Read this story about Rio the Blue-fronted Amazon by Josh.

This is a story that I have never told before.

I first locked eyes on this gorgeous Blue-fronted Amazon called Rio when I was working for the pet shop that he was being sold at.

He will be celebrating his second hatchday on the 10th August this year.

At the early part of his life he was originally bought for a young child who obviously didn’t know anything at all about the needs and requirements that Parrots need.

Hand reared

Rio was a hand reared Parrot so he wouldn’t have bitten anyone but because he growled at his first owners it put them off of him and then kept him locked in his cage.

His wings were clipped, and because of that neglect that he had from such an early age he did then of course turn aggressive towards humans.

The mum of the child thought that enough was enough and rang the owner of the pet shop to come and collect Rio.

Once he had collected Rio even he was scared of the poor misunderstood baby Amazon. Later on when was Rio in the shop he had seen all the other Parrots and Parakeets come and go from the shop.

Once I started working at the pet shop and I first saw him it didn’t take a lot of convincing from my colleague, who was telling me to buy Rio as she saw that I loved him and was confident around him.

Aggressive

Once I got him home I found out that he was cage aggressive. He was my first ever Parrot.

I didn’t really know much about them but I knew that it was time for him to be removed from his cage and to permanently live on a Parrot stand where he was out of his comfort zone in order for me to try to tame him again.

It wasn’t long before he knew that I wasn’t going to mess around and be scared of him and he knew that as I endured so many bites from him and I didn’t even flinch.

He finally saw me as his true love and that he shouldn’t fear me, so he let me finally hold him and to cuddle him for the very first time.

Confidence

I then had to teach him how to fly because as I had previously mentioned that he was clipped. I thought that he wouldn’t ever be able to fly but in a few very short months he gained the confidence to fly and that’s when I knew that all of my hard work had finally paid off.

I also have Autism so before I had Rio I found it extremely hard to go anywhere by myself or to socialise with anyone.

I wouldn’t even go to the shop that is literally in front of where I live.

World

Rio has also helped me overcome my fears and anxieties of the perception of the world around me.

If I have Rio with me everywhere that I go he makes me forget that I have a fear of being alone outside so effectively Rio has now become my Support Animal and goes absolutely everywhere with me and he is now repaying me for all that I had done for him a year ago.

I got him over all of his fears and we are both thankful for each other and all that we have both done for one another.

He’s now enjoying his life. He now has a massive cage from what he originally had.

He is now never caged and has my bedroom to freely fly around and I have adapted my bedroom to be a safe place for him and it is now effectively his aviary, I only put him away in his cage at 08:00pm every evening.

We also attend Parrot Play Dates once a month where he can be just a Amazon Parrot and not my Support Animal where he can socialise with other Parrots as great as Green-wing Macaws and as small as Cockatiels.

We both really enjoy the Parrot Play Dates as we both get to see other Parrots and people alike.

Needless to say, we would be absolutely lost without each other now.

If you’d like to feature in Keepers Korner get in touch with us in the usual ways.