(1/1) After staying with us for more than eleven years, Fia and Youschi are becoming fond of each other. Luckily, they are both imprinted on humans and do nothing more than stay close together. They do not even preen or touch each other, so the risk for getting a hybrid is minimal.

(4/1) Being indoors and out of the cage means lots of work for the big ones provided they want their precious stuff intact.

It is time for the annual picture of the Honeysuckle. It is amazing, after nearly two months of temperatures almost all the time well below zero and lots of snow, it still provides green leaves.

(16/1) There is one bad side effect of them bonding. Fia, even if not understanding why, is noisy, searching for a nest and claiming her turf. The first part is the worst, all that noise gets all the other going and we have six happy noisy parrots. Painful!

(24/1) So... what can we say about the Double Yellowheaded Amazon as a pet, are they soft and easy to do with? Yes and, no it depends. You won't get a straight answer from us when it is not that simple. An adult male as Gruff is dominant from the first day he was grown up, say from when he was six months... At the same time they are very sensitive and read us as an open book. If we act, even the slightest, strange or the situation in any way indicates possible danger when we try to lift him, he will back off and you must wait a couple of minutes before trying to regain his trust. Another solution can be to bribe him with something (positive reinforcement) or in any other way make him understand that there is no danger and wanting to come, e.g. pick up Manne first that Gruff never leave. Over time you can build up a deep confidence between you and everything works as a dream and you can pick him up any way you want.

He seems to be the brightest among our flock and never backs away from any of the others except for Morran where he sometimes gets confused and backs away. Is he fond of her? On the other hand, he can be extremely aggressive, claiming his turf or when attacked, ask Youschi about it... Then we have another side of this, he is hand reared and extremely used to humans and our hands etcetera. The good thing is that we can play with him any way he or we want without any problem. He loves to play with your fingers or in your palm and is seldom stressed by being grabbed or locked down. The bad thing is that he also understands what hands are and knows where to bite and does not back away if really angry.

So the situation changes for many reasons, over the seasons with mating periods and molting. Depending on the latest week's situation, has he been part of our daily life or have we been away too much? Where are we, at home next to his cage and claimed territory or elsewhere on new neutral ground where he always is nice and well behaving? Have our mutual trust grown and is high or are we on a lower level and finally, is the remaining part of the flock signaling that everything is ok and they are not in distress e.g. in a towel having their claws cut?