.

My experience was to visit an acquaintance who had 2 parrots. The noise was incredible. It isn’t that they squawk too much, it’s just so loud when they do. I could not consider living with one. I made excuses not to visit her again.

A macaw is not a beginner bird.

You also haven’t mentioned your living situation (house, apartment), your financial ability to support the birds, your plans for enrichment, how much time you plan to spend with them each day, if you’ve found local veterinary care, whether you plan to have any other pets, if there are children in the household, what kind of diet you plan to supply, what kind of caging you plan to provide, what the temperament of the birds is, how much they’ve been handled, and whether you’re prepared for a 60–80 year obligation.

As long as you know the basics, what they eat, etc, and you live somewhere where they can be outside in their cage as well as inside, I see no problem. But be sure you’re financially ready as well, and you can see a long life with these birds. If you decide to adopt them, remember they’re like feathery humans:)