a few things have come to light since moving zeba into the living room area that i wanted to comment on.

1) it could just be the time of the year, but zeba would probably do best in a home without other amazons (smaller birds are fine), especially males. he does get very excited when he sees or hears my other amazon (male), has occasional sound-offs to see who is louder, and at this point i would never allow the two out of their cage at the same time.

when i first took zeba out of the bedroom, i placed his cage close to my other amazon, since they both seemed so interested in each other - BAD IDEA. they constantly displayed at each other and both wondered "who is that disrespectful bird who has decided to come so close to my territory! how dare!". being the "mom" of the house, i thought i could try and calm zeba by giving him a head rub - ANOTHER BAD IDEA. all the while, zeba was displaying and pinning his eyes and dumb me, i poke my finger in there asking if zeba wants a head rub...he bows down like he wants it, but backs away and WHAM! he lunges after my finger which made a good 1/2-inch long gash on my index finger. TOTALLY MY FAULT. it all happened, literally, as i blinked.

i went to clean up my wound and when i went back to zeba, i noticed a piece of his right side beak chipped, actually looks more like flaked, off. he was bleeding a little, but it soon stopped. then i was more concerned about him. it doesn't seem to bother him tho. he was easily able to eat pellets and normal food.

well, after that i promptly moved zeba's cage away from my amazon and placed my conures' cage and the sofa in between. as sson as i did that, i approached zeba and he calmly allowed me to scratch his head. it was just a rude introduction of the two amazons on my part. i should've really known better. i may slowly move them closer to each other, but only after they get used to eachother being in the same room.

they continue to sound off to each other once in a while, but it seems that they are getting used to it. being the only female in the house, i do however feel tensions in the air when i move closer to one cage or the other - my conures could care less about the two macho guys (they would rather stay away from both) so i usually take them out while those two simmer a little when i get home.

i find that my amazon now tries to lunge at me at every chance he gets. when i walk around his cage, he constantly keeps an eye on me and follows me. i just think he is really excited and wonders how dare i spend time with that OTHER guy...last night when i came in to the living room and sat on the sofa, i had a weird feeling and i looked up at my amazon - he was staring at me, then i looked at the conures - they were staring at me, and then at zeba - he was staring at me. LOL. i whispered it to my husband and, that crazy man, he turned around and STARED at me. what an odd feeling being stared at in my own home by a bunch of male animals!

okay, on to the next one...

2) i knew this from before, but even more so, i think zeba would do best with a female human. when zeba and i are alone, he is suuuuuuupppeeeerrrr mellow, the friendliest bird who preens me so carefully and gives me such a puppy-dog look (i never thought a bird could have that look, lol) when he wants to be scratched and get attention. but he does have a very guard-dog type personality...yet again, this could be attributed LARGELY to the time of year, but also his past could have also something to do with it. from what i heard from the people at the vet clinic he went to, he seems quite friendly to all females. with my husband, when zeba was in the bedroom, zeba would usually calm down and allow my husband to preen his head, but now that he is in the living room, zeba seems to be more on the defensive.

the move probably made him uneasy, and i dont think he is really used to new things happening. my husband does talk to him softly and spends some time near his cage, but zeba has become noticeably more easily excited now. in time this could pass. i do want him to get used to new things and to enjoy it.

i have not been able to test him out with kids yet.

3) zeba does not respond well to negative reinforcement. if i give him a firm NO and a mean look, he only gets more excited/aggressive. this will not work with him. what DOES work is ignoring him when he is being bad (or time out) and using positive reinforcement to reinforce good behavior. the best is just to try and avoid any situation where he could show signs of bad behavior.

last night, i wanted to give zeba some out of cage time, but my husband was home and he works extensively on the computer in the living room. so what i did was kindly ask him to leave the room until i have zeba safely in our bedroom where he can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants. it worked well. i got zeba in the bedroom and he was such a mellow bird. followed me wherever i went and when i laid down on the floor (stomach side down) he climed on my ankles and proceeded to preen them. lol. and then he wandered up to my lower back and continued to preen my hair.

4) zeba is very difficult to keep in one place, especially when there is someone he does not approve of, in the room. this is due to the fact that zeba used to be able to fly.

since his previous owners allowed him to grow out his wings, he has a lot of flying muscles. even with a good clip on both wings (ALWAYS clip both wings!) he can flutter about 10 feet away from his cage. this is why i wont allow him out of the cage if my husband is in the room. zeba can easily reach him if he launches himself off of the top of his cage.

this is much unlike my own amazon. wherever you put him, if he can't climb down to the floor, he will stay put. the only time i know of that he tried to jump off and fly, was last year during breeding season and he tried to attack me (i guess i was too close to his playstand). normally he wont try it. from what we know, he was never able to fly - i guess that helped.

with zeba, he is absoultely not afraid to jump/fly anywhere at anytime, which makes him a little more "dangerous" if you dont keep a close watch on him. if i ever do take him outside when the weather is warm, i will either have to keep him in the travel carrier or somehow work with him on wearing a harness.

5) you can probably discern this from the things mentioned above, but just to be clear...zeba becomes aggressive when excited. its usually called amazon overload behavior. this is what can make an amazon have a dr jekyll/mr. hyde personality, and this is exactly how it is for zeba.

if zeba is calm, with someone he likes and trusts, he is the most gentle bird you will meet. he knows his beak strength very well and doesn't try to inflict any pain. if you are doing something (i.e. reading the newspaper) and he wants your attention, he will quietly and slowly approach you, and get to a position where he places himself between you and what you are doing and just stands there waiting for your scritches, kisses and attention. he will preen you, he will coo to you. i've never met a bird who was so gentle.

BUT, if he gets excited such as you just come home and you greet him, or if there are other birds in the home and they start sounding off (especially if there is another bird of the same type - amazon), or if there are people in the room that zeba just doesn't approve of, or if you just open his cage for him to come out....all these things excite zeba to the point where interaction with him at that moment could lead him to bite you. (i've been bitten 4 times so far).

you just have to keep in mind that:

1) this bite does NOT mean he hates your guts and he'll never like you again. he will probably forget about it a minute after biting you.
2) when he is latched on to you, DO NOT throw him hard on the ground. all you have to do it shake your arm a bit while keeping your arm low to the ground. you can easily break his wing(s) or bones if you slam him to the ground.
3) don't yell or cause a scene when zeba bites. anything that calls attention to something he does can become a reinforcer of his action, and you DONT want to reinforce a bird to bite. yelling is what birds do sometimes when they are happy or playing...zeba may think you are playing with him by screaming back when he bites. keep calm, zeba probably doesn't have the ability to bite a finger COMPLETELY off, so dont worry...it will heal (make sure you wash out ALL bites well with warm water, soap and follow up with hydrgen peroxide).

so, to lessen the chances of being bitten:

scenario: if he gets excited such as you just come home and you greet him...

solution: give him about 15 minutes after you come home to cool down and settle. talk to him but dont try to touch him or let him out of his cage. let him be for a few minutes before touching.

scenario: if there are other birds in the home and they start sounding off (especially if there is another bird of the same type - amazon)

solution: dont pay any attention to the birds sounding off. let them get it out of their system; it will pass. once they are quite for a few minutes, start talking to zeba calmly and you will be able to tell from his body language if he is calm enough for touching.

scenario: if there are people in the room that zeba just doesn't approve of

solution: leave him in the cage when those people are in the room. he will be very aggressive at any point that you let him out and that person(s) is in the room. for me, this person is my husband. there is no way i can "wait till he goes home" because he IS home, so i ask him to temporarily go to another room while a let zeba out. i take zeba out and transport him on a stick (yipee! he's getting better with stepping up on a stick!) to our bedroom so that he has full range of the room to explore and my husband can go back to what he is doing.

if the people he doesn't approve of are willing to work on their relationship with zeba, they should be patient and dedicated to commit the time and effort to build that trust with zeba. men will need to do this. zeba has been man-handled and abused by men in his 13-yr past; can you blame him for having trust issues with men? it won't happen overnight, it probably wont even happen in a few weeks. but if you work with zeba to create a bond of trust - EACH DAY, twice a day for 30 minutes (it has to be at two different times) giving zeba one-on-one attention in a calm, respectful way - he may be able to trust men again. it may take a few months or even a full year of doing this, but if in the end he does give you his trust, it will be soooooo well worth the committment.

scenario: if you just open his cage for him to come out.

solution: i just let him come out of his cage on his own. he likes to exit his cage on his own terms, and he is more calm when able to, so i give him that freedom.

there was one time last night when i wanted to let zeba out (hubby moved to another room for me to take zeba out). i opened the cage door, and just at that moment, my other amazon (who was already covered up to go sleep already) started to sound off. well, you guessed it...zeba got overexcited. i just wanted to get zeba out of there as quickly as possible, so once he stepped out of his cage, i had him step up onto the stick. as i was walking to the bedroom (all the while zeba was trying to sound off with pico with his eyes pinning and tail flayed) he walked up the stick toward my hand and gave the base of my thumb a good chomp (not the worst ive gotten from an amazon but it did break skin a little). i gave the stick a little wobble to make him unstable and stop biting, but he didn't like the wobble at all and fluttered off the stick. i got him to step back on the stick and proceeded to the bedroom, he tried to attack my hand again, but this time i wobbled the stick very, very slightly (it only takes a v-e-r-y slight movement (up-down) to make him unstable) to take his mind off of biting my hand and more on him getting his balance and he stayed this time. i got him to the bedroom and he was fine.