You aren't at Karaoke night at the local bar, yet someone is singing at the top of their lungs completely off key. You don't own a dog, but there's one barking in the other room at the people walking past your house. It's a nice quiet day at home, but someone is screaming like a bad actress in a horror movie. It must be a Yellow Front Amazon.
Where else would we start with an Amazon? They are 101% personality. Their sole purpose for existing is to perform, melodrama is their middle name. When I first got into Amazons, my neighbors used to think that someone was getting attacked at my house. I finally brought them over to show them my feathered green lunatics as they swung from their toys screaming bloody murder. Of course once they saw for whom they had unknowingly been performing for, they were happy to scream louder for them.
Few would argue that Amazons are great talkers, screamers and teasers of your unsuspecting cat or dog. What doesn't get mentioned often enough is their apparent love of singing,. A Few Good Birds has only one pair of Amazons. Sam & Cloe both had fifty word vocabularies and two songs within their first year. Sam's personal favorite is Popeye the Sailor Man, complete with "toot toot", while Cloe prefers the more interactive Old MacDonald's Farm. Both learned their songs in a matter of days and still do daily rousing renditions of their favorite tunes. If you decide to teach your Amazon a song, first decide how you want to hear them sing it (over and over again). Amazons have very strong mimicking abilities. If you teach it to them out of key, guess what you're going to hear sung back? For some reason, most Amazons seem to like opera in particular, and they sing it in the most beautiful voice you would ever want to hear, unless of course you don't care for opera.
Drowned rat comes to mind here. My Amazons like to be sprayed with a very intense stream of water, and they expect me to keep spraying until every last feather is wet. It doesn't matter what activity they were engaged in when I show up with the water bottle, Once they see it, I have 100% of their attention. I find bathing Amazons to be particularly enjoyable because itis so good for them and they enjoy it so much. They express their gratitude by singing and making what I call jungle sounds. Unless it is a really cold day, by Amazons never miss a bath.
Amazons seem to take interaction with other species on a case by case basis. My two used to run and scream in terror when my Mollucan Cockatoo decided to "play" with them, but they showed no fear of my Eclectus Parrot Kermit and would intimidate him whenever the chance arose.
Amazons need a lot a activity to keep from getting fat. A large cage with as much space as possible for toys is recommended. If you do not have room for a large cage, there are a lot of good play stands that would double as a toy area. Amazons like to hang and swing from their toys, so something with multiple level perches would be a good choice.
Amazons are prone to obesity and related health problems. For this reason, their diet should consist of very little seed. Sam & Cloe eat a combination of seed mix, nut mix and pellets along with fruits, vegetables and a daily slice of whole wheat bread. They are big fans of making "soup" with their water, so I use a water bottle to provide them with an ongoing supply of fresh water. Harrisons recently release a spicy version of their maintenance diet and is very popular among birds that normally will not eat pellets.
Yes, they make noise. Do not be fooled by that quiet bird your local bird store. Amazons more than any other species I breed make noise regardless of time of day. Many species keep their chatter to morning and evening. While Amazons loosely fall into this pattern, I find they work themselves into a frenzy whenever the moment hits them. One good thing is that the noise is human noise rather than bird noise. What I mean by that is that the noise is nothing you will ever hear from an Amazon in the wild. The noise pet Amazons make are just loud renditions of whatever they currently find interesting. I do not recommend Amazons for an apartment dweller unless you are on stellar terms with your neighbors.
An entertaining bird with a zest for life personality. You will never be bored.