I need advice with my late mothers double yellow.

[tabor1218]

My mother lost her 9 year battle with cancer back in July, And left her parrot "TACO" to me.

While he seems to warm up to me the most out of anyone. I am still scared to try and handle him. He has bit my sister years ago. I think i would feel better about attempting to handle him if an experienced bird owner were to be able to coach me.

He talks up a storm when its just me around. He actually gets pissy and starts squaking if I dont talk back. When my wife gets home. He will mumble allot. But only actually talk to me..

I could really use some advice on how to proceed and build a bond with him..



Thanks
Jim

[pennyandrocky]

I'm sorry for the loss of your mom. I inherited my first parrot the same way he was also an amazon who belonged to my grandmother. no one wanted him and he seemed to attach himself to me so I took him. most amazons are difficult for inexperienced people first you have to figure out his body language birds rarely bite without warning first. with amazons they'll pin their eyes fan their tails before attacking but you do have to accept the fact that you will get bit. don't force yourself on him let him come to you he's been through a trauma he lost your mom too. share your food with him it's the best way to bond with him as long as it's healthy for birds you can find a list but the foods you want to take out is avocado, onions, garlic, and chocolate while sharing meals with him. you can add things to your dinner for flavor as long as what's in his bowl looks like what you're having. hang out near his cage and talk, sing or read a book next to him if he's already showing a preference for you it won't take long for him to come around.

[Polarn]

Amazons does have pretty distinct and "big" displays of their mood in their bodylanguage, as Penny said they flare their tail and pin their eyes... however an excited zon does the same thing (not saying you won't get bit by an excited zon because their notorious to get so excited that they do not know what todo and then they release their excitement in a bite... some actually growl before they bite (a lot of how much bodylanguage they show off before a bite has to do with how the chick was raised and how much people has ignored the bodylanguage, example (there are more steps but lets start with the "easy" ones) the amazon has a few displays he/she should do before biting. lets state the example from you trying to put your hand up for him to step up, and he does not want to.
1. he will lean back a bit trying to create some distance between the two of you
2. he would fly off (this is where it would be for 99%of the time if he has never been pushed further or chased around during his life, but lets say he has skipped the flying away becasue he has figured it gets him nowhere.
3, acknowlidging the fact that you did not get his leaning back as a sign of him wanting you to back off he will most likely resume to a more normal posture
4. he may actually raise a foot in the air (pretty much as a policemen trying to stop a car) and at the same time fluff the lower neck a bit, raising of the foot is a normal wild behavior to show someone to back off and that he isnt comftible, however a lot of captive birds does this to show that their willing to step up now. but in the case of stepping up they will most likely not fluff the neck, or they would fluff more of their head generally (different regions fluffed tells different stories)
5. either here or before #4 is where you would start seeing a lot of eyepinning in an agitated zon.
6. he may start to growl already, but here is somewhere you would see the tailfeathers flare out and the wings coming out a bit from his body (he is making himself look bigger to try scare you off)
7. the beak should be opened some right about here, may even do some launcing forward with the head beak wide open to try and scare you off.
8. this is pretty much where he makes the decition to either fight or flight (if the bird is clipped the chance of the second option is far less attractive to them, trying to hobble away)

as mentioned earlier an excited zon displays a lot of the same features in posture and feathers when excited as when angry, a lot of them is basically behaviors showing off a strong emotional level and neither good nore bad, it is the details in the behavior and circumbstances that telsl you weather or not he is happy or angry. but as I also stated earlier too hapy of a zon is prone to bite as well but usually not as hard, but still hard enough for it to hurt.

Now the amount of numbers on this list still present in terms of his warnings depends on how he has been treated previously, lets say noone ever has payed attention to him leaning back, then that one is out the window, if he has been clipped all his life, then flying off that early is wery unlikely even if able to fly at the moment, so that would rule out number two. Raising the foot is another common thing to inadvertly train away because you always consider that a sign of him wanting to step up, the foot is usually at different angels depending on what they want, stepping up the foot is commonly having the soles more to the ground instead of pointing in your face, but this is a common thing to train away becasue the bird learns that everytime he does this someone will put a finger against his foot, weather he is anticipating a stepup or telling you to bug off. so that would rule out number 4. never knowing about the eyepinning or never noticing it will cause the bird to jump over this step removing number 5. this basically causes the bird to express the emotions of a really agitated zon already from the get go. leaving making himself big, launching the beak out in the air trying to scare you and then resort to biting... A parentraised chick is more likely to have all these steps plus some minor additions than a handreared chick simply beacuse he didnt learn all this as a chick. And even if their trained away some of the earlier steps may be restored because they generally (if they know them) go through them, but never spend time on them they simply just rush through them before coming to the steps that has previously worked...

A chick taimed by flooding is more likely to skip all these steps and go straight for a bite when he thinks you have pushed him to far than a chick (even if handfed) that has had the opportunity to say no all its life. een if a handreared chick generally does not need to be "tamed" you can still flood it by forcing it onto its back when it displays discomfort because you know it is tame and wont bite, this eventually will strike back.

Hope this may have been of some help to you, do a google search for amazon behavior and you will probably find guides where peopel has pushed their birds and taking photos of it along the way... not the nicest thing to do but good reference for people to see anyways...