More and more people want a parrot for their pet. But not everyone fully understands how complicated is to have a parrot in your house, especially if it's an Amazon parrot. You must have a lot of patience and a lot of spare time to rightly breed and socialize your new pet. And of course, you must have a very good financial condition to properly maintain an African parrot in good conditions.
First of all you must know that parrots are very aggressive pets. They can not be compared with cats or dogs. Why is that? Because Amazon parrots have very strong personalities. For you to have an obedient pet you must control him by setting rough rules and limitations. Of course these aspects are not true when we talk about a 3-month-old Amazon because at this age they all are sweet and cute. The attitude problems will develop later when hormonal changes will appear. This will happen when the parrot is 4 or 5 years old. The hormone level changes at this age because the parrot reaches sexual maturity. Because parrots are flock animals they will consider you their flock and will become very possessive with you and his territory if you will let him. So if your pet was not well bread when he was young, you will have lot of difficulties when he has reached his sexual maturity.
If you want to discipline your pet you must be very strict with her and you must handle the bird every day. If your pet is a baby parrot you will not have any problem handling her. You just have to be very patient at the beginning and handle him very careful every day, slowly, as to allow you to touch him all over. If your parrot is afraid of you, don't rush him. Go slowly, with patience, from where he will let you to be touched. The toes are in many cases a good place to start. One thing is for sure: he will let you to touch him when he will begin to adapt to the environment. This can take weeks. You must be very patient and not push him more than he lets you. This can be a long process. Sometimes it can take weeks until he will let you touch one toe.
When you succeed touching him every where, you must go further. If you don't want your new pet to become a one person bird, you must present him to every person in your family or friends and encourage every one to slowly touch him. In this way he will integrate perfectly in to your family. Also show him his new territory: the entire house, room by room. It is also recommended to let him alone a few times a day so that he gets used to being alone.
If he is your only bird pet, you will represent for him his new family or his new flock. You must become his new parent and show him how to behave, how to play with toys. Also, in the same time you must show him his place in the flock. As a baby the Amazon will slowly begin to chew you finger. At first it will be like a tingle but as he grows it will turn into full bites. So my advise to you is not to encourage him to bite your finger by telling him"No bite". Do not expect your Amazon to react immediately to your request. Do not forget the Amazons are very stubborn birds. You must be very convincing and very patient in the same time.
An Amazon should also be stick trained because they have a very powerful personality and he is very hard to handle especially if is a mature parrot and is during the breeding season. In this way you will avoid some very bloody bites on your hand and arm.
You must show your Amazon parrot his place into the flock. Do not encourage him to dominate you. For example do not encourage him to climb on to your shoulder. If you will do this, your parrot will think that that is his territory and he will protect it from any person will try to approach. Also if you will want to get him off your shoulder, he will respond aggressively and even bite you from your shoulder or even worse from your eyes. So be very careful and show him who has the controls.
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