newly adopted blue front amazon

[mitchellray]

I have recently adopted an amazon. Her name is precious and she is 11 or so years old...I got her a few months ago and things have been going great. I have had birds most my life but the largest was a nanday conure... Now precious is has gotten kinda comfortable with me she will eat from my hand and like for me to pet her head..she came to me for the head rubs which has been awesome. She has bitten me twice now and both time was when my neice was around.. She will be fine before they are there but when they come she bites me..the other day my neice was sitting beside me and precious waled down from her cage with no signs of aggression and walked on the couch to me and when I held my hand down to her she just attacked me all the sudden. I was confused cuz she came over to me..could they S be jealousy.. Any help would be great..

 

[Williamsong]

Amazons can be VERY jealous birds. I would advise not attempting to handle your Amazon while your niece is around, or any people that your Amazon is not comfortable with. In the wild amazons will bite there mate if they sense there is any danger present, to encourage there mate to fly away from the danger. So your Amazon has chosen you as its mate and since she doesn't know your niece she thinks your niece might be dangerous, so she bites you to encourage you to get away from the "danger." She is only trying to protect you, lol. All she is saying is "hey get away from that thing! I don't know what the heck it is and it might hurt you so I'm gonna bite you until your safe!"

Hope this helps

 

[mitchellray]

Thanks for the advice. I had not thought of that happening since I have only had her a few months

 

[Williamsong]

Yes, amazons chose there mates very quickly and once they have chosen, there is no changing it, lol

 

[Kiwibird]

Sounds like displacement biting to me (I don't like that person/object so I'm going to take it out on YOU). You might want to check out (and really study) these 2 threads:

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/48616-types-biting-behavior-mods.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/54250-amazon-body-language.html

 

[JerseyWendy]

I completely agree with April (Kiwibird) about the displacement biting here. My 16 year old YN hen will occasionally put on a good bluff when someone in the family is snuggling with her, and another family member comes too close. We're very fortunate that she's so very sweet tempered, she's never drawn blood, but she will grab your finger and pretend to be mad when she's not ready to be put down.