I read the other day that a pair of orange-winged amazons had set up home in the wall of a Church near Hull and that their noisy squawking is now waking the neighbours up in the morning.

Amazons are popular pets which can live to 50 or even 60 years old with the right diet and living a stress-free life and it could be that someone had bought them as pets but found that they had got too much for them and so released them into the wild.

This story proves that being the owner of a parrot like these can be a lifelong commitment. From buying a parrot cage to choosing the correct type of food and making sure that you are providing adequate care and attention to the bird, you can be sure that this is not an easy hobby !!

The best type of parrot cage for an Amazon parrot should be between 39″- 59″ (100-150 cm) high and have a floor space of 23″x 39″ (60 x 100 cm). This size of bird cage will provide your parrot with lots of room for movement as well as plenty of space for perches, food dishes and toys. If you intend to house 2 Amazons then you need to buy a parrot cage with a ceiling height of at least 70″ (180 cm) and a minimum floor space of 39″x 59″ (100 x 150 cm). Perches should be 0.5″ to 1″ round and it’s also a good idea to provide various sized fruit tree branches as well. Toys provide stimulation for your parrot and he will like climbing ropes, playing with chains, bells, parrot swings and bird toys which can all be purchased from your local pet shop.

It’s also essential to allow your parrot to enjoy a good sleep and this means either moving him to a quiet room for several hours a day or providing him with a parrot cage cover so that he has a dark, quiet place in which to relax.

As with all pets, it is really important to make sure that you clean out your bird’s water and food dishes on a daily basis. You should also wash all his perches and toys every week and the floor of the parrot cage should be washed about every other week. Clean parrots are usually happy healthy parrots.

Amazon parrots are usually reasonably calm and peaceful but can get vocal early in the morning and in the evening as it starts getting dark. They are very sociable birds and so a single parrot will make a wonderful pet if it gets plenty of attention from its owner. However, when they get to about 4 or 5 years old they reach sexual maturity and if you leave your parrot alone a lot he may become restless, start feather plucking and in general show signs of psychological distress. A female parrot can even start laying infertile eggs. This is because in their natural environment they would begin to find a mate and pair up at this age. Living with a mate is part of the social pattern of the Amazon parrot and here lies the key to the amount of attention your pet requires.

Amazons and children can get along successfully if your parrot gets used to your child and you teach your child how to interact properly with your parrot. However, sometimes a parrot can get very jealous of small children and so it is adviseable to supervise the situation and not leave them on their own together. Amazons and other pets like cats and dogs can also get used to each other and learn to accept each other but again, you should be very careful to monitor all groupings of animals and not leave them alone.

It is worth knowing that Amazon parrots can be very dangerous to small pets such as hamsters, guinea pigs, mice and other small birds so if you want your parrot to come out of his parrot cage on a regular basis just remember to keep an eye on things.

The Amazon parrot is the quickest of all the parrots at becoming accustomed to it’s new environment but you should always give him a few days to get used to you. He will soon become accustomed to your voice and to his parrot cage and once he does it will be safe to try handling him. A handfed baby bird will not need much taming and can often be handled right away as it has had time to get used to human attention but an older parrot will take longer to trust you.

To be able to handle and train your parrot he needs to trust you, so go slowly and be consistent in your training and mannerisms. Amazons are most receptive to training in the evening and ideally you should limit your training to less than 20 minutes per session, with about an hour’s rest in between.

The first goal is to get your parrot to accept a treat from you which will lead to him allow you to gently scratch his head. Once you have achieved this, then you can begin to work on getting your parrot to step up on your hand. Depending upon the tameness of your bird these two steps can be instantaneous (as in a handfed baby bird) or it could take several weeks or longer for an untamed older bird.

Remember that taming and training a bird takes time and patience. As with all bird and animal training, never ‘punish’ you parrot! This will only serve to destroy the trust you’ve been trying to build and could result in an over-anxious, nervous bird.

Remember that like a child, your Amazon parrot may feel shy at first. Help him to overcome this and then you can begin to work on speech training because with frequent repetition an Amazon parrot can learn at least a few words.

Exercise and play are really important as these activities help the physical well-being and psychological health of your parrot. They are good tools for helping to deter distress and can also help prevent the problems of screeching and feather plucking. Providing your parrot with lots of activities in the form of large link chains, bird ladders, parrot swings, ropes, fresh branches for gnawing and chewing on and a selection of bird toys will ensure that he doesn’t get bored when left alone.

Amazons make great fun pets but remember they are a long term commitment and to release them into the wild because you have got fed up with them or found them to be too demanding is a cruel practise.