Newly rescued blue fronted Amazon, but still bites

Hi,

Recently I have exchanged my tamed African grey parrot with a blue fronted Amazon,

The grey was so nice, speaking, fast learner and very smart.

I took the blue fronted Amazon and I saw it speaking in its old house, laughing, but aggressive.

When I brought him to my flat, everything changed, the bird is so quite, tried to be an aggressive again and bit me , so bought a welding gloves, and plan worked, without struggling he steped up on my hand, responding so fast, but still afraid, so I changed the gloves to a very soft gloves, still afraid but responding.

I tried to put my hand but got so many bites from him,
Now he fly and comes to me, but still bites when I ask him to step up,
I really need an assistance with him.

I will attach some of his pics. The age of BFA about 4 years

You took him from his home and he doesn't know you. I would bite too...
It will take a long time...Months...even years....What made you decide to "exchange" your Grey? Swaps like this are VERY hard on birds (who bond deeply with people and depend on routine for sanity).

Seriously...your need to build trust. You also REALLY need to read more about bird behavior. If I sound curt, it's because I am trying to be honest (not rude, but blunt). By forcing this (using gloves) you will only hurt your ability to bond with this bird...A dictatorship is hardly a relationship. Please take time to allow your bird to trust you before forcing yourself on him. Bird-time is slower than snail time. This is not like taming a dog where you can just strong-arm your way in. Birds are as smart as human 4 year olds in many ways.


In more comedic terms, if you would like a very inappropriate rap song that describes your bird's feelings right now, Google Ludacris "Get Back"..lol

What ye really need to do is swap birds back

It's always good to start back st the basics, even if you have experience..what are you feeding the new bird, the perches need to have several different types nit just the dowel type in the picture. It's hard on us to hear if this swap, what were your reasons..it's also a very bad idea to use gloves, I hope you don't do any punishment for bites. How long have you had the new bird? There are threads in trust and bonding. We all want the best for your Amazon. How much time are you spending with the bird?

Now just try to imagine what that poor African Grey is thinking.."WHY am I here??" "WHAT did I do wrong this time???" "Where is my Mommy/Daddy??"

I'm sorry...I can't give advice without being mean about it.





Jim

Ya know, I tried this with my wife too, once, still bleeding!
I hope the birds are willing to give you a bit more respect!

flboy said:

ya know, i tried this with my wife too, once, still bleeding!
I hope the birds are willing to give you a bit more respect!

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lol!!!.....

Hi, my African didn't go to someone strange
I did the swap with my cousin which I can assure that my bird will see me and be safe.
Main reason of swap is that my wife doesn't like pets, n I can't keep both at home."she's scared, n very sensitive to cleanness"

The amazaon,
It's Been about 3 weeks now, n I'm not using gloves anymore, I just used it in the first week,
It worth mentioning that he started responding, but not much, I mean when I call him he fly's to me, but some times he bites, I brought my friend, n he tried calling him, Amazon totally ignored him and fly's to. Me, which gives a good sign the he started the trust, n knowing me more.

AmyMyBlueFront said:

Now just try to imagine what that poor African Grey is thinking.."WHY am I here??" "WHAT did I do wrong this time???" "Where is my Mommy/Daddy??"

I'm sorry...I can't give advice without being mean about it.





Jim

Click to expand...

Agree...even if he's with your cousin why did you need to have both birds and why not keep the gray?

KiwiBird's post is very good. Lots of good food for thought.

hi,
guys just want to tell that my bird is responding positevly now, i was scared from his bites, but when my friend came to my flat today, once he put his hand the bird came, it seems that my BFA is still afraid from the fingers, but when i put my hand without showing him the fingers he steps up."impressive"

All I can add is that you need to do a lot more research about bird behavior, as if you were experienced at all you would never have "swapped" out your birds. I don't know if you're from the US or some other country, I'll respect that by not saying anything harsh. But the bottom-line is that the responsible and healthy thing that you should have done was to just keep your African Grey who was bonded to you, and not take-in the Amazon at all. Your wife didn't care that you had the Grey, the Grey loved you and was bonded to you, and you "swapped" him...would you "swap" your 4-5 year-old human child with your cousin? Because that's essentially what you just did.

You need to be prepared to be bitten and when it happens, you can't react or start fearing your bird. You will be bitten---even if your bird becomes more willing to interact with you (all birds bite from time-to-time). It is just like a little kid---even the best child will have "bad" days. Please try to remember that your bird is just doing what is natural. Researching bird behavior will make your road a lot less bumpy.

I adopted a 30 year old BFA 2.5 years ago and she still doesn't step up. She's very affectionate in every other way --gives us kisses, rubs her head against our faces etc but she doesn't like hands (and fingers like yours). The point of this post is just to reiterate the "take your time" advice given by others. It has taken this long to get to this point. Gloria started taking treats from our fingers pretty early on but if you offered an outstretched palm, she made an alarmed sound and moved away. I started offering treats on my palm and we are now at the point that she will take a tiny pine nut out of my palm which I see as progress. She's just not ready to step up or get on a stick.

She also bit me 3 times the first week I had her. I had to evaluate the cause of the biting. It seemed that she was very possessive of her dry food dish and the bites occurred when I was taking or replacing the food dish (her cage didn't have dish doors). The last time she bit me was that first month--I was replacing her dish, she nipped me, so I withdrew the dish and placed it down outside the cage, saying "no. hurt!" in a firm but quiet voice. She was furious but after about 15 minutes, I put the dish back and she hasn't bitten me since. She'll fake me out by pulling on my sleeve but no bites. I think it's important to analyze the situations in which undesirable behavior occurs to detect patterns. That will help guide you in choosing the best way to deal with the behavior.

Dear sunny,

Just wanted to change to Amazon long back, now I've got a good house for my grey, so I swapped.
I have seen some videos for him and h seems to be happy with them

Why is everbody bringing being in a other country/culture up? I dont understand what that has to do with it... dear mhammed you said in a earlier post that your wife doesnt like birds and loves to clean etc every bird poops in his cage so that really doesnt make sense imo a bird is not a toy its a living creature my advice to you is patience as alot of fellow members said the bird is confused please do not force anything that will make it worse for you

Mohamed said:

Hi, my African didn't go to someone strange
I did the swap with my cousin which I can assure that my bird will see me and be safe.
Main reason of swap is that my wife doesn't like pets, n I can't keep both at home."she's scared, n very sensitive to cleanness"

The amazaon,
It's Been about 3 weeks now, n I'm not using gloves anymore, I just used it in the first week,
It worth mentioning that he started responding, but not much, I mean when I call him he fly's to me, but some times he bites, I brought my friend, n he tried calling him, Amazon totally ignored him and fly's to. Me, which gives a good sign the he started the trust, n knowing me more.

Click to expand...

that's easy:
swap your wife for the african grey-> you can have both parrots and she can have a clean, birdfree house.

Amsterdam said:

Why is everbody bringing being in a other country/culture up? I dont understand what that has to do with it... dear mhammed you said in a earlier post that your wife doesnt like birds and loves to clean etc every bird poops in his cage so that really doesnt make sense imo a bird is not a toy its a living creature my advice to you is patience as alot of fellow members said the bird is confused please do not force anything that will make it worse for you

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Amsterdam, I think people on this forum are trying to understand the OP's mindset (because it is very unique). I do not think that people in different countries necessarily view animals differently, but I think people on this forum just don't understand the OP's logic and, consequently, they are grasping at any explanation in order to make sense of this way of thinking; it is the only way that they can accept/comment on something that would otherwise be inexplicable.

LOL I do not find it very unique that one of the human-couple really dislikes/ does not understand the appeal of the hobby of the other person.
(Actually that is more or les the norm, maried people who share all interests/ hobbies...are scary!)

Parrots are messy, loud and serious competition for the attention one person has to offer, and yes, they can be scary too!

(Of course I do not really expect someone to trade a spouse for a bird, but crazier things have happened.)

An amazone will spread less featherdust than an CAG would - but I think I would prefer a bit more mess and a more mellow/ less bitey personality (actually: I am sure!).

Speaking of culture: I am sometimes still not sure if (in my quite sober-levelheaded-dutch-ways) how to interpret some americans (are they really *that* upset over something, or is this their cultural way of just habitually expressing a medium feeling in a maximum way?) and probably vice versa (Whoa, she is blunt ... or does she really hate me? <lol, the anwer is: No I do not hate you, I am just quite inept at expressing myself> )
So, yes, culture matters.