How to transition a quaker out of the cage?
We (family of 5) just adopted a rehomed Quaker that is about 3 years old. He/She is in an ~18X18X30 cage. We've had "Louis" for a bout a week now. At first he was a bit nippy, but he's warmed up quickly to us and has become quite the chatter in a short time. Says- Good bird, Pretty bird, Good boy, good girl, whatcha doing, uh oh, whistles and mimics laughs.
I asked the prior owner and got the look of disbelief when I asked if she picked up Louis,,, the only answer that was muttered was soemthing about a glove so understood the real answer was "no"
He's a bit territorial with the cage but has gotten better about letting us pet and scratch him, I am also able to put my fingers on his legs and feet without eliciting a nip.
So how do we go about trying to let him out of the cage? I've handled big parrots long ago as part of a bird show (but they were already trained). I am a bit out of my element here and have bad memories of being gouged by a big Hyacinth Macaw.
We (family of 5) just adopted a rehomed Quaker that is about 3 years old. He/She is in an ~18X18X30 cage. We've had "Louis" for a bout a week now. At first he was a bit nippy, but he's warmed up quickly to us and has become quite the chatter in a short time. Says- Good bird, Pretty bird, Good boy, good girl, whatcha doing, uh oh, whistles and mimics laughs.
I asked the prior owner and got the look of disbelief when I asked if she picked up Louis,,, the only answer that was muttered was soemthing about a glove so understood the real answer was "no"
He's a bit territorial with the cage but has gotten better about letting us pet and scratch him, I am also able to put my fingers on his legs and feet without eliciting a nip.
So how do we go about trying to let him out of the cage? I've handled big parrots long ago as part of a bird show (but they were already trained). I am a bit out of my element here and have bad memories of being gouged by a big Hyacinth Macaw.