Got myself an Amazon!

[tim west]

Bit of a breakthrough, bill had climbed down on to the kitchen, which from there he will happily step up, done some touch training with him which he plays if he has to! But about 10 mins ago popped past him while on his cage , stopped and stroked his belly and didn't get bit or growled at! I can normally only do this when he's not on his cage. He must be starting to like me! There's hope yet!

[kiwismom]

Beautiful Bird! Most pet stores carry the pellets. You just need to find one he likes. They make them spicy,fruit flavored and plain.

[tim west]

Gets better, he stepped up from inside his cage!!!! Then sat on my head why i practised my putting on the lounge carpet!

[captwest]

Congrats. keep up the good work, some pics please

[snakesentwined]

Gets better, he stepped up from inside his cage!!!! Then sat on my head why i practised my putting on the lounge carpet!

Excellent news! - see quiet patience and persistence wins them out in the end

[dodoboid]

What a beautiful zon...I've always wanted to have one myself (as well as just about a parrot from each species).

When I had my late red-fronted kakariki, Sneak, and the late peach-face clinging vine of a lovebird, Mott The Hoople, their favourite people food treats were:

- raw broccoli spears
- corn on the cob
- dark green leafy Romaine lettuce or spinach leaves *
- air-popped popcorn, no butter, no salt
- apple wedges
- pizza crust, crusts of whole wheat toast
- PASTA! Preferably whole wheat pasta
- rice, preferably whole grain
- lean chicken, beef and/or pork
- cooked egg, without salt or pepper
- sesame seeds **

Mott The Hoople loved peas, too. I'd hold the peas for him to eat as he couldn't eat with his feet like some parrots do.

Our late Sneak loved pineapple slices. I'd buy her her own can when I went shopping. And she loved the juice that slices were packed in. The label on the can claimed that the juices had no added sugar, but to me, it was sweet. Anyway, I'd sometimes take a teaspoon of the juice over to Sneak when she was on top of her cage antagonizing our late budgie, Newman.

I bought a fresh pineapple for her once but she didn't like it. She looked at me an imperious way. Quite honestly, I don't blame her as the pineapple flesh did look a bit dry, and our Sneak liked the pineapple juice so much.

She'd lap it up like it was mother's milk, and she'd forget all about the pesky Newman (who was in love with her -- what a birdie drama, talk about "As The Bird Turns", "Birds Of Our Lives", "Coronation Street Bird" or "EastEnderBirds"!)

Not that I like it, but I've witnessed near feathered altercations over a gently simmered cob of corn, my birds, past and present, love it so much.

* Although birds will eat iceberg lettuce, that particular variety of lettuce contains too much water and not enough nutrients...I don't even eat it myself. It may cause pet birds an upset stomach, so I avoid feeding it to them. Same as cukes. Too much water.

** Buy your hot dog/hamburger buns, bagels, etc. coated with sesame seeds and watch your fids go ballistic when you clip a bit of the afore-mentioned onto the top of the cage.

I buy sesame seeds in our spice department, and sometimes add a few to our greedy budgies' dishes. The gluttons burrow their heads in those dishes to have at 'em.

Our late birds Sneak and Mott loved 'em, too.

[snakesentwined]

Mott The Hoople loved peas, too.

hehe - Isis too: either shelled or uncooked and still in the pods (not that she eats much of the pod - but she does love holding it in one foot whilst she finds and carefully extracts every little pea-let). She also loves cooked pasta, roasted *anything* - and the *occassional* chip...

The other thing that is guaranteed to keep her quiet is a small off-cut of granary toast in the morning...!

[tim west]

Ok guys, at first he tried and had a bit of the pellets, he now has decided there not worth eating, any ideas on how I can get him to eat them?

[captwest]

Hey Tim . you need to wean him on to them, i'm not sure what his maintence food is but mix it with the pellets, maybe10% pellets at first,couple of days later maybe 20% pellets , and so forth. If you could weigh him it would be helpful to keep track. Amazons seem to like their pellets wet especially when starting out, BEWARE pellets spoil quick when wet. You could even crush or grind them up and mix with water to get him started, most birds enjoy them this way,( BEWARE pellets spoil quick when wet.) just mix them chunckier and drier every day. If he's young enough you might even be able to put the mix in a syringe and handfeed him, even birds several years old remember that syringe, all you want to do is get him used to the taste and he'll switch right over to the dry pellets.

[Kearncraft]

Hi Tim. I have a double yellow headed amazon called Alice. She is 5 now and I got her when she was 6 months old. When I got her she was crammed in a cage similar to hers now (a large one!) along with around 8 other birds. Basically she had no social skills and what personality she had was very very aggressive! The point I am making is that now she really has been worth all the time and effort. Basically I found that somtimes I had to get injured in coaxing her to me but perseverance has paid off. I didn't really find that food worked with her at all but if you do give treats, she loves apples and things quite crunchy. She loves fresh bananas too so a nice fruit salad with apples, grapes and bananas is a treat. I'm not an expert with these birds but from what I've learned from here she's quite bossy so you have to be firm and basically just be yourself around them. If they are dominant when you go near their cage then you have to be a bit stubborn and just keep speaking to them and just leave when you are ready - not when they have seen you off! It all sounds like hard work but in the end it pays off. I didn't actually get her out of her cage physically; I just let her come to me and that took an awful long time. They do need to know that their cage is their safe haven and one place they won't be bothered if they don't want to be.

I think your new addition to the family will just be laying the law down for a while but I'm sure he'll settle in.