I used be very intolerant of people who allowed their birds to escape. I saw this as the height of irresponsibility.  Then, three years ago, it happened to me.  It was a fluke accident.  My cockatiels were in a bathroom that was off of my bedroom and both doors were shut.  I was in the living room with the sliding glass doors were open.  I went into the bedroom knowing the cockatiels were safe behind the bathroom door.  The vacuum created by opening the bedroom door moved the closed, but unlatched, bathroom door just enough for a startled cockatiel to get through.  Out Cocoa went into the living room and instead of making his typical left turn into the kitchen he turned right and flew out of the door.  I was horrified.  I managed to track him to the edge of the property, calling him, and praying he would fly down to me.  When he saw me from high up in a tree he gave his alarm call, but was chased off by the territorial blue jays also on the property.  It is easy to lose track of a small parrot.  It was the last time I actually laid eyes on him.
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I have a blue-fronted amazon that we got from a family friend who passed away. Gender and age is unknown, but we guesstimate that the parrot, who was named Scooter, is around 20 years of age. Scooter has grown attached to me and is aggressive to anyone else. Even when it hears my voice from downstairs, Scooter will scream and carry on, waiting for me. If my sister, mother or father get closed to the cage, Scooter will lunge at them and throw a fit.

For this reason, Scooter was moved to my room which I was fine with, except for some very odd and annoying behavior. Sometimes, Scooter will hang upside down on the bell-toy we have in the cage and ring it, bob it’s head up and down, and repeat. Other times, Scooter will make this odd noise, which can be best described as ‘The Grudge’ noise, but in short bursts.It kind of seems like a growl but like I said, Scooter seems to like me. While doing this, Scooter will jerk it’s legs/head and walk around. I have tried my best to ignore it but it’s nearly impossible, especially if I’m trying to watch TV. Anyone have any suggestions?

- Classy

Wow, I had the exact same situation with a client’s blue fronted Amazon parrot named Storm. I wrote all about him in many posts as I had him for 45 days in an attempt to change his diet so he didn’t die from a heart attack from being severely obese.

Storm showed me the same signs you’re describing and although it does mean he likes you… it also means that during the Spring time he is going to become very possessive over you, too.  You more than likely have got a male on your hands that has a HUGE crush on you! With Storm, the only way I could work with him was if I was his reward (instead of using food) in order to get him to pay attention and be nice to other people. Your amazon loves you and might choose you as its mate so be careful on how you go about the training with him and make sure not to reinforce him with your own attention when he acts up on someone else.

Scooter might be getting more and more sexually frustrated so be on the look out for those signs like regurgitating food for you, rubbing himself on objects like toys and perches, moaning/groaning and squeaking noises that escalate further into sexual behavior and more.

If you need help knowing how to handle Scooter during those hormonal times or just basics of what and what not to do with him, check out Patty’s post on how to handle hormonal parrots.

You can also find my posts on Storm and how I went about training him under the blue front amazon category of this blog.

I have a full time job which means I am out of the house for 10-11 hours, five days a week.  I worry sometimes that each of my parrots aren’t getting enough one on one attention from me.  Given that parrots need at least ten hours of sleep each day, there isn’t much time left in the day once I get home from work.  I have five parrots and this means that meal preparation and cleaning up after them needs to be worked into the schedule as well.

I have found that little things go a long way.  I have a greeting for each of my birds that is unique to only them.  I have a way that I say hello to Tinky, which is entirely different from the way I speak to DeeDee, my other cockatiel or any of the other birds.  I also use this for a contact call, for when I am out of the room and they are calling me.  Each knows it’s their call and that I am addressing only them. Their body language shows shows their positive reaction and even though it’s not hands-on attention, they know it’s all about them.

Each has their own theme song. It’s always the same and contains lyrics that includes their name and special words about them. Theo, my goffins  cockatoo, has a song adapted from an old Duran Duran song: “Her name is Theo and she dances in the sand…”  Not a fan, but she likes her song and I am willing to forgo my personal taste in music for her happiness.  Linus rhymes with almost nothing.  His song, composed from scratch, is appropriately titled “His Royal Linus”. You may laugh at the idea of this, but I can’t tell you how many times I have been able to distract a naughty bird by belting out their theme song.  Singing it to Linus in the morning allows him to be patient while I prepare his breakfast.

Further, they all have “jobs” to do.  It is my quaker Libby’s job to assist while I make their meals.  She makes sure I cut the food small enough for the littler beaks and that I put enough in the bowls, especially hers. Theo helps me write these posts from my shoulder.  I think she believes that I write better if I have more holes in the neckline of my shirts.  She sees to that.  The cockatiels help me in the bathroom while I wash my face and brush my teeth. Sometimes they poke little holes in the tube of toothpaste to make sure that enough comes out. Linus, the foreman, barks orders from the other room and makes sure everyone is doing their jobs.  He runs a tight ship, but he’s fair.  These are small things that make a big difference to them when time is tight.  They all love their special time with mom, as short as it might be on some days.
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Crate training might seem easy… you get the bird and put it in the crate, right? Wrong. At least not with these birds.

These toucans were, again, wild caught so they came to the island very wild and very scared of people. Cathy was their main caretaker on the island who brought them their food and cleaned their cages, they began to become comfortable around her. Until one day they had a hurricane warning and HAD to get the toucans out of their cages and into crates for transport.
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Alright, so this isn’t prettiest topic, but it is one you should know your way around as a parrot owner.  Since birds so completely mask their illnesses, there are really only two ways we have to monitor their health at home.  One is by weighing them frequently, and the other is by watching the quality of their poop. Your parrot’s poop will remain fairly consistent as long as it is healthy.  It only takes me a couple seconds, several times a day to take a look at the bottom of the cage and I can tell what they’ve been eating and assess their general health at that time. Speaking of the bottom of the cage, I want to recommend that you use newspaper as a cage liner.  Litter, wood chips and shredded paper don’t allow you to really get a good look at the whole poop.  Since it is an uneven surface, parts separate  from each other or get hidden underneath pieces of the litter and you just don’t have a good overview. I guess you could argue that as being the point of litter or wood chips, but it makes the monitoring much less effective.
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Since I’ve had a bird, I have had to make some small sacrifices in my daily life to accommodate my feathered friend. And believe me, to me these sacrifices were small compared to losing my parrot to deadly fumes. If giving up non-stick cookware seems too big of a sacrifice, you may need to reconsider having a bird.

The nice thing is that most non-stick cookwares we are used to have alternatives without those deadly chemicals. For instance, giving up the non-stick pan was a no brainer. I just replaced it with a stainless steel pan. While the non-stick pan could be cleaned just with one quick wipe, the stainless steel pan needed to soak in soap for a few minutes and then a light scrub. The cleaning wasn’t the problem but the food just didn’t cook the way I wanted on that. So I continued to search for the best alternative.

A few appliances that I had to give up included my electric waffle iron, and george forman electric grill. I have not since found a replacement for the waffle iron but it’s a loss I can go without. The grill on the other hand seemed a greater loss because I enjoyed steaks cooked on it. It took me a few months of searching till I found a solution. I did not come across a single electric grill without the non-stick coating. Someone recommended I try cast iron so I bought a cast iron pan with the lines in it like a grill. I learned to cook steaks, burgers, hot dogs, etc on it and taste as good (if not better) than going out for those. I used to have a non-stick pancake griddle which I replaced with a flat cast iron pan. On both pans, I lightly grease the bottom with cooking spray or oil before use and they are practically non-stick for a single session.

Cleaning cast iron is a slightly different story. If you cook things on it that aren’t messy, it’s actually very easy to clean. Just a wipe down with a moist paper towel and oiling the surface to season it. The oily surface of the seasoned pan becomes almost like a nonstick surface if you maintain it properly. If you do cook something messy, cleaning is a different story. You’re not supposed to soak cast iron so you need to do some hard scrubbing with some steal wool sponges. But not to worry, you can always scrape it clean, season, and reuse it. It’s not the easy one wipe cleaning like non stick, but it’s not as difficult of a sacrifice as it may seem. And honestly, I think the food comes out better prepared on cast iron anyway.

I gave away all my non-stick pots and cookware since I have no use for them anymore and it’s safer than having someone use one by mistake. A few days ago I forgot my cast iron pan on the burner for 3 hours which made me realize how lucky I was that it was not non-stick because then my birds would have been dead. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can get by with non-stick cookware. I’ve read so many sad stories about people who killed their birds that way so I wouldn’t want to take any of those chances.