by Pajarita » Thu May 02, 2019 10:24 am
Welcome to the forum and I am very sorry you are going through such a terrible situation! I well know how bad it is when a parrot hates your guts because he/she perceives you as the competition for her chosen one but there is hope!
For one thing I would like to know if the bird was, indeed, DNAd female or if the calling it a 'her' is just an opinion. Because, although female zons are not really known for their aggression, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen, only that males are, usually, the ones that attack while females merely kind of 'carpe diem' the opportunity and bite you when you are near enough.
The other missing info is her age, diet and light schedule because all these are essential points when it comes to hormones. Without knowing anything at all and going just by the little you have posted, I would say that this is a female most likely older than 8 which has been fed too much protein and kept at a human light schedule and, again most likely, without enough flight hours. Let me explain. Amazons become sexually mature at around 3 or 4 years of age but for a bird to become overly hormonal (which is your bird's problem), it needs to have been under bad husbandry for years and that's why I think she might be 8 or older. Amazons are what we call hormonal birds (with Blue Fronts being one of the 'hot three' species of zons) so extreme care needs to be given to their diet (NEVER free-feed any type of protein food -pellets, seeds, nuts, nutriberries, avicakes, etc) and their lights schedule (needs to be a strict solar with full exposure to dawn and dusk). An amazon that has been producing sexual hormones all year round for years is a bird that is in constant pain and extremely sexually frustrated. And this translates into aggression - it's as simple as that.
Now, I am not discouraging you from going to the behaviorist but this is not a behavioral problem, it's a physical problem caused by bad husbandry and no training is going to make it better because training will not stop the pain or eliminate the frustration. What the bird needs is good husbandry and time for its endocrine system to go back on track with the seasons. Unfortunately for you and the poor bird, we are now smack in the middle of the breeding season (I have my zon hens sitting on eggs right now -mind you, I do NOT breed! I just allow them to go through the normal stages of breeding because this is what nature ordained for them and what's healthiest) so no relief is forthcoming any time soon BUT, if you do everything right and wait it out, things will start getting better around September.
Now, people usually think that putting the bird to sleep earlier is what does it but it's nothing but a common misconception because birds need to be exposed to the different light that happens at dawn and dusk to turn on or off their 'internal clock' so turning off artificial lights or covering their cage is not really going to help it. Birds are photoperiodic, a long word that means that their endocrine system is governed by light (photo meaning light in Greek and period as in what we call 'seasons' like breeding season or molting season or migrating season, etc) and the way it works is that their photoreceptors (cells that react to light) are turned on by the light of dawn and turned off by the light of dusk so in order for their bodies to have 'seasons' when they should and for as long as they should. The exposure to light is so very important to a bird's health that nature gave them photoreceptors even inside their brain (mammals have them only in the eyes) and cranial bones so thin that allow the light to go through them and reach the deep brain photoreceptors activating or deactivating them so as to ensure the correct hormonal production at the right time and the right time only. Why is it so important? Because birds do NOT produce sexual hormones all year round! Mammals do but not birds. They ONLY produce them when Nature provides the exact combination of environmental cues to indicate that it's the best time to procreate. For amazons, it's a certain number of daylight hours (this varies by species but they are all long day breeders), rich and abundant food and good weather conditions. Now, the thing is that, in captivity and inside a human's home, it's spring all year round so there is nothing we can do about this. We can control diet but, unfortunately for parrots, most people (including avian vets who do NOT study parrot nutrition) think that free-feeding protein food is the right way to go when, for parrots like amazons, it's actually a death sentence because they require very low protein or they develop fatty liver and high uric acid.
And then, there is the terrible practice of clipping birds (which does nothing to change behavior) when flight is the ONLIEST mechanism that nature gave them to dissipate hormones (both sexual and stress) from their bloodstream and to keep their respiratory system healthy (birds need to fly in order to inflate and deflate all their air sacs).
So, to recap: In my personal opinion (and going just by your description of its behavior without having any details as to light schedule, diet, etc) your bird is overly hormonal. He/She will continue overly hormonal until the days start becoming shorter (this will happen after the summer solstice on June 21, 2019) but, in order for this to happen, you need to start keeping her at a strict solar schedule with 1.5 to 2 hours of twilight exposure both at dawn and dusk (this means without any artificial light on, not even in the next room!). It needs to get a low protein good, fresh food diet (meaning gloop, chop or mash for breakfast accompanied by raw produce) and a measured, small portion of protein food that is not higher than 15%. Now, the protein level depends on the diet it has had in the past and for how long because, if it has had a real bad diet for a long time, I suggest you reduce the protein intake even more. We don't really have good studies on parrots nutritional needs but we do have a good one (a single one!) for amazons that tells us that amazons in the wild, during breeding season, eat a max of 17% protein - but, mind you, this is for birds that fly miles and miles every day and which are in process of breeding - our parrots are not exposed to the elements, do not fly miles every day and do not breed so the protein level needs to be much lower than that.
I've had and still have zon that were like you describe either when they first came to me or with their previous owners but they are now the sweetest things (in amazons, males are the dominant gender BY FAR and the hens are super sweet when they are healthy, comfortable and happy). And all I did was what I told you to do so, even if I did not know how their bodies work, I would still know from my own personal experience that it works.
Now I will tell you what I do with my birds so you can have a better idea of what I am saying. I open the windows blinds and their cages at 5:30 am (this time of the year, the actual time changes with the seasons because you need to follow the sun), they get raw produce (one fruit, one veggie, one leafy green - a different one each day of the week or longer, depending on the item itself) at around 6:15 to 6:30 am, then I turn on the full spectrum lights and give them their gloop at around 7:30 to 7:45 am when they are put back in their cages for about half an hour so they can eat their breakfast. Cages are open again and they are allowed to fly or whatever until 2:30 to 3 pm (it's a bit later during the summer) when they are put back into their cages. I turn off the overhead lights at 5:30 pm, give them their dinner (I do not feed pellets as I do not believe they are the best dietary option for parrots -I can elaborate on the reasons why, if you wish), a mixture of a cockatiel seed mix doctored with nuts, at 6:30 pm, close the blinds at 8 pm and call it a day (again, the actual time these things are done depend on the season and the natural daylight period). I have wild-caughts and abused amazons that were extremely aggressive when they first came but I do not have a single issue or problem with them now.