Might Be Adopting an Older Amazon

[wrench13]

Okay, so she doesn’t seem to be eating enough. One website said yellow-shoulders eat 1/4 cup of pellets and 1/4 cup of fresh foods each day. Another said 1/3 cup of pellets and 1/3 cup of fresh foods. Then an old article from J&B Exotics said they give each pair 1 cup of fresh foods (fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, seeds) everyday. The girl’s maybe eating 1/3 cup of food (varying ratios of pellets to fresh food) each day. It takes her three days to eat 1/4 cup of pellets, and she always leaves some of her supper (fresh) behind, which is rarely more than 1/4 cup of food.

Daily weighing and recording the results is the sure fire way to determine food intake. My YSA eats a lot some days and just picks on others. DIgital kitchen scale w/accompanying T perch can be had for around $40 or less on Amazon.

 

[Laurasea]

weight checks, poop checks
I offer free choice on food

 

[Teddscau]

I offer free choice with pellets as well. Well, enough for 2–3 days so that they stay relatively fresh. When I offer a mix of pellets I offer less (may 36 hours worth) to make sure my birds don’t just eat their favourites.

Her poops have always been weird, so I definitely keep an eye on those. For some reason a lot of the time the feces look like they’ve been chopped into tiny little pieces (relatively normal amount of feces to urates, just not in a solid pile/log). Her digestion is definitely trash compared to the other birds I’ve had. Like, the others might have slightly loose poops or greener poops depending on the fresh foods I feed them, but Jasper’s poops are inconsistent at best. Usually they’re super wet and the feces almost always has terrible form. Whenever I see a proper ”parrot poop” on her newspapers I rush to tell my parents. You should see her purple blueberry poops. Not sure if her digestive tract is still recovering from…whatever the heck was going on in there. Maybe they’re normal and I’m just used to poops from little parrots.

For weighing, do y’all just buy a kitchen scale then silicone a T-perch on it?

 

[Birdman666]

My oldest amazon was 35 when I got her. She's 47 now. She may still outlive me.

I've worked with LOTS of older rehome zons over the years. Regular bathing, vet care and grooming, and most of all, GETTING HANDLED AND INTERACTED WITH instead of being left to rot in a cage, will do wonders for bringing out this bird's personality.

 

[Teddscau]

Well, she poked a hole in Dad’s forearm tonight. She was hanging out with us on her new stand in the family room, when she suddenly decided to launch herself. My dad managed to get her to land on his arm, but as he carried her back, she launched gain. Rather than flying in a straight line to her cage past the kitchen, she took a left and ended up…well, I didn’t go to check, but she’s never darted over there before. He went and got her to step up on his arm again, but as he rounded the corner to bring her to her room, she started biting the heck out of his arm.

Luckily he was wearing a jacket, because she still managed to break the skin. He didn’t bleed, but there’s an indent where she stabbed him with her upper beak, as well as some peeled back skin. She’s kind of like an alligator—once she gets a hold of you, she won’t quit chomping down.

I feel bad she was neglected for so long at her other home. The lady would knit with her sometimes, but it sounds like she was locked in that cage 24/7 for at least the last few years before I adopted her. Here, the top of her cage is always open (except at bedtime or when we leave the house), and we make sure to say hi to her whenever we go to the kitchen, and we copy her whenever she’s singing.

She and Dad’s chihuahua seem to like each other for some reason. They don’t really acknowledge each other per say, but he likes to lay near her stand whenever she’s on it, she’ll sometimes call to him when he’s out in the yard, and he’s never peed on any of her belongings (cage, stands, food containers, etc.), despite the fact that he sprays absolutely everything (dog beds, dog toys, pillows, walls, shoes, bags, chairs, etc.).

Now that it’s nice and bright out again, I’ve started hanging out with her more. I’m going to make a point of spending at least four hours of quality time with her everyday so we can eventually handle her. I’ve started reading to her, and I’m gonna start singing to her and feeding her her meals and snacks by hand like I did when I was taming Noah. Right now I’d describe her as calm(?) and unpredictable.

 

[Teddscau]

I found an interesting study that was done concerning frugivorous passerines being cared for in captivity, and the effects various diets have on their digestion. I know parrots have digestive capabilities far superior to that of passerines, but I found the study interesting, and how it might apply to captive parrots, especially individuals with digestive issues.

It concerned the effects fruits with high fructose:glucose had on digestion. I’ve decided to experiment with Jasper to see if limiting the fruits and veggies in her diet for a few months to those with a fructose:glucose ratio of <1—as the study suggests for frugivorous passerines in captivity—will help improve her poop, health, and appetite.

Here’s a link:

http://www.geckodan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Preliminary-study-into-the-effects-of-diet-variation-in-Frugivorous-native-birds.pdf

 

[Teddscau]

I check her feet everyday since they’re always in rough shape (dry, deformed, weird overgrown tissue from being on a dowel perch for 25 years, overgrown nails, sores, etc.), but I guess I didn’t see the bottom of her left foot for several days. Saw it tonight, and she has…I dunno how to describe it. I guess you could call the spot her “heel”… Well, it’s all swollen there, not red or anything alarming like that. It’s probably because she’s started standing on her dish again for hours at a time. Looks kind of like a bumblefoot plug.

I’m gonna put her dish on the outside of her cage again (she was also masturbating on it earlier today, which she hasn’t done in over a year), and I guess I have to book her an appointment again to have her nails done. I’ll ask the vet to look at her foot and give her wings a very light trim as well so she doesn’t smack into things quit as hard when she launches herself in a panic. Hmm, or maybe not. The main issue isn‘t when she flies into something—it’s when she falls like a rock to the floor afterwards. She could use a nose cleaning as well.


Oh yeah, update on Rosie and Jaybird. Rosie’s turned into an absolute menace. She’s super territorial towards us now. Once the weather gets nicer, we’re going to move the double-flight cage from the aviary to our driveway to thoroughly wash and disinfect it. Then we’ll stick Rosie and Jaybird in it. Should get Rosie to act less rabid. She’s nesting with Jaybird, and she gets real scary when she has eggs.

 

[SailBoat]

Ever larger flatter surfaces as they age is helpful and yes, removing surfaces that cause problems is a must.

Next step is to use 'Vet' rap (or sport rap, something, just costs less) on the surfaces that are perched on will also help!

 

[Teddscau]

Yeah, the perches I have for her are a large diameter. She also uses the three platform perches I bought for her last year off of Etsy. The Java wood stands she has are kept nice and clean, and have a variety of diameters.

Her main problem is that she’ll stand on the same spot for hours at a time. She’s extremely inactive. I’m going to be ordering her some Mazuri pellets from the US to help with her vitamin A and D deficiencies. I’m hoping that’ll help perk her up.

 

[Teddscau]

Took the little goober to the vet an hour or so ago. She’s gained weight (she’s 280g), had her nails clipped, one nostril cleaned, beak touched up, and heel looked at. Turns out she was extremely well behaved and stepped up for them several times without growling or biting. So it turns out the little snot CAN step up without maiming anyone >_>

We ordered Mazuri for her earlier this week, and it should be in in a few weeks. Hopefully that’ll help make her feel even better, and make her that much more pleasant to handle. She split Dad’s finger open the other day when he was trying to give her a treat. I wasn’t there at the time, but I’m pretty sure it was user error. She landed on him today and crawled to the back of his head, yet she didn’t attack his ears or neck, so maybe she’s less violent now that her tummy’s feeling better and her feet aren’t as sore.

 

[Teddscau]

Well, guess who’s getting her poop checked by the vet again.

I don’t know what the heck that stuff‘s supposed to be. And no, that isn’t old food that fell in blobs everywhere.

 

[Teddscau]

Dad thinks she’s starting to like me more. Apparently she gets excited when she hears me in another room. She’s also started chatting when I read to her. Meanwhile, the old man’s too afraid to feed her by hand anymore because she’s chomped him one too many times, so he’s spoon feeding her instead.

Whenever she bites him he gets super angry and walks away. I’m going to try to get him to apologize to her instead and talk to her in an empathetic way, and have him “slow blink” with her instead of getting upset. Like, he doesn’t yell at her or anything, but I feel walking away doesn’t really resolve the situation.

I came up with a great idea today. We’re going to start interacting with each other in front of her as though the other party is a parrot, and the “parrot” will react appropriately. I’m not convinced she knows how to socialize properly, so I’m hoping this’ll help teach her.

 

[SailBoat]

Consider slowing down when one approaches the Amazon and be talking to her and letting her what /why you are there! It also gives that individual time to see if she wants the interaction. I commonly start talking to our DYH Amazon on the other side of the room when I am coming his way letting him know that I want a step-up, commonly his foot is full-up when I arrive. If he is not overly interested the foot is down.

 

[Teddscau]

Yeah, that’s the thing. I always tell her what I’m going to do, and Dad’s supposed to as well. However, I’m not convinced she knows what “step up” means. She’ll step up for us when she gets herself stranded somewhere, but other than that… How would you suggest going about it? Step up training with the perch is going poorly because of the number of times my parents tried to use the step up perch when she didn’t want to (nobody’s allowed to use the step up perch now unless she’s somehow gotten herself stuck on top of a curtain or somewhere else out of reach).

We moved one of her stands over next to her cage. Do you think we should try putting banana in the stand’s bowl and try asking her to step up, then bring her over to the dish? Hmm, I have a balcony I haven’t put on her cage yet. It’s fairly long, and sticks quite far out from the cage. I might attach it lower on the cage and try teaching her to go on there, then ask her to step up while holding a massive piece of banana…

Ugh, and she hates the undersides (palms) of hands. I’ve had a bunch of birds over the years, and I was able to get pretty much all of them to eat from my palm. Some of the little brats liked pinching my fingers while eating, but none of them would straight up start lunging at me out of the blue and start hitting my hand/fingers, or suddenly stick my finger in their mouth while making eye contact with me as they squeezed on it. I’m assuming I have to start doing that again with Jasper to get her over her weird hatred of palms >_>

 

[SailBoat]

With older Parrots, your just wanting is not always enough!!
IMHO, step-ups just because it is something we would like, can result in a lack of interest on their part. It is why I always start letting my Amazon know I want /need a step-up from across the room. I also provide lots of praise when he climbs onboard!!
Step-ups for the heck of it, are often looked down upon from older Amazons!!

 

[Teddscau]

Oh yes, I’m aware of how she feels about stepping up. We always make sure to give her a ton of praise and treats when she steps up. I actually had to get her to step up for me a few minutes ago so I could bring her back to her cage because my parents needed to move the tv to bring it in for repairs. I had a huge chunk of banana in one hand and held my other arm at a distance telling her I needed her to step up. Well, she got quite angry and started swiping at me (she wasn’t bluffing).

She‘s fine with your fingers and arm near her, but as soon as she realizes you want her to step up she throws a tantrum. And I know I’m supposed to do it bare arm, but she was 100% going to bite the snot out of my arm and hand, so I went and triple layered with long sleeve shirts. I came back and asked her to step up (I didn’t shove my arm into her or anything like that, I just held my arm an inch away and asked her to get on me). She realized I wasn’t going to give into her lunges so she got on my arm, then tried to bite me the entire way back to her cage. We got to her cage and I held her up to it, but instead of getting off, she crawled over to my hand and started trying to grab my fingers. I knew this would happen, so I had my fingers hidden away in the multiple layers of sleeves.

My dad tried asking her to go on the cage but she continued trying to get my fingers. She gave up on trying to snip off my fingers after a minute and finally climbed on her cage, at which point she was praised and offered a pile of banana on her balcony.

The little brat’s still a bit pissy over not getting her own way, and was lunging at the spoon to take her banana when I offered it. She wanted the banana and was definitely going to take the banana, but she just wanted to make it clear to me that she was angry.

It‘s her right to say no to stepping up, but saying no shouldn’t mean lunging at our arm and cutting us. She could just lean away, walk away, vocalize, shove us, etc. And she especially shouldn’t climb on our arm like she’s totally fine with it then start trying to tear chunks out of us.

 

[Teddscau]

Okay, so I think it’s her breeding season. Little psycho’s been randomly biting me and growling when I give her treats, she may or may not have been extra loud and yelling at Dad to pay attention to her, and I’ve caught her masturbating a couple of times. She’s definitely been unpredictable lately, so I guess that’s what‘s happening. That, or she’s suddenly decided that humans deserve to be beaten up.

Oh yeah, she ate three slices of roasted Brussels sprouts a few days ago! Her first leafy greens! Granted, they were fairly oily from the olive oil I tossed them in, but still. Oh, and a couple of days before I fed her a few tiny pieces of raw carrot. She actually chewed them up and swallowed a tiny amount... and then she bit me. Freaking demon child. Well, at least she hasn’t gone feral like Rosie does when she’s guarding her eggs.

 

[wrench13]

Hormone season can be a real B***H. THis year, on long island, its been a fairly mild one.

 

[Teddscau]

Jasper’s had an exciting day. I went to check on her when I got up at noon, and she had flown to the family room (over 15’ away from her room) and was stranded on the floor for over thirty minutes (based on the poop all over the place). She’s supposed to have a human check on her several times an hour when her cage is open in case she launches herself somewhere, but my mom had gone back to bed for some reason.

I found the poor kid sitting in the dog bed inside the table we have her family room java stand on. She was happy to see me and hopped on my arm so I could put her on her stand. She didn’t seem traumatized by it, and I gave her a bunch of dried cranberries.

Anyways, she’s spent seven hours on her stand today, and she tried a lemon for the first time and seemed to enjoy it. Then I had to bring the little demon back to her cage a few minutes ago (not in her cage, just on it, with access to her other stand, balconies, pellets, a chunk of banana, and freshly prepared supper). I triple long-sleeved, but I guess the layers weren’t thick enough. She had a tantrum (expected) and bit right through (unexpected), giving me three black bruises, one of which had a bloody chunk scooped out of it.

My arm looks worse in person. I’m going ahead and ordering protective gear. It’s made out of leather and two layers of Kevlar.

 

[Teddscau]

Oh my gosh, she loves Anne Murray so much! My mom put it on for her, and she’s started babbling and making all sorts of sounds I’ve never heard her make before. It‘s amazing. It almost sounds like she’s trying to say human words.