Where You Can Get a Perfect Amazon Parrot

If you decide you want to buy a Amazon parrot, you can probably find it in pet stores and breeders.

Pet stores: The novice parrot keeper, especially, should first look for his or her new house pet in a well-managed pet store. Most of the Amazons sold there were caught in the wild, in their native habitats, and sent on order, by plane, to a wholesaler (a direct importer). There the parrots went through a legally established quarantine period (30 days at this time), during which they underwent psittacosis immunization. The quarantine stations were tended and supervised by veterinarians; the birds were fed a medicated feed as required by the U.S. Public Health Service. After this procedure, which was very stressful for the parrot, the birds were released to the individual dealers. Parrots are no longer imported into the United States from the wild. You may be able to purchase an occasional older parrot that was imported years ago, before the ban on importation took place, but the average person will only have access to parrots bred in the United States.

Since importation ceased, there has been a great increase in breeding parrots in the United States, and buying one of these birds offers many advantages: They have not gone through quarantine with its regimes of heavy medication, and, in addition, if they have been hand-fed they will be quite tame. Best of all, by buying a domestic bird, we are not depleting the parrots found in the wild.

Breeders: Many parrot fanciers would like to get their Amazons from a breeder. Unfortunately, at this time there are not many Amazon breeders. There are dedicated Amazon fanciers who erratically and often purely by accident succeed in raising several young birds, but there can be no talk of breeding in any real sense. The total number of Amazon babies born in the United States and Europe can only be guessed at The possibility of getting a locally raised Amazon is conceivable, especially in such states as Florida and California. Sometimes, though, pet dealers and the few "breeders'' place advance orders for all the expected broods for the next year. The advantages to having an Amazon born in human captivity are obvious For one thing, buying the bird does not decimate the natural supply; for another, the Amazon is already well adapted to our climate. Such a parrot is less shy of humans because of its experiences. It is to be hoped that in the future the number of Amazons born in captivity will increase markedly.