Thinking about adding another Amazon...

Sara.K

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Jul 21, 2013
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Central Coast California
Well, it has happened. My family recently saw a PBS nature show about companion parrots (it was great) and we are all now considering adding another bird to our household. I wish I had saved the link to the program so I could share it. But after watching it we are all thinking about getting Coco a companion. However I have some concerns and would love some feedback from you guys…


First off the program showed and commented on how not all parrots get along together and that they need to pick each other, so how would someone go about getting a “friend” for their parrot? What if they don’t like each other in the long run and it turns out it was only the equivalent of a “fling”?


Second, I feel pretty darn lucky. For 30yrs old, being an import and having had numerous homes Coco is kind of amazing. I know, I know most people think their birds are amazing, but seriously, I think we lucked out. Coco is mostly nice to us. He doesn’t scream (much) unless he wants to come with me upstairs to get ready in the morning and other than that he doesn’t scream at all, not at night, or during the day (unless the deer are in the yard). He is healthy and is now dancing for us when someone plays the guitar and is exploring the toys he has…


Last, but certainly not least, I do not want to breed. That being said, I assume a blood test to sex Coco would need to be done, but then what if he chooses a female? Is there an age limit on parrots breeding? I don’t want to do the baby thing.


Thoughts? Comments?
 

Birdman666

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Sep 18, 2013
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San Antonio, TX
Parrots
Presently have six Greenwing Macaw (17 yo), Red Fronted Macaw (12 yo), Red Lored Amazon (17 y.o.), Lilac Crowned Amazon (about 43 y.o.) and a Congo African Grey (11 y.o.)
Panama Amazon (1 Y.O.)
Basic thoughts:

Amazons are pair bond birds. Has he pair bonded with a person, and would the new bird be considered an intruder and a threat to the pair bond relationship?!

Has this bird been socialized around other birds, and particularly other amazons.

Sometimes they become best buddies...

Sometimes they try to drive the intruder out of the nest...

Sometimes they bond with each other, and cease to have a use for their human companions anymore. Especially during breeding season... "I'm trying to mate here... you're interrupting!" That's a chomp from both of them...

See how the birds do around each other first.
 

JerseyWendy

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Jul 20, 2012
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I saw the same show, eyes sweating and all. Wasn't it a wonderful documentary/film? :)

Unfortunately you truly won't know ahead of time whether Coco would ever accept another Amazon as a "friend". Having said that, were you planning on keeping them in the same cage together?

I have 2 Amazons, (male & female) that are housed separately, however, I am extremely fortunate that they like each other, and I can let them out together at the same time, while they occupy the same space together (2 giant Java trees pushed together side by side). They allopreen, play together, knock each other around sometimes, but never harm one another. I'm also very blessed that they both love me, and spend lots of one on one time with me.

My female is going on 15, and my male is 18 months. I don't know what will happen when Sam matures. I don't know if Hunter still wants to be friends with him then, or perhaps she wants MORE to be just friends then, but I won't let them together during breeding season, as I want to avoid another clutch of eggs.
 
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Sara.K

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Jul 21, 2013
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Basic thoughts:

Amazons are pair bond birds. Has he pair bonded with a person, and would the new bird be considered an intruder and a threat to the pair bond relationship?!

Has this bird been socialized around other birds, and particularly other amazons.

Sometimes they become best buddies...

Sometimes they try to drive the intruder out of the nest...

Sometimes they bond with each other, and cease to have a use for their human companions anymore. Especially during breeding season... "I'm trying to mate here... you're interrupting!" That's a chomp from both of them...

See how the birds do around each other first.

[FONT=&quot]See, those are some of my thoughts and concerns. I am still VERY new to parrots. Heck, I’ve only had coco a year now and he still is a little rough with his beak/biting with me. My family cant or wont handle him (they have all been bitten at least once). [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I am not sure what a bond between Coco and a human would look like. I think he had strong feelings for one of my sisters (he regurgitated food for her and butt up in the air) but she isn’t even in the country. She doesn’t handle him unless I get him out first and we sit beside’s each other on the couch… Every single time she comes home I end up getting bitten really badly after she leaves, I think he throws a little fit. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As far as socializing with other birds, I really don’t know anyone around here who I trust… I’ve read some really scary articles about birdie sickness’s and birds needing to be quarantined before introduction. That being said my co-worker has an umbrella cockatoo and we both have brought the birds to work twice now and they sit in the same room together about 4feet away from each other and talk to each other. However, they WERE housed together for about 6months. Some people don’t know how to make a commitment or how to get over a bird bite :/[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]And IF they bond to each other and want nothing to do with people, well, then I guess that’s that. As long as I would be able to get them to the vets for their yearly… I’d be sad, but if they were happy… Well I’d deal. [/FONT]
 
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Sara.K

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I saw the same show, eyes sweating and all. Wasn't it a wonderful documentary/film? :)

Unfortunately you truly won't know ahead of time whether Coco would ever accept another Amazon as a "friend". Having said that, were you planning on keeping them in the same cage together?

I have 2 Amazons, (male & female) that are housed separately, however, I am extremely fortunate that they like each other, and I can let them out together at the same time, while they occupy the same space together (2 giant Java trees pushed together side by side). They allopreen, play together, knock each other around sometimes, but never harm one another. I'm also very blessed that they both love me, and spend lots of one on one time with me.

My female is going on 15, and my male is 18 months. I don't know what will happen when Sam matures. I don't know if Hunter still wants to be friends with him then, or perhaps she wants MORE to be just friends then, but I won't let them together during breeding season, as I want to avoid another clutch of eggs.


It broke my Heart. All the birds that are abandoned neglected and left behind. Then the amazon crying when the friend leaves “NO! NO! NO!” I cried…


See the thought process involves finding another rescue. Thus another cage and I would want them to be in the same room with each other, so they can see each other, then integration on a play stand and if that goes well then I would see if they could interact well on/in the cages… I would be extremely nervous about leaving them alone together or in the same cage…
 

Birdman666

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Sep 18, 2013
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San Antonio, TX
Parrots
Presently have six Greenwing Macaw (17 yo), Red Fronted Macaw (12 yo), Red Lored Amazon (17 y.o.), Lilac Crowned Amazon (about 43 y.o.) and a Congo African Grey (11 y.o.)
Panama Amazon (1 Y.O.)
Basic thoughts:

[FONT=&quot]See, those are some of my thoughts and concerns. I am still VERY new to parrots. Heck, I’ve only had coco a year now and he still is a little rough with his beak/biting with me. My family cant or wont handle him (they have all been bitten at least once). [/FONT]

If your family won't handle one of them, and can't handle one without being bit, how is getting a second one an answer?! Seems to me this might only compound the problem. (This bird needs to be socialized more...)

[FONT=&quot]I am not sure what a bond between Coco and a human would look like. I think he had strong feelings for one of my sisters (he regurgitated food for her and butt up in the air) but she isn’t even in the country. She doesn’t handle him unless I get him out first and we sit beside’s each other on the couch… Every single time she comes home I end up getting bitten really badly after she leaves, I think he throws a little fit. [/FONT]

[/FONT]

Well, we know who the "Amazon Crush" is in your household... (regurging and offering to mate with you is KIND OF a hint.)
 
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Sara.K

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He isn't my family's bird. He is my bird. They are not here frequently enough. I am the one who would be getting another bird. AND i am thinking about getting him a companion in a couple years (I think I left that part out, sorry)... I just want Coco to be as Happy and Healthy as Possible. Just like I always have...

Plus our avian vet wanted to put him in a rescue where he wouldn't have to deal with people (I'm not sure, it was just mentioned once) because the story i was told was he wasn't handled much, if at all for a good 20yrs because they were afraid of him...

How is it possible for him to have a crush on my sister when he has only been in the same house as her twice for less than 4days both times? Its such an odd concept for me, as she does not feed him, bath him, clean his cage and rarely even gives him the time of day. The ONE time I got him out for her and we were sitting on the couch is when he displayed those behaviors...
 

Birdman666

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Sep 18, 2013
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San Antonio, TX
Parrots
Presently have six Greenwing Macaw (17 yo), Red Fronted Macaw (12 yo), Red Lored Amazon (17 y.o.), Lilac Crowned Amazon (about 43 y.o.) and a Congo African Grey (11 y.o.)
Panama Amazon (1 Y.O.)
The AMAZON CRUSH thing is instant and completely irrational...

It has nothing to do with who works with the bird. It has everything to do with the bird just arbitrarily finding something interesting about someone and then obscessing over it. Don't feel bad.

My bird does this completely at random too sometimes. Doesn't mean she doesn't love me. Just means they are excitable.

And I was playing devil's advocate here, to make you think it all the way through.

Whether or not your bird wants a friend, depends on the bird.

If you've read the book the parrot that owns me, that person brought a zon home to be "a friend" to her bird, and the existing bird promptly drove it right out of the house. So this can and does happen with zons...

And I've had multiple zons in the same house at the same time... without a problem.

My current two DO NOT get along. My poor little lilac crowned amazon made the mistake of "taking" my Red Lored's spot the first day she was here... and my red lored has kept her on a short leash ever since. (But that bird IS BONDED to my CAG.)

I would go with a same sex bird... (butt up in the air behaviors leads me to believe this one is female.)

And any bird that does not get handled, does not stay tame... so I don't know what the vet was thinking other than, I don't want to have to retrain this bird...
 

ParkersMom

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Jan 18, 2013
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Nashville TN
Parrots
Parker male BF Amazon hatched 5/2/2012
Charlie unsexed BF Amazon hatched 1994?
Juno Female BH Caique Hatched 6-3-2013
I think you should be careful in getting your bird a friend. If you are wanting another bird for you that might happen to get along with your current bird that is one thing, but getting another bird because you want your current bird to have a friend is a very risky thing to do. There is no guarantee that they would even get along. Also they could seem to be getting along then all of a sudden hurt each other. IMO there are just to many risk factors
 
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Sara.K

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I may have gotten a little defensive, and for that I apologize. I have posted here before, when I was worried that I wasn’t doing enough for Coco… We have officially been together for over a year now and without going into great detail the stories I was told did not match up to what the vet said. And I looked for the right vet for a while…


Thank you for playing devil’s advocate. I was looking for comments and thoughts and received them. I hope to continue receiving them…


I haven’t read that book yet, sounds like my life now Coco changed everything.


What would you consider socializing? You mentioned Coco needed to be more socialized. What does that consist of for you?
 

Birdman666

Well-known member
Sep 18, 2013
9,904
258
San Antonio, TX
Parrots
Presently have six Greenwing Macaw (17 yo), Red Fronted Macaw (12 yo), Red Lored Amazon (17 y.o.), Lilac Crowned Amazon (about 43 y.o.) and a Congo African Grey (11 y.o.)
Panama Amazon (1 Y.O.)
Well, first of all, amazons are pair bond birds...

In the wild, they pair up. In captivity, they tend to form that same pair bond relationship with a person. If only one person handles that bird, then that ends up being the bird's person...

Quite frequently, anyone else attempting to handle the bird gets bit...

My birds are "out and about" trained. They go all over the place with me. They get handled by all sorts of people. They will step up to anyone without biting...

One way to do it is to take the bird to someplace like to the park, or the pet store...

Another way to do it is to play a game of "pass the birdie" where the bird gets passed around from person to person, and gets fed favorite treats and praised by people he doesn't know IF he behaves...

The whole point is to have them get used to people, and get used to being handled WITHOUT IT UPSETTING THEM.
 

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