Looking for help

[Lina]

I am fostering my sisters birds she is going thru health issues. they are both amazons one is a yellow nape the othe a blue front. MY biggest question is if they bite and clamp on and won't release what is the right way to get them to release? by the way they are both over 20 yrs old and have been in serveral homes before her, and i do believe they have both been abused at some point

[pennyandrocky]

the best thing is not to get bit. watch their body language it's rare they will bite without warning. common signs from s are eye pinning and tail spreading. i think it's great you're caring for your sister's birds. have you never handled them before? if not you might start by letting them come to you. aproach slowly watching how they react to you if they seem stressed back off for a little bit and try again when they calm down. do your best to follow your sisters routine feeding time, out of cage time and bedtime. good luck.

[Lina]

what are other signs other than the eye pinning? with Riki i am thinking he more bluff than bravo cause his eyes dont pin. I realy want to work with him cause i dont hink he has been out off his cage since my sister got sick. I have been bite by the other one and it was an out of the blue bite cause she like who she was on better, but the blue fronted is smaller than the yellow and i know if he chomped me it gonna hurt, and my sister has scars from the one time he latched onto her. But I still want to get him out of his cage for a lil freedom.

[pennyandrocky]

the only signs i've seen or heard of are eye pinning or tail spreading maybe hissing with head down. what does he do when you open the cage to let him come out or is it the getting him back in that's got you worried about the bite? if you're worried he'll bite when you pick him up to put him back in his cage you can get him to go back in by making his meal time go around when you want or need him to go back in. i did this with my when she hated her cage. now she just flies to her cage when i say "bed time". if you want to handle him it will take a little more time. first he has to trust you. i build trust with my birds slowly when they first come home i put their cage next to a chair sitting and talking at first then putting my hand out letting them decide when they want to touch or play with my hands, mine have all come from abuse/neglect situations so they tend to mistrust hands that have betrayed them or forced them to do things they don't want to do. they are likely confused wondering where their person is so you just have to be patient they'll come around. your sister and her birds are very lucky to have someone like you around i don't know who i would turn to if i couldn't take care of mine.

[Lina]

I haven't even tried to take him out of the cage yet. well i think its a he not sure. He acts like he is attacking anytime you open the door to his cage, well he was he is starting to trust me and me him i can now open the cage to feed him and stuff with out him chargeing, He also will assume the postion to let me rub his eye ridges and stuff. I have started trusting him enough not to bite when he whips his head around i leave my fingers and he hasnt bite em . He kinda licks em he is used to scarying people away i think.

It will be a few days before I can even attempt to take him out....I almost made smoked parrot the other day we had a fire.. till we get the new window panes i wont even try to take him out. But I will try thats why im asking about the bite thing i know the goal is to never have him bite in the first place, but if he clamps on i just want to know if there is anything to do to get them to release, I have had Buzz latch on to me before and it was the grace of god and love for my sister that i didn't snap her or his neck.

From what i have read on the forums there are many issues going on with them. To start with i think their diet wrong, my sister has been free feeding em pretty much. With too much seed in their diets.

But i am gonna do what i can cause i think Riki needs to get out of that cage i don't think he has been out in like a year. We moved him here in his cage . I will have a safe place to let him out in the next few days.

[Lina]

Well i have just been bite by Riki for the first time a hard bite and it was all my fault. But it makes me REALLLLLLY want to know how to get a parrot to release when they latch on cause he has a hell of a bite. He has npped me a few times this was a chomp and lordie lordie it did hurt but I should of known better it was my dumbness that got me bit, but he didn't latch on , he did let me go pretty fast. But He can bite pretty damn hard so i understand why my sister did what she did when he latched on to her that time. I just don't want to try to shake him off like she did I think that caused him trauma too.

[pennyandrocky]

licking your finger is exploring them. you're right about not shaking him off it's important not to react when he bites, i know it's hard i was bit by my amazon the worst was my cockatoo though. when she used to bite i would walk away clean myself up then go right back to pet her head showing her her bite wasn't going to keep me away. if he's eating alot of seeds in his diet that could be a problem too. give him pellets in the morning then when you have dinner share with him he needs some fruits and veggies. we have steamed veggies with dinner every night the birds get their own bowl of what we're having. as long as your dinner doesn't include garlic,onions,mushrooms or avacado he can have what you're having. they even eat chicken. scrambled eggs with the shell finely ground will give him calcium, make sure the eggshell is ground almost to powder or it will cut his crop.

[Lina]

Thank you ill try those things. I am really busy with the other part of my life i am the caregiver for my 85yr old stepfather and my 78 yr old mother plus i have been caring for my sister too .....so i dont have as much time as i would like for looking stuff up online. Your feedback is great and thank you again for it.......

I reallly want to help this bird i really think he needs the love and trust to have a better life. I myself am a dog person (own a rat terrier mix ) so im trying to learn fast and quick what too do and what not to do with the birds. I whish i had more hours in the day but life has me by the left nut i don't even have

[Lina]

Well i let riki out of his cage for the first time and he did well, i even got him to go back in on his own and he let me give him a full body pet down his back We working on our trust so it going well.

I still dont know how to change over his diet to get him to eat the pellets go get him off all the seeds tho... any suggestions?

[pennyandrocky]

happy to see things going well. pellets are pretty hard but some people put fruit juice on them or bake them into birdy bread. i just give them first thing in the morning when they are hungry.