I have failed Katie!

[liz]

The cover is to keep them warm and dim the light. I never cover mine and keep a night light on for them.

[marie83]

The cover is to keep them warm and dim the light. I never cover mine and keep a night light on for them.

in my house the cover is to stop Ollie removing Harlies feet when she lands on his cage and also to give Ollie a more natural light cycle. Would do the same for Harlie regarding the light cycle but shes too scatty to be covered but also prone to night frights. Whilst i dont think covering and 100% darkness is completely necessary for a birds welbeing in this case it is essential to prevent the jealousy issues the original poster was describing, that or using seperate rooms for out times.

[friend2parrots]

just had a few more thoughts about this situation, and wanted to share them - sorry to overwhelm this thread with all my posts but I just have a really soft spot for amazons and want to share what i've learned about them, from only very brief encounters and mostly from books, in case it might help susie or any other amazon owner out there someday. I've never owned an amazon, so other forum members who have amazons, like you, liz, may disagree with the almost "draconian" measures I am about to advise Susie

some background on my soft spot for Amazons - I fell absolutely head over heels in love with a bluefront Amazon some years ago, before i got married and while i was still living on my own in a really small apartment with paper thin walls. needless to say I couldnt bring the bluefront home, even though i visited him nearly every day while he was still unsold, wondering if i could somehow still miraculously get this bird, move out, whatnot, do whatever it takes - anyway, it didnt work out because I knew my aloof landlord wound complain and id' be on the street - the bird was pretty loud even in the shop. but i learned a lot oabout amazons from the owner, and did buy a whole bunch of books on them, and ive always been interested in them from afar.

from what I've heard and read, Amazons are seriously hormonal birds, esp. the mature boys, and sometimes, even the mature girls. they are unique parrots that are quite different from other parrots.

if you google "Amazon parrot aggression" you will find a wealth of articles about how to manage their hormone surges. nearly all of these articles advise the following:

1. never allow an Amazon onto your shoulder. even if he or she is well behaved today, there might be some trigger in the environment that can cause it to bite and permanently maim you or blind you.
2. stick train your amazon, so that you can handle it during those hormonal surges safely.
3. during their hormone surges, covering the cage to promote a longer night cycle is recommended, to reduce the hormone surge.
4. patience and steady training.

i agree with both of maries posts above, both for the jealousy issue and shes offered a good strategy on how to get the bird used to being covered gradually. you may want to start doing that now, for a few extra hours each day, just to calm katie down. he will come to understand that you mean him no harm, esp if you offer a treat before, while, and after you do it.

there's another recent thread on this forum called "PLEASE HELP!! New Jenday conure" or something like that, where the forum member "cml" offers some really great advice on keeping the bird in the cage while working on basic target training, etc. read what he has to say, and follow those links to Michaels training articles. i think you really need to start from scratch with your Amazon. he needs to be reined in somewhat, and training can do that.

training might not be all that successful while he's hormonal, andthe cycles for amazons usually last for a little while (ask your vet) . its up to you if you want to do this, but moving Sonic to another room for a few weeks, perhaps with another bird or two for company, might be a way to get Katie to get over the surge sooner and start focusing on in-the-cage target training, so that you can safely get him into a carry kennel for his vet visit and back into his cage.

anyways, sorry everyone for rambling on - best of luck with Katie - be careful yet confident, and let us know how it goes!!

[susiequ53]

Again, great help and advise! Katie puts herself in and out of her home. All I have to say is "night night time" so I don't have to handle her to get her back inside. Not knowing her entire past, I can only think she has been traumatized by most everything because she plainly does not care for anything with bright colors. That includes food especially the color red. She immediately backs away. The same with any form of stick or branch. I've had to put one of those long twisty fiber perches in place of wood and she will only eat from clear glass bowls. So there are quite a few issues going on. Lately she has been asking "where's Bill?" That was her previous owner. I guess in some sad way, she misses him. After all, he was hers for 25 years! I was thinking instead of a cover maybe try one of those cozy huts they can go inside? Maybe that would give her comfort. Rambling. Sorry. Thanks for taking the time to help me with Katie. Merry Christmas to all!

[marie83]

If Katie is hormonal then I'm afraid anything that resembles a nest wont help her, it could make things a whole lot worse. On the other hand like friend2parrots said light management can help, food management as well , because parrots only tend to breed when food is abundant, though this is something you need to bring in slowly if its not something you already do so you can keep katie at a steady weight. Other things can include limiting any toys that can be thought of as nesting materials when shredded, avoiding warm and/or mushy foods etc. As usual though it is never that simple and I'm sure there is more specific advice about amazons and managing their hormones than just simply manipulating light.
I will keep following your story so please keep updating.

[Polarn]

about an hormonal amazon... showering.. daily preferably a couple of times / day... they dont really breed during raining seasons in the wild... also stay off sprouts etcetera during their natural hormonal cycle... there are loads of things you can do really and non of them will remove the behavior on its own, but they all add up and mostly to a state where the bird isnt a monster... And showers are good for em anyways so never hurts to add that into the food/light management. also petting is a factor as they naturally arn't that cuddly (except for thouse who loves their headscratches) but they (if tame) will become more cuddly when they start to get hormonal, YAY you might think when you notice your bird becoming unnaturally cuddly, RESTRAIN yourself is my biggest tip here... by giving the extra cuddles you encourage the hormonal behaviors and trigger them to get ready for mating..

[liz]

Tell Katie that Bill went Bye Bye. She should understand that.

On the other hand - if she goes in and out her cage when she is told, you could have a happy bird that will eventually come to you.

Myrtle would come to me and crawl up my leg when she needed help even before I could touch her. When her wings grew out she would fly to my shoulder but still not want touched. Right now she is on my shoulder (normal for morning) picking at me for attention and asking for tickles.