Unexpected Amazon Adoption

So we kind of fell into a DYH Amazon this week. My husband and I have talked about if we feed a last parrot it would be either an Amazon or CAG. Well, this bird needed a home and out of his current situation.

Meet Mr. Grinch! He’s had a rough go so far. His (presumably) first family adopted him to train him, but he didn’t like the wife. So she put him in a laundry room. Where he stayed. For 5 years. Then, he was adopted by some acquaintances. They put him in an outdoor aviary for about two years. Unfortunately, they made the mistake of enclosing his aviary with chain link. Poor Mr. Grinch lost 5 of 8 toenails by getting them stuck in the chain link and ripping them out.

The previous family was feeding him a biscuit-type food, occasionally with carrots, romaine, and apples, and they gave us a giant bag of peanuts and also of sunflower seeds.

I’ve been mixing his biscuit stuff with our pellets (ZuPreem Natural and TOPS) and he’s been eating that over the food he was eating. I’ve been offering chop daily, but he seems to like larger pieces so he’s been getting some chop but with whole jalapeños and carrots, etc. Today he got a bit of apple as a special treat and he cooed/growled his happiness! We have a vet visit soon, of course, but he’s getting settled in. We opted not to add toys to his cage the first day, but he has three now and chooses to occasionally explore them. I don’t think he’s ever had toys, unfortunately.

We are looking forward to him relaxing, opening up, and showing his wonderful personality! He joins our flock of a sun conure, Goffin’s, and mustached parakeet. Looking forward to learning more!

What a handsome boy! Welcome Mr. Grinch, and welcome to the world of amazons! If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend reading the stickies at the top of the amazon sub forum. http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/54250-amazon-body-language.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/65119-i-love-amazons-going-journey.html
Tons of great information to get you going. Looking forward to hearing of your adventures, and if you care to share, more pictures please!

OH, thank you so much for taking in this magnificent creature! Based on the history I am sure you will have some work to do but I am sure it will be worth it. It fills me with joy to know you will care for him.

saxguy64 said:

What a handsome boy! Welcome Mr. Grinch, and welcome to the world of amazons! If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend reading the stickies at the top of the amazon sub forum. http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/54250-amazon-body-language.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/65119-i-love-amazons-going-journey.html
Tons of great information to get you going. Looking forward to hearing of your adventures, and if you care to share, more pictures please!

Click to expand...

Oh thank you this is perfect! I’ve done basic Amazon research when we were thinking of “last birds” (hah!), but now I’m moving into the meat of it!

I’ll definitely post some more photos soon! I’ve been taking it slow, trying not to spook him too much. When slowly presenting my hand outside the cage he will give me one or two bluff bites, but I just hold still until he starts backing up. Once he starts to back up I back off altogether. I look forward to reading this! Thank you again!


Loki - Sun Conure [emoji169]
Clover - Lineolated Parakeet [emoji172]
Lucifer (Luci) - Goffin’s Cockatoo 🤍
Tink - Mustached Parakeet [emoji172]

fiddlejen said:

OH, thank you so much for taking in this magnificent creature! Based on the history I am sure you will have some work to do but I am sure it will be worth it. It fills me with joy to know you will care for him.

Click to expand...

I agree - we will definitely have some work ahead of us. But that’s okay. I’m okay working for him to find his jam we are very excited for his progress, but also understand it may be a slow, uphill battle [emoji1665]


Loki - Sun Conure [emoji169]
Clover - Lineolated Parakeet [emoji172]
Lucifer (Luci) - Goffin’s Cockatoo 🤍
Tink - Mustached Parakeet [emoji172]

Very gorgeous! Congratulations! Welcome home Grinch!!
Nice big cage!@
Hopefully you can add some really wide perches soon, like the size of when your hsbd makes a c shape. Its hard to find good large ones... they seem to market such small perches...even my budgies like the huge oerches best I threw out my budgie size oerches because no one used them...
Ok I rambling
He us magnificent for sure!!! So handsome

[mention]Laurasea [/mention] yes, it is very difficult to find larger perches! We’ve already added a large rope perch and a larger manzanita perch, but I’m on the hunt for an even larger one like our Goffin’s has. He came to us in a 16-hour window (from “hey we are rehoming our bird, want him?” To “Hi Mr. Grinch is here!”), so we’ve been kind of scrambling to get everything for him! My husband is also going to make untreated pine corner platforms for him too, just in case he finds that a little more comfortable with the missing nails. We will probably purchase another harvesting permit for manzanita this year (or early next year. I can never remember the harvesting season) and get pieces to make new bird trees and perches, also! Probably one of the better parts of living in AZ!


Loki - Sun Conure [emoji169]
Clover - Lineolated Parakeet [emoji172]
Lucifer (Luci) - Goffin’s Cockatoo 🤍
Tink - Mustached Parakeet [emoji172]

Congratulations catastrophe and welcome home to the most magnificent (it's almost) Christmas Grinch I ever did see! Thank you for taking him on and giving him a better life - it sounds like you are already off to a great start. I'm so happy for both of you

Well, if your going to get into the World Of Amazons. why not do it with one of the Big Hot Three!

It sounds like he maybe some place around 10ish. That places you beyond the need to 'must have' CITES paperwork for an endangered species. That said, its a good idea to document the transaction with a signed agreement that they have turned over ownership to you, on X date, for an amount of $X, which includes X,Y &Z accessorizes. You want to include their contact information, including phone number, etc... You also want to assure your have some better idea of the Parrots age included in the document. FYI: If they have at any point, taken the Parrot to a Vet, you want them to provide the name of the Vet and provide you the Vet's name (etc.) and a note requesting that the Vet releases any and all information regarding the Parrot.

A Healthy DYH Amazon (which is flighted) can easily live until they are in their 60 and 70's.

Have a discussion with your Avian Medical Professional regarding the past Diet and that the Full Spectrum Blood test needs to include heart and Liver chems!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Amazons!
It is very important to remember they are very smart and have a long memory!

When an Amazon bites, Clearly State: NO, No, no! Step back a tiny bit and comment that it hurt you, etc... Your Amazon is studying your reaction and by clearly defining the bite as not wanted is much better than saying nothing.

Welcome and be welcomed! I love double yellow heads, but they uniformly as a species hate me on sight! Thank you so much for taking Mr Grinch in and giving him a good loving home! You received excellent advice above from my good friend 'Boats and the others, with much more to had in the referenced threads.

More pics - we love 'em!

[mention]SailBoat [/mention] thank you for all of this! I’ll be sure to get as much documentation as I can from the previous family. It doesn’t sound like they took him to the vet at all, unfortunately. They were afraid to touch him, and from what I’ve been told, they had to net him to get him into the travel carrier When he got home, he walked straight from the carrier into his new cage without any fuss, and we’ve mostly been letting him acclimate so far. I added him to our bird pet insurance right away because I know we will have a very expensive first vet trip and I wanted to make sure he was covered before we discovered any existing issues.

No bites yet! I mostly stand next to him and talk to him and if he comes to me I’ll slowly present my hand, but once he starts to back up I give him space. But I’m sure bites are in our future, so I’ll remember this [emoji38]

[mention]wrench13 [/mention] I will definitely post some more photos! His exterior appearance is actually much better than I expected, considering his history and living in an outdoor aviary without any contact. Of course, I expect we will have some internal issues to deal with, but I’ll share any vet findings after his appointment when we get the reality of the situation. I’m just thrilled that he scoots on over to his chop in the mornings to investigate, and he already seems to prefer the pellets we feed to the ones he was previously eating (I still offer his other kind mixed in, but he doesn’t seem to be eating them!). After the vet is paid for we want to get him a bit bigger of a cage. This one is “okay” I suppose, but our Goffin’s is in a cage about twice the size, so it’ll be nice to give him even more space (and more area for toys!). We were lucky enough to have this cage already so it worked out temporarily.

[mention]LaManuka [/mention] thank you! He surely is the prettiest Grinch I’ve ever seen! I’m quite excited to see his personality blossom, too. I have low expectations in terms of what type of birdy friend he will be, but as long as he is happy, cared for, and brought up to great health, I’ll be glad!

It’s hard to get a lot of great photos of him because he is not too sure of the camera phone [emoji38] I ordered new perches, but just waiting on them to arrive [emoji30] You can kind of see the state of his poor
toes, too [emoji20].





He makes the cutest noises, and his calls are a bit refreshing considering the screeching nature of our other birds [emoji38] I walked into an argument between a smoke detector (sun conure) and a howler monkey (Grinch), yelling at each other across the house on Thursday morning!

As a very general statement, I like the amount of toe nails that he does have! He appears to have more than enough to perch on larger perches and do well. At this point in his life, I'm not sure that a platform will be necessary, but worth trying. If nothing else, he can turn it in to smaller bits.

If he is eating another (healthier) pellet and not the other provided by the prior owner, reduce their numbers over the next five to seven days to zero. It is likely they are older and no longer fresh. As a general comment, freeze all dry food for at least a couple of weeks prior to use. We set dry food into one week packs and leave the balance in the freezer.

Happy that he continues to open-up!
Enjoy!

[mention]SailBoat [/mention] our Goffin’s has a platform, and while he does sometimes briefly nap on it, he mostly chews it to bits also [emoji38] I’m excited for our next manzanita harvest because we can build a new tree and keep a bunch of branches for perches (for all of the birds)! The permit is for 2,000 lbs but of course we never harvest anywhere near that as it’s just for personal use. That would be a lot of manzanita.

Haha...... ain't that refreshing. My CAG and Mynha does that every morning and evening. When my GCC was alive she and the CAG was doing the same. AT some point my CAG would tell the GCC to shut up.. haha. Congrats on that quick adoption.

This is already a great story...

And I sense it’s going to be a fantastic success story.

But with only 3 nails, that bird is ready for a lot of scratches and rubbing!

A really wide perch provides the most support to feet and body. I see his toes aren't bent in a few of the pictures he might have pain/ arthritis in that foot, check the bottom for swelling or signs of Bumble foot.

I here ya about getting him quick and having to make do. So glad he is with you!! Crepe myrtle tree wood is safe if you have those around you.

He really is the most handsome!!

[mention]Laurasea [/mention] I think he does curl them around his perches, but I’ll be checking regardless because I have no idea what his history is really. And I’ll make sure the vet gives them a thorough look-over as well, but I’m sure she will give his feet some attention regardless because they are a bit battered it seems [emoji20] I hate waiting for his insurance policy to go into effect, but I also want to be sure any troubles he has are covered just in case anything is long-term. His policy kicks in Dec. 1st so he will be at the vet that week! And of course all of our birds have their annuals around the same time, so our bank account is going to cry [emoji38]

In terms of local trees, we don’t have much here in the desert, or on our property either, unfortunately [emoji30] but we are planning a trip up north to get a beer manzanita permit to harvest pieces for a new bird tree and more perches for everyone! It’s affordable, and gives ample collecting amounts for personal use.

We are happy he is here and can hopefully live out his life in comfort with us. He’s still unsure about these toys, but I’ve caught him chewing and investigating a bit so I have hope!