Anyone Has an Amazon Parrot????

[elston]

I was the foster parent for a Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot.......(I was in a Jimmy Buffet phase and thought it would be cool to have my own parrot). I did grow to love him........But.......he/she was a lot of work and aggrevation. If I had been in a southern enviornment and could have maintained him outside it would have been better....but since he/she was incredibly noisy....the neighbors would have probably complained.

The negative side.....very messy dirty birds....shredding and throwing his food all over the floor
incredibly noisy when excited....he./she could hear my car coming up the hill and
would start screaming in anticipation till I got in the house and paid him/her some
attention. You could hear him/her well over a city block away....with traffic noise.

On occassion he would bite! and those bites were very very painful and deep. He/she definately had favorites among my friends and would threaten the ones he/she didnt like. If I remember right it was sex specific.....I think my bird didnt like female friends.

Positive:

He was very very smart and his ability to problem solve was entertaining. He had a sense of humor and would call the dog by name and would whistle just like me--he fooled her everytime.

He was a talker......everytime I started to cook he would say......."MMMMM smells good. Telly want some!" He would start saying "hello" everytime the phone rang.....he had other expressions that always seemed to fit the occassion....but I forget them.

He was such a handful I really couldnt ask anyone else to baby sit for him.....so I was really tied down.

I loved that boy......but he was really too much for me....and when his original Mama who had raised him heard I was done.....she was overjoyed to get him back.

Good Luck! I wouldnt do it again....but it was quite an experience and I think I am glad I had him for the year I took care of him.

[antarez]

I have bred Double Yellow, Red Lored and Blue Fronts, have owned Lilacs, Yellow Napes and Mexican Redheads.

Male Yellow Napes have the worst attitudes. Double Yellow Male males have a bad rep but my import Male DYH after several years as a breeder is still calm if I get him away fom his cage.

In S. California swapmeets you still find the Mexican Amazons still being smuggled in ( Yellow Napes, DYH, Lilacs, Mex Redheads and White Fronted) a few times I've saw Yellow Lored and even Guatemalan Blue Crowned. A few years back at the Chino , California swapmeet I saw at least 60 babies. A few have even admitted they were smuggled. Something that buyers should definitely avoid.

Years ago USDA used to auction off Parrots siezed at the border and thats where years back I aquired some of my birds.

Generally the females are calmer. My DYH can laugh and cry like a young child and talks quite well.
I still have a Male Red lored and Female Blue front Amazon baby that I kept. They were both held back for future breeding stock.

[IloveOC]

I have a Lilac Crowned amazon - he talks well and is the most gentle and sweet bird. I also took in a Red spectacled amazon late last summer. She also talks a little and is very sweet - she is one of the smaller amazons.

[ListenToYourHeart]

Originally Posted by antarez

I have bred Double Yellow, Red Lored and Blue Fronts, have owned Lilacs, Yellow Napes and Mexican Redheads.

Which is your favorite Amazon and why?

It seems to me that you prefer females as pets, true?

[415_s2k]

This is my Amazon parrot, Theo:



He's about seven now, and I've had him since he was about a year old. I absolutely LOVE him, he's a wonderful little friend who has filled my life with joy.

He's not without his poor behaviours: since he's hit maturity, he's become much more aggressive towards women, where he used to be a total sweetheart. He loves to land on my female friends and will sing to them, but if they try to touch him, he'll put a hole in their hand (myself and one of my female friends have been working on this with him... slow going!).

He is a total crybaby when I leave the room, up until he knows I'm away from the house. If, for whatever reason, I need quiet in the house in a room other than where he is, he has to be covered up, or he will shriek at something like 150db. He's gotten much, much better in the last few months as I've started to give him treats when I leave the room, which keep him occupied and happy long enough to forget he's supposed to freak out for me!

But those are really the only things that are negative. On the one hand, I'd really love to tell you that he's a total hellion who has ruined all of my property and has made my life complicated and frustrating as a fair deterrent, but, that would be a lie. He has damaged things before, but thankfully, he understands discipline and nine times out of ten, if he's reprimanded for doing something bad, he never does it again. For instance, one time, he took a very ornate wood chopstick that I'd left on the table up in his beak, and destroyed it. This chopstick was one of a set that my grandfather brought back from Japan after WW2. I was pissed. I yelled, I took him and covered his wings with my hand, and put him in his cage for a few minutes, covered. Took him out and acted like it'd never happened and treated him totally normal. This was five years ago; even now, if you hand him a chopstick, he'll hold it, but he won't chew on it.

Other than screaming for me when I leave the room, he's very quiet - he chatters at a "human" volume, and likes to whisper. He mimics a lot of sounds, loves music, and will sit on my shoulder and sing when I play guitar. He loves to explore around the house, and thinks it's fun to hide stuff in nooks and crannies. He's also a total cuddlebug, who loves to be snuggled and hugged, and he'll do the same to me - he will push into my head when he's on my shoulder, or puff up his feathers and rub up against my hand to get me to pet him.

He LOVES the shower, so I'll let him hang out on the curtain rod when I'm in it; he'll mimic the sound of the running water and likes it if you splash him. Sometimes, he'll jump on my shoulder or head to get a bath, and he will actually put his wings around my face and the back of my head to try to keep me dry It is amazingly adorable.

Amazons, and all parrots, are very complex animals that do require tons of love, care, and affection, and it's NOT easy. There have been really trying times with him... but, to me, it's been worth it 100%!

[antarez]

Originally Posted by ListenToYourHeart

Which is your favorite Amazon and why?

It seems to me that you prefer females as pets, true?

Sometimes with females ( especially Amazons) you get less aggression, unless there is a nestbox around.

My favorite Amazon would be my Male Double Yellow which was a smuggled import confiscated as a baby by USDA.

I bought him 1995 at the San Ysidro USDA confiscated bird auction they used to have by the border years ago and still have him. Great talker and even kids used to be able to handle him. And Male DYH Amazons usually have a bad rep, heck some of his sons had a stubborn streak and weren't as nice and they were handfed from day 1.

I also bought a Male Red Lored at a later auction and he was quite tame ( no longer have him, but still own his mate and a male baby that I kept for a future breeding pair).

Unfortunately for novices it's hard to tell what age an Amazon is or gender. Most "experts" guessed my male DYH was a female ( including someone who wrote 2 books on parrots) but my Avian vet guessed right before surgically sexing him. Then again Dr. Hannis Stoddard has performed that procedure on thousands of birds.

My female Yellow Napes, Mex. Redheads, Blue Fronts and Red Loreds had better personalities than their male counterparts.

I have found that Lilacs about even in temperment. Sometimes in and around swapmeets and pet stores in S. Calif. you will find other Amazons and sometimes conures with their heards dyed yellow to pass them off as Double Yellowhead Amazons.

I even saw an odd colored bird at the Chino Swapmeet that upon closer inspection was a DYH ( a young bird usually has a small area of yellow that expands as it ages just like baby Napes are generally almost all green untill they get older) that some idiot dyed an orange /yellowish color on his head that he tried to disguise asthe Double Yellowhead it already was.


To help preserve these bird in captivity decent people do not breed or buy hybrids, unless you deal with someone knowledgeable and honest you could be taken.

Here's a link on wild Amazons and others spotted around the Greate LA area that shows hybrids and different species Wild Parrots Photos - Photos of Wild Birds - Wild Bird Pictures I've went out and viewed them a couple times as they sometimes zoom down pretty low.

I didn't see the Mitred Conures closely but saw them flying way higher than the Amazons and recognised them by their calls. I have one that someone found after it fell out of the nest in LA unweaned and he is extremely loud and noisy.