If you missed my previous updates on Storm, the blue fronted Amazon parrot, you can find them here.

Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

Day 6 with Storm was full of some learning experiences… I learned he does not like foraging trees. I tried placing him on one in the wide open Florida room we have at our home and though he showed some interest in one of the toys, it lasted a couple seconds and he screamed almost the entire time he was on the tree.

I thought he’d enjoy some “out of cage” time… but I was wrong, that was NOT his idea of fun out of cage time. And after thinking about it, he does have all that stuff IN his cage.

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If you’re just now getting a taste of Amazon Parrot Storm’s story, you should really read up on where it all started five days ago when he wasn’t going to make it another day… you can read about his story and progress up to this point here.

I have very exciting news! And lots of it!

I shared my videos of Storm with a few people who were much more experienced with Amazon behavior than myself. I had my ideas on what Storm was trying to tell me… but no confirmation. Well, I got my confirmation when Anna Sloan (Macaw & Cockatoo Rescue of NM) said to me, “He’s head over heels for you!”

The thing she picked up on that I didn’t was that Storm was showing he was getting mildly anxious because he really wanted to step up and I wasn’t asking him to. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have missed my previous updates on the Amazon parrot, Storm, we are trying to save?from obesity and malnutrition, please click here to find them and get yourself up to date with his progress while being with us.

The last thing I talked about was changing your bird’s environment, which was the first thing I did with Storm. And boy was there a heck of a lot of progress the past 3 days!

Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

So, we are pretty sure that the behavior Storm has been showing me is mating behavior. I consulted with a few different people on Amazon behavior and got some great tips for working with Storm. The first tip was never to try to get a chattering Amazon to step up, as it will usually result in getting bit. Now, I haven’t actually asked Storm to step up… YET. But it was still a good thing to know that I shouldn’t even try to take things a step further if he’s?being?a?chatterbox.

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If you missed Storm’s introduction, you can find it here. He is the Blue fronted Amazon we are taking in for 1.5 months who might die from severe obesity and malnutrition. We have 45 days to save him, or lose him.

Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

The night Storm got to our Florida home, we moved him to his new cage… it was a BIG change from his usual home, especially for a bird with no real experience playing with toys.

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Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

This is Storm… and his current diet is so bad that he could literally die from a random heart attack any day. Actually, his owners are expecting it! So, Dave and I have taken him in to work with him to lower his chances of dying from a heart attack from his obesity and malnutrition.

Many Amazon parrots die from fatty liver disease because of being on an all-seed or extremely high fat diet. For Storm, it has been cheeseburgers and cooked chicken… among other human foods that are high in fat, salt and fortified sugars.

How Storm Came to Be with Us: Storm is a sexed male, blue fronted Amazon parrot who is 35+ years old. Storm was living happily with a family on the gulf coast of Florida when a hurricane hit and he was torn from his family, the home he knew and everything else rendered familiar. He remained in Florida alone until one day an elderly couple was camping?and in a tree above their heads they heard a very clear, “Hello!”

They looked up and saw Storm’s cute face looking down at them. “Hello…” they replied, and with that, Storm climbed down the tree and perched himself on one of their arms. They took the bird with them on their adventures after that, for 10 years they traveled around with him in their RV.

However, the couple was around 70 years old when they got Storm and at 80 they just couldn’t care for themselves and Storm too. They gave him up to a local pet shop nearby where he sat for a solid year without being sold. He didn’t take to anyone and the pet store feared they’d never sell him.

Then one day a woman walked in and Storm stepped right up on her. The manager begged her to take the bird, explaining their dilemma. They agreed and has had Storm for the last 10 years old. Her vet told her Storm was around 35 years old but it was hard to tell the exact age so a lot of it was based on his rocky and unclear past.

Dave and I will be housing and working with Storm for the next?45 days?before we meet back up with his owner (who is in Virginia). Dave spent a couple days in Virginia around Storm but not interacting with him much as he didn’t like anyone but this one lady in the household… and it was a last minute decision to take on Storm and bring him back to Orlando to stay a while.

Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

Storm sat in a car with Dave and our cockatoo, Bondi, for 13 hours for the drive back to Orlando. He was quiet for the most part while Bondi talked, and he let Dave touch his feet through the cage bars. When they got home in the night, we let Storm climb out of his travel cage and perch himself on top as I was eager to meet him. Within a few minutes, he stepped up on Dave’s gloved hand. There was no forcing, it was pretty much an accident, really. Dave’s hand was behind Storm and he literally stepped back onto it with no problem.

We both looked at one another with shock… thinking… it can’t be this easy…

And Storm proved it wouldn’t be that easy. He convinced us that step up was a fluke that happened and every day after that would be a learning experience, for both us and Storm. I plan on keeping you all closely updated with Storm’s progress so check back soon!