Springtime is for Lovers - and for Nasty Hormonal Amazon Parrots

If you have been a regular visitor to Parrot Parrot, you have read about my blue-fronted Amazon parrot Inca. I hand-raised Miss Inca from a tiny, featherless beast into a beautiful, delightful parrot. But alas, she also grew up to be a true amazon, right down to those hormonal mood swings.

Once Inca reached sexual maturity she started doing a few interesting things:

1. Developed an obsessive attraction to one other person other than me (a young girl who worked for me, another girl who worked for me later, my roommate...whoever was available at a given time)

2. Delivered nasty sudden bites that seemed to come from nowhere

3. Goes into a weird trance and flat position and makes weird clucking mating sounds if you stroke her back - and she doesn't bite during this period of whatever-the-heck-is-going-on-with-her-hormones.

Inca almost always cleans her tail feathers after a back-stroking like this. Clearly it triggers some sort of mating response.

How do you avoid the kamikaze strike of the hostile amazon beak?

First rule: don't poke the crazy (something my friend taught be about life in general but really applies to amazon parrots)

If your amazon parrot is in hormonal hell, don't expect her to be cuddly and playful - if you force the issue she is just going to teach you a lesson in boundaries.

Second rule: always stick train amazons. That means you should be able to get your amazon to step up on a dowel or other stick. This way you are always in control if you need to pick her up - and you aren't shying away like you're sticking your hand in a tank of hungry piranhas.

Most often when Inca is giving signs of hormonal hostility, I use the dowel and say "Step up" - firmly but not with anger (anger voice does not work on amazons like it does on other parrots - it just escalates the situation). Then I migrate to the hand - she will always step up nicely on my hand from the dowel (whereas she will not always step up nicely from her tower when she things I'm going to disrupt her plan to stay on it indefinitely).

Inca hasn't gotten a piece of me in many years - but believe you me, she got her share those first few years as I got used to her hormones.

Always remember to respect the fact that these birds are very close to their wild cousins - they are rarely more than one generation removed from their wild ancestors. It isn't respectful to expect them to act like human children or domesticated dogs.