Elederly DYH Amazon Parrot

[alexfullerphoto]

Last night, I drove two hours out into the middle of nowhere to purchase a DYH amazon for just $50. The ad stated that the bird was old, aggressive and hard to care for. Upon calling the seller, I realized I was dealing with a very young owner so he wouldn't be able to answer many of the questions I had. The ad stated that the bird was between 50-60 but wasn't very sure.

I currently have a 37ish DYH. Inherited from my great grandparents who raised him from the shell. He lost his mate about five years ago and hasn't spoken since and is very very very cage aggressive. I've been looking for a companion for him, and I was hoping this bird would do the trick, but upon arrival I knew this bird was too old and out of shape for my other DYH.

Here's what I need help with;

- The bird has visible cataracts in both eyes, do they usually progress fast in Amazons?
- The bird obviously has leg issues, more than likely arthritis, can anything be done to help with the pain?
- His toes are in horrible condition. They need trimmed and one of his toes is missing, looks as if he got it hung in something and it was left there for a while. Any suggestions are far as perches and places for him to sit?
- His beak is overgrown but only on the sides, I'll take him to the vet in the next week, but any pointers on this topic would be great.
- His wing feathers (flight feathers) are all out of wack and were that way before he traveled home with me for two hours in the night. Is this common, or could something be wrong?

The child I bought him from was probably 12-14 years old. We met in a trailer park at 9:30 PM with his parents nowhere to be found (obviously very dangerous), so I'm assuming the past year of his life hasn't been that great. The boy told me that he purchased him about a year ago from a guy that had a pet store and let the bird sit in the store most of his life. He said that he's a male but not for sure and that he's between 50-60 years old. The boy had the bird outside on a porch rail, he said that he thinks he's too old to fly. He did not come with a cage and I did not want to go inside to see what the bird was staying in or the condition of the home. We didn't get home until close to midnight so when we got home he sat on a T-perch all night and this morning I prepared an older cage for him to stay in on the porch (I literally have no room for anymore birds inside, thinking about putting a younger one on the porch and let him come inside since his health is so poor). This morning, I put him up on a swing with a few toys, a long perch and a shorter sandy perch. I left for about an hour to go to the grocery store and come home to find him sitting in the bottom of the cage. I moved him back up to the perch and he's been climbing around the top of the cage since then. His movement is VERY slow, and his vision seems to be limited and I'm thinking that's where the aggression is coming from (being scared, having limited sight). I couldn't find anything online about caring for older amazons. Can someone tell me what to expect? What's normal? Anyone with their right mind wouldn't have gotten the bird, but I have a soft spot for suffering animals. I'd rather have a beat up, plucked, screaming bird over a hand fed baby any day.

Oh, the boy said he speaks some English and Spanish and last night he said "Hello" and a few other things (illegible as of now). So I'm thinking this is a good sign. My other birds took quite a while to warm up enough to speak.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

P.S.
Sorry the pictures are sideways, to upload the images it has to be 800 pixels tall and 575 pixels wide, to do that I had to rotate the images

[liz]

He may be old and look beat up but he is still beautiful. Thank you so much for getting him. You were wise to grab a $50 bird before anyone else could get him.

Just be his friend and he will warm up to you. Even though you don't know he knows where he has been and when he realizes that he is staying with be so grateful.

Improving his diet will probably help a lot. Eat with him as a flock would. Talk to him a lot or even better sing to him. Just treat him as you would a little old man. Since he is not very active put him where he can see a lot of action. Give him a perch at face level to comfort him. He has probably not had any enrichment for a long time.

Again thank you for rescuing him. He will reward you for it.

[Pajarita]

Well, I have to tell, he doesn't look bad at all! He does have those twisted feathers but that doesn't really mean anything and his feet look good, the joints are not even swollen or the skin scaly so he might not be as old as the kid said. I would take him to the vet asap and have all tests done (including bile acids AND a full body Xray) and take it from there but, in the meantime, a fresh food diet heavy on the betacarotene with milk thistle, dandelion root and methionine mixed into it as well as aloe vera juice from the inner filet in his water will help a lot. And get him some nice organic black cherries! They are in season and they are the best thing for high uric acid and kidney issues!

[Navre]

The colors on the bird are great. Unless you have the color saturation turned up on your camera, I think this is a good sign.

[Pajarita]

You know? I am thinking that this might be a stolen bird and that those twisted feathers happened when he was grabbed because that's exactly what they look like (those feathers grew perfectly normal). And the fact that the parents were nowhere to be found, that there was no cage and that the kid charged only $50 is VERY suspicious!

[Navre]

Even if the bird is stolen, it still needed rescuing from the kid who had it.

[Pajarita]

Of course! But my point was that maybe he should look into stolen or lost birds reports in the area.