travel crate?

[MetroidGirl]

i'm going tomorrow to buy a crate for my new green cheeked amazon.... i dont know exactly how big those are so i'm buying a bird carrier thats 17"W X 10"D X 12"H. its a 30 minute trip from where i live to where she is. do you think she'll be alright in that, or should i look for something bigger?

 

[TexDot33]

So GCA tend to be about 12 to 13 inches long, that carrier that you have described should be adequate enough for short car rides ...

 

[MetroidGirl]

yeah, the lady said shes about 8" head to tail, so i'm guessing shes on the smaller side?

 

[TexDot33]

:06: huh :06: ... something's not right there .... one of two things is going on here ....

1.) This lady has no idea of how long 8 inches really is (lots on inappropriate jokes could be inserted here ... ) and she is taking a really bad guess.


2.) She doesn't have an Amazon, but rather, some other sort of bird and has mis-identified this bird since she has had it.

The only reason I say this is because birds are usually 90% of full-grown size by the time they wean ... a bird that is going to grow to 12 - 13 inches will be at least 10-12 by the time they wean. If this bird is 5 years old, it is full grown and should be a lot bigger ...

I would like to see a picture of this bird if you have one ... or, when you get him home you will have to post one anyway ... C'mon now, we're waiting! :20::09:

P.S. for the record, my Green-Cheeked Conure is like 8 inches long beak to tail ... now, I know he thinks he's a Green Wing Macaw, but really, he's not that big ...

 

[MetroidGirl]

sure, heres a picture of her.


i dont know how to post pictures, lol and i thought i was computer savvy. but copy past that, and thats her.

 

[MetroidGirl]

and btw, the bird is 16 years old.

 

[zarafia]

She is lovely. Right now I have a female mexican red head who is likley in her thirties and she produced babies just a few years ago. I am actually looking for a new home for her.
Anyway, 16 years is by no means old for an amazon, but it is old enough for her to have aquired a bit of an attitude.
I think she will really enjoy her new home and as you know fitness can be an issue for amazons.

 

[MetroidGirl]

i hope she likes it here. she better, she's gonna be super spoiled.

 

[zarafia]

I never would have guessed

 

[MetroidGirl]

so does she look like an amazon?

 

[zarafia]

Uh yeah. What else would she look like?

 

[MetroidGirl]

oh, well when i said i was told that she was only eight inches someone else wasnt sure she was a green cheek

 

[zarafia]

Actually, my female green cheeked amazon is probably not more than nine inches long. I consider her a little on the small side, her mate was a bit larger, but they are not overly large amazons.

 

[MetroidGirl]

yeah she doesnt look that big, which is fine, just means she'll be easier to carry around! lol
and some good news: after screening what feels like 500 avian vets in my area, i finally found one i like! so shes got a vet apt next Friday!

 

[zarafia]

Good deal.

 

[TexDot33]

Yeah, I didn't realize that there was such a size difference between the females and the males ... all the info that I read about the Green-Cheeked 'zon said that full grown they were 12 - 13 inches long ... so I just thought that maybe there was a mistake in the identification ...

Wow, that's a really small 'zon isn't it?

 

[zarafia]

Yeah they can be pretty small. There are some amazons that are smaller than some pionus. The white-fronted (used to be called the spectecled) amazon is very small and I would have said the smallest untill I met Maxine June (a breeder and show person here in Florida). Maxine went to quarantine back in the eighties looking for white-fronted amazons. In the big cage of imported white fronteds were a few smaller, poorly colored "white-fronteds".
Maxine realized there was something special about them so she bought all the small, off colored "white-fronteds".
Later on her reasearch revealed that they were rare, supposedly never imported yellow-lored amazons. She set them all up in pairs and put them on a good diet of sprouted seeds (there were very few pelleted diets available at that time) and they produced well for her. She has now produced at least second generation young and probably more by now.
Maxine began showing a couple of her babies and once people realised what they were they did very well. They are a little smaller than white-fronteds and what appeared to be poor feather condition or odd color was revealed to be that their covert feathers are tipped in black. Seeing Maxine's show birds, in perfect condition, there is no doubt that they are a different species altogether from the white-fronteds, though similar in size and color and dimorphism.

 

[kerry]

Yes, she looks like an Amazon!!
She doesn't look like 8 inches either!!
What do you estimate her size to be 12"?

 

[StRiNgROCk]

I have a female mexican red head who is likley in her thirties and she produced babies just a few years ago. I am actually looking for a new home for her. i dont know how to post pictures, lol and i thought i was computer savvy. but copy past that, and thats her.