Hello We are new here

Hi,
My name is Rhonda and I am new here. I have been wanting a parrot for years but for one reason or another it wasn't the right time. Finally this weekend I got my little birdie. He/she is a Blue fronted amazon. He is 6 months old and was hand fed but I think after the hand feeding ended he wasn't played with much. he wasn't taught to step up. So I am basically working from scratch here. I have been reading through the posts looking for the best way to get him comfortable here in our family and get him to step up and to not bite or growl when he is approached on the top of his cage.
His first Drs appointment is next Wednesday. (I hope he gets a clean bill of health) He is very comical to watch and he does some talking already. (Also whines like a little dog)

Anyway the pet store was calling him/her blanch but I will be trying to find another name for him. I am waiting for some more of his personality to show through the nervousness. He is still adjusting and I am sure his true personality will come when he sees he is safe here. He will take food from your hand with out biting most of the time. From time to time when he doesn't want food he will bite....well they aren't real strong bites yet. (no breaking the skin)

I am sure I will be here often looking for opinions and answers....oh and recipes.
Rhonda

I just wanted to add that I would appreciate some ideas on what to do with him while he settles in. He loves to be out of the cage and currently what I am doing is making him use me to get out of the cage and on to the top. I am hoping that he will see that I am not going to just back down when he threatens to bite or nips at me. The only thing is I want him to feel secure. I don't want to do anything to make him less comfortable. As I said before he will take food from my hands without a problem and when he is off his cage he will go from person to person...but his main goal is always to get back to his cage. Should I just give him time? continue to make him use me to get out of the cage? Continue to press the time off the cage? (which I hate because he won't step up for me).
Rhonda

Thanks Tex. I have wanted a parrot for a long time.(I would guess it has been about 11 years) I started out reading about them online and decided I like the CAGs. But found them to be a bit to serious and the ones I had actual contact with were standoffish. I was still thinking about them and fell in love with a U2. Well then I did some more research and found that neither a CAG or U2 would work in our home because I have a son with Asthma. (Powder down) I continued to look at the pet store, meet different birds and read about them online. During this time I found that I liked Amazons and Eclectus. I read about both and decided on an amazon. They are very smart like the gray and less serious like the 2. I think the perfect match. My DH even seems to like him. (not a parrot person) I figure everyone starts somewhere with parrots. I have had other birds in the past. I had a love bird and a cockatiel. (We lived in England at the time and I didn't know that they had to be closed banded to bring the back to the US) I have also raised some wild birds.

He is on pretty bird pellets. (that is what the store had him on and I still have to research the pellets to decide which would be best) I made my first batch of birdie bread last night. He seems to like it. He seems to like most things. Veggies, fruits, cereals, little bites of begal (he mostly just tears it apart), nuts, pellets, mustard greens...etc. He doesn't seem to like peas. He bites on it a little then just flings it. (LOL) I have a bearded dragon as well and the greens I get for him I take off the stalk...so I give the stalk to "Blanch" and she loves to pick at it and eat bits and pieces of it. I couldn't get him to try a bite of banana yesterday but I will try again today.

I bought him a little pack of rawhide bones yesterday. (ones that are so small that they might be even too small for a Chihuahua) He absolutely loves them. It is too funny to watch him play with it. He already barks and whines like a little dog and chases his tail...so to see him with this little bone...

Rhonda
Sorry About the link, I am not an established memeber yet.

Rhonda-

Welcome to the Forum!!

I think it's great that you want your Amazon to learn that it's YOU that let's him out of his cage. Do you know for sure if he's a male or female? Either way, when they go through their "teenage years", having an established relationship of nurturing dominance will be very beneficial to you. If you want to read more about it, Google Sally Blanchard, she came up with the concept years ago and it makes so much sense!

As far as the foods go, now is definitely the time to experiment. Especially with lot's of foods that are rich in Vitamin A. Present it in different ways to so it will offer a lot of visual interest.

A lot of times I hang a few leaves of kale or chard from a quicklink on the top of my birds' cage and they think it's a toy. They tear it to pieces and eat it up. It's about the only way I can get them to eat their leafy greens.

Thanks for the welcome Nichole. Well we made some progress yesterday. I was sitting on the couch next to his cage, sort of making it seem like I was ignoring him or uninterested. I was reading through a magazine and he climbed slowly over to me to get a better look, and then even closer to tear the magazine apart. I let him...it may not be a desirable thing everytime we are reading something but I loved that he came over to me. Today I did the same thing and he actually stepped off of the cage and onto the book for a little bit...with the support of an unseen hand. (LOL, Tricky mom)

We don't know if he is a he or a she. He goes for his vet visit on Wednesday and I am thinking about finding out then.

He loves to eat mustard greens. He loves to tear them up and crunch on the stalks. I have a bearded dragon as well and he has greens as a staple food but he is still small so he doesn't get the stalks, just the leaves...so I tear off some of the leafy part and give the stalk and remaining leaves to "Blanch"(still working on a name). She acts like its the best thing since sliced bread. The only thing she likes more is her little dog bone. She is too cute with that. Especially since she makes little dog noises. (She whines and barks like a hotdog) Too funny.

Rhonda