bird on my shoulder

[mgood01]

Is it necessarily a bad thing to have my blue-fronted amazon female on my shoulder? My boyfriend gets mad at me when I do it, saying she's shouldn't be at eye level with me, that it will lead to behavior issues.

She will scream and fling her food at me until she gets up there. She's even figured out that if she drops her toys she can grab my hand when I put them back up for her and she jumps on, and quickly scrambles up my arm to get on my shoulder.

Occasionally she will get sexually stimulated when she's up there but when that happen I grab her and put her right back on her perch. otherwise she sits quite contentedly, and often will tuck her beak into her back and fall asleep.

[Monica]

If you have no behavoir problems it's okay. Behavoir problems such as over protective, biting, nipping, or sexual behavoirs, not a good idea... just depends on each individual bird.

[CrazyBirdLady]

What I will add is that while it is a convenient place for them to sit, for you and them, not everyone feels good about having a BEAK that close to ears, neck and face and if you are not the only one handling her, you have to take that into consideration. If your boyfriend doesn't want her sitting always on his shoulder, you have to respect that and work with her on only allowing it to happen when you want it, not her.
I have my little Shiloh who loves to sit on my shoulder and ride around that way, but my husband isn't comfortable with her on his shoulder as she does like to bite him. I am working with her now to not be on my shoulder quite as much.
If she's throwing food and a fit to get on your shoulder, perhaps she needs to not be on the shoulder for a while. Her bad behavior is being rewarded by letting her be on your shoulder. Just my 2 cents
Good luck!

[mgood01]

You're absolutely right. It's funny how rereading my own questions forces me to hear myself with a fresh ear. She has been displaying some behavior problems recently. She's very aggressive with my boyfriend, and has bitten him a couple of times. She's his bird, but has completely shifted her bonding from him to me. She just can't seem to get close enough to me.

I think she needs to go cold turkey without the shoulder for a while and we'll see how that works. Just means I'm cleaning a lot of pellets off the ground, but if it makes her a little sweeter I suppose it's worth it.

[CrazyBirdLady]

If she likes throwing her food, maybe a foraging toy so she has to work to get the food and will want to eat it rather than throw it at you? Though I'm sure there will be a bit of a tantrum at first
Sounds like hormones are at work with her at the moment.

[Graehstone]

Anyone that tells you it's Ok to have a Parrot on your shoulder still has both eyes and only two nostrils and two ears and no facial scars.
If your bird is displaying behavioral problems you are only asking to get nailed.
You have to realize that they do not have hands with which to warn you or even ward you off, they have no feet to kick you in the butt should you do something stupid, the only thing they do have that can make an impression is their beak.
Not every bite is one that was intended to hurt you, rather there are many that are done to warn you or to scold you or even protect you.
If at any time she is on your shoulder and your boyfriend is near the longer you all stay together in sight of each other the more dangerous it is going to get because your bird is on high alert and will warn you should the "evil one" get too close.
Here is something I posted at another place that might help shed a little light on the subject.

Well it was bound to happen some time and tonight it did. Gracie nailed me on the upper lip and hung on for dear life. It happened so fast that the next thing I knew she was on the floor and I was whistling Dixie through a hole I didn’t have before. I picked her up and put her back to the play stand before heading to the bathroom to see what kind of damage was done. The tip of her beak tore a nice sized triangle into the outside of my upper lip and the bottom of her beak left a surprisingly shallow gash on the inside.
Lucky for me I have a hairy upper lip so no one will ever see the botch job I did with the stitches I tried to put in myself while everything was still numb.
Now I will have to go through life with a permanent snarl … Arghhhh, all I need now is an eye patch, but hey, I have parrots, they’ll work on that too I am sure.
Seriously though, I didn’t try to sew myself up again, although it might have needed a stitch or two, but I sure as heck am not going to go to the emergency room at the VA hospital that’s for sure.
So I put some Mercurochrome Merbromin solution which is an antiseptic and will use Prep H if the swelling gets too bad.
I'll just never shave again.
I just can’t get a break some weeks.
Poor Gracie was probably more scared than I was. I know why it happened and again it was all my fault. Gracie is a very jealous feathered wife and I had just gotten done schmoozing with Cleo after having taken her out from her “Time-out” and was walking past Gracie and threw her a kiss like I always do and complacency got the better of me. I should have known something was wrong when I saw her shoot at me like a rocket with blood in her eyes and steam coming out of her nostrils.
I just thought it might like be an after effect of the Oxycodone that I had taken for my back pain again tonight, so I didn’t pay any attention to the fangs she developed on the way to my face either.
All joking aside, Gracie is one of the great loves of my life and it is astounding what I can do with this bird (when Katrin isn’t around that is) and she adores me. But I didn’t pay attention and I forgot to play by the rules and I paid for my blunder.
Some lessons need to be learned over and over again and sometimes they hurt.
Going to watch some TV and sulk for the rest of the night and hopefully pass out soon.

Please don't get me wrong and think I am "jumping" on you because I am not, I just hate to see anything happen when it could have been avoided.
I know that there will be some folks that will tell you they had their bird for "x" amount of years and nothing ever happened. Good for them and more power to them for leading a charmed life.
There are others that do not.
Just my two cents for what it's worth.
Hope everything turns out for the three of you.

[mgood01]

Yeah, I think there is a little spring fever at work here as well. We hear so much about what the male Amazons are like when they're hormonal, but don't really see much about the girls.

She's normally so sweet, but has been extremely restless and needy for the last few weeks.

[bekfreak]

I wouldn't put anything larger than a cockatiel on my shoulder. I allowed a Sennie who was mushing over me shoulder rights...he was the only one at BP that i allowed the shoulder. The server macaw who mushed nono...he gave my thumb a good test bite, I made no fuss just made my thumb too big for the beak, and he let go...no broken skin, no rewarded macaw either. :)

[mgood01]

Yikes. That's quite a story. I see how you can be easily lulled into a sense that since the bird is so crazy about you they won't bite. That's it, no more shoulder. She gets lots of love and attention so I'm sure she'll adjust.

[CrazyBirdLady]

I wouldn't put anything larger than a cockatiel on my shoulder

Ever been bitten by a lovebird on the neck or ear? Hens especially can be very aggressive. No mature lovebird hens are allowed on my shoulders.

She might be a bit grouchy about the change, but lots of distraction and other love will work fine in the long run.