What made you want a Quaker?

I hope it's ok that I've been posting a lot. I had a new baby a few months ago and became a SAHM. I have more time to spend with Yoshi and it's made me appreciate him even more!

So what made you decide to get a Quaker?

For me, it started about 17 years ago when I worked at a small pet store over the summer. I was 15 years old and mostly in charge of dusting shelves and cleaning empty cages. Occasionally they let me feed the animals but I wasn't allowed to feed the large parrots...or the Quakers! They had one pair of adult Quakers and their cage had so many locks on it. The lady who normally fed them told me to stay away from them because they were "devil birds". She said that Quakers were super aggressive birds and she didn't know why anyone would want them. She said that they had to put all the locks on because the crazy little birds kept escaping and opening other birds cages. For some reason I was intrigued by them. I loved their looks and I was even amused by how angry they seemed whenever I got too close.
For years afterwards I would see Quakers at pet stores and immediately think "devil birds". I even told my husband years ago that I really liked Quakers but would never get one because I wanted a tame bird and I always heard Quakers were mean. Lol.
Luckily I did my own research and decided to dive in! I adore my Yoshi! He's so sweet and adorable.

Please feel free to post as much as you like! Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for quakers, I am a big fan of the little green dragons myself. While I've never met a parrot species I didn't like, quakers are right at the top of my favorites list.

I'm not sure I actively decided to adopt a quaker, my first quaker insisted on adopting me. I absolutely adore Harry, it's hard to explain, she came to me biting, cursing and plucking, of my six parrots, she is the most challenging. I'm not easily embarrassed but Harry has made me blush on many occasions. I make her veterinary appointments a week in advance if possible so I have a few days to build up enough courage to take her in. She's notorious at the vet clinic and I'm sure our DirecTV service person entertains friends with stories of Harry. She's awful, I can't imagine a day without her.

Sammy is the polar opposite of Harry, he's a charming, lovable little character, he sees everyone as potential friends where Harry sees them as possible victims. Quakers are simply amazing in my opinion.

It's good that you ignored the negative stereotypes you heard, did your own research, and found a great little friend in Yoshi . Of course all species have their negatives, but each individual is so different too. I've lived in California all my life, and with Quakers being illegal here, I haven't seen too many of them in person. Over the years I have seen some occasionally nonetheless.

Allee, you know I always love to hear your Quaker stories!

I do want a Quaker so much!
I am lucky to have two awesome amazons and one amazing Macaw but secretly! those little monks are my dream bird.

I think its the coloring and size;
and the shape of the beak and head.
the little black eyes and then the blue on the wings.
and how hearty, feisty and mischievous they look.

I think that I am also intrigued by them because we have colonies of quakers in my neighborhood of Carteret, NJ.

Here is a photo of the nest they build with sticks on the utility pole
View attachment 16591

and on someones house.

View attachment 16592

and a photo of two of the Quakers visiting my bird feeder.

View attachment 16593

I love them and hope they come back so I can trap them and put them in a cage in my house to show them how much I love them (just kidding)

PrimorandMoxi said:

I do want a Quaker so much!
I am lucky to have two awesome amazons and one amazing Macaw but secretly! those little monks are my dream bird.

I think its the coloring and size;
and the shape of the beak and head.
the little black eyes and then the blue on the wings.
and how hearty, feisty and mischievous they look.

I think that I am also intrigued by them because we have colonies of quakers in my neighborhood of Carteret, NJ.

Here is a photo of the nest they build with sticks on the utility pole
View attachment 16591

and on someones house.

View attachment 16592

and a photo of two of the Quakers visiting my bird feeder.

View attachment 16593

I love them and hope they come back so I can trap them and put them in a cage in my house to show them how much I love them (just kidding)

Click to expand...

Is it weird that I feel like I'd freak out more over seeing a flock of wild Quakers than a celebrity?? (Except Jensen Ackles, of course)
But seriously, I know that technically those colonies are invasive and cause damage but I can't help but be intrigued.
I also love how you've had Amazons and a Macaw and say that Quakers are your dream bird. Heck yes!! Lol. I really love their looks too. I love the little grey faces and their big beaks.

I just plain and simple fell in love when I was looking at different types of parrot on google years ago...I was won by the pic of a wild quaker but then I started to read about their character and I wanted a quaker baby so badly. Then I heard where a quaker had saved the life of a little child who was choking and no one from that moment on could talk me out of getting a quaker. I had to wait a few years for my precious Blue girl to be born though as any type of quaker was very hard to get at the time in my area let alone a blue one...I finally found a breeder and had booked PeterPan a whole year before the breeder had her very first clutch of baby quakers...now they are more common here but back then they were rare. I think its their intelligence and ability to communicate (whether they speak or not but Peter Pan does speak quiete a few words and understands what she is saying too), their loyalty and their faithfulness and their courageous nature, their natural engineering abilities and their playfulness as well as their cuddly nature all put together in a little quaker body just swept me off my feet and left me with no option but to fall head over heels in Love. Of course all that first google experience pales into insignificance when I first laid eyes on my baby girl Peter Pan and I still love her more with each passing day.
This is the youtube video about the quaker who saved the baby's life

[ame="https://youtu.be/kIMfyoujL6o"]Quaker Parrot helps save baby's life - YouTube[/ame]

I always thought of having a parrot, my ex wife and I discussed it, but we both knew it was a huge commitment and we'd just had a baby.

Fast forward a decade, she divorced me, but we remained friends. She signed up as a rescue/foster for exotics here in Florida, and shortly after rescuing her Blue/Gold Macaw, she got a call about a neglected and plucking Quaker named A.J. ( a sucky name if ever there was for such an interesting creature.) He'd plucked his wings bare, chewed up his underwings, had tons of scar tissue, and hadn't been out of his cage in 2 years. He was only 5.

Now, I'm disabled, and already have a small dog, kitten, and bearded dragon (Ok the dragon and the kitten belong to my daughter, but still), and I knew what a commitment this would be.

But the poor bird needed SOMEONE who would love him and treat him well. And I wasn't doing anything else, so......He's got some issues, will never fly again, gets grumpy often, but he's getting better.

We got him home, healed him up, changed his awful name to Jarvis, and he's happier than he has been in years. Wouldn't give him up for a million dollars.

Thanks for the contributions to this wonderful thread. Love the new photos and video. It's great to see so much enthusiasm for the incredible quakers.

Very nice to see a Jarvis update! I'm happy to know he is doing so well and now has the life he deserves.

We got ours in an intervention with the prior owner. We've had friends who had big birds (Blue Gold Macaw, amazons, cockatoos) so we sort of knew what to expect. This little girl has all the character of the big birds.

We did not decide to get a Quaker. He decided to get us. He was loose in our neighborhood somehow -- we never found his prior family, so we don't know if he escaped or was released deliberately or what -- and he stopped at our bird feeder and then sat on the roof and squawked at my husband. Hubby called me (I was a few minutes away at my parents' house) and I came home, coaxed the Quaker to hop onto my head, and took him into the house. He's been there ever since. We had no idea what kind of parrot he was until I did a lot of Googling of "green parrot" (do you know how MANY "green parrots" there are?????). We looked for his family. We asked all the neighbors. We searched lost and found ads. He might not even have come from our neighborhood. He's a bird, after all. He could have come from anywhere. And he had been on his own long enough to lose weight from not getting enough to eat. He was so hungry and so relieved to be safe in human care again. He ate and ate and then he slept and slept. Of course, that was just about the last time he was quiet and cooperative. Since then, he's been, as Allee calls them, a green dragon. He bites, he orders me around, he orders the other birds around -- other birds we wouldn't have if he hadn't moved in and made me fall in love with birds, so we've acquired a whole flock since his arrival, much to his disgust. I'd had budgies as a child but it had been years and years since I'd had a bird and I'd forgotten how much personality they have, and Clyde has more than most. He has enough for a half dozen birds his size.

Great story Siobhan I just got 2 Quakers . I handled one at Petco [while I was shopping]. They had never had one there I wanted to see what he was like . I loved him,so upset for being turned off by what you read about them. I heard they were going to ban getting them in my state. So I thought ,Im going to do this . The green one was already spoken for . So I knew a breeder and he had babies [I put down a deposit]. Ended up getting a call from Petco that had a Blue one . So I got him too . The breeder called this week and said the baby was weaned . I ended up taking one of his Breeder Caiques he had no use for [sad]. Dave of course wants to shoot me . I have 25 birds {thats enough]. I have had some pass away . Their was empty cages thats why I did thi s

She could have been in the wild for a long time. We thought our bird was going to be a basket case as her previous owners pretty much left her in the cage 24/7 with no real interaction (the husband was never home, the wife was petrified of the bird, and the child was disinterested). When we got her we quickly learned that she'd been well trained by a former owner. She'd apparently not forgotten. My wife is reading the "how to trian your quaker" book and puts her finger out and says step up and the bird instantly complies. She then immediately starts saying "step up" (the former owner claims she never talks) to get attention.

I completely hadn't planned on getting one either. My family and I have had smaller birds multiple times, my sister used to love cockatiels before she got older and lost interest.

After my cockatiel died I was looking for a new bird because I love hearing them chirp every morning. Mostly I was interested in the green conure, but mum wouldn't let me get anything larger than a cockatiel. In the end I got Will. An unsocialized PetSmart bird who is still nervous and flighty but is warming up after two years.

A few months after I got him, I became friends with some people through my mom. When I walked into the house I heard a bird chirping. I walked over and it was a small green parrot named Starry.

Her cage was filthy and she was missing feather. This was the first time I met her. From the get go I loved her. I knew nothing of quakers but still, she was so much more animated than any other animal.

Her cage clearly hadn't been cleaned in months and her food looked disgusting even to me.

Next time I visited these people, they let her out to play. She flew from shoulder to shoulder. Starry was technically the daughters bird (she is my age, we were 12-13) but she was terrified of being bitten so the bird preferred the mum.

After a few visits I was sick of the disgusting cage. To the families amazement, I pulled it outside and scrubbed it clean. That was about 2-3 years ago. When I took her home and power washed her cage... It was disgusting... It is rusty all over as well. As soon as I get the money, she is getting a nicer, larger cage.

They had mentioned before that they should find her a new home and I constantly offered to take her, but they always changed their minds. They did love her.

Starry would get some of their dinner, as well as sitting on the desk as the mom worked. Whenever I went over there she would whistle tunes and screech until somebody sat in front of her cage.


A few days ago, they asked if I would adopt her. I took her home the next day. I've barely had her two days and it has been amazing.

The way she can communicate with me about stuff blows my mind. When I leave the room I can her her screaming until I come back in.

Today, my cousin tried to stroke her and scritch her neck and Starry acted like she was going to attack, but when I went over she snuggled into my hand and made her strange purring sound.

I've spent the last few days researching and spending time with her and I am so happy to have her. The amount of personality is amazing and I feel so silly for never noticing this breed before. She is my love after barely two days to get to know her.

Sorry for the long post!


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