Hey guys, my family has a wild-caught mealy Amazon. Now, before you jump to any conclusions, we do not support the industry. They were caught by government and sent to zoos (for free) to all parts of the world. We live on the other side of the continent and a contact zoo got quite a few of those birds. They had no space or means to keep the birds so we adopted one a month ago.
Obviously, we don't know the age or gender, but we call our mealy Amazon Izzy. We've only had budgies and lovebirds and we have an Alexandrine parrot, but none of them were wild-caught, so we've never had this kind of trouble before.
1. Izzy is very scared, which is natural and we do realize it will take a lot more time. Izzy got used to taking food from our hands but that's as far as it goes. One thing that makes me think we're doing something wrong is that we have to start progress all over again every single day. For example, yesterday, I gave Izzy his favorite pomegranate seeds one by one and gradually, he started moving closer to me and wasn't scared at all when I moved closer too. Then he even took a walnut from my mouth. Next day, I wanted to give him a carrot, but he was scared just by my hand and wouldn't take it. I placed it in front of him and he took it. And eventually, by the end of the day, he took things from my hand again. So what are we doing wrong? or is this natural?
2. Izzy has trouble flying, or more like landing. Every time he flies away from his cage (his cage is open all day long, we close it only at night and when nobody's home (happens rarely) so he has a lot of freedom) and he crashes into literally everything. He doesn't even land on his own perch (which is on top of the cage and has a lot of branches so he can move around) He even got a bruise once that fortunately healed up. He's extremely clumsy and often slips from his own perch and falls down. What can we do to avoid injuries? We don't wanna lock him up since mealy Amazons are couch potatoes and have tendency to get too fat (and he eats A LOT).
Sorry for a too detailed post. Any help with this will be appreciated, especially if you have experience with wild-caught birds.
Obviously, we don't know the age or gender, but we call our mealy Amazon Izzy. We've only had budgies and lovebirds and we have an Alexandrine parrot, but none of them were wild-caught, so we've never had this kind of trouble before.
1. Izzy is very scared, which is natural and we do realize it will take a lot more time. Izzy got used to taking food from our hands but that's as far as it goes. One thing that makes me think we're doing something wrong is that we have to start progress all over again every single day. For example, yesterday, I gave Izzy his favorite pomegranate seeds one by one and gradually, he started moving closer to me and wasn't scared at all when I moved closer too. Then he even took a walnut from my mouth. Next day, I wanted to give him a carrot, but he was scared just by my hand and wouldn't take it. I placed it in front of him and he took it. And eventually, by the end of the day, he took things from my hand again. So what are we doing wrong? or is this natural?
2. Izzy has trouble flying, or more like landing. Every time he flies away from his cage (his cage is open all day long, we close it only at night and when nobody's home (happens rarely) so he has a lot of freedom) and he crashes into literally everything. He doesn't even land on his own perch (which is on top of the cage and has a lot of branches so he can move around) He even got a bruise once that fortunately healed up. He's extremely clumsy and often slips from his own perch and falls down. What can we do to avoid injuries? We don't wanna lock him up since mealy Amazons are couch potatoes and have tendency to get too fat (and he eats A LOT).
Sorry for a too detailed post. Any help with this will be appreciated, especially if you have experience with wild-caught birds.