as my wf amazon matures what

[pi77]

will i notice??? as far as changes.

i think my amazon fred (pictured below) is just over 2 years old. the people i got him from will not return my emails where i asked them his exact birthday. i do remember they said he was born in 07 but not the exact month and day.

this surpises me because i actually thought they cared about fred. i guess they did not. lucky for him AND me. i love my fred.

i have had fred for almost 6 months now.

anyhoo.... my question has to do with his maturing physically.

is he already mature or will he still go through changes? what changes can i expect.

right now he seems to be a bit ungainly like a teenaged boy. sometimes he appears to be a bit clumsy while other times he suprises me with his speed and dexterity. is this normal for a zone his age? he does not seem to bite as hard as my love bird lola. is he just being nice? am i underestimating him? he does not chew at all.

will his muscles continue to strengthen and will he become more coordinated as he get older or is he all that he can be right now?

reason i ask is because it does worry me a bit the way he swings his head sometimes. there was a time when he was falling off the perch (according to his former owners he would fall off the perch when he slept sometimes). i have not seen him fall recently.

what about his feathers and coloring? can i expect changes with them?

as far as sleeping goes, he sleeps all over the cage. mostly on his perch while leaning against his rope toy but he will also sleep while grabbing the side of the cage and occasionally he will sleep on the bottom of the cage. he does NOT tuck his head under his wing.

i have changed his diet from before i got him. they fed him mostly raw peanuts and seeds.

now he gets 3-1 ratio of natural zupreem pellets to high quality seed mix. he also gets millet, various green vegetables, frozen mixed vegetables, semi cooked sweet potatoes, unseasoned scrambled eggs with shells and NO peanuts. he now has a large soap bone on the bottom of his cage to chew on any time he wants.
he got some baked chicken breast last night and he gobbled it up like NO tomorrow. no salt.

he does not have a good access to unfiltered light. as a matter of fact he is in a bit of a dark area of my home. i hope to correct this soon with an avian light.

i have been using the following link for feeding birds as a reference so i can improve his diet even further....

Is Your Parrot REALLY Eating A Good Diet?

he has never been to an avian vet yet but that will be corrected before the end of the year.

as i noted he has upchucked on me a couple a times and his biting is decreasing in force and he is doing more exploritory biting now. i try and let him play with my hand for an hour a day on my sofa. i let him come to me which seems to have worked better than when i try an force the issue.

he is now letting me put him on his back. i am able to grab him briefly without him biting and last night he allowed me to scratch his neck for the first time. PROGRESS.

when his bites become harder i figure its time to end our play session and let him relax back in his cage. hopefully over time they will increase in duration.

i also found out that he likes to dance. when i clap my hands he fans his tail feathers an bobs his head while moving his feet.

when he is on the couch he is always trying to put one foot on my hand almost like he wants to step up but he will NOT step up yet. he is dowel trained at the moment.

any comments and suggestions are appreciated.

thanks

pi

[Newticus]

You pic is a little small to get a good look at him, but at two years it should be visable if he is a male or female.
Males have red that runs from their shoulder, down the eadge of the wing. Females do not. The white band on his forhead may continue to change for a while longer (gaining and loosing white feathers)

Sleeping on the bottom of his cage is not a good thing. Neither is being overly clumsy.
Parrots at two years are considered physically to be adults. There may be some small finessing of beak skills and stuff, but by now he should be fully muscled and dexteritous.
- Note that I mean physically adult, not sexually or mentally an adult.

I would strongly suggest getting in to the vet ASAP rather then waiting till the end of the year. There could be a number of reasons why he doesn't have a lot of balance.

hope this helps, good luck

Melanie