How's the little guy doing?

He's doing great, Joanie. Nothing new to report, really. He seems to be settling in very well, he's eating good. Also seems to be playing with his toys more, and generally being more active. He had a nice long misting session yesterday which inspired him to splash around in his water bowl for a while.

I'm sort of holding off trying to do much as far as handling goes, until the hormones settle down some more. Many times, all you have to do is speak to him and he gets pretty excited, pinning and flaring.

Some folks at my work have been acting that way lately......

Nate, it sounds like you may get a few more nips until Chico accepts you!

Yeah, could be! I don't mean that to say that he's necessarily being aggressive, just stimulated. He fluffs and pins and flares when he asks for scritches too. Makes him a bit tricky to read. He just gets hyped so easy, and I figure that must be partly the hormones. I don't want to push him to the point where he gets used to biting and it becomes behavioral rather than hormonal. Of course I'm just sort of guessing here, it could already be behavioral since I know so little of his background. Seems logical at this time of year though, that hormones could be playing a major part in his demeanor.

Nate,

Yes all my rescue friends have bites right now Even from the loveable ones. That'll subside after the longest day of the year, July 15 when the days get incrementally shorter towards molting season. Brave of you to get a strange man phobic Amazon right in the middle of Spring LOL. If he's wanting you to scritch him that's a major good thing, IMO. I don't see any reason to rush the touching or overstimulate him, though, I agree. There's plenty of time for that.

I forgot to tell you before, when I boarded Amazons or other "biters" in my pet store I always had a rule the people had to let me get them out of the cage while they were there (since they were so cage bound anyway, usually). I never liked keeping someone caged up for days at a time. But the handling could be tricky.

My best technique (provided they werent afraid of perches) was to use a long perch and keep moving. Down at chest level. Not really to earthquake them just to move around. They pay attention to holding on then to their whereabouts and forget about "us" for the moment. Then I'd deposit them on a fun place so they always had a destination. Supervised only, of course. Usually nobody tried to bite and eventually the scared birds liked coming to the store better than being cooped up at home.

Of course nothing prevents him from sailing right off the perch to bite you so it's not foolproof by any means.

Of course you know, too, to keep his daylight to the number of hourse that it's light outside including dusk and dawn, and watch you dont give too much protein which should help him adjust and deal with the hormones. Especially Vitamin E (nuts,seeds).

Cindy, thanks so much for the advice! I didn't see your reply until just now, that "New Posts" feature isn't fool proof I guess. Sounds like we agree pretty much on approach at this point. LOL, it really wasn't bravery that had me getting him, he just didn't have many options and I couldn't see any choice! It can be frustrating because I'd like to move things along faster, but hopefully patience will pay off in the long run. I take a lot of encouragement from the fact that he does love his scritches, and try to remember that he's got years of baggage that I will never even know about. Who knows what he's experienced for abuse and neglect. His last owner was truly doing her best, but in some ways is pretty uneducated about birds, in spite of having several. What I find most frustrating is that because of the hormonal period, I've lost the couple of weeks honeymoon where he would be out of his comfort zone (new cage and home) and more amenable to new experiences. Oh well, I'll persevere!

Any more happy puffs?

Funny you should mention that. He's puffing up a storm. I'm thinking of renaming him Stinky!!

I had to laugh, the other day his former owner called to ask how he was doing. We talked for a while, and she said, "You know, those people who kept him in the basement with their Rottweilers also told me they sprayed him with vinegar and water to control fleas". I told her that I use vinegar and water to clean cages, but never heard of spraying birds with it. "I know" she said, "but I wanted to tell you, that's why he smells like vinegar sometimes". It was then that I realized she was talking about the musk! To me, it's not quite like vinegar, but then. I explained to her about Amazon "puffs", and she was flabbergasted! Good grief, the woman had him for two years, wouldn't you think she'd have tried to find out a little about Amazons? And how could you think that vinegar residue on a bird's feathers would still be going strong after two years? <sigh>

All I can say is it's is just wonderful that you are now Chico's parront!