20+ year old amazon help

I have posted on here before I have a 20 plus year old yellow nape whom I got at a bird show. I now found out he was a breader bird only but loving as can be. I have had him sense march of this yr. Still very quite bird no whistles or nothing could this change or will he always be very quite? I dont think he can talk I talk to him all the time he kinda makes a popping noise.

Some birds just choose not to talk. It could also be that he just needs time to feel comfortable.

Im totally fine with him not talking, but should he not be comfortable by now 6 months?

54_white said:

Im totally fine with him not talking, but should he not be comfortable by now 6 months?

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Maybe? Iris is 11 and it took her a month before she started making sounds, but I'm fairly certain she's not totally "blossomed" into her full personality yet. All birds are different and you bird is more than 20 years old...it could take a long time.

Just wondering, shouldn't breeders be choosing birds who are good talkers.

I can't stand when people breed animals and don't choose the traits we as humans want in the birds.

But then you can also blame the buyers of these birds for not choosing a proper breeder who breeds birds who are only very friendly and good talkers.

BlueFrontOwner said:

Just wondering, shouldn't breeders be choosing birds who are good talkers.

I can't stand when people breed animals and don't choose the traits we as humans want in the birds.

But then you can also blame the buyers of these birds for not choosing a proper breeder who breeds birds who are only very friendly and good talkers.

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The ability of a parrot to talk or be friendly has absolutely nothing to do with genetics of the parents. Parrots are not domesticated, parent birds do not pass on friendliness and talking ability that is solely based on not only the individual bird but the amount of socializing and training the bird has received from people!

In fact if a bird is super sweet it is less likely to be a good breeder because it is more interested in humans from being a pet and early socialization than one that is aggressive. The aggressive ones are much more likely to actually choose a parrot mate than a once upon a time pet.

^^ Very well said Iabell!

Another point is breeders will say "handfed" and a good portion of the public thinks that means tame and friendly and socialized. Unfortunately that is not true, there are a large amount of big breeders who have a lot of different babies from different species that "power-feed" meaning the only contact that baby has with humans is to have food forced into it as fast as possible and then it is put back either by itself or with many unrelated species babies. This is not the way to bring up a loving people friendly baby.

To the OP, there is no telling what happen in the first 20 something years of this birds life so no 6 months is really not that long.
There are so many people that will lie to make a sale. Telling people that a bird who is plucked and done it for years will stop with some TLC, many/most times not true, a parrot that doesn't like to be touched will be a cuddlebug with time, sometimes true but mostly not! A parrot that only says hello will become "Alex" and talk up a storm if you work with it daily, not going to happen, while the bird may pick up more sounds or new words it is not going to develop a large vocabulary overnight if ever.

I am glad it doesn't matter to you if the bird talks or not. Putting those kinds of expectations on the bird will only end up being a disappointment for you and the bird. Seems to me if he/she is 20 something and very sweet to you then that is way better than words.

BlueFrontOwner said:

Just wondering, shouldn't breeders be choosing birds who are good talkers.

I can't stand when people breed animals and don't choose the traits we as humans want in the birds.

But then you can also blame the buyers of these birds for not choosing a proper breeder who breeds birds who are only very friendly and good talkers.

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In the case of dogs, cats and livestock animals, we have been selectively breeding them since the dawn of civilization for the traits we want, and it took thousands and thousands of generations to "perfect" those traits. Parrots are at most 1 maybe 2 generations out of the wild. We are thousands of generations away from selectively breeding traits into or out of them. There is no such thing as selectively breeding parrots for friendliness or "talkability" at this point. Anyone willing to put in the effort can have a well behaved, sweet, social parrot, regardless where it came from. They are social animals by nature, but it's our job to make them feel welcome and loved so they WANT to be social with us. Talking appears to be a random occurrence, not a genetic trait like certain colors or bigger size. Some talk, some don't and even 2 "talking" parents have no guarantee they will produce "talking" offspring.

54_White- I think you may have lucked out and just gotten a quiet bird Nothing wrong with that. Most zons also tend to mellow out a bit as they get older, so he's probably relaxed, comfortable and quiet by nature. Amazing a xbreeder could be so loving towards a human. You're so lucky!