Jon's dirty birdie got my Ami pregnant!:(

[jmfleish]

'Tis true, Amarillo is with eggie and it's all Iris' fault! It was confirmed yesterday at the semi-annual vet school lab fun-time grab and learn! One of the vet techs helped me take the birds out to the car and said, "Jen, you have to watcch Amarillo very carefully over the next few days as she's going to lay an egg." I immediately went home and called Jon and blamed him! I have Amarillo sitting in a cage where we can always see her and Iris is inconsolable about the situation as they usually have full roaming capabilities and do so together which is what got us into this mess...they like to do the happy dance together...back to back if you get my drift. I don't know how we're going to stop them from doing that without separating them. Iris is more upset about the new arrangements than Amarillo is. We will also have to dismantle the "cardboard castle" next to their cage. That's going to really bum Ams out but, she is banned from the boxes! I really hope we can pass this egg without incident. I feel like an idiot letting her play in those boxes but she loved it so much!

 

[DQTimnehs]

Good luck with the egg! I'm trying to avoid them here but we don't have any happy dancing going on so that's good. But lots of nestiness with Quack and Tiki.

 

[jmfleish]

Good luck with the egg! I'm trying to avoid them here but we don't have any happy dancing going on so that's good. But lots of nestiness with Quack and Tiki.

Thanks! I'm really nervous! Eggs...I hate them! I've never had a problem with them except with the Linnies who just lay them and move on...it seems so much more crazy in the bigger birds.

 

[baserock love]

It takes two to tango. Looks like you got a couple of dirty birdies lol. Good luck with the eggnancy!

 

[jmfleish]

It takes two to tango. Looks like you got a couple of dirty birdies lol. Good luck with the eggnancy!

LOL! Yes it does! She still hasn't laid yet and it's worrying me. If she doesn't lay by the end of next weekend her feathered butt is going in for an x-ray...I hate eggs.

 

[baserock love]

Oy, I hope she pops the lil eggstard out lol. I'm conflicted as to whether to get a male or female amazon. People seem to say females are less prone to aggression but at the same time laying eggs seems to not be a small deal.

 

[jmfleish]

Oy, I hope she pops the lil eggstard out lol. I'm conflicted as to whether to get a male or female amazon. People seem to say females are less prone to aggression but at the same time laying eggs seems to not be a small deal.

Yes, it's hard call. I just posted in your welcome thread. We have four female pet Amazons, all rehomes and all sweet, although Iris the BFA is a little snotty. I can't believe I didn't post a picture of her and Amarillo in this thread. I'll have to correct it. Amarillo is my absolute best bird and we have to correct this egg thing. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her. I hate to play favorites with my birds but she's just so easy going and never demands anything and I've never been bitten by her and she's just such a great bird. I can't say enough about our other two, Nibbles LCA and Abigail YCA. Both just awesome girls. We also have a bonded BFA pair...the male is a handful and the female is so sweet. She bosses him around though as it should be! LOL! And I have to admit he's not nearly as bad as he could be! Still more aggressive than any of my other birds...well, not as aggressive as my two male RB2s who are currently going through puberty at age 7....I call them the evil pink vampires!

Here are Iris BFA and Amarillo YHA:

 

[iamwhoiam]

Hope that the egg will be laid soon!

 

[baserock love]

Yes, it's hard call. I just posted in your welcome thread. We have four female pet Amazons, all rehomes and all sweet, although Iris the BFA is a little snotty. I can't believe I didn't post a picture of her and Amarillo in this thread. I'll have to correct it. Amarillo is my absolute best bird and we have to correct this egg thing. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her. I hate to play favorites with my birds but she's just so easy going and never demands anything and I've never been bitten by her and she's just such a great bird. I can't say enough about our other two, Nibbles LCA and Abigail YCA. Both just awesome girls. We also have a bonded BFA pair...the male is a handful and the female is so sweet. She bosses him around though as it should be! LOL! And I have to admit he's not nearly as bad as he could be! Still more aggressive than any of my other birds...well, not as aggressive as my two male RB2s who are currently going through puberty at age 7....I call them the evil pink vampires!

Here are Iris BFA and Amarillo YHA:

View attachment 250116

They're beautiful! I'm always noticing though that most zon owners have many birds which has to take up a lot of time and probably makes it difficult for a lot of one on one taming and training. I'm sortof in a unique position where i would have the time for 2 training sessions a day and about as much out of cage time as they could ask for. I wonder if this will make a difference as far as taming goes.

I'm not going to lie, the prospect of having a bird that will ALWAYS be an unpredictable biter isn't very alluring but it's something i'm willing to accept. The last exotic pets i owned the general consensus of owners seemed to be "You can train them to bite less but they will always bite." and like with birds the general consensus of the well known trainers and behaviorists was "You just need to work with them to address biting behavior and they won't bite.". Sure enough with consistent persistent positive reinforcement training, i raised teh sweetest animals ever and they never bit.

It's just a bridge i'll have to cross when i come to it. I'm prepared and have the means to hopefully work though these issues.

 

[jmfleish]

They're beautiful! I'm always noticing though that most zon owners have many birds which has to take up a lot of time and probably makes it difficult for a lot of one on one taming and training. I'm sortof in a unique position where i would have the time for 2 training sessions a day and about as much out of cage time as they could ask for. I wonder if this will make a difference as far as taming goes.

I'm not going to lie, the prospect of having a bird that will ALWAYS be an unpredictable biter isn't very alluring but it's something i'm willing to accept. The last exotic pets i owned the general consensus of owners seemed to be "You can train them to bite less but they will always bite." and like with birds the general consensus of the well known trainers and behaviorists was "You just need to work with them to address biting behavior and they won't bite.". Sure enough with consistent persistent positive reinforcement training, i raised teh sweetest animals ever and they never bit.

It's just a bridge i'll have to cross when i come to it. I'm prepared and have the means to hopefully work though these issues.

With biting, I think it's all in how you read the bird. The general idea is that you should always try to avoid the bite and you do that by knowing your bird's body language. I have a lot of birds just because I have a soft heart and have ended up with a lot of birds who have needed a soft spot to land. I might have just gotten lucky or maybe most birds aren't really behavioral problems but just truly need a new place to live. I volunteered for a rescue for two years and most of the birds that came through there that I saw were truly birds that just needed a new place to live and didn't really have behavioral problems of any kind. We did see a few who really did have some serious behavior problems but it was definitely not the majority of them.

Of course you do have to understand that birds will be birds and they can and will bite if forced to. If you understand positive reinforcement and don't try to push things on them and learn that you are living in their space rather than the other way around, the chances of you getting bit get smaller and smaller.

The first bird I got as an adult was my Timneh, Tuchis. He was a baby and I met him at four weeks of age. I brought him home at four months of age and we have bonded very well through the years. He is 14 now and when I'm doing something he doesn't like, he will give me a very soft nip just to let me know he's not liking whatever it is I'm doing. If I continue to do it, he will nip a little harder. If I keep doing it, he will do a full bite. I rarely get bit by him! I have Kishka and Fozzie RB2s who are clutchmates and 7 years old. I raised Kishka from five months old. At five years old he decided he liked my S/O much more than he liked me. We adopted Fozzie around five years of age because he was showing behavioral problems in his old home. They are both hormonal little vipers but Kishka is worse than Fozzie. You have to watch their body language like a hawk and even then you will probably still get bit, mostly in the neck or the ears or the head. Can't have them out together and I can't have Kishka out when Jon is around...forget it! So, it all depends on the bird.

 

[baserock love]

With biting, I think it's all in how you read the bird. The general idea is that you should always try to avoid the bite and you do that by knowing your bird's body language. I have a lot of birds just because I have a soft heart and have ended up with a lot of birds who have needed a soft spot to land. I might have just gotten lucky or maybe most birds aren't really behavioral problems but just truly need a new place to live. I volunteered for a rescue for two years and most of the birds that came through there that I saw were truly birds that just needed a new place to live and didn't really have behavioral problems of any kind. We did see a few who really did have some serious behavior problems but it was definitely not the majority of them.

Of course you do have to understand that birds will be birds and they can and will bite if forced to. If you understand positive reinforcement and don't try to push things on them and learn that you are living in their space rather than the other way around, the chances of you getting bit get smaller and smaller.

The first bird I got as an adult was my Timneh, Tuchis. He was a baby and I met him at four weeks of age. I brought him home at four months of age and we have bonded very well through the years. He is 14 now and when I'm doing something he doesn't like, he will give me a very soft nip just to let me know he's not liking whatever it is I'm doing. If I continue to do it, he will nip a little harder. If I keep doing it, he will do a full bite. I rarely get bit by him! I have Kishka and Fozzie RB2s who are clutchmates and 7 years old. I raised Kishka from five months old. At five years old he decided he liked my S/O much more than he liked me. We adopted Fozzie around five years of age because he was showing behavioral problems in his old home. They are both hormonal little vipers but Kishka is worse than Fozzie. You have to watch their body language like a hawk and even then you will probably still get bit, mostly in the neck or the ears or the head. Can't have them out together and I can't have Kishka out when Jon is around...forget it! So, it all depends on the bird.

God, the rescue i volunteered at, virtually every macaw and amazon in that place would have ripped your face off if you gave it a chance. But I spoke in my thread about how they were treated there. I do not blame them for assuming all humans are a threat that needs to be fended off.

And yeah, i've been reading everything by barbara heidenreich I can get my hands on. The general rule seems to be the first rule to be on the road to having a bird that won't try to bite you is to avoid the bites to begin with. I've been learning about body language. I just had my first interaction with cockatoos when i met up with a guy from craigslist to buy my cage and he wasn't sure if one would step up for me and he was CLEARLY giving me the look of death so i didn't press my luck, the other was a tad weary but she stepped up just fine.

I just see SO many frustrated and more often than not, completely clueless parrot owners exasperated that their bird "randomly" bites them multiple times per day. I'd wager if i met these birds, it ain't so random, and these birds haven't been worked with much.