Hello! Newbie Here!

[lawsonj123]

Hi all! New bird owner here AND new to forums, eek! (I can hear the groans from here haha!). I'm using the term "owner" loosely as the Blue Fronted Amazon that lives with me actually belongs to my 25 yo daughter. She has a roommate situation and erratic work schedule so he stays with me until her life settles down. I'm crash-course learning about him/birds in general but I still have lots of behavior questions (will post in another thread). Austin (the bird) has been bounced around from 3 (now 4 counting me) owners. Never bonded with anyone (I think) until my daughter roomed with his last owner. They each gave him away because they said he was mean. :20: He's prickly for sure, but I think it comes from being completely untrained. I need to find a starting place with him though (to work toward training him). He doesn't like being touched, won't get on your hand, will definitely bite the mess out you, and he goes into avoidance mode if I try to interact with him. BUT he will let me scratch his head before bedtime (our routine now) and will take food from my hand. There's the added issue of despite her not being around much, he really is attached to my daughter so he's a jerk to me the rest of the day when she comes around. ~sigh~ I've watched videos on stick training but again, he backs away so quickly with anything new, I feel like I need to start smaller but not sure what that is. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!http://www.parrotforums.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[4dugnlee]

Start sitting next to his cage and quietly talking or reading to him. It is good that you can scratch his head and he will take food from your hand. My blue front would take food from us when we brought her home but no way would she let us touch her head! It took her 2 full months to come to me...now she's awesome (with me..not so much hubby). How long has your daughter had him and how long have you had him? Take it slow...patience is a virtue!! Do you know any information about his previous life before your daughter?

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

Welcome to the forum! Lots of great advice to be found from experienced owners here Do you have any pictures? We love pictures

 

[lawsonj123]

Sorry, I'm at work...slow internet and I can only check in here and there. As for his past, first owner (that we know of) was a couple who didn't have him long before their baby arrived. They gave him to "Dave" who came to do repair work in their home. The bird seemed to like Dave so they gave Austin to him (worried about baby's safety I think). "Dave" is a family friend of ours who travels a lot so he gave the bird to his adult daughter to take care of. She had him for a few years but gave him back to Dave when she moved up north a few years ago. Impression was, she never really like the bird because he was "mean". By this time my daughter was house sitting all the time for Dave and eventually moved in because of Austin and she liked being on her own. Also, when the bird came back there to live, he no longer liked Dave. He loved my daughter though. She'd never been around birds but he just liked her. Anyway, Dave had to move out of state, he gave Austin to my daughter and she found new roommate/new place... but no room for Austin there. Plus she was gone a lot working during the day, dating at night. She didn't want him alone but knew about the Amazon 1-person- bonding thing and didn't want to give him to strangers or a bird rescue place. I was her happy medium (lol!). He's been with me going on a year now and it took a while before I could scratch his head. I figured it's long past time to do more than chat with him and leave him to do what he wanted for fear of being bitten. A couple of weeks ago, I moved his cage into the living room where I spend most my time. Before, he was in a bedroom with a clear view to where I sat in the living room (tiny house) but it just seemed he wasn't apart of the family (me and my dogs). Since moving him, I learned he is a music video junkie...not TV, only computer. I put an old laptop next to his cage to play Youtube videos for him and this is the most engaged I've ever seen him. Video of him here from last night. [ame="http://youtu.be/zwHQRGXhdF8"]Austin's first attempt at singing - YouTube[/ame] He loves Taylor Swift and is also "ALL About That Bass" haha. BUT, he gets so wound up after a song or two, he dive-bombs my head (on the attack) when I get up and move around, or try to replay the video. Not sure what that's about. But I worry I'm misjudging his body language and maybe he DOESN'T like the videos?? I have a hard time with the body subtleties of bird body language....just know when he's pissed. So we only play a few songs for my safety haha. I think he's trying to sing in the video and picked up a few words as you'll see, just in the past 2 days. Btw, we think he is approx 11-15 yrs old. Sorry this is so long. Hope posting a link is okay?

 

[lawsonj123]

P.S. this is also the first time since I've had him that he willing got off his cage and stood on something else.

 

[miloslave]

Hi and welcome! Austin is gorgeous! Lol, to me it looks like he is really enjoying that video! Too cute!

 

[JamJar]

hi and welcome I'm new here myself and i have a orange winged zon.. looks like he loves music lol Marley gets excited too when i put on old school uk garage and led zeppelin

 

[lawsonj123]

Okay, good I didn't think I was that out of touch with how a "happy" bird looks, but the swooping at my head thing (wings aren't clipped) confused me. Mixed signals to a human. I forgot about Led Zeppelin...need to try that too.

 

[Allee]

Hello, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us! Austin is a very handsome guy, love the video! He looks happy to me, maybe a tiny bit enthusiastic over the video, Lol. It's not always easy to read parrot body language until you know your bird really well, sometimes overstimulation can lead to misplaced aggression.

It's very kind of you to help out with Austin. Good luck to you.