Hello all! New Amazon caretaker

alancole

New member
Oct 23, 2018
10
0
Parrots
Captin Jack - Panama Amazon
Hello everyone!

I just registered here after finding some extremely helpful and knowledgable posts.

My name is Alan and I've always loved birds. When I was young (middle school age), my brother and I had a pair of parakeets. And after that, I had a cockatiel. When I was entering high school I found a baby starling that had fallen from it's nest. He didn't even have any feathers. My mother said I could try to keep it (years later she told me that she didn't believe that the baby would survive very long). I made a paper towel bed in the bottom of a maxwell coffee can (if you're old enough, you might be able to remember them ... wait, maybe you can still get them - I'm not a coffee drinker; my dad is) and spent the next few days - possibly a week (it was a fairly long time ago) waking up every few hours to feed it from a syringe. Then as it got older - countless hours in the yard catching grasshoppers and worms. I got pretty good at catching grasshoppers lol.

Anyway he grew up and was with us for about 5 years. We tried to let him go "free" (we camped a lot for our family vacations) but he would fly around to explore and always come back to me or my mom.

I always wanted a larger bird, but knew that the time and on-going monetary expense was a life-time commitment. Now that my business is established and most of the kids are grown and moved out - I have an 11 week old Panama Amazon that we have named "Captin Jack". He is mostly green with yellow on his head and blue/red feathers on his wings.

I liked somethings that the breeder did and not so much some other things. For instance, we purchased him about 2 weeks after he hatched (he barely had any feathers) and we visited with him for an hour or more every other day until just this last Sunday when he finally came home with us. I liked the time we've had to bond and he is almost 'cuddly' with me and very sociable with others.

Did NOT like that about 2.5 weeks ago went for a visit and found that they had clipped his wings. I was extremely not happy. They claimed it was for his 'safety' as he had started to fly into things ... I was like - he's learning to fly, that's pretty normal. What's done is done ... I'm just making myself upset thinking about it again... soooo... moving on.

Anyway, they send him home with us two days ago. They gave me a very small amount of formula mix, "just in case he needs some". Well I didn't think much about it on Sunday. Monday morning though, I noticed that he hadn't eaten much of his food and when I took him out of the cage he kept grabbing my finger and bobbing his head like he was hoping to get food out. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I got the hint.

So I did formula Monday morning and then again Monday evening. Through the day he did eat a little of the fruits and nuts but by evening was really wanting the formula. Again this morning (Tuesday) he was pushing for it - so I mixed up some more and fed him. Yesterday I did read some articles that weening is not something you can force and in some birds can be as many as 20 weeks before they completely transition off formula. Also that it's a 'comforting' thing and some younger birds can revert to it going into new environments? Anyway, my current plan is to give him formula if he wants it and to continue to monitor his food intake. Hopefully it's not something serious and he will push forward.

Anyway, I just realized I may have written a bit much for an introduction post. Sorry for the long read.... TLDR: Hi! I have an Panama Amazon named Captin Jack. lol
 
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Kalel

New member
Jan 2, 2015
473
8
Canada
Parrots
Sun conure named Lemon (nickname Moonie) hatched August 28, 2014, BFA Professor Green hatched August 22, 2014, Macaw Flash hatched Sept 15, 2007
Hello and welcome! Thanks for the nice intro. I am sure you will love it here as we have lots of people who know their stuff:)

I agree with you about the clipping thing! Clipping a birds wings while it's developing for our own convenience is something I can't agree with. Here's a more convenient idea...don't breed birds! Also, I don't like the fact that Captain Jack doesn't appear to be abundance weaned. Not sure how comfortable you are with weaning him yourself, but I would have likely went back and told them to keep him until he weans himself off formula rather than force weaning. That's my two cents. Welcome, and keep us updated! I have a soft spot for Panama amazons:)
 
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alancole

alancole

New member
Oct 23, 2018
10
0
Parrots
Captin Jack - Panama Amazon
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Hello and welcome! Thanks for the nice intro. I am sure you will love it here as we have lots of people who know their stuff:)

I agree with you about the clipping thing! Clipping a birds wings while it's developing for our own convenience is something I can't agree with. Here's a more convenient idea...don't breed birds! Also, I don't like the fact that Captain Jack doesn't appear to be abundance weaned. Not sure how comfortable you are with weaning him yourself, but I would have likely went back and told them to keep him until he weans himself off formula rather than force weaning. That's my two cents. Welcome, and keep us updated! I have a soft spot for Panama amazons:)

I thought about sending him back, but I'm comfortable providing him formula myself and I won't "force" him to wean ... I will continue to provide formula until he is eating solid foods and refuses the formula. I would rather feed him the formula myself then send him back and chance having them do something else crazy (like when the clipped his wings).
 

ChristaNL

Banned
Banned
May 23, 2018
3,559
157
NL= the Netherlands, Europe
Parrots
Sunny a female B&G macaw;
Japie (m) & Appie (f), both are congo african grey;
All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
Thank you for a long post. :)

I completely agree with your anger about clipping a bird without asking permission.
(idiots!)
Great you are giving your new bird a chance to grow up on his/her own pace - love you for that!

Have you found another CAV yet?
We have a huge list of them somewhere here (usually Gail will chime in, she has all of the usefull ones on speeddail).
I hope you enjoy reading, the amazon-sticky is a huge one, and almost all of it is very usefull (even for non-amazon people).


I would like to hear more about you and Captin Jack, so keep posting!
:D
 

texsize

Supporting Member
Parrot of the Month 🏆
Oct 23, 2015
3,900
Media
5
4,796
so-cal
Parrots
1 YNA (Bingo)
1 OWA (Plumas R.I.P.)
1 RLA (Pacho R.I.P.)
2 GCA(Luna,Merlin) The Twins
1 Congo AG (Bella)
5 Cockatiels
Welcome.
Yes I think a baby bird should be allowed to learn how to fly.
I would reserve clipping for safety reason only.
My new bird Merlin was clipped when I got him and I hope it won't hinder his learning to fly.
I understand a Panama Amazon is one of the larger breeds of amazon parrot. you got your hands full.
I think 11 weeks is young to try to wean a bird of his size. just my opinion.
texsize
 

Kalel

New member
Jan 2, 2015
473
8
Canada
Parrots
Sun conure named Lemon (nickname Moonie) hatched August 28, 2014, BFA Professor Green hatched August 22, 2014, Macaw Flash hatched Sept 15, 2007
Hello and welcome! Thanks for the nice intro. I am sure you will love it here as we have lots of people who know their stuff:)

I agree with you about the clipping thing! Clipping a birds wings while it's developing for our own convenience is something I can't agree with. Here's a more convenient idea...don't breed birds! Also, I don't like the fact that Captain Jack doesn't appear to be abundance weaned. Not sure how comfortable you are with weaning him yourself, but I would have likely went back and told them to keep him until he weans himself off formula rather than force weaning. That's my two cents. Welcome, and keep us updated! I have a soft spot for Panama amazons:)

I thought about sending him back, but I'm comfortable providing him formula myself and I won't "force" him to wean ... I will continue to provide formula until he is eating solid foods and refuses the formula. I would rather feed him the formula myself then send him back and chance having them do something else crazy (like when the clipped his wings).

Actually, as soon as I sent my message I thought "wait...do we want that particular person who clipped a baby bird's wings to be in charge of PROPERLY weaning him?" So, I agree with you and I think the bird truly is better off in your hands provided you are comfortable and it sounds like you are:) Like I said, I look forward about learning more about Captain Jack so please keep us updated as he grows:)
 

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