How to List an Amazon Parrot for Adoption in the United States

What should you include when you list an Amazon parrot for adoption?

• Species: blue-fronted, double yellow-headed, yellow-naped, orange-winged, red-lored, lilac-crowned, white-fronted or other, and how you know.
• Age and sex: hatch year or an estimate, and whether a DNA test confirmed the sex.
• Voice: VCA says some Amazons squawk loudly in the early morning and late afternoon; say when yours calls, for how long, and what it says.
• Behavior: stepping up, biting, whom it bonds with and how it changes in spring.
• Health: the last avian vet exam, weight in grams and any history of feather plucking, papillomas or foot problems.
• Diet: pellets, vegetables or seed; adopters need to know if a diet change is still ahead.
• Fee and what goes with it: cage, stand, carrier and toys.

You can post your Amazon for adoption as a free ad on PetzLover, where it appears among Amazon parrots for adoption near the people searching. Keep your phone number and address out of the ad text.

How do you set adoption criteria for an Amazon?

Decide which criteria are firm and which you can discuss: a patient first-time owner may be a better home for a calm adult than an experienced keeper with no time.

What adoption fee should you charge for an Amazon?

A modest fee discourages resellers without pricing out good homes. The Vet Desk gives typical rescue adoption prices of $100 to $300 for Amazons (January 2026); Phoenix Landing lists $350 for Amazons and Foster Parrots asks a $200 placement fee. Breeder prices are much higher, typically $1,000 to $3,000, which is why a free Amazon can attract people who want to resell it. See how to give away an Amazon parrot for free without risk if you are still deciding.

Say what the fee covers, such as the cage, and take it in person at the handover.

How do you screen people who apply to adopt your Amazon?

1. Ask each applicant the same questions: household, housing, schedule, other pets and birds, experience and avian vet.
2. Phone or video call the strongest applicants.
3. See the home, or a video walkthrough, including where the cage will stand.
4. Invite them to meet the bird at least twice, and watch how the bird reacts to each person.
5. Ask how they would handle a bite or a loud morning, and what they would do in breeding season.
6. Check one reference, such as their avian vet.

Turn down anyone who wants the bird mainly for breeding, plans to ship it on, or names a cage too small for an Amazon. Applicants who have read how to adopt an Amazon parrot will expect these questions.

What should an Amazon adoption contract include?

• Both names, the date, the species, band number and sex.
• The fee, and the items and records handed over.
• Care basics: avian vet care, an indoor home or secure aviary and a pellet-based diet.
• A ban on release; Florida, for example, makes it illegal to release nonnative species.
• A return clause: the bird comes back to you, or you are contacted first, if the adopter cannot keep it.
• Agreed follow-up: a call or visit after a week, a month and three months.

Foster Parrots, for example, requires placed birds to be returned to it if the adopter cannot keep them.

How do you hand over an Amazon and follow up?

• Hand over at your home or the foster home, so the adopter sees the bird's routine.
• Give the vet records, a care sheet, a week of its usual food and its favorite toys.
• Explain its body language; VCA warns that an over-excited Amazon flashing its eyes is more prone to bite.
• Remind the adopter to keep it apart from other birds until an avian vet clears it.
• Follow up as agreed, and be ready to help if the first spring is difficult.

For a private placement with a rehoming fee instead of an adoption process, see how to rehome your Amazon parrot responsibly.