How cuddly is your Amazon?

I am curious how cuddly other Amazons are with their owners. Until recently I went with the assumption that Amazons are not known to be cuddlers or really a hands-on kind of parrot. But they can still bond with their owners very hard, like mine has.

Now I would like to know if that is actually the behavioral trend of Amazons, as "non-cuddlers"? Or is it a false assumption?

The reason I'm curious is because my Amazon is SUPER affectionate and all he wants to do is cuddle in the crook of my neck. If he had it his way, I would be scratching the back of his neck with his beak burrowed into my neck 24/7. I can squeeze and hug him. I burrow my face into his neck. He sleeps with his face on mine even lol. And he won't get off of me sometimes and I need to use a perch.

So on a scale from 0 (don't your dare touch me) to 10 (I want to live on your body forever) how cuddly is your Amazon?

With the number of Amazons that have shared our home, I find it hard to rate them in this way. Each has had their own complex personalities and I found that where was this balance happening. That cuddly was only one of many interactions. To that end, when one Amazon was heavy with one type of interaction, they had been light in another. So, each of our Amazon had their own very Unique Personalities and Classifying them around a single interaction would be limiting to their overall selves.

That all said, thank-you for your interest in better understanding the huge and Wonderful World of Amazons!

FYI: Please do not let my comments halt any one owned by an Amazon to rate your Amazon's cuddle factor!

I have to say it's difficult to "put a number" on it.

My Red Lored Amazon Pacho is 7. When she is with me she is almost always happy to sit on my shoulder and "chill". Sometimes grooming my hair or nibbling on my ear.
Then again sometimes she wont even let me pick her up.

Bingo my YNA would be around 3. He does not cuddle frequently. When he does he leans his body right up against my face and just about falls asleep.

texsize

Amy is 27 and I have had her since she was about 4 months old. Like Steven and Wes said...its hard to put a number to it. I CAN handle Amy..pick her up,pet her back and kiss her head... on HER terms!

She simply LOVES head scratches though...she can sit on my knee while I scratch away..eventually laying her head down,sideways,eyes closed,beaky slightly open,and stay like that for 30 minutes at a time. At times she'll sit on my shoulder,nibble my ear,and make silly little amazon sounds to me.


Jim

Oliver is no longer with us, but he used to sit on his human's shoulder all evening getting pets, rubs and scratches. He liked having his feet massaged, his nose rubbed, his beak rubbed. He would lean his face up against the side of the head and sleep. In the car, he sat on the shoulder and sometimes leaned into the face for balance. When the beloved was out of town, he still needed contact, so he insisted upon sitting on my arm all evening, but I wasn't permitted to touch him. Sometimes he would let me rub his feet, and if he was VERY sleepy sometimes I could pet him without being noticed. He was with his human for 25 years, much of that time it was the two of them, and his human is very calm, quiet and sensitive. So perhaps it's partly the personality of the bird, and partly the personality of the human? Do calmer, more physically affectionate humans have cuddlier amazons?

Cuddling, to me, is like a Green Cheek Conure or Macaw might do, snuggling close and staying there. With that definition, Salty is a zero. He will sit on shoulders, and occasionally push his beak and forehead into an ear, but thats a plea for head scratchies.
If you mean playing with the bird being held closely, then Salty is a 8, and he loves to play on his back, and lightly mouthing fingers or adjacent flesh or cloth. He will do hat for a few min, or longer, but it sometimes escalate inot harder nibbles, and then its time for a cool down. Sailboats is correct in that each Amazon is its own personality. And that can change over the long life span these guys have and who they are with.

My YNA Sammy USED to love to cuddle - nestle up against my face, retract one leg, fluff himself up, and go to sleep. He also used to strut over, look at me, then plunk his beak down on me, demanding neck skritches.

I can't get anywhere near him anymore, though. Unfortunately, it looks like some of them simply outgrow us.

Enjoy your closeness! Personally, I miss it terribly...

Okay! I was with a Mealy Amazon today and she gets Two Thumbs Up! And, a ONE (1) on the cuddly range. At 770+ grams, there is no refusing her advances!

Bonkers is about a nine he will just fly to me and demand that we snuggle or he will not get off of me.

SailBoat said:

Okay! I was with a Mealy Amazon today and she gets Two Thumbs Up! And, a ONE (1) on the cuddly range. At 770+ grams, there is no refusing her advances!

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Sorry, listed it wrong!!! She is a Ten (10) on the cuddle range!

Funny, I met a Mealy Amazon last year, and he was the nicest parrot out of 3 this guy was walking around with. He would step up and rub his head on you until he got a scratch from you.

I have 4 amazons that I would call cuddly. Three of them are hen napes the other is a hen Panama. I have a male nape that is sometimes cuddly but you never know when he might bite you,his name is Nitro.LOL, because we never know when he might blow up. He is a x breeder and hasn't really ever been a humans pet, but he sometimes loves to cuddle. In my experience, it seems babies raised as pets and have knowledgeable,dedicated owners tend to be cuddly. Just my 02 worth on the subject. BTW you read right, cuddly hot 3 amazons. Crazy stereotypes.

Thank you for all of your responses! It is nice to get others feedback! Before my amazon, I was under the influence that Amazons are not known for wanting cuddles and they just like to sit on your shoulder. So I thought my Amazon was the odd one out. So happy to hear Amazons can be cuddly! Proves you can't believe every stereotype you hear!

My Gabby bird (DYH) liked his beak, chin and head scratched on his terms. He also learned to like a gentle belly rub in the direction of the feathers. One thing I figured out late in his life is he liked to have his toenails rubbed. He hated having them clipped and he'd pinch me pretty hard when I put oil on his feet, but if I simply rubbed his toenails, he really liked it. I think the hard keratin provided just enough armor to suit his need to be touched without it being overwhelming. He'd pretty much let me rub his toenails whenever we were hanging out. In order to put oil on Gabby's toes, I had to give him the option of pulling his foot away and pinching me. The pinches were a little harder than I liked, but he would bite hard if I tried to force the issue. Once he pulled away, I'd ask for his "footie" again and eventually his feet would have plenty of oil on them.

I think these birds are very sensitive to touch. Perhaps that and their stiff feather structure combine to make them less "cuddly" than other birds.

My unnamed four-week-old BFA would let me pet her all day long, I think. XD I don't expect that to be the case forever, but at least I get a chance to show her I can be very gentle and kind while she's very young. And who knows? Maybe she really will be a cuddly bird because she isn't being raised at a bird mill and gets lots of one-on-one attention.

See for yourselves, if you want: [ame="https://youtu.be/plvt060XQ40"]Baby Blue Front, 5-27-17 - YouTube[/ame]

Our amazon is not "cuddly". He is a very sweet and friendly bird who is strongly bonded to both me and my husband, but whatever happened to him in his prior homes made him not appreciate being touched on/petted by humans. He will go in your shirt if it's chilly (like you see conures doing, only he's a hefty large male amazon), likes giving kisses with his beak, preens us both very gently and lets me kiss his head. He has, in the past year or 2, started being more tolerant of touching on his back and belly, but tolerant does not mean enjoys. We don't touch him very much out of respect for him but sometimes he is just too cute not to His neck and head are still a no-go for human hands and he still gets that panicked "you're going to kill me aren't you" look if we try to pet his neck or head with our hands

Amy enjoys a good head rub..when she is really "into it" I can last 20 minutes to the point that her head is sideways on my lap with eyes closed and beaky open.
At times I can stroke her back.
Just last week on our way home from doing errands,she GENTLY beaked my cheek.preened my eye brows and softly nibbled my ear
I think it was her way of saying "thanks dad for taking me for a ride with you"


Jim

henpecked said:

I have 4 amazons that I would call cuddly. Three of them are hen napes the other is a hen Panama. I have a male nape that is sometimes cuddly but you never know when he might bite you,his name is Nitro.LOL, because we never know when he might blow up. He is a x breeder and hasn't really ever been a humans pet, but he sometimes loves to cuddle. In my experience, it seems babies raised as pets and have knowledgeable,dedicated owners tend to be cuddly. Just my 02 worth on the subject. BTW you read right, cuddly hot 3 amazons. Crazy stereotypes.

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Your avatar says a lot! You're definitely on my short-list of Amazon "experts." I'm enjoying Kiwi's person, too, and I'm excited to learn more about everyone on this forum and what they've learned about their birdies. Raising African greys and Senegals and having a relationship with my Gabby bird for over thirty years doesn't make me an expert. I am not sure anyone can ever claim to be an expert because such a claim has connotations: An expert thinks he or she has all the answers. Over the course of my life, I've learned to at least try to be more open-minded. That's hard for me because I have "book smarts." I've learned there are many other forms of intelligence and all are important.

BTW, I've always heard really good things about Panama Amazons. Would you say the hype is true? Have you been around enough Panama Amazons for an extended period of time to even have an opinion? I don't know if I've ever even seen a Panama Amazon IRL. They're pretty rare.

Biggest cuddle bug I ever had was my BFA... (And I had a conure that lived inside my shirt for 12 years.)

My Red Lored? VERY cuddly, BUT ON HER TERMS... with a zon you have to accept not right now as an answer.

My Pan Am? I'd put her up against any macaw or cockatoo for both cuddliness and playfulness... SHE'S EXCEPTIONAL FROM DAY 1... rode home from the airport with her head tucked under my chin, and only got more affectionate as the pair bond thing kicked in.

My LCA is strictly a "hands off" bird. She doesn't bite, and is content to hang out with you all day on an arm or a shoulder, but she doesn't like touching... so don't!

I've had 8 other foster zons, and really, it comes down to how much were they socialized and handled, and did they overbond or become cage bound, and are is it breeding season with a hormonal (especially male, hot 3) at the moment.

For the most part, I call BS on this one...

Our Yellow-Winged Amazon became ever more cuddly as we worked with handling him. The more we could handle him, like holding him upside down in my hand. The more accepting he became the more he wanted to cuddle.

As he was nearing his end days, the cuddling became ever more and much longer. He knew long before I did and was pulling us closer to maximize his time with us!

SailBoat said:

Our Yellow-Winged Amazon became ever more cuddly as we worked with handling him. The more we could handle him, like holding him upside down in my hand. The more accepting he became the more he wanted to cuddle.

As he was nearing his end days, the cuddling became ever more and much longer. He knew long before I did and was pulling us closer to maximize his time with us!

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I'm so sorry about your loss. I have a similar story.

Gabby had long decided he was a one-person bird. Occasionally, he would put his foot out for my mother to pick him up, but his body posture and pinned eyes outed him as a little Machiavellian monster. The week before he showed definite signs of illness, he held his foot out to my mother. We were both surprised because he looked sincere. There was no malice in his eyes or his body posture. Still, we said he could change his mind at any second, so we decided not to tempt fate.

My mother regretted not holding him when she had that chance, but how could we have known? We both miss him so much.