baserock_love
New member
- Apr 17, 2017
- 16
- 0
So the more I research the more I think i would be a good fit for adopting an amazon since I love animals, work at home, get to choose my own hours and can actually afford the time for daily training sessions and i've always enjoyed animal training with previous pets and was pretty damn good at it (Every pet I've ever had bit, was excessively loud and/or was not housebroken.....till I trained them, from cockatiels to dogs to cats to ferrets. I've never had a pet with behavioral issues i couldn't address.). I'm picking the brain of every amazon owner I meet and researching the trainers they recommend and I can't help but notice this consistent disagreement between the owners and the trainers THEY recommend as the experts in parrot behavior so I'm wondering what you guys think.
I really just want as realistic expectations as possible before I adopt a bird with a few potentially bad habits. I will be volunteering at a Houston parrot rescue 4 days a month soon so that will be some excellent experience. I have also read the stickied threads here already.
Two things that come up over and over again are "Amazons bite, period, they will always bite, you can't do anything about it, it's their nature.". They say "Oh my baby is such a little sweetheart but my fingers are covered in bandaids at all times and she will randomly remove flesh from my ear if she's on my shoulder every few months!!" or "Amazons are loud they love to scream, nothing you can do about it hope you don't have neighbors!" They say you can train them to bite less, but you will get bitten, and you'll get bitten bad. They tell me to read and listen to barbara heidenreich and a few other often recurring names.
So i start reading everything I can get my hands on from the trainers THEY recommend and the trainers like Barbara say "I don't get bit by any of my birds, they don't try to bite me, my birds don't scream excessively, i would never tolerate that, I train them not to bite and not to scream, buy my dvd for $19.95 and i'll show you how to do it.".
So i talk to these owners and it seems like most of them work 8 to 10 hours a day, own 3 to 10 birds and couldn't possibly have time to work with any one of their birds with any consistency and are just resigned to the fact that their sweet little baby is going to be drawing blood on a regular basis. Often when i ask them how they address screaming and biting it seems that according to teh very trainers they recommended they react in a way that reinforces that behavior to the bird. I hear them say "Oh when he bites me i put him in his play area and turn my back" and "When my bird screams i come to wherever it is and try to distract it with play or treats.". So basically your bird knows that if it wants to be left alone and be dropped off at the equivalent of birdie six flags amusement park or it wants a snack and entertainment delivered, all it has to do is bite or scream....
So is an amazon that bites and screams throughout the day a work in progress? Is an amazon that doesn't bite and doesn't scream excessively a lie used to sell training dvds? The trainers all say "There's no lost cause birds, they never stop learning. You can change their behavior.", a lot of owners say "Some birds are just nasty and can't be tamed.".
It seems both could have potential ulterior motives. Trainers want to sell merch and parrot owners want to discourage potential owners with naive expectations so yet another bird doesn't end up dumped on a shelter or languishing in a cage.
I really just want as realistic expectations as possible before I adopt a bird with a few potentially bad habits. I will be volunteering at a Houston parrot rescue 4 days a month soon so that will be some excellent experience. I have also read the stickied threads here already.
Two things that come up over and over again are "Amazons bite, period, they will always bite, you can't do anything about it, it's their nature.". They say "Oh my baby is such a little sweetheart but my fingers are covered in bandaids at all times and she will randomly remove flesh from my ear if she's on my shoulder every few months!!" or "Amazons are loud they love to scream, nothing you can do about it hope you don't have neighbors!" They say you can train them to bite less, but you will get bitten, and you'll get bitten bad. They tell me to read and listen to barbara heidenreich and a few other often recurring names.
So i start reading everything I can get my hands on from the trainers THEY recommend and the trainers like Barbara say "I don't get bit by any of my birds, they don't try to bite me, my birds don't scream excessively, i would never tolerate that, I train them not to bite and not to scream, buy my dvd for $19.95 and i'll show you how to do it.".
So i talk to these owners and it seems like most of them work 8 to 10 hours a day, own 3 to 10 birds and couldn't possibly have time to work with any one of their birds with any consistency and are just resigned to the fact that their sweet little baby is going to be drawing blood on a regular basis. Often when i ask them how they address screaming and biting it seems that according to teh very trainers they recommended they react in a way that reinforces that behavior to the bird. I hear them say "Oh when he bites me i put him in his play area and turn my back" and "When my bird screams i come to wherever it is and try to distract it with play or treats.". So basically your bird knows that if it wants to be left alone and be dropped off at the equivalent of birdie six flags amusement park or it wants a snack and entertainment delivered, all it has to do is bite or scream....
So is an amazon that bites and screams throughout the day a work in progress? Is an amazon that doesn't bite and doesn't scream excessively a lie used to sell training dvds? The trainers all say "There's no lost cause birds, they never stop learning. You can change their behavior.", a lot of owners say "Some birds are just nasty and can't be tamed.".
It seems both could have potential ulterior motives. Trainers want to sell merch and parrot owners want to discourage potential owners with naive expectations so yet another bird doesn't end up dumped on a shelter or languishing in a cage.
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