Know anything about orange-winged amazon parrots?

Question

I have an oranged winged amazon parrot who has good and bad days. I rescued him from a house just over a year ago where he was kept in a small cage in a room on his own with no interaction from anyone. Once I got him home I purchased him a larger cage more suitable for a parrot. Which he seemed to appreciate as he could spread his wings properly.He is obsessed with the telly and prefers human food to his own.But he wont let us handle him or touch him and when you go near him he goes to bite you. On several occassions he has drawn blood. He is also very distructive - toys in his cage, wall paper, picture frames - anything he can get his beak near.
He has moments where he does nothing but screech and boy can he screech.He is a real character though making crying sounds when covered up at night.
I just want to know if anyone has any suggestions how to work with him or if another parrot to keep him company is an option??

He does eat parrot food and loves peanuts.

But further to the eating human food - we're talking - biscuits, cooked and raw fruit & veg, pasta, mashed potatoe. I don't cook with salt which is they only bonus I can think of.

Answer 1

How wonderful that you rescued this poor little guy.
You are going to have to do a lot of reading and studying to get this poor little guy out of the abyss he's in. Based on the history you have presented, he is not at all trusting, and I can't blame him.
First: Has he been to an avian vet? This will help determine his health and how much you are up against with what was probably a horrendous diet for YEARS.
second: Don't push him. Let him watch T.V. if he wants to. It's probably nonthreatening and stimulates him...something he hasn't had in years being locked up on his own.
Begin positively reinforcing his being quiet. When he is quiet, give him a treat. Have you figured out what his favorite food is? Whyen you do, remove that from his regular diet and use that as a training tool. Start reading...a lot! Start here with these websites:

This one is basic operant conditioning. Start reading it and you'll begin to learn the basics of positive reinfoprcement training.
http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/

These are General:

http://www.companionparrot.com/articles.htm#Rescue

http://www.holisticbirds.com/HBN01/octnov/pages/stress1.htm


http://www.thegabrielfoundation.org/HTML/friedman.htm
http://www.naturalencounters.com/aav.html
http://www.parrotchronicles.com/departments/scream_behavior.htm
http://www.petplace.com/birds/adopting-a-second-hand-parrot/page1.aspx
http://www.parrotchronicles.com/summer2002/index.htm
http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/territory.html
http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/nurturing.html
http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/adopting.html
http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/drama.html

You are going to have to learn a lot about behavior and training, but this little guy can be turned around.
There is a help website within this that you can sign up for. It's a Yahoo! group called PBAS: Parrot Behavior Analysis solutions. There are people who will be assigned your case and help you with your little guy:

articlehttp://network.bestfriends.org/parrots/news/1675.html

Dr. Susan Friedman runs the list and it is outstanding. Take a look; I know they can help you.
It took a long time for your amazon to get the way he is, and it's going to take a while to undo the damage. But it can be done. I've seen it over and over. But you CAN do this.
If I can be of any assistance, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Good Luck.

Answer 2

My Solomon Electus is the same, even though I hand reared him. He also only eats human food (and breakfast is sometimes weetabix) and eats some parrot pellets too. Parrots stress alot and if he was locked in a room with no interaction, he is not used to human contact, except possibly when he was mistreated. Be patient. He will either accept you eventually, or not. And also, parrots normally accept only 1 person (males like ladies and females guys! - Go figure!) He destroy;s things because he is bored. Talk to him alot, and leave the telly or radio on for him when you are out. Good Luck.

Answer 3

We went through the same thing with our BFA. First rule: Do NOT react or make a big deal if he/she bites you. A lot of times, you will just have to take one for the team and take the bite. Also, peanuts are NOT good for them. They love them, but, there is too much fat in them and you can never be sure that there are not mold spores in them. Try either sunflower seeds (limit to about 10 a day) or almonds. Those are the best. As far as the chewing, try dowel rods. We lined our Amazons cage top rails with them and she can chew and pull them apart and then we just bolt new ones on. We get them from Wal-Mart for about $1.00 each. Also, no toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes. They contain zinc which is a heavy metal. However, ours LOVES it when we give her the heavy paper advertisements our of our magazines (the ones that you can send in for a subscription). I fold them into a tube then twist them. Talk about cheap entertainment.
The biting you are talking about when you go near him, is that while he's on the cage? If so, pull up a step ladder or a chair and get above him. It's a domination thing. You may even have to get him off the cage with a towel and then put him on the floor in and empty room (a hallway with all doors closed works best) to work with him 2-3 times a day. If he's on the floor, he will want to get to the highest point, which will be you and he will step up a lot easier. If you can get him on your hand, keep him at or below chest level (domination again) and do not let him on your shoulder or near your face. Keep him below the elbow. Give him a sunflower seed everytime he does it correctly. If he tries to bite once he's up, don't be afraid to dump him on the floor. It teaches him that there is a consequence for his being bitey. If he tries to bite and you can do it fast enough, drop your arm about 6 inches and he will be too busy keeping his balance to bite you. Hope this helps. You can e-mail me privately for more help or with any more questions.

Answer 4

Out of all the amazon species, the orange winged is the noisiest. It sounds like yours was a wild caught one. You often see them advertised by people giving mobile phone numbers who include the bird, the cage, bag of food and delivery for a very cheap sum compared to hand reared ones. The orange winged is also the cheapest of the amazons. It is normal and natural for him to destroy things. He needs to chew and use his beak. He will screech, it's what they do. Wild caught amazons, can be tamed to some extendbut you have to go at his pace and not yours. I would nto get another as you will t hen have 2 screaming, biting birds. You also have to be aware that male amazons can be very very aggressive during the breeding season.
Make sure you are giving plenty of fruit and veg in his diet, especially red and yellow things like peppers, corn, carrots,,sweet potatoes etc. You can also try frozen defrosted peas and sweetcorn. Amazon parrtos suffer from vitamin A deficiency.
For training the bird I can recommend a bookcalled 'Guide to companion parrot behaviour' by Mattie Sue Athan, and also 'my parrot my friend'. If you learn to understand the birds vocalisations and body language you will be better able to train him. Try ebay first as you may find them secondhand, otherwise you can buy them new
I notice someone has told you to clip the wings and put on strong leather gloves. If you do this, you will NEVER get him tame as he will be terrified of the gloves and his clipped wingsd mean that one of his 2 means of defence 'flight or bite' will have been removed. With the flight option gone, he only has the bite option left. I get very very annoyed with it seems mainly Americans who insist on mutilating their pets anf subduing them by brute force. Use patience and kindness and never ever make your bird afraid and you will be able to tame him. Several of the amazons here are wild caught which people bought and didn't have patience for. Most of them talk and all of them will accept food from my hands. I don't personally have time to handle them all and most are in the aviary block but if I wanted to, I could have them hand tame within months without resorting to scaring the beejasus out of them by grabbing them with a welders glove, chopping their wing feathers off so they could no longer get away if I scared them and using brute force to force them into submission. That is not the English way.

Answer 5

Parrots in the wild are destructive, its part of their nature. Get him some toys that he can destroy. My parrots have wooden perches which are cut from fruit trees, they get replaced every six to eight weeeks as they are chewed. They all love cardboard boxes and loo-roll tubes.
He may prefer human food but a balanced diet of fruit and veg and a few nuts is much healthier for him. Try a bit of cooked and raw veg but NO added salt.
Training a bird that has had a bad start is going to be difficult. I don't like the heavy glove approach but a softly softly approach will take time. Reward good behaviour, ignore bad.

Do you smoke? please don't do it around the bird. Their breathing system is different to ours which is why miners took canaries down the pits with them.

Answer 6

unfortunately many parrots which have been mistreated end up with psycological problems. they dont often bond with their new owners and find it hard to trust again. destructiveness is one result along with the biting. put a big glove on (like the ones they use for birds of prey) and over him some bits of food fro yur hand so he gets used to you being near him. once you are able to take the glove off try opening the cage and putting your hand in. hes probably going to bite at first but he should get used to it. just go from there, small steps at a time. if he likes the tv let him watch it! my hahns macaw loves the tv esp anything with a catchy theme tune! make him feel as much a part of the family as possible also, get him as close to your seat as possible and talk to him. hopefully he will learn to trust you. sadly some never get over their past.

Answer 7

Lots - I know they are parrots who originate from the Amazon and are easily recognised by their orange wings.

Answer 8

Get in touch with parrot rescue and they will help you 100%.
Good luck and enjoy him.

Answer 9

don't get another parrot
first get your parrots wings trimmed, then get some heavy gloves
start working with him, once he realizes that he cant fly he will start behaving a little better, once you can start handling him more then take him out often and just let him hang out with you
you have to have a lot of patience with these Bronco birds

Answer 10

Much of the behavior you're describing is normal for parrots.

Fear of hands: My re-homed, White-Eyed Conure has a strong fear of hands and my guess is that he was abused at one time and associates hands with that abuse. It may be the same for your bird. We offer our shoulder or arm to the bird when we, him and us, want personal time together. Instead of the command "step-up" we say "get-on" and he will happily ride around and cuddle without our hands ever touching him. It is really hard not to reach up and give him scratches on the head but we have to work within the boundaries he sets. I totally disagree with the suggestion you use gloves. The gloves will only terrify him and heighten his fears.

Destructive: Guess what, birds are destructive! They chew on wood as a means to keeping their beaks conditioned. Adding wooden toys to his cage, as someone else suggested, is giving him "approved" items to destroy. If you don't want him destroying your house, limit his accessibility to your prized possessions. The issue of wing clipping is one of personal choice, in my opinion. My White-Eyed is not clipped but my Green Cheek is for his own safety. The Green Cheek was parent raised and knows he's a bird and he likes to fly more than I think is safe for him in the house. The White-Eyed was hand raised, hasn't a clue he is a bird and only "flies" when he is startled and he doesn't do it very well.

Screeching: Here again, screeching is a bird trait. Yes, some birds do more of it than others, Sun Conures are notorious for their screams which is why I don't have one, but if you stand outside for a period of time you'll hear the birds in the wild making all kinds of screeching noises too. You might try keeping soft music playing in the background and when he really gets started with the noise, try singing to him and see if that distracts him from screeching.

I know a year seems like a long time but when working with birds it isn't. We've had our Green Cheek for two years and we're still working on his socialization skills and he's never been neglected or abused. Your bird may never let you handle him so the trick is finding a way the two of you can happily co-exist in the same house. Respecting the boundaries he has set will go a long way to making your relationship a happy one for both of you. You might want to pick up a copy of The Second-Hand Parrot, by Mattie Sue Athan and Dianalee Deter. (See link below)

As for buying another bird, I see nothing wrong with that. Our White-Eyed was an only bird for 14 years and before we got him, he was totally confined to his cage without human contact for 4 years following the death of his human companion. We've had him 10-months and he has enjoyed his interaction with us but he also enjoys our other bird. Sugar, the Green Cheek, is totally enamoured with Mikki and wants so badly to be in the same cage with him. However, if you get another bird, you must go into the relationship with him or her understanding that introducing the new bird may do nothing to enhance your relationship with your current bird. If your expectations of the second bird "fixing" the first don't materialize, you may end up with two birds you're unhappy with. You must treat them as individuals and appreciate them for their own beauty and personalities.

What you're experiencing is typical for birds that have been abused. I volunteered for a time at a life-care sanctuary for birds and many of the birds there were at one time abused. One in particular was so badly abused that he was totally neurotic and couldn't be handled. After he came to the sanctuary and was allowed to simply be himself -- a bird -- he totally turned around and is now the darling of the flock. He offers himself up for kisses and he loves to be petted and fussed over. So, with time, love and patience, your bird can change. No guarantees but if it happens, it will be one of the most rewarding experiences you'll ever have.

One final thought, if you decide that you can't care for this bird, please don't re-home him. To do so would only compound the problems of the bird and give another family your headaches. Instead, find a reputable life-care sanctuary where he can live the remainder of his life happy as a bird.

I wish you luck and patience.