Hello From Boulder, CO

[RaptorMascara]

Hello Parrot Forum!
I'm Michelle Wright, the very happy owner of a Double Yellow Headed Amazon named Victor. We adopted Victor from The Gabriel Foundation, our local Parrot Rescue in Denver. We were told he's somewhere between 9 and 12 years old and has had a few past homes. We've had him for about 4 1/2 months now and taming and training is going swimmingly! He is comfortable in his parrot room, can step up for me, wave, target a chopstick, turn around (still following a chopstick around), and we're working on targeting into his carrier, and becoming familiar enough with one another through positive reinforcement to allow me to start touching his head.
He's a great eater and really enjoys beets, little red peppers with pellets stuffed inside and is a great forager!
We look forward to learning so much from this forum and the lovely participants and their parrots!

[Wolf]

Welcome to the forum.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum, Michelle and Victor! Congratulations on your new family member! Was he DNA'd a male? And, out of sheer curiosity and not because I am arguing with it, do you know how they figured out he was between 9 and 12 years old? Because, as far as I know, nobody can age parrots (we can only tell if they are very young or very old but) so, if there is a way, I would love to do some research about it.

[RaptorMascara]

Thank you for the welcome!
Pajarita, Yes, he was DNA sexed as a male. The age of between 9 and 12 is a total guess based on the information Victor's previous owner gave the Gabriel Foundation when he brought Victor in. From what we heard, Victor's first home had him for about 5 years and towards the end of his time there, they had him in a closet because they weren't sure what to do with him. Then he spent about a year or so (again, throwing guesses all around) in a different rescue or humane society of some sort, then was adopted by a gentleman who had him for a year before deciding he didn't have enough time or parrot knowledge to keep Victor, which is when he gave Victor to the Gabriel Foundation which had him for about 2 years when we came into the picture. Sooooo, somewhere between 9 and 12 is what the closest guess was for his age. We would love to know how old he actually is, but like you said it's difficult to find information on determining the age parrots. Thank you for the interest!

[Wolf]

From what you have said, I am assuming that he doesn't have a closed band on a leg. Is this correct?

[Pajarita]

Ah, yes, the not knowing how old is very common in rescued parrots - although I would say something like 9+ instead of the 9 to 12 because, in reality, the 12 is nothing but a completely arbitrary guess as it could easily be 9 to 20, right? It's a shame we don't have a way of determining their age... yet! Because I am sure that, the same way that we figured out how to visually sex birds that we erroneously thought were perfectly monomorphic, eventually, there will be somebody who notice something that changes in a predictable way when they age and we then will be able to. But, on the other hand, it doesn't really matter as virtually all parrots end up been rehomed and they don't age the way mammals do so an adult is an adult and that's all there is to it.

I have to say it's quite courageous of you to adopt a DYH male - unless you have lots of experience with amazons, do you?

[RaptorMascara]

Thank you to everyone for your welcome!
Wolf, he does in fact have a closed band on his right leg. I wasn't really told what the band means, other than it has his personal Amazon number on it. Do you know if I can use that code to find out where he was hatched?
Pajarita, you're totally right on saying his age is 9+ as we know he's an adult and not really old! How delightful! Victor is my first Amazon and he's an absolute delight! I've only had him a little over 5 months and I'm not entirely certain what exactly I would have to be courageous about yet. (Yet being the key word!) I've gotten to learn his body language better and better every day and as long as I pay attention to how he reacts to different things, I can usually avoid a bite. Again, I'm still learning about Victor and don't have any Amazon experience, but we take it day by day and so far so good!

[Wolf]

You might be able to track down where he was hatched if the band was registered, if not then it just proves that he was hatched in the USA and there should be a two digit number on it signifying the year that he was hatched. The number may be turned sideways from the other letters and numbers.
As for your being brave there are a few species of Amazons that are know to become extremely territorial and aggressive when they are hormonal or in breeding condition. They are aggressive enough that they are known to attack their human and keep attacking. They will fly out of their cage to attack the face in particular, this does not mean that flying from the cage is the only place that they will attack from. Pajarita knows more about this than I do.

[Pajarita]

Yes, Wolf is correct. Look at his band closely and see if you can identify two digits that would indicate the last two of the year he was born (like 00 for 2000 or 02 for 2002). If you can't see any digits that could mean a year, look at the letters on it and the other number. The letters are the identification of the breeder (sometimes there is a state abbreviation as some states require it but not all) and the number that identifies this individual bird. There are a couple of companies that produce these bands (try http://www.lmbirdlegbands.com/ first) and, sometimes, the breeders agree to have their information released to people who ask about them so, if this is the case, you can call them up and ask them when their bird .... (ID number here) was hatched.

DYH are one of the three 'hot' zon species (the other two are Yellow Naped and the Blue Fronted) and it just means that they tend to be more aggressive than other species. But keeping them to a strict solar schedule, reducing protein during the resting season (winter) and not free-feeding protein takes care of that because it's the fact that they get overly hormonal that makes them aggressive (same as any other bird species). They are also one of the best talkers.

[liz]

He may be like Rambo. Thirty years old and just figured out that his is a she.