Hi!
I have 4 pair of orange Wings and I love them. I always have. I think they 
are very under-rated as a species and as pets. I have not been successful 
breeding them but have bred Blue Front amazons which are somewhat similar.
I started our about 9 or 10 years ago and acquired Ruby a tame and talking 
OWA.
Ruby is a very nice male and is very even tempered. He only went through one 
fit of raging hormones about 6 years ago and he attacked a male cockatiel at 
that time. Currently Ruby is in a vey large cage with another male Groucho 
who I got in '87 and who is a wild caught that was previously abused by a 
child. he barely ever tolerated handling or human attenton. He will take 
banana chips from people and step up on a stick if on the floor and backed 
into a corner.
Also there is Daphne, an overweight s/s female that is tame and talks that I 
got in'89. I hope to pair her to Ruby. She is a piggy and lives for food. 
Refuses pellets. Also there is Maxine, another s/s female wild caught that 
is/was tame, but is more skittish of people. I hope to pair her to Groucho.
The other guys aren't named yet. I've had 'em a year or so, but just signed 
the agreement to buy them out.
Like I said,Ruby and Daphne talk and can be real clowns. Daphne is really 
pushy.She is loud and pushes others out of the way for food. She is 
boisterous and likes to play. Grouch and Maxine are a bit more sedate and 
hy.
Matter of factly,before we got as involved in the birds we used to do a lot 
of "living history re-enactments" and did some American Revolutionary War 
stuff(18th cent) on a 2/3 size reproduction of a 3 masted wooden sailing ship 
docked here in Jacksonville, Fl. It had 4 cannon on it and 3 of them worked. 
I could hold Ruby and Daphne with very little pressure to their toes while 
the cannon were fired (me on the deck of the ship on water) and the birds 
weren't upset at all! They did well around crowds and were good for 
parrot/petting demos. Groucho and Maxine are the oposite though.
Like I said Groucho was once abused and all I had to do was show him a 
leather glove and he would fall off his perch backwards and go ballistic 
wiwth terror.
Any animal needs time to develop trust. It sounds like you have overcome lots 
of barriers to pet your birds head!Keep it up! Find someting your birds 
likes. I hate to use food as an example because OWA's can get so fat so easy 
and so much of what they like makes them fat! But perhaps you can find 
something heathy that your bird finds interesting in shape, taste, color, 
texture or something and get it's interest and maybe even use it in very 
short, like 10 minutes, training/trust sessions. Go somewhere safe and calm 
without distractions and make this the bird encounter space. Perhaps the 
bathroom (close the toilet seat--nolifejackets). Make sure the birds wings 
are clipped properly.Use a T stand or perch stand or even chair. talk to the 
bird, pet the bird and use the "step up" command eventually. Do things 
gradually.If you have to catch the bird offer a hand or a dowel stick(1 inch 
thick) or use a towel to wrap her in rather than using a glove.  Also keep 
sessions very short a couple times a day. Perhaps at first you can just have 
her wings clipped and open her cage and just let her come out on her own and 
get a feel for her home for a while. Talk to her. Oh, sometimes birds are 
afraid of new toys and stuff no matter how cool they look to us. They may 
flap ir scream like you're killing them.
Perhaps you can get her to eat some Pretty Bird pellets. You may even have to 
let her see you eat one or some. MY fiance Ed tastes all the bird food, 
especially pellets. Anyway, PB makes an Amazon daily light pellet that I give 
my chubbetes when they are porky. Daphne is gonna get it soon, too, as I'm 
setting them up to breed soon and she is way too fat.
Try to cut back gradually a bit on the parrot mix in her diet to some lower 
fat pellets, some veggies (but remember too many carbos are stored as fat) 
and maybe even cut some cockatiel or parakeet mix into the parrot mix to 
lighten it up a bit from an all sunflower diet. I didn't catch what you were 
feeding her.
Not all Amazons are rowdy, it all just depends on individuality.
Sounds like you are doing good to me. Good luck. OWA's are great birds!
Barbara
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