Kai's History

Kai's first two years

Kai was born in Louisiana and spent her first year with her wild caught parents at a breeders'. She was raised by her parents and fed by her original owner until she was weened. The owner originally named her Bella. Once weened she was put up for sale and sold to a lovely lady. With all good intentions there was love and devotion given to Bella, but unfortunately the owner became very sick and was not able to look after her.

On disability - the next four years

As a result of her owners illness, at two years of age, Bella was sold to a home in North Carolina and her name was changed to Kai. They tried the best they could to look after Kai. The husband was the primary care giver for Kai as he was on disability the first three years of her stay with them. In those three years, Kai got spoiled. She literally slept on her owners chest at night, and spent virtually all day on her owners lap & chest because he worked from home and spent a lot of time resting. They were in essence inseparable.

During this time period, the wife bought a Scarlet Macaw and they introduced Kai to her. In the first few months they got along. Then things changed. After three years of rehabilitation Kai's owner was able to start work again and so he could no longer spend time with KAI like he once did. What was a blessing for himself, turned out to be a horrible situation for Kai. She lost her fulltime companion, and became quite stressed every time he left her, even to enter another room. What worsened the situation was Kai and the second Macaw were put downstairs when the husband and wife worked, but they were not fully caged. So the second Macaw became quite aggressive and chased Kai around the basement most of the day. This created stress in the environment and caused Kai to attach harder and harder to her owner. As a result. when he would leave her alone, she would constantly squawk the way a "crying baby" cries for her mother. It got to the point where the screaming became intolerable for the owners and they put her up for sale knowing that they did not know enough about Macaws to try to train her out of her screaming.

That is where Marci and I came in.

How we came to find Kai

Marci and I already were already an owner a Hyacinth Macaw named Boca. He was a rescue from a store owner who died and the estate liquidated all the pets. Boca was slated to be sold to a breeder, but when Marci and I found him in Boca Raton we agreed it was best for him to live with us, rather than put into a breeding mill. The estate seller did not even know his name, so we named him Boca for Boca Raton. It turns out his original name was Scotty (long story).

Well, one day Marci and I were simply scanning through craigslist and we saw an advertisement for Kai. It was nothing special, just a bird being sold. We both got quite curious because we had heard of so many Macaws not have loving homes and being mistreated. So we called the number. As it turned out the owners lived 5 miles from us, and we asked if we could come see their Kai. When we got there, we realized that Kai was not in the best of conditions; She lived with a couple who had two very noisy and hyper dogs, another Macaw which was terribly aggressive towards Kai and Kai's owner started to disengage as many bird owners do when they can't make the situation work for them.

We realized the situation was terrible for Kai and we ultimately knew that we had to do something. After talking for a full week and testing her out at our home we decided that we might be able to give Kai a better home in the short term rather than leaving her in the situation she was in. Marci and I made a commitment to Kai that we would try our best to rehabilitate her so she did not Squawk continuously and to see if we could help her become a more "stable" Macaw while also looking for a new stable home for her.

So we decided to take the plunge.

Growing up in our home - The next 9 years

So once we committed to Kai, the real work began. For months, we had a very difficult time with Kai. The noise levels were terrible. She Squawked out of fear, hunger, boredom and separation anxiety. Kai was a handful. If either of us walked away from her (even 10 feet) her anxiety would kick in and she would scream. It was very difficult for a while. We had to gain her trust. We had to teach her she would be safe and we had to encourage better behavior. Marci and I are novice bird owners, so this was a difficult task for us, but we still fundamentally believed Kai was better off with us than with her previous owners until she was rehomed to a very experienced bird lover.

Well 9 years later, lots of patience, love and caring we have decided that now is the best time to find her a new owner. We believe we have taken Kai as far as we can and we believe a well qualified person will be able to take her from a really nice/good bird to an amazing bird. We hope you are the one who would love to have Kai as your very own exclusive Macaw just as we have for the last nine years.

1/38

Who Kai needs in her life

Marci and I are committed to finding the perfect home for Kai. We have given it a lot of thought and we have a list of standards that we feel would qualify the home/environment for Marci and I to rehome her. If you would like to discuss how you might be able to become Kai's lifelong owners and flock please use our contact page information to reach out to either of us.

Our thoughts on the perfect home

Minimal people in the home (in general one or two adults, limited children to keep the noise limited.
Limited other birds.
No other pets likes dogs or cats (they just create too much ruckus for a bird who was tormented when she was young).
Kai loves males and likes females.
The owner(s) will have a lot of time available to spend with her as she deserves the attention and training.
Someone with patience, empathy, commitment and dedication.
Someone who has managed a big macaw before and understands the level of effort that is needed to care for these wonderful animals.
A nice quiet space for Kai to sleep away from the family. Macaws (as all captive birds) need a place that is dark, quiet and safe for them to get a solid sleep.
Areas in the home when Kai can just play and be "destructive" as that is a Macaws nature. They chew on everything.
Someone who will keep up with Kai's medical visits. She is an incredibly healthy Macaw but as you know bids can become sick very fast, so it is imperative the owner have a good vet close to them that they can go to regularly.
An owner who has enough room in their home to have a "huge" cage (minimum 4' wide x 5 feet long x 6 feet high).
Exceptional knowledge and experience in handling and training macaws.
Absolutely no interest in breeding Kai. Breeding improperly can be harmful to the mother and the babies.

Kai's daily food

Kai gets fed twice a day and quite often gets treats just because she is Kai (hahaha), plus incentives for training. Here is a general list of her foods

8-10 Macadamia nuts ( we buy ours from a seller in Hawaii and have them shipped to us. They are terrific)
10 or so dried banana chips
5-6 Brazil nuts
Dried mango
Fresh Bananas
Some sunflower seeds
a few cashews nuts
Canned oranges - she loves the juice
Grape jelly - loves the taste every once in a while