New Parents

My boyfriend and I just rescued a mealy Amazon. We don't know how old he is, or much about his previous caretakers, but we do know that he wasn't in a very supportive environment and was not taken out of his cage. We have been providing him lots of interaction (talking to him when we're home, including him in our conversations, leaving the radio on while we're out, addressing him when we enter or leave the room), and giving LOTS of positive reinforcement (crackers and apple, mostly). We've had him for a week now, and we can now go into his cage to change his water and food without being growled at, and if we leave his cage door open and leave a treat on the end of his door, he'll venture out to get it and rush back in, but he will not stay out. He also grinds his cage A LOT.

I tried to get him out with my hand last night, and he was NOT a happy camper. Lots of growling and biting.

Any ideas for encouraging him to come out? His cage is really pretty small (we're going to be buying him a more suitable cage soon), so we want to make sure he is getting exercise, and we need to clean the bars of his cage. Also, I'm not sure how much to challenge him and when to back off.

Thanks for any advice!

I'm no expert, but from what I've read, give it time and let him decide when he's ready. Somebody with better recommendations will come along.....

Hi there, and welcome to the forum. And THANK YOU for giving this Mealy a great home!

It's only been a week, and it sounds like you are doing all the right things by talking to him, including him in conversations, leaving the radio on, and taking it nice and easy with him.

You've already made progress. He no longer growls when you do cage / food maintenance!

Amazons are incredibly "hardy". Some take longer to adjust to their new home than others. But I'm confident that in time he will come around more and more.

Does he have any toys to play with? You mentioned he grinds his cage a lot, so he may be doing this out of boredom OR because he still feels a bit stressed out.

If you have any photos of your new family member, we'd love to see him.

Also, we need help finding a cage which is the right size. His current cage is 20''x20''x27. Our parrot is about 14'' long (head to tail), and he frequently just crawls all around the bars, so we think his cage is way too small. We've been looking online and don't want to pay a fortune. Thanks in advance for any advice!

I'd definitely say that's way too small. You can check eBay or Amazon.