Blue-Fronted Amazon Parrots are big birds with even bigger personalities. Their tendency is to be extremely social and entertain visitors with their vocabulary and tricks. As it goes with many dynamic species, the Blue Front Amazon isn’t without its behavior problems.
The males in particular can become aggressive as they reach sexual maturity. This aggression shows up with biting and screaming and while they’re not generally prone to feather plucking, they may if they’re particularly stressed. Let’s take a closer look at each behavior problem and how to solve them.
Blue-Fronted Amazon Feather Plucking
Feather plucking is generally caused by stress or illness. Your first step if your Blue Front Amazon begins plucking is to take them to an avian veterinarian to make sure they’re 100% healthy. Often times it’s a yeast infection, something that is very common among parrots and takes about 10 days to get rid of with the right medication from your vet. Your next step is to determine what may be causing the behavior.
Have you introduced a change in their environment? A new person in the home? Construction? Blue Front Amazons generally adapt fairly well, however, it doesn’t mean yours isn’t reacting to their environment. It happens.
While the Blue Front Amazon Parrot is nearly perfect when it comes to companion bird species, they do have some faults. You’ll likely have to deal with biting, certainly with a bit of screaming from time to time and occasionally feather plucking. The best way to deal with any undesirable behavior is to first determine what is causing it, and then to train the behavior away.
Training takes time, patience, and a training system based on positive reinforcement. It is critical to ensure a trusting bond between you and your Blue Front and regular training will help to ensure a long and happy life together. A life without being bitten or screamed at by your Blue Front!
Blue-Fronted Amazon Biting
Biting generally becomes an issue once your male, or female, begins to reach sexual maturity. You may experience biting when you reach your hand into their cage. You may get bitten when you try to play with them or any time you try to interact. This is normal behavior; however, you don’t have to live with it.
First, make sure you don’t react to the bite (ie: screaming, yelling back at the bird, punishing, etc). The more you react, i.e. pull your hand away or yell, the more your Blue Front knows he’s getting his way. When you reach into your Amazon’s cage and they bite you, pulling your hand out quickly and shutting the door gives them exactly what they want – to be left alone.
Now I’m not suggesting you antagonize your bird by any means! I much prefer you learn to read the body language of your parrot so you can see it coming and go no further. To do this, you will want to spend some time training your parrot. To protect your hand and to get over the urge to jerk your hand away, we start off with hands-off training so that you don’t have to be scared and neither does your bird. Teaching your parrot about the clicker is completely hands-off aside from giving a treat, but even that you can do without making contact with your bird (ie: setting it on the table, using a spoon, or using spray millet for smaller birds).