[.uk] Amazon Parrots Complete Owner's Manual (ISBN 0764110365)

• Barrons Amazon Parrots

Nice Pictures, but the information is very out of date:
I bought this book to help me learn more about the amazona genus that I was considering as a pet. But what I found was a book written before 1992 which was around the time importation was banned and hand raising and breeding birds within the United States had became more common. This resulted in very little information about todays common amazons. Also, this book described all the the precautions one must take to ensure the saftey of your wild caught bird, precautions that are now just plain useless! Though if what you are looking for is a picture book about amazons, this is almost a good book for you.

Disappointing and outdated; wonderful pictures though!:
As a new Amazon owner I was looking for a species-specific book that would give me detailed information about my blue-front. Unfortunately this book seemed superficial, simplistic, and somewhat out-dated (with some information actually contrary to what is widely recommended now). It has some wonderful pictures, and fragments of useful species information, but overall I think there are better general care books available (certainly more detailed), and this book's Amazon-specific information was sketchy.

Amazon Parrots Complete Owner's Manual:
After purchasing just about every Amazon Parrot book out there and being disappointed, I found this one. Instead of pretty photos and general narrative fluff, this book has good solid information for anyone interested in the species. Thank you.

Very disappointing, and dangerous:
The book not only provides scant and outdated information, some of it is erroneous, and quite a part of it harmful. I am quoting the ones I can remember: amazons, like all parrots, do NOT need to be fed grit; not only cherry, but a lot of other types of fruit tree wood are poisonous to parrots, including apple and apricot; acorns and celery are both harmful to parrots, and should not be fed to them. All in all, this is a guide to quickly and painfully disposing of your pet, and ought to be avoided. I don't give it one star mainly because it has some pretty pictures.

Misleading, confusing and out-dated:
I also found this book extremely outdated (the original version was written in 1987 and there has been an enormous amount of research and experience with captive parrots since then that has revolutionized the way parrots are perceived and kept), with much information that is contradictory, confusing or incomplete. This is indeed a "dangerous" book for someone who knows little or nothing about Amazons (or parrots in general) and is looking for advice and information. Examples: In considering "Amazons as pets" the "warnings" are incomplete and/or euphemistic (most Amazons will outlive their care-takers; they not only "soil things", they are outright destructive if not constantly supervised; owning an Amazon, or any parrot, is a major committment to a labor-intensive responsibility that is time-, energy-, money- and attention-consuming and should not be undertaken lightly); the "Advice for buying" is terrible!! and any parrot book written these days, especially for the American market, is not complete if it does not mention the thousands of parrots that are given up every year to shelters and rescues - many of these birds are desperately in need of a good home and can be adopted by serious people; under "Dangers for your Amazon", fumes from Teflon pans in the kitchen are not mentioned and these can be speedily fatal; the diet advice is simply awful!; advice to breed to preserve the species that are threatened with extinction is completely wrong - parrots bred in captivity do not contribute in any way to preserving the species, as is now recognized by conservationists. At least one of the addresses given under "Information" is completely out of date; a large number of the references have nothing to do with Amazon parrots, but are about budgies, African grays or Australian parrots - Amazons, as the name implies, come from South and Middle America. Yes, the pictures are lovely, but the incorrect and misleading information make this book one that should be removed from the shelves. Anyone looking for good up-to-date parrot information can best consult the Internet - there are a myriad of excellent sites, with forums for questions. Here you can also get recommendations for books that will really be helpful, informative and up-to-date. Be sure to look at many RELIABLE sites to get a good over-view the pro's and con's of parrot owning before beginning - we are talking about living, intelligent beings here, not playthings.