Ozzy

Orange Winged Amazon (Amazona Amazonica)

Ozzy is about seven years old, i got him when he was 16/17 weeks old (2002), when we met he wouldnt leave me alone, i think he liked the red ends on my hair and probably the amount of nesting material on my head in general, well i fell for him too.

I hummed and harred for a week whether i should have him or not, i had provisionally said i would but wanted to read up on the species first, my family has kept birds in the past but to live with a parrot is a big undertaking in my book, something that shouldnt be taken lightly but unfortunatly is, a quick look in the rescue centres will prove it.

I eventually decided i would have him and ordered a decent sized cage, got an Essegi for a reasonable price and put it up, I borrowed a small parrot cage to transport him home in and off we set to pick him up, I do believe he was pleased to see me as I was he, when I got him home I just opened the small cage and let him come out by himself, 30 seconds later he was out and wanting for me to pick him up, at this time he could not fly due to having one wing fully clipped , this is something I dislike, birds are designed to fly after all.

Parrots can be very fussy eaters, not so Amazons their pretty much the piggy of the parrot world, we had decided to feed him with Kaytee a biscuit based food with just about everything he needed, he also gets a seed and dried fruit mix along with fresh fruit and veg and a few other titbits now and then, obviously Fresh water too, theres a few things they must not have that can do them serious even fatal damage, Advacado and Chocolate being top of the list, deadly.

General safety has to be looked at seriously, Parrots by nature are inquisitive and will have a play or go at anything they can get their beaks to, just think electric cable , you now know you have to supervise their time out of the cage if kept indoors, ceiling fans, open windows, other pets, cookers, water, the list would go on and on, most of it is common sense as it would be with any animal, Ozzy for what ever reason likes one of my two computers, if he is out and it is uncovered he makes a B-line for it , the other he ignore unless I am sitting at it then he will land on me and I end up with a Parrot in my face.

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The first year saw little in the way of flying due to the wing clip but it did see him start to speak, normally they take over a year, first word was "hello", I had kept repeating it clearly and slowly every 30 seconds for about 10 minutes 3 to 4 times a day, it took a couple of months until he said it, from then there was no stopping him, my Wife and Daughter would then say it to him to get a reply, it only took him a short while before he could say "Hello Chap" and "Up", up and down were the most used words said to him and probably most important to us, it got him used to being picked up and put down without a fuss, anyway from then on he started picking words up himself.

Next on the speech list wasn't really words, it was a cough and boy what a cough, no he wasn't sick he was copying me and my smokers cough, everybody thinks it is hilarious when he coughs and they laugh so he changes from a cough to a laugh, he also coughs to get attention now, before anyone putters about smoking I don't smoke in my house bar the kitchen and he isn't allowed in there ( have given up smoking since originally writing this).

Oz is out of his cage every day at the very least because we need to clean his cage, but also so he can have a fly and a play, the room is 26 feet long so plenty of room for a bird his size, he can do circuits pretty well, again he does need supervision, he will sit on his stand or the back of a chair and wait while we fetch water etc from another room, but I wont risk leaving him for more than a minute or so.

Speech =

hello , hello chap , hellooooo, hello oggy ( he cant do the Z`s )

up , c`mon , hahahaha , good boy , are you a good boy

better than being a wanker ( this came from a film called "Still Crazy" that we like )

are you comin , no, shower , there ya go , cough , cock a doo, cock

water, fresh water, ahhh, ooooh, bugger, good parrot, naughty parrot

better than being a parrot, speak oh beaked one, ooooh whats that

oooh what ya got, he can also growl and bark, currently sounds like he is trying to say Lovely, the list will continue.

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It took about seven weeks or so to toilet train him, I had read not to put to much pressure on them while doing this so we took it slowly, most folks don't believe it until they see it , but we can put him on his cage and tell him to "go poop" and he does, it just needs you to be aware of how the bird acts before it goes, usually it will be the same tell tale signs, so once you know what the signs are you can start saying the command, eventually he can associate the command and the action, theres no point trying to get them to go five minutes afterwards cos they wont be able too and you wouldn't like to be forced either, you do get used to noticing the signs and time since they have last been so it becomes quite easy toget them to go, either way they will still have mishaps occasionally.

Boredom can get to parrot very easily, they can end up screaming and/or pulling their feathers out in frustration, best thing to do is not let them get bored in the first place, they make such good companions because they like company and would normally have a flock or a mate, when were out he has either the Tv or the Radio on and a couple of safe toys, most of the time though someone is about.

Going back to Speech, Parrots will copy and mimic but that doesent mean they don't understand, people will argue the toss that it is just mimic, others that Parrots are intelligent, I believe them to be intelligent creatures, Ozzy can associate words , he will ask for a shower every few mornings of the week and is happy to get taken for one, he will also ask for water both in the shower and out, when he has had enough of a shower he will say "no" or run up one of his chains shouting "Oi Oi Oi No", that isn't just a mimic, he gets the "oi" from my Wife, generally after nipping her ear while she is vacuuming, he knows it means stop or no.

We have had to learn from him also, his eye`s will flash when excited , annoyed or scared as will his tail flare out, you have to get accustomed to the way he does it to know how he is feeling, are you going to get a kiss or your nose ripped off ! he can be so very gentle and can gracefully shell the tiniest of seeds, on the other hand he can bite bloody hard nut`s so your nose or ear lobe is going to be no problem, people he doesent like generally get a growl first.

End.

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