New here! Considering adopting a rehomed Amazon!

[SailBoat]

texsize really defined "being chosen."
The reality with Amazons is that they commonly provide lots of warnings that you are about to die, but just as commonly they provide the warnings, Humans pay little to no attention to them. If you have not yet READ the second Sticky Thread in the Amazon Forum: Understanding Amazon Body Language, please do. You will note much of what texsize noted above in that Thread.

Our Amazon has been with us for over six years and every time I request a Step-Up, I am both announcing my plans 'and' busy reading his body language!

Parrots out of the cage 24/7 is referred to as 'Fully Free Roaming.' They are not common, but they do exist. We have one! There are guidelines and requirements that must be in place and rigidly followed. Ours is also fully flighted, which only adds to the complexity.
The mix of dogs roaming your home, adds even more complexity to both having a Parrot and one that is not in a cage. Normally, the dogs are caged when the Parrot is out and the Parrot is caged when the dogs are out.

Biting: I have been bitten by horses and dogs. Both can cause serious damage and yes, they are painful. But, Parrots tend to bit where Humans have the largest mass of nerves and/or the face or neck.

I Love Your Questions and your Responsives!

An Amazon is very likely in your future.

 

[ravvlet]

Thanks everyone for the insights, especially on how to tell if the parrot chooses us! We are going to be visiting her for the first time Friday, so I’ll report back on how it goes!

 

[ravvlet]

Unfortunately, the amazons owner first rescheduled at the last minute then cancelled on us entirely. The issue was apparently an extremely personal family issue but it involved the police and kind of sounds like a safety hazard so I’m not sure that we are going to pursue this after all. I don’t know if I feel comfortable taking the kids or even just going myself as I don’t have exact details on what happened but it sounds serious AND happened on the day they knew we were supposed to be coming...

We did end up visiting a closer parrot store that also has birds on consignment for rehoming. Unfortunately the only ones that immediately liked us were the massive macaws! I might go back without the kids and see if any of the smaller birds take a shine to me or not.

 

[SailBoat]

Massive Mac's are lovers also. They are just oversized Tiels!

 

[ravvlet]

They were so sweet, there was a silly boy who kept regurgitating for us (apparently he does that alot) and a sweet girl who kept asking for scratches, but I don't think I could handle them, bless their hearts! I've never even held a parrot that size.

Ok, I got a little more info about the situation with the amazon owners and have tentatively rescheduled. It's very sad and I hope everything works out, but we're still going to go meet the bird.

 

[Inger]

I am worthless when it comes to any sort of advice, and the experts have already guided you. I just wonder where in the PNW you are-I’m just north of Seattle. And I have a (part-time) Chihuahua!


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[ravvlet]

I am worthless when it comes to any sort of advice, and the experts have already guided you. I just wonder where in the PNW you are-I’m just north of Seattle. And I have a (part-time) Chihuahua!


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Mercer Island! The person who's amazon we are going to see is in Lacey.

 

[ravvlet]

So.... the bird we went to see was named Kirby! But the bird we ended up hanging out with was Rico!

Kirby looked ill. She had what appeared to be lipomas around her vent and actually fell over off her perch as I was leaving, it was very alarming. I’m worried that separating her from Rico might have stressed her out too much.

However, from the minute we walked in Rico kept loudly announcing her name so we decided to say hi. I took a clip of some of the stuff she was doing. She seemed really friendly and didn’t try to bite or anything which surprised me given how she had been described.

Here’s a really short clip of some of her antics for reference:

[ame="https://youtu.be/2X9VEP5A4XM"]BFA first visit - YouTube[/ame]

She doesn’t step up for hands (she does with a stick??) so they usually just pick her up bodily. I didn’t feel comfortable doing that to a strange bird (maybe I am wrong) so I just gave her some dried apple and chatted with her. I have more clips if that would be helpful!

We are deciding if we will make another trip over this time with my partner to visit her again. I am super worried about the other bird though. Apparently she had a bad diet before. Both owners are also smokers but they don’t smoke in the house. I’m not sure what caused her to act so strangely, maybe it was us?

Edited to add: sorry if this post is confusing, made it on my phone while putting the kids to bed.

 

[ravvlet]

Actually I’m not super sure she liked us having reviewed the videos. �� she was fanning her tail a lot and such. Sorry, it’s been a long time.

 

[SailBoat]

Although the clip is short, I was not seeing fear or dislike in the displays. Amazons commonly mix their displays and Humans need to pay attention to all of them, plus what they are not doing.

In this case, she looked like she was happy to see you. What is important to notice is her eyes remained stable and had not flashed into orange at any point. In addition, there was no open-mouth lunging as part of her display.

Reading Amazon body language requires time to learn and a single reading of the Understanding Amazon Body Language requires an effort.

 

[saxguy64]

Actually I’m not super sure she liked us having reviewed the videos. �� she was fanning her tail a lot and such. Sorry, it’s been a long time.

I'm far from an expert, but I know how my babies behave. Yes, tail fanning can be a warning, but it's all about the context. Mine like to strut around and the tail fans out and eyes sort of pin while they are talking. Vocalizations done, eyes and tail back to normal. The rest of the body language is what to pay attention to. In my case, it's FAR from dislike or aggressive behavior, and usually a demand for attention and wanting to be picked up or scratched/snuggled.

Hard to say from a tiny clip, but she's beautiful, and worth revisiting to get a better feel if there's a bond happening. Try to look at the whole package in context and not just a single body movement. If she's the right one, great. If not, better to know for sure than be second guessing your self later and wondering "what if..."

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[ravvlet]

Yeah, sorry! I did read the body language thread but I’ll read it again. There’s so much that seems dependent on other behavior and context and I tend to second guess myself.

 

[BeatriceC]

Its' a short clip but I'm not seeing so much anger as maybe timidness and/or curiosity/excitement. This, by the way, is a good picture of a ticked off amazon. This is my late YNA, who was actually my husband's bird, and was rather mad I interrupted shower time with him. It's sometimes hard to tell the difference, but this may help.

 

[Scott]

Its' a short clip but I'm not seeing so much anger as maybe timidness and/or curiosity/excitement. This, by the way, is a good picture of a ticked off amazon. This is my late YNA, who was actually my husband's bird, and was rather mad I interrupted shower time with him. It's sometimes hard to tell the difference, but this may help.

Beautiful! Bet those eyes were pinning at warp speed!

 

[ravvlet]

As part of our research we have been calling local avian vets to establish cost of care and also what they think about this particular species in a home with young kids and at least one adult inexperienced handler. They understandably emphasized caution.

I really liked Rico, but as she is the bird of the pair that was supposedly screaming (something our shared wall neighbor would not appreciate, and not even the bird we had intended to visit!) and doesn’t step up/seems to have some cage aggression issues according to her owners, I think maybe we would be in over our head. She is a beautiful bird however and if anyone here is local to the Seattle/Tacoma area I’d be happy to share her ad and info.

I feel badly for her and want her to find a good FOREVER home- and I don’t think it’s us. I want to be sure that if we add a bird to our home everyone will be happy. We have been encouraged by bird owning friends to consider something smaller like a tiel/conure/parrotlet, so we are switching gears a bit and looking into that instead.

I did get my copy of Sally Blanchard’s handbook and have been pouring through it. Thank you all for your help and words of advice and wisdom!