Question for the Macaw owners?

How much it costs really depends on a few things, the bird as an individual for one...Some birds are more wasteful than others, they will put their food in the water dish spoiling the water and the food(Which is why water should be changed at least twice daily), or they will simply just throw it all over the place and other birds may be fairly clean that way, but pretty well all birds will make a bit of a mess. My red crowned amazon for example makes very little mess and he doesn't put his food in his water, but my sulphur crested cockatoo is the complete opposite, she picks up a handful in her foot, eats one pellet and drops the rest...Most of it gets back in the bowl but some of it doesn't making lots of waste, she goes through 3x as much as my amazon. It also depends on the brand/quality of pellets, your currency(I'm canadian) and lots of other things.

Also, I'd like to remind you that a macaw isn't exactly a gold fish..Parrots are not quite so domesticated like dogs or cats, your bird will likely be no more than 3 generations from the wild. So, if not trained and properly cared for they can be aggressive. Green wing macaws' bites are capable of breaking an adult male's finger, imagine what damage they could do to a child. Macaws are also amongst the loudest birds in the world, beaten by the moluccan cockatoo(Surprise, surpsise, another parrot) which has screams reaching up to 135 Decibels. Are your neighbors ok with living next to an airport? Not only are parrots not domesticated, but they're also VERY intelligent, that means they need more mental stimulation. Your bird will need an absolute minimum of 4 hours supervised time outside of the cage every day, and at least 2 hours of social interaction with you. Your bird should also not be left alone for long periods of time, 8 hours of work everyday probably not OK...It can work(Imagine yourself in your bedroom, complete silence with nothing but a crossword book for 8 hours every day), depends on the bird as an individual but they'd at least need a radio on or TV, something to stimulate them while you're gone, nature sounds are good(Now you've added some music for your 8 hours in your room). It's still ideal to have someone home to at least talk to the bird once in awhile. This might sound like an exaggeration to you, but parrots are very social and have one of the most complex forms of communication in the world. Like Dolphins, and even humans they name their young, they've also been proven to understand the concept of zero/nothing(This is a big thing in animal intelligence) and not only do they mimic, they can be trained to communicate with their speech to an extent. Look up alex the african grey parrot on youtube. Although it's quite amazing, because of their intelligence they NEED social interaction and stimulation.

I really don't know how much knowledge or experience you have with birds. However, I tell you this because I don't like encouraging people to adopt parrots, especially large ones due to the ignorance of the vast majority of people. Large birds like macaws and cockatoos are not spur of the moment adoptions. Some people seem to think so though, they see a really neat looking bird that talks and they like it. Then they end up with a screaming and/or plucking bird, which is when they either rehome the bird, ask about it on yahoo answers or ask a rescue like the one I volunteer for.

I can't stress this enough, large parrots are not simple pets to care for, they are NOT for beginners. I mean, that's like never having owned a cat in your life and deciding you want a tiger or a lion as a pet, parrots are less dangerous to you obviously but are just as difficult to train and care for. If you'd like to adopt a parrot I'd suggest you get a budgie, cockatiel, conure or love bird("The cat"). Not a macaw or cockatoo("The tiger or lion").

If money is the problem,you should not be thinking of buying birds.You keep birds for the pleasure they bring ,not what they cost to keep.