Great responses so far.
As pointed out above, there is far more to Hormones than the vast majority of articles cover. With Amazons, not being aware of what triggers Hormones will result in serious bites at any time of the year.
Food: We work at eliminating Sugar from our DYH Amazons diet and that includes Fruits and freeze dried fruits, which should be considered 'treats' provide during a safer time periods. Dealing with surging natural Hormones is a major undertaking in and of itself. Add a 'sugar high' and they can spin-up so quickly that all but a well seasoned owner will get bitten, hard and long. If you are lucky, they may not grind their bill while biting.
Salt has only recently come to light as a trigger. It first came to light when Amazons with a very low to no Sugar diets where still found to be surging beyond what was a 'normal' (dangerous word) Hormonal period. Until further studies are completed, we have targeted vastly eliminating to fully halting it in our Amazon's diet.
Discussions regarding Fat, Protein, and Soy (Pellets) will find long time friends in each other's faces. When the discussion involves Amazons, IMHO aiming at greatly limiting them in the diet is very important as part of their overall health. We activity adjust our DYH Amazons diet based on his blood test results. Thus limiting or eliminating the percentage of pellets, eliminating peanuts and sun flower seeds in the diet.
Sleep has been long found to be a major problem with bring on out-of-season Hormonal surges with Amazons. The goal of a 12 to 14 hour sleep pattern is to limit or eliminate a Hormonal response anytime during a one year cycle. That normally results in a Hormonal crazed Amazon at anytime the sleep pattern is not followed. I have been a long time believer in this approach until I took a very open and honest look at what Amazons in their natural ranges where experiencing. As a result, we have moved to the same wake /sleep schedule as the Sun each day of the year. This means that our Amazon will be a Hormonal monster in later Winter /early Spring and a happy camper the balance of the year.
FYI: This is working with our Amazon, whether it will or will not with other species is yet to be seen.
Amazons can be spun into a Hormonal 'event' (per your article) by improper handling of an Amazon. Too much of a good thing in the wrong place and one will find their Amazon surging Hormones and removing fingers, other body parts and /or high value face, neck, ear parts and other things.
Amazons enjoy Active Play, but their tendency of becoming overly excited will shift them into a full-on Hormonal event in a flash.
Clearly this does not go into great deal in each area, but it provides a clear picture of just how easy it is to create a Hormonal Amazon at anytime of the year or day.
Combine several of the above and an Amazon could loss its home. The sad reality is that as noted, we have control over the vast majority of the above.
) does the reader a disservice since hormones are far more complex than this. Its most helpful to clarify just who will benefit from these recommendations and to what degree. People with inducible species will see much greater consistent result than with an amazon. The amazon will be hit or miss and much more individualized since you can’t stop seasonal hormones.
