Icarus
Checking out the neighborhood
- Joined
- 9/11/17
- Messages
- 2
When I was in high school, I visited my best friend's house every single weekend. I was told, every single time, to stay away from the Yellow Crowned Amazon on the back porch, because she WOULD bite me and was vicious. She was never allowed out of her cage, because she nearly bit the owner's husband's finger off (the bone was visible all the way around) years before, and had no toys. Her perch was a sawed off plastic broom handle with sandpaper wired to it. Her name was Sunshine. And she was beautiful.
Since high school, I have moved in with my friend (now my fiance) to care for her aging grandparents, who owned the bird. I am now 26, and have finally thawed them out enough to allow me to let her out of the cage (even though she's only actually steped out onto the cage door twice in months). But she hates EVERYTHING (of course she does, after what she's been through). She hates ME. She's aggressive, and tries to bite me. She growls and pins her eyes, and flairs her wings forward. I sit near her cage for an hour a day, and speak and sing to her, and she has FINALLY started to let me feed her tiny slices of apple and banana, but only when the cage is shut and she's safe inside. Other than the few treats I give her, she lives off of a strictly cheap seed and raw peanut diet, and so is very overweight and I fear for her health.
After all of that background, now down to the questions.
As she has not been allowed outside of her cage for over 20 years, what is the likelyhood she'll ever feel safe outside of it?
Would changing her cage at this age stress her too much?
What can I do to get her off of this diet? Tips and tricks for her to accept her new food?
Will she, a 60 year old cage bound Amazon, ever trust me?
Since high school, I have moved in with my friend (now my fiance) to care for her aging grandparents, who owned the bird. I am now 26, and have finally thawed them out enough to allow me to let her out of the cage (even though she's only actually steped out onto the cage door twice in months). But she hates EVERYTHING (of course she does, after what she's been through). She hates ME. She's aggressive, and tries to bite me. She growls and pins her eyes, and flairs her wings forward. I sit near her cage for an hour a day, and speak and sing to her, and she has FINALLY started to let me feed her tiny slices of apple and banana, but only when the cage is shut and she's safe inside. Other than the few treats I give her, she lives off of a strictly cheap seed and raw peanut diet, and so is very overweight and I fear for her health.
After all of that background, now down to the questions.
As she has not been allowed outside of her cage for over 20 years, what is the likelyhood she'll ever feel safe outside of it?
Would changing her cage at this age stress her too much?
What can I do to get her off of this diet? Tips and tricks for her to accept her new food?
Will she, a 60 year old cage bound Amazon, ever trust me?