alancole
New member
- Oct 23, 2018
- 10
- 0
- Parrots
- Captin Jack - Panama Amazon
Hello everyone!
I just registered here after finding some extremely helpful and knowledgable posts.
My name is Alan and I've always loved birds. When I was young (middle school age), my brother and I had a pair of parakeets. And after that, I had a cockatiel. When I was entering high school I found a baby starling that had fallen from it's nest. He didn't even have any feathers. My mother said I could try to keep it (years later she told me that she didn't believe that the baby would survive very long). I made a paper towel bed in the bottom of a maxwell coffee can (if you're old enough, you might be able to remember them ... wait, maybe you can still get them - I'm not a coffee drinker; my dad is) and spent the next few days - possibly a week (it was a fairly long time ago) waking up every few hours to feed it from a syringe. Then as it got older - countless hours in the yard catching grasshoppers and worms. I got pretty good at catching grasshoppers lol.
Anyway he grew up and was with us for about 5 years. We tried to let him go "free" (we camped a lot for our family vacations) but he would fly around to explore and always come back to me or my mom.
I always wanted a larger bird, but knew that the time and on-going monetary expense was a life-time commitment. Now that my business is established and most of the kids are grown and moved out - I have an 11 week old Panama Amazon that we have named "Captin Jack". He is mostly green with yellow on his head and blue/red feathers on his wings.
I liked somethings that the breeder did and not so much some other things. For instance, we purchased him about 2 weeks after he hatched (he barely had any feathers) and we visited with him for an hour or more every other day until just this last Sunday when he finally came home with us. I liked the time we've had to bond and he is almost 'cuddly' with me and very sociable with others.
Did NOT like that about 2.5 weeks ago went for a visit and found that they had clipped his wings. I was extremely not happy. They claimed it was for his 'safety' as he had started to fly into things ... I was like - he's learning to fly, that's pretty normal. What's done is done ... I'm just making myself upset thinking about it again... soooo... moving on.
Anyway, they send him home with us two days ago. They gave me a very small amount of formula mix, "just in case he needs some". Well I didn't think much about it on Sunday. Monday morning though, I noticed that he hadn't eaten much of his food and when I took him out of the cage he kept grabbing my finger and bobbing his head like he was hoping to get food out. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I got the hint.
So I did formula Monday morning and then again Monday evening. Through the day he did eat a little of the fruits and nuts but by evening was really wanting the formula. Again this morning (Tuesday) he was pushing for it - so I mixed up some more and fed him. Yesterday I did read some articles that weening is not something you can force and in some birds can be as many as 20 weeks before they completely transition off formula. Also that it's a 'comforting' thing and some younger birds can revert to it going into new environments? Anyway, my current plan is to give him formula if he wants it and to continue to monitor his food intake. Hopefully it's not something serious and he will push forward.
Anyway, I just realized I may have written a bit much for an introduction post. Sorry for the long read.... TLDR: Hi! I have an Panama Amazon named Captin Jack. lol
I just registered here after finding some extremely helpful and knowledgable posts.
My name is Alan and I've always loved birds. When I was young (middle school age), my brother and I had a pair of parakeets. And after that, I had a cockatiel. When I was entering high school I found a baby starling that had fallen from it's nest. He didn't even have any feathers. My mother said I could try to keep it (years later she told me that she didn't believe that the baby would survive very long). I made a paper towel bed in the bottom of a maxwell coffee can (if you're old enough, you might be able to remember them ... wait, maybe you can still get them - I'm not a coffee drinker; my dad is) and spent the next few days - possibly a week (it was a fairly long time ago) waking up every few hours to feed it from a syringe. Then as it got older - countless hours in the yard catching grasshoppers and worms. I got pretty good at catching grasshoppers lol.
Anyway he grew up and was with us for about 5 years. We tried to let him go "free" (we camped a lot for our family vacations) but he would fly around to explore and always come back to me or my mom.
I always wanted a larger bird, but knew that the time and on-going monetary expense was a life-time commitment. Now that my business is established and most of the kids are grown and moved out - I have an 11 week old Panama Amazon that we have named "Captin Jack". He is mostly green with yellow on his head and blue/red feathers on his wings.
I liked somethings that the breeder did and not so much some other things. For instance, we purchased him about 2 weeks after he hatched (he barely had any feathers) and we visited with him for an hour or more every other day until just this last Sunday when he finally came home with us. I liked the time we've had to bond and he is almost 'cuddly' with me and very sociable with others.
Did NOT like that about 2.5 weeks ago went for a visit and found that they had clipped his wings. I was extremely not happy. They claimed it was for his 'safety' as he had started to fly into things ... I was like - he's learning to fly, that's pretty normal. What's done is done ... I'm just making myself upset thinking about it again... soooo... moving on.
Anyway, they send him home with us two days ago. They gave me a very small amount of formula mix, "just in case he needs some". Well I didn't think much about it on Sunday. Monday morning though, I noticed that he hadn't eaten much of his food and when I took him out of the cage he kept grabbing my finger and bobbing his head like he was hoping to get food out. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I got the hint.
So I did formula Monday morning and then again Monday evening. Through the day he did eat a little of the fruits and nuts but by evening was really wanting the formula. Again this morning (Tuesday) he was pushing for it - so I mixed up some more and fed him. Yesterday I did read some articles that weening is not something you can force and in some birds can be as many as 20 weeks before they completely transition off formula. Also that it's a 'comforting' thing and some younger birds can revert to it going into new environments? Anyway, my current plan is to give him formula if he wants it and to continue to monitor his food intake. Hopefully it's not something serious and he will push forward.
Anyway, I just realized I may have written a bit much for an introduction post. Sorry for the long read.... TLDR: Hi! I have an Panama Amazon named Captin Jack. lol
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