I attribute several things to changing Pepper from a attack bird to a docile companion that has been held by hundreds of children. 1. He was stick trained. That meant I could insist on his stepping up as his biting the stick did not have the same affect as his biting my arm. 2. I clipped him severely going into the secondary feathers so he dropped like a rock. He was just too dangerous when able to fly as he would go for the face. This carried a lot of responsibility as I now had to watch that he did not fall as he could not break a fall very well with a severe clip. I always had good padding under his stand when he was out. 3. I used a small hand held squirt gun. When he would try to bite, he was squirted with cold water from the squirt gun. This is not an accepted method by most behaviorist and I would be hesitant to use it on a grey. Pepper was a spoiled, head strong hormonal male Blue Fronted Amazon and has a much different personality than a Grey. Timing is very important and you do not soak the bird. One good squirt with cold water. I believe it is the sound of the water hitting the feathers that makes them stop and think. 4. This is really what helped the most. I learned to read his body language and then could tell when he was in no mood to be handled or messed with. Every time a bird bites, it encourages him to do so again. If you can avoid the times when the bird will bite and wait to handle and work with him when he is mellow again, you will cut down on a lot of the biting.

Biting with Amazons is mostly hormonal. Sometimes this hormonal biting turns into behavioral biting as well and that is when there is a real problem. If your Grey is biting because she is hormonal, the best thing you could do is to learn to read her body language and then do not handle her when she shows she is going to be aggressive.

Ray gave you some excellent advice. I find that giving male Amazons "the Evil Eye" or speaking sternly to them is often met as a challenge. I always try to maintain an attitude of I-am-in-charge without challenging them to leadership.

Age mellows many birds. Male Amazons go through a period from about 5-11 years in which they can be quite difficult. During that time frame there will be one or two years in which they become extremely aggressive. I think that Greys probably go through something similar only not as extreme.

Pepper is now an extremely well-behaved guy, in fact he is quite a gentleman.

Joanie Doss / The Amazing Amazons

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Problems arise with our birds when they try to make us their mates. Sometimes without knowing it, we lead them on to believe that we want to go to nest with them. When things do not work out the way the bird thought, he attacks just as he would a potential mate that did not cooperate when he wanted to start a family.

I always feel sorry for Amazons since they often bite those they love. They generally get sold because the owner feels the bird doesn't like them any more and the poor bird is broken hearted that he is sent away from the person he loves most.

Joanie Doss / The Amazing Amazons

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Some birds seem to be able to fight it off better than others. It is a disease that a lot more research is needed for. A pair of birds can have it or just one of them may get it and the other never gets it. Birds near a bird with papiloma in separate cages can come down with it. I hope Murphy has a strong immune system and that the peppers will help. I know it has arrested it in some birds....but not all of them.

My experience with papiloma can be found at: http://www.theaviary.com/papiloma.shtml In some cases, it is very painful and in the case of my female, the humane thing near the end was to put her down and save her from further suffering. Her quality of life up to that point was good. The male died at home. Many times papiloma turns to cancer and the bird can experience quite a bit of pain when that happens.

Some birds live for a long, long time with it so do not give up hope. Macaws and Amazons are both prone to this disease.

Joanie Doss / The Amazing Amazons

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Her weight sounds perfect for a Chaco. I have seen healthy, well-fleshed aestivas as low as 280 grams. They were so petite and cute. Some of those big male Chacos can run 600 grams so you can see there is a wide range in size when you say Blue Front.

Joanie Doss / The Amazing Amazons

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Each of my birds is treated as an individual when I train. Each one
is trained a little differently to suit their personality.

There are so many little things that spell success or failure in
training. How near or how far a certain bird is to the prop, what
side of the prop he is on, and most of all quickly being able to see
what his problem is in not being able to do the trick and then fixing
it before the wrong way becomes a habit or you and the bird become too frustrated.

When you are able to do this, you can train a bird very quickly to do
a trick. Each bird reacts differently to learning a trained behavior
and a trainer has to understand the bird and use his personality to
achieve the goal.

Pepper and I have been together for so long that I can read him like a book.....and he can read me as well. I have been training him for
about 20 years now so we do know each other pretty well. TJ has been with me for 13 years of training and he is pretty good to train as well. 

The two worse ones are Kodiak and Sidney. Kodiak because he gets too afraid at times and Sidney because everything gets him overly excited. These two birds are the youngest ones as well. Maggie falls in between the two groups.

Another good point too is never get frustrated. When you start to
feel yourself get warm, it is time to stop. If you continue, you will
only make matters worse.

Joanie Doss / The Amazing Amazons

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