GoDiego

Just out of curiosity, is Neptune clipped? The reason why I ask is this sounds like he could be saying to you, "come on! I want to go over there!" With regards to touching him when he is out of the cage, what I did with Diego my Amazon was to put him on a table where I would touch him on the wing or back for literally only a second or less and then reward him with a treat straight away. I only ever did this when he approached me rather than chasing him around the table, this way he felt in control of when I touched him and he knew that I was not going to force myself onto him. Giving Diego the choice, gave him a lot of trust in me. After a couple of weeks I was able to stroke his back and wings without him darting forward to get out of my way. Now he has learnt that under the wing on his back is actually a nice place to get a scratch and will now turn his back and back up to me for a good scritch. I also always use a cue for when I ask him if he wants a scratch, I will ask him if he wants one and at the same time wiggle my finger. Now when he sees me wiggling the finger the feathers on the back of his neck will fluff up, this is his way of saying "sure that would be good" If his feathers stay slicked down or he moves away, I tell him "Not a problem" and walk away. Again this is giving him the trust that I will not force myself onto him. I might be wrong but I think this is because he knows he is in his safe place, his cage. On your arm, he probably feels more exposed, if he is clipped then again he may feel out of control as he knows he cannot escape. Gain the trust with him that your not going to do anything to him unless he wants it and this should change. I think that this will come in time, once he has gained some trust in you, even Diego does not always come when I ask him, but that's fine I just accept that he's not in the mood and so walk away. Barbara Heidenreich is a great bird trainer, I'm not so keen on Birdtricks but this is my personal opinion. Also don't forget to look on Youtube as there are loads of great basic training videos to watch and all for free

There is a bit of a divide about Soya, see on this thread http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?190576-Think-twice-before-feeding-Soy-Beans&highlight=soya After reading everything all the info on the above thread, it's a personal choice whether to feed them or not.

Oh my goodness, my heart was in my mouth at the start of reading what you had put! I'm so glad that this thread ended well.

but is it good for the fids??? It's fantastic for our feathered friends as it contains lots of calcium.

Just look at those bubbies! They really are beautiful parrots!

Not for me! Just for Diego LMAO!

She really is beautiful, no wonder your such a proud mummy!

Nope no Grey in the house, just my cheeky Diego. I've just spent far to much time hanging around the Grey room and took a bit of everyone's greys personality described by their parront's. LOL

Right now I have tears rolling down my face! I have laughed so hard at this that my stomach is hurting! Well in cooking terms a knob of butter is around a teaspoon full. Knob is also known as something else in the UK which is nothing to do with cooking, but I will let you all search this on the internet where you can educate yourselves ROFL!! This depends on the person (after you have searched on Knob, you will know what I mean) Hahahahahahah HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Oh thank you, I was due for a good laugh today LOL.

Just out of curiosity was it the same noise as Diego?

Oh sorry! I was not mean't to panic you! It may be a completely different sound she is making to the one Diego made. There is a video on this thread of the noise Diego used to make which you can compare with Jaffa. Plus on this thread there is tonnes of great info from Jayd on putting together a great diet for Amazons. I've stuck to what jayd has told me and Diego looks fantastic! He is so bright and colourful that sometimes it looks like the colours are going to jump off of his feathers! Diego also used to make another noise which was almost a gentle cooing noise which he still does now when he is having a cuddle. This is the cutest sound ever and there is no mistaking it as a "I'm so happy and contented!" noise. I'm hoping this is not just a baby noise and that he will grow out of it as I love it!

Diego has just turned 6 months With her little sounds and head moving, it may be worth looking at my first thread on Diego when I first got him. He was sold as being weaned, however, he used to make funny noises whilst bobbing his head. It turned out he was hungry and was not capable to feed himself properly. With the help of Jayd who explained that it is very common for Amazons to kind of digress with feeding, he had a full tummy in no time and these baby sounds have now pretty much stopped. The thread is http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?190531-Can-anyone-help-me-to-understand-what-Diego-is-trying-to-say-to-me

So it's Jaffa, I had wondered if you had chosen a name yet! LOL I've been thinking about you this morning and getting excited about your new baby coming home! She is adorable, absolutely adorable! I love her big eyes and the way the blue merges into the yellow on her head is beautiful! Great news that Georgie has been having a conversation with her, he was probably filling her in on how to work you and get what she wants! LOL

Years ago I worked with a Macaw, I was a junior designer in an office where the owner had a young male scarlet. My main duties being a junior was making the coffee and being a nanny to Jasper the 2 year old Macaw. Although I loved him dearly and we formed quite a good bond, he did put me off ever owning one. He was very cuddly and affectionate to myself and my boss who was also female, he used to blush with his cheeks going a slight shade of red when we gave him loving attention, but all of my male co-workers suffered! With my male co-workers he turned from a very sweet, cute, cuddly, soppy parrot to the devils son! He was incredibly aggressive to any males and would chase them on the floor screaming at them. He would put his wings out full stretched, head forward, beak open and run at them. Anyone being confronted by a large parrot doing this will know how scary they can become. He also needed constant attention, and I mean constant! My only hope of getting any work done was to fill up my top drawer with paper, plastic milk bottle tops and hide some treats in there. At the time foraging toys was not a very well known thing, so looking back I suppose this was my version of one, which kept him occupied for a while. I have to admit, I do have a soft spot for Macaws and am still in awe of how beautiful they are. However, when considering what parrot my family wanted to be adopted by, I ruled out a Macaw straight away. Because this has been my only experience dealing with a Scarlet Macaw, Jasper may have been a one off with the jealousy and territorial behaviour but I could not risk it with having 2 young children in the house.

Ok, I've not got a Grey but I do have an Amazon parrot who does the same. Using their beak at a young age is like a child putting everything in their mouths, a way for them to explore the world around them. Diego is now 6 months old and I have noticed that his beaking has started to get harder and a bit more frantic, it's like now he has gone past the exploring stage to now thinking of my fingers as play things. I'm starting to discourage any over the top beaking as I have read that this can then lead on to thinking that biting fingers is acceptable. Now when Diego starts to beak my fingers, I distract his attention by giving him a foot toy. If he ignores the foot toy and continues to beak my fingers I say no and put him back on his perch. I've always got some treats in my pockets and so when he sits relaxed on my hand or is being clam and gentle he gets the odd treat for the behaviour. I've been doing this now for a week and I have noticed a difference, he still tries it on, but is not so persistent now at detaching my digets and finger nails. LOL

What an wonderful idea! Most people have baby books for their children, so it makes sense to have one for your feathered babies.

An Amazon and a Grey have a new Microwave delivered: - The grey would first before unpacking the Microwave read the manual. - Take the Microwave out of the box dismantle it to see how it works. - Do some reasearch on the internet, discover some of the dangers of electromagnetic energy, spend the whole night worrying about it then go back to using a conventional oven! - A Amazon would unpack it - Plug it in. - Discover they can get their food ready in a quarter of the time then live off unhealthy TV meals for the rest of their life. An Amazon and Grey go on vacation: - The grey spends weeks before the vacation putting together a vacation plan and agenda. Pin pointing all of the cultural museums and points of interest on the map. - Takes a crash course in the local language. - Worries for nights about the local viruses he could catch and so promptly get's himself vaccinated for every eventuality. - An Amazon makes a mental note of the main streets and where the night life is and plans his bar crawl accordingly. - Makes sure he knows the local lingo for Bar, Restaurants and all of the necessary chat up lines required. - Packs nothing in his suitcase but his brightly coloured Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirts and plenty of inflatables for the pool! An Amazon and Grey go to the Supermarket - A Grey will have a pre-prepared list of what he needs, catagorised under each aisle type. - They will read each of the lables of the food jars and stress at the quantity of additives and added salt, then spend the rest of the shopping trip worrying about the dangers this causes to man kind in general. - Spends several hours in the wine section, selecting the perfect bottle to complement each meal he is going to prepare that week. - Stacks his shopping trolley meticulously, looking at it as a form of Mensa puzzle. - At the checkout uses his environmentally friendly re-usable bags, after all the stress of worrying about when the world is going to end can be helped knowing he is doing his part! - An Amazon heads straight to the Microwavable meals and gets excited that there is a buy one get one free offer on all family sized lasagne's (that's his dinner sorted for himself!) - Checks the labels for the fat content, after all more fat more taste! - Stacks his trolley with only one thing in mind, more room for the cans of larger! - Makes his way to the checkout stacked higher than the Statue of Liberty but still queues up in the 10 items or less. Convincing the checkout lady with his smooth talking that the 15 crates of larger could be thought of as 1 item!

I have a Blue Fronted Amazon "Diego" he is my first bird I have ever owned. Because of this, I researched, researched and researched some more before getting him. Apart from initial problems with his feeding, which is now pretty much sorted out, I've not had a problem so far. A few things crop up that I am not sure about, with his behaviour but the help and support I get here on the forum has been invaluable! I cannot comment about the hormonal changes as I have not got to that stage yet, but I am doing training to prepare us all for it i.e. getting him to step up happily onto a stick rather than my hand, getting him to go into his cage on his own (not the easiest of things I must admit LOL) To be honest, I've got 2 young children, and Diego at the moment is not much different with regards to his behaviour then both of my children when they hit the terrible 2's. With Diego we have temper tantrums if I don't let him chew on the furniture, sometimes temper tantrums before bedtime, Doing everything he possibly can to get my attention if I am doing something that does not involve him etc. I think the main thing to consider is that when bringing home any kind of parrot, they are not a pet as such but you will be bringing home another member of your family. They take up a lot of time, energy and love, give them plenty of these 3 things then you will reap the rewards, like I am with Diego.

OK, this is how I make scrambled eggs. It's the English way, here in Spain it's different but I still prefer the scrambled eggs my mum used to make LOL. Beat an egg in a micro safe bowl Add a small pinch of salt and pepper Add a knob of butter to every egg Add a around 1/2 tablespoon of milk to every egg Whisk them all together, stick them in the microwave on full heat. Keep taking it out of the micro every 10 seconds and break up with a fork. Keep going until you reach how you like your eggs cooked. When I make Diego's I skip all the other ingredients and literally just cook the egg with the shell and some paprika pepper.

This is a cute idea and unique to him, how about Billy after "Billy the Kid!" Or cisco after "The Cisco Kid"

Haha, this is a difficult one for me to answer as Diego will only fly when necessary, if there is another way of getting where he wants to go then he will choose that option. A guaranteed way of getting Diego to fly though is by shouting "DINNER TIME!!!" But then he will only fly over to his perch where his bowls are and sit there waiting for his food to come. LOL I'm also curious to other peoples ideas to encourage their fids to fly, as maybe I can use some of them on Diego.

Good Luck for tomorrow or is it Sunday that your picking your new baby up?

Beautiful photos! This is incredible! I love stories like this which show something positive for our wild friends rather than the awful news we normally get about them verging on extinction or being put on the endangered list.

I can kind off understand the reason behind using it on very small birds as they could be too small for an aviator harness and so is a way of allowing them out and about for short times. However, still not sure I get it as a way to stop a bird from messing on the furniture and clothes. This is my personal feelings but I still feel that a bird is not like a dog or a cat where it's natural for them to poop in a particular area, birds were designed to poop as freely as they fly. So when deciding to get a any kind of bird as a pet this should be accepted as part of having them in your family.

This actually leads me onto another question about Amazons, are they the same as Greys in the respect that they know when to use certain answers or able to question you when appropriate? I know he does understand words like - Fly, Dinner time (one of his favourites!), Flirty eyes (He will flutter his eyelids at me LOL), Where's your book (He goes and looks for a toy) but I wonder if he will ever use these words in the future for when he wants these things i.e. when he wants his toy or his dinner? With all these words he knows thinking about it the only one he still does not quite get is NO! Although I think that is a bit of hard headedness coming from him. LOL