Charlie the hair puller

Hello everyone,

First time posting. I have a female Quaker parrot named Charlie. I have had her for a year now, and she is just over a year old. I am having some issues with her pulling hair. When we first got her she would preen us a little bit, but it was super gentle, and now its non stop and not gentle at all. Every time she's out of her cage she will just pull at everyone's hair. Shes pretty relentless. I can take her off my shoulder 10-20 times but she will persistently come back to pull my hair. I do try and play with her and distract her with toys etc, but she has never really been very interested in those things. We do preen her, and she will allow it, but she also has a very short temper and will be enjoying her preen one minute and then all of a sudden will snap and try and bite us. I've tried putting a perch on top of her cage with some toys and food, hoping that when she has her outside time that she will just kind of hang out up there, but she is only interested in sitting on my partner and I and trying to pull our hair!

She eats pellets, with the occasional fruit and nut mix and she gets a few treats here and there.
She has a bed time, to ensure she is getting all the sleep she needs.
She has her bath time , which she loves.
We try to get her to play with toys, and teach her tricks and things to stimulate her, but she just isn't interested.

Is there something we could be doing wrong?

I would be grateful for any kind of advise or tips on how we can stop her from fixating on pulling hair.

Thank you

have you tried hanging some newspaper strips from the top of her cage?
Maybe something she can shred would help.
I never had a problem with hair pulling but....
My RLA would turn and byte in the middle of getting scratched around the neck.

It took time for me to clue in to her very subtle signals that she was about to turn and bite.
She would kind of freeze up. There would be a tenseness to her body like a coiled spring and them snap crunch ouch!

that's the best I got. Lot's of people on the forum that have Quakers, I am sure the will offer better advice.

My Sunny Ollie used to bite at my eatings like it was his job. I even lost a pair with him pulling on them all the time (my $3000 diamond hoops, ugggg). I decided it was time to break the habit! I would have him on my shoulder and tell him "no" and put my finger on his beak when he went for my earings. He'd be annoyed and yell at me as soon as I got my finger near his beak and said no. Soon all I would have to do is say no and he would yell out of annoyance and stop biting my earings. About a week later he didn't want anything to do with them...now he will go after them every so often and I just tell him no and he'll sqwauk iin protest and immediately stop! I hope this helps. To be fair my bird Ollie is the best bird who was ever born on this planet and listens to me and does what I tell him without fault. I have 2 birds and my other one is not as easy to teach wanted behaviors as well as Ollie is so I hope this works for your bird.

Hi thanks for posting!
Quakers can be very dominant birds, especially when they start to mature and hit puberty, to prevent yourself from becoming the quakers property in a sense, you should never let the bird on your shoulder, many people do this and some do not any have any problems but it's always a good idea not to practice this technique. When handled the bird should always be held lower than you! You will also notice as the Quaker ages that it will become territorial over its cage and its toys as well, that is why it's a good idea to have a separate play area and separate toys away from the cage. This would be neutral ground for the birdy and it would be less inclined to defend anything that the bird thinks belongs to him. The best way to prevent any unwanted biting would be to establish a time out for him, no physical contact and no shouting. The way I did this was : Pesci my Quaker would have free roam to the top of the cage whenever he wanted (except for when it was time for bed) meaning that his cage door would be open. When I put him in his cage during the day and shut his door after acting up, it renders his ability to move freely wherever he wants, he definitely caught on quickly because he loves to be on the top of his cage, I would not encourage any toys that mimic hair, I do believe this will just make the bird more interested in those type of things. The best way to prevent hair pulling is to not let the bird on your shoulder and give it a timeout if the bird persist to climb up and grab your hair. I don't blame the bird and it is a very normal behavior, hair can be a very interesting toy for the Quaker! Hope this helps! Good luck!

Fun fact: did you know that you can find these guys flying around in New York in flocks? I couldn't imagine being in that big city and seeing my wonderful monk parrot flying around! How cool!

I don't have any advise for you. I just want to say my lovie bites my eyebrows. She preens my hair and I think she is trying to preen my eyebrows. Instead it's a bite. She also bites my ears for no apparent reason. Oh and she will land on my hand then bite me. She's getting better though. She only bites my hands sometimes.

Call me a bad parront if you want but I let her eat a bit of Pringles occasionally. It's the only non bird food she sees as food. She landed on me while I was eating one. She bit it out of fear or anger and realized it tasted good. She ate a piece of Pringles out of my hand today and only pinched me once

So my main point is patience and patience pays off. Also not to give up. She was abused in a previous home ( not the one before me). I've had her for a year and she just recently started landing on me and preening me.

You might try wearing a scarf if it doesn't freak your fid out.

Quakercrackerjacker said:

Quakers can be very dominant birds, especially when they start to mature and hit puberty, to prevent yourself from becoming the quakers property in a sense, you should never let the bird on your shoulder, many people do this and some do not any have any problems but it's always a good idea not to practice this technique. When handled the bird should always be held lower than you!

Click to expand...

I wouldn't consider quakers, or any parrot for that matter, to be 'dominant'. Birds who bite often bite from fear or lack of understanding. Many birds unfortunately are even taught to bite. Through proper training techniques (and *NOT* dominance/alpha type techniques), these issues can be avoided or even redirected.

Height equals safety - not dominance. Confident birds are fine being down low, but birds who are not confident prefer being up high.

Quakercrackerjacker said:

You will also notice as the Quaker ages that it will become territorial over its cage and its toys as well, that is why it's a good idea to have a separate play area and separate toys away from the cage. This would be neutral ground for the birdy and it would be less inclined to defend anything that the bird thinks belongs to him.

Click to expand...

This, too, could also be avoided through positive reinforcement training techniques.

Quakercrackerjacker said:

The best way to prevent any unwanted biting would be to establish a time out for him, no physical contact and no shouting.

Click to expand...

This might sound strange or even silly... but the best way to prevent bites is to not get bitten in the first place. By "allowing" a bird to bite, you are reinforcing that need to bite. The more times a bird bites, the more it can become a habit and the bird learns not to warn you that they *will* bite.

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html


Now, if a bird *IS* biting you, it is a good idea to get them off of you! If you are near the cage, fine! Set them down on the cage! But if you aren't near the cage then don't take them to their cage! Instead, set them down on a chair, a couch, the floor if nothing else is immediately close! Get them off of you and try and think how you can avoid that situation in the future.