Dun...dun...dun...Mating season

[NicoleN]

As some of you may know, DYHA's make up one part of the "Hot 3" in the Amazon family. For those of you that don't know, this basically means that they're one of the more aggressive kinda. For the most part, this isn't true of my darling Sisqo. He's a sweetie.

However, now that mating season is upon us, he's become pretty aggressive. He even drew blood from my mom yesterday when she was giving him his meds. How do I deal with this? Do I handle him just as much as normal, or do I limit my handling of him? He seems to be most aggressive when he's in his cage, so should I just wait until he climbs out on his own to take him off?

We're going to the vet today and I'll ask her then, but I wanted to get some feedback from you all too.

 

[Tracy842]

I know all about the "Hot 3" thankfully I got the "docile giant" of amazons.

Most people have different opinions about how to handle this and it is mostly what you are more comfortable with. If I were you I would handle him less while he his showing these signs of aggression. He still needs his meds so just be careful that you don't get bitten, which I know might br pretty hard to do.

Good luck with Sisqo it will only last a short time and he'll be right back to his darling self.

 

[Peta]

How did you get on at the vets?

When Bucc is like that, I tend to let him come to me if and when he wants to. I also handle him less especially when in his cage, Had a few of these macho aggressive bites. Ouch

 

[karen]

What are the "hot 3" ?

 

[NicoleN]

The "Hot 3" are the male Double Yellow Heads, Blue Fronted, and Yellow Napes.

They are known for being extremely aggressive and hormonal during mating season. I've read some absolutely horrible stories about them during mating season. They'll bite whomever, wherever, for whatever reason.

If I didn't have an Amazon before I read those stories, I wouldn't even have thought about getting one of those 3.

However Sisqo isn't anything like that, and Amazons always give warnings before they bite. Sisqo gives a low growl and will sometimes grab you gently with his beak. Kind of a way to tell you "If you keep that up you're going to get what's coming to you".

I'm starting to have a problem with his aggressiveness due to his hormones when we take him out of his cage, especially in the am. I talked to the vet and she said just to let him come out of the cage on his own in the morning.
So far it's working out great.

 

[NicoleN]

I came home yesterday from work and noticed that Sisqo had moved all his toast from one dish to another. Hmm...that's different. I opened his cage so he could come out and then I took a short nap. When I woke up, I realized he hadn't even come out of his cage! When it was time for his meds, I tried to take him out and he threw a fit! Running all around the inside, squawking and growling like crazy, so I had to towel him.

Then all of a sudden I realized this behavior was probably because of his mirror. He moved his toast to the dish by the mirror, and all he does is sit by his mirror, he doesn't even play with his toys. So I took out his mirror and there is already a huge difference. He ate dinner at the table with us, and then played on top of his cage for a while when he was done. The biggest difference though was that he didn't growl at me when I took his food dishes out last night. Hopefully this will be the answer to his aggressiveness.

 

[Peta]

Hey sounds like Sisqo is in love with..................... himself.