Anyone else have Amazon Parrots??

[MamaManda]

We've had our Amazon, Molly, for about 10 years now. She is a gorgeous Blue Front. My husband bought her for me when we first got married. Of course she had to be partial to dark haired men.

She likes me perfectly fine, but when a guy walks in the house, boy does she get chummy fast. Starts singing in her nasally opera voice, fluffing up her feathers and whistling. She's flown over to unsuspecting visitors a time or two as well. Funny how a bird can make a grown man drop to his knees and cover his head. Lol.

Here she is:
(Please excuse the blurry images, she was too excited to hold still)

Anyone else keep Amazons? I'd be interested to know what tricks yours know, what you feed them, what toys they like, etc. Molly speaks quite a bit, and only screams very occasionally when she sees us eating something she REALLY wants, (Chips, crackers, etc. which I don't feed her because of the sodium. But she must have had them with her previous owner, cuz she sure knows what they are!) and she goes through what we call her "twitterpation" for about a whole month around March where she's VERY vocal and screechy. Her favorite words are "Good Girl, Wanna Go? Yeeeees, Why? and "Thank You." She also says all of our names, cries like a newborn, (What does that tell you?) sings opera, laughs loudly, and imitates all our cell phone rings. Our favorite trick of hers is when she imitates the phone ringing 3 times with perfect intervals, pauses, makes the sound of the phone beeping on, and says, "Hello? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Ok. Bye." Then makes the sound of the phone beeping off. Makes my kids laugh every time.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Your Molly sounds as vocal as my grey! My yellow-nape, Maria, is not as sweet. She's been here since back before they learned to breed Amazons in captivity. She came from Mexico and speaks more Spanish than English, even after all these years. She likes blonds, which is how I came to get her. She belonged to a friend whose girlfriend was blonde and they broke up. New girlfriend-turned-wife was a brunette and Maria kept biting her!! Twenty years later, she still bites when it suits her, which is with every stranger. Maria sings in Spanish and most of her conversations are still in Spanish with an occasional bit of English (usually unprintable English) thrown in. Wish I had a pix or 2 to post, but that is easier said than done with her. Still, I enjoy her immensely even with all her quirks!

Rusty

 

[sonew123]

My in laws had a yellow naped amazon "Cracker" SHE was a hoot and a devil rolled into 1!!!

We owned and worked in our flower stores. She got so used to the phones ringing that she would answer the phones from her pearch. "Hello-buds flowers-how may I help you?" Ok ..Yup..No problem...see you soon..." Or she would SCREAM my hubbies name JUSt like his mother-it was scarey! She would climb onto the floor in the shop..walk and climb up my leg-now that's scarey as she would bite hard when she felt the need. She'd crawl up to my shoulder and say " come on..get on my shooouuulderrrrr" Time for a treat now" and you HAD to get her a treat or lose and ear! She would also say "Time to go for a ride in the car"...Her previous owners had her for 10 years and had a dog named Ben and the Hubbie was Bob. She would scream out "BOB..its time for Bens walk!! BEN HERE BEN...whistle whistle-wolf whistling....She said hundreds of things. She now resides with a retired couple in FL...She is nearing 40 yrs old..Favorite things to eat..Pizza and loved to fly accross the room if she saw you with a coffee cup..land on your arm and dive into your cup- MONSTER!!!!

 

[mandelyn]

I inherited my mom's Yellow Naped Amazon when she passed away. That bird was a riot! I'm still heart broken over him, I had to sell him when my husband got military orders to Europe, and that was 7 years ago.

He would sing and laugh, and drive me crazy when I was trying to talk on the phone... he would continue ringing, saying hello, and being just generally obnoxious when you were trying to talk.

He talked about himself in 3rd person, saying "Cooper wants to eat"... "Cooper wants a bath"... while I was talked to as "Bird"... "Come 'ere Bird, Cooper wants.."

He'd scream at the dogs, scream at the bunny, scream at the games the bunny and dogs played, dance like a loon, make up words to sing if he didn't know the song that was playing. He'd throw his peanut shells on the floor, call the dogs over, then scream at them for being "bad, dirty dogs" for making a mess. Then he'd laugh hysterically, and say "Coopers a BBBBAAAAADDDDDD bird!"

Someone taught him a very naughty two word phrase, in a whisper so that I wouldn't know who's tone it was. I went to change his food bowl, and he bit me. Sometimes he got a little territorial. I swatted him back, and he says that little two word phrase in a very low whisper. To his delight, I had a big response to it, and said "What did you say?!?"... and he laughed and laughed, saying it again and again, louder and louder, just in complete stitches over it and my response. The whole time talking about how bad he was.

He was terrible. Antagonistic, smart mouthed, bull headed, spoiled, demanding, and outright rude. But then he'd sit on the couch with me and whisper sweet nothings into my ear while he fixed my hair... and I'd forgive him for the earlier insanity.

If he didn't get a seat at the table for dinner, he'd walk his way to the kitchen and climb up the chair and demand his food. He would dance around his food plate, asking if it was good and if it was hot. Once he was ready to actually eat he'd call me a good bird and dig in, and mumble nonsense as he ate.

He never did jungle calls, but he could scream English louder than a child. I even put a searching add on CL a couple of times to see if I could track down his owner, he'd only be 12 years old now.

 

[theoldchick]

Yours is a beauty!

This is Oscar practicing his 'Mr. Burns' posture. (From the Simpsons' cartoon)

Oscar is not the tamest of my birds but I've have him for about 30 years. His diet consists of mixed veggies, parrot seed and pellets, and fresh water. While Oscar does not have an extensive vocabulary, he is famous for throwing his voice. He is capable of various animal/human sounds. He does have a shrill whistle that does require ear protection. He knows when you are wearing earplugs and behaves, but as soon as you remove your ear plugs he will shriek for all he is worth. He likes his morning bath and loves to be sprayed with the water bottle before dining.

Our favorite dialog:

Me: "Oscar!"

His reply, "What?"

Me: "Can you fly?"

Oscar wolf whistles and bobs his head suggestively.

Me: "I said fly, Oscar. Not Flirt."

Oscar immediately wolf whistles again and bounces his entire body.

Me: "Oscar! I said fly. Not Flirt!"

He will approach me with feathers flared and pupils constricting to tiny spots only to flare until his eyes are nearly black. He whistles softly at me.

"Fly!" I say to Oscar. "Fly! Not Flirt. Oscar? Can you fly?"

Oscar will stand tall, shriek, and fall back with feet in the air. For added effect he will close his eyes.

Me: "Oscar! I said Fly! Not die!"



Crazy bird will probably out live me!

 

[ChickenfootDuckbutt]

Very pretty birds, I've never had one But my mom's mom had a yellow naped back when I was a kid, her name was "Ten", she was something like 15 years old when I was born.


for fun, someone (can't remember who) taught her to say "what's a bird?" and then "you're a bird"


so whenever someone would come over and do the whole "OMG what PRETTY bird!, you're such a bird"

Ten's response would always be "what's a bird?" it freaked some people out who didn't realize that they can, infact respond with correct sentences.

uhm, off the top of my head, she could say "what's a bird?", "you're da' bird!", "stupid dog", "stupid cat", "Ten wants love", then if you ignored her she would SCREAM "TEN WANT'S LOVE NOW"!, she learned to say the 5 letter B word from someone, have no idea who, I remember one day she was just as happy as could be screaming "B**** B**** B****!", so loud you could hear her outside

, uhm, she could say "you have a biiiig head", a couple other things, I can't remember right now.

all I knew is that she LOVED me, ofcourse being small I was TERRIFIED of her, I'm still not BIG on big parrots, I loved my cockatiel Theo though.

 

[Terri O]

What a fun thread! I have a pair of Yellow Napes...they are VERY sassy and will draw blood if you touch their cage. They are a mated pair and might be nicer if I separated them but the shrieking is too much to bear in this little house! Plus, I have no room for another cage! Here they are in all their sassyness:

Mine also speak in Spanish--at least the female does and the male has a really scary "monster voice" too I wish they were tamer...maybe I will get some fertile eggs this year and can make a new parrot! They had 3 last year and she was a good broody but the eggs werent fertile

Terri O

 

[MamaManda]

Quote:
Funny, when we went to go look at her, the previous owners had to grey's along with her that were very talkative to us while we were there. Molly was pretty quiet, but when I stuck my finger in through the bars to pet her, she climbed up onto my finger and said, "Hello!" I was immediately in love.

We asked why they were finding her a new home, and they said she talked so much the grey's had become quiet, and they'd had the grey's longer. Should have known then how chatty she was.

Terri O- I've always loved the idea of a breeding pair. We got another young male for Molly several years ago, but she never did decide to be nice to him. She bit one of his toes off, poor guy. We ended up giving him to another family where he wouldn't be abused by another bird.

Quote:

I want to teach Molly to say "what's a bird?" That would be hilarious. When people see her they always say. "I didn't know you had a bird!", or "What a gorgeous bird!" That would be perfect!

How old was Ten when you had her? Molly is 14, and she doesn't talk as much as I would expect her to. We are a homeschooling family, so we're home with her all day, and she's right in the kitchen where we spend most of our time. I'm wondering if they pick up more the older they get, or if it is 'hard to teach an old bird new tricks'? Sounds like Cooper talked more than Molly, and he was a little younger.

I had an Orange wing when I was younger. Flew into our yard and we never found her owners. It was in LA when animal rights activists broke into the pet stores and let all the animals go. The local pound suspected that's where she came from, and suggested we keep her. "Dinah" was a turd. She bit, screamed, cussed and chewed the bottoms off of my Mom's antique dressers. But she LOVED me. I was 12 and trained her to ride on my bike handlebars. We lived up the street from a huge Catholic church, and I can't even remember how many people offered to buy her from me. I once turned down a $1000 offer, much to my Dad's dismay. Dinah was in our backyard sitting in a small tree when a stray dachshund got into the yard and grabbed her. She had her wings clipped and couldn't fly away from him. (I don't clip Molly's wings, just for that reason.) A neighbor that was in the yard with us got to them first and kicked the dog to get it to let go. She wasn't bleeding, but was having trouble breathing. The vet said he thought the dog had punctured a lung, and her only option would be a surgery which she probably would not survive.

Dinah went to bird heaven while I sat on the stairs holding her. I was HEARTBROKEN. Cried for days.

My husband new how much I loved my childhood pet, Dinah, and bought me Molly for Christmas the first year we were married. We have been very lucky to have such a well-behaved girl. She will be with us for a VERY LONG time!

 

[ChickenfootDuckbutt]

we were never "exactly" sure how old she was, she was my grandma's (mom's mom) bird, she had gotten her when she was 2 or 3 years old(supposedly, they think she was a few years older), when I was born, Ten was already 15 or so, my grandma finally had to re-home her when I was 13.

I don't remember THAT much about her, except that I was scared of her and what all she could say.

my mom has a blue and gold macaw she rescued, she's like 13 years old and had been abused