I recently adopted my first Amazon Parrot. Aside from her, I've owned parakeets and I fostered five cockatiels for around a year-year and a half. Once the cockatiels were adopted I had my two parakeets, Tia and Ray who I had ask for for my twelfth birthday.
Tia passed on a few years ago and Ray was heartbroken, I couldn't be of much comfort to him no matter how much extra love I gave him so I got him a companion. Unfortunately in March my father got transferred across the country and the only option was to fly and since I'd had a bird die from stress before, I didn't want to risk it and I had to rehome my little friends.
Since we've moved at here I've really missed having a bird around and looked around for bird rescues and breeders and the like around where I live. Aside from PetSmart, there weren't any places to get cockatiels or parakeets, so I decided to get something different!
I am first and foremost a dog lover, they''re just my favorite guys ever, birds taking a close second. So I was instantly attracted to the more.. intelligent bird species.
I also enrolled in a free veterinary technician program for highschool students and there I met a fellow bird lover, my teacher! She has a cockatoo.. I think it's an endangered species, not even the local bird rescue center would take her, so my teacher was her only hope at a home. She'd had six homes in her twelve years of live. This was our classroom bird. She stayed during class and left with the teacher after class and on weekends. My teacher also had a variety of other birds from conures to a Catalina Macaw, so I asked her for her opinion on what parrot would be best for me based on my experience, knowledge, and desire in a bird.
We came to the conclusion that an Amazon would be great. And I am so glad I talked to her!
So I began hunting for an Amazon Parrot, costs, what I'd need, avian vets nearby, etc. And in all the craziness I found a bird named Jacob. She(yes, she. XD) really stuck out to me because her add on the page ended on my birthday. After calling and speaking to the owner, she sounded perfect.
According to the owner, "Jacob" had been owned by a man for twelve years and due to a hectic work schedule change that prevented him from giving an appropriate amount of attention to his bird, he gave her to a family friend, the people I got her from. Unfortunately, the woman suffered the same issue after she divorced and Jacob got maybe 2-3 hours of attention a week. She also was only given one toy, a cow bell.. which was apparently all the first owner had given her too.
So after adopting Jacob, I first changed her name to Elphie, as in Elphaba from Wicked since she's green for the most part. XD I also purchased her some new food(although didn't begin a switch until around two weeks later), got her some proper toys, ones that are also supposed to help with stress and discourage feather plucking(luckily she's not a feather plucker.. yet anyway.), and got her a vet visit.
That's the day after I got her, already showing a huge personality. (and a showing off a much needed nail trim! XD)
That was all back in early September.
Today her bad biting habits when she didn't get her way(such as not getting the food I was eating, etc.) have basically vanished, she's started to nibble on my ear, play with my hair, etc., she's gotten MUCH more out-of-cage time since I'm homeschooled, she has come out of her shell and released many sound effects and a small word vocabulary to me that her previous owner didn't know existed, and she's been switched from a seed diet to a pellet diet with additional fruits and the likes. She's also learned to play with toys and loves to show off in my class(we're allowed to bring pets in with permission, and my teacher absolutely adores her).
I really couldn't be happier with her! We have many more behavioral issues to tackle, which I'm sure you guys will be a great help with!
As for me, and I'll make this short since I've already written a novel(xD).. I'm Sophia, I'm a junior in highschool and I have a moderate amount of bird experience. Although I'm new to training parrots with clicker training, I learned about it and used it on my first dog and instantly fell in love. I'm not afraid of parrot bites, even though they do hurt, although they are expected, especially with newer unknown birds, of course. This is probably because I experienced a bad dog bite to the face when I was twelve from my first dog who we discovered had a disorder called rage syndrome. However, I use it with my current dog and it has boosted her confidence like crazy! She went from a dog who was almost put to sleep from being so timid to being overly friendly to everyone she meets. And I can not wait to see the progress Elphie makes on the same method.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to get to know you all very well!
