13. Happy 33rd Birthday Sassy (my Amazon Parrot)

Sassy hatched out 33 years ago today & 12 weeks later he became part of my family. I had been wanting a Yellow Nape Amazon, I had a Mealy Amazon & Cockatiels at the time. I was telling friends, coworkers I was looking for a Yellow Nape Amazon. It took a year (at least) & I was contacted by a couple who had 3 Amazon babies & 2 were still available. To this day I don’t know who to thank for giving my info to them. They said it was through someone at his work at Fermilab, but didn’t know who it was. I met the birds & I picked one out, but that was not the one I came home with. I was picked by the baby bird that became my “Sassy”. I was sitting on the floor & he was doing everything to get my attention from crawling on me, to grabbing at my clothes. We all agreed it is best to let an animal pick you & I was picked.

I didn’t know his gender at the time, & Sassy meant ‘vigorous & high spirited’ & that fit. He was still being supplemented with hand-feeding so for a few weeks I hand fed him & this helped us bond more. When his 30 day quarantine period was done, he moved into the living room with my other birds. I always recommend a quarantine period with new birds to be sure no illness that could be a risk to the rest of the flock. Birds are great at hiding illness and injury when they feel threatened or fearful.

I had Sassy’s sexed & found out he was a He, I was surprised, but it didn’t matter. Sassy was a tame bird & he visited a local private school & the students enjoyed that. Sassy went to some bird club meetings with me. DNA sexing can be done with a blood sample or feathers using a kit like this: https://amzn.to/3ES81UV

Sassy has about a 50 word vocabulary, he knows when to use some of them. I have never heard him say my name, but quite a few others have heard it. He says “hello” when the phone rings & yells “hi” if I don’t answer it soon enough. I had a young lady who would help me with my foster pets when I had like 10-15 on top of my own pets. She would walk in the bird room and Sassy would wolf whistle and say “hi baby” every time she came to help. He laughs when he is being naughty and not listening. Last night as an example it was time for him to go back in his cage for bed. He knows what I mean when I say “back inside” but he was saying “hi Sassy” & then laughing while playing with a toy on Ringo’s cage. He found out a friend of mine would laugh if he poked her in her side while sitting on the sofa, so he did it over & over.

Ringo is Sassy’s roommate & I adopted him a year ago last Oct. Sassy was so lonely after my Amazon Corkie died at 37 years old. They were roommates, not buddies like he is with Ringo. I wanted a senior Amazon like Sassy that was needing a home. I put the word out & I heard about Ringo & since he joined our family Sassy is so much happier. Sassy has always lived around other Amazons & most birds like having other birds around that are similar in size. My small birds were often a little scared of the large birds unless raised around them.

Sassy & Ringo enjoy hanging out on their cages or walking around on the floor their room, which is pretty bird proofed. They have a rope ladder so they can get on & off their cages. I gave up trying to convince them to stay on top of their cages, even though there are lots of toys to chew on & play with near them. They like to chew cardboard boxes, so I give them boxes they can chew on. I have dogs so they have a room where the door can be shut & they are safe from my dogs when they are out.

A BIG HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY SASSY