Charlie the cranky

Karlyla

New member
Mar 14, 2018
2
0
Hi all, I have a female quaker parrot (Charlie) who is turning 4 tomorrow.
I got Charlie as a baby and never had her wings clipped. I would say the first year of having Charlie she was pretty nice, she had her moments of course, but overall nice. I taught her words, played, and had lots of cuddles. From about 2-2.5 years old she just became more and more cranky. She never originally had a problem with my phone but she now hates it and if anyone is holding a phone including me she will viciously bite. Even if she spots you across the room she will fly/run over to attack! We know now to hide the phones from her but I just cant figure out why she hates it so much. Her mood changes very quickly. I will handle her and she will be happy but all of a sudden she will turn and get cranky and bite me. I really didn't think that by this point leading into her 4th birthday that I would still be having these issues with her.

I dont like the idea of clipping wings, but now Ive been wondering is this where I went wrong ? Every video I have seen of a cuddly little quaker is always one whose wings have been clipped. I feel like shes way too old now for me to even consider clipping her wings as shes flown for so long now. I dont like the idea of doing that to her anyway, but is this perhaps why she behaves the way she does ? I just had her out not too long ago and when it was time to put her back she got nasty and was doing naughty hard bites and flew around the house until I finally caught her. I had to put a towel over her to get her back into her cage as thats how hard she was trying to bite me.

I just dont know why she still gets so cranky and bitey with me. She will let me pat her and do some preening but shes turns in an instant and wants to bite me. I just dont know what to do anymore. Will this just be the way she is forever ? Has anyone had a quaker who is just like this always ?

Just to give a brief rundown of her living situation.
She has a fairly big cage with a fluffy hut that she sleeps in, plenty of toys that she actually doesn't play with anymore. She has ladders and bridges and perches. She used to play with the toys when she was younger. We have a game where I hand her a ball and she tries to drop it off the top of the cage without me catching it. She seems to enjoy that. I give her showers, I try to switch up her food so shes not bored. She gets a steady diet of tropicana pellets and a tiny bit of fruit and nut mix every other day. She likes apples and sweet potato and also give her other fruits and veggies that she enjoys from time to time.

I am at work during the day but try to give her outside time for an hour or 2 every afternoon. In that time she will sit on the top of the couch with us and sometimes shes a good girl and just sits there while we chat to her and play with her but sometimes she turns and will try to bite us. She gets covered up when she sleeps as well.

Early on she was open to learning words but now shes stuck on a few words and hasnt repeated any new words in about a year. Her happy time is around 1-2pm every day when she gets chatty. She is a shy talker though and I usually hear her doing it when Im not around or in another room.

She does have her moments when shes a sweetie and lets cuddle and pet her but as I said she turns quite quickly.

If anything I have said about her routine/living situation sounds like it may be an issue or if you think shes not getting enough of something or too much of something please let me know. I really dont know where Im going wrong here and just want her to be happy.

Thanks :blue2::blue2:
 

noodles123

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2018
8,145
472
Parrots
Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
Fluffy huts are dangerous for health and hormones--- If you must have something like this, you can hang a hammock with a toy slightly over it (and I normally would say that is a bad idea as well, except there is some debate when it comes to quakers specifically). Unlike other species, there is some controversy with regard to shadowy spaces and quakers, vs other species (shadowy spaces are like a MAYBE for quakers and a NO for others). THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, many quakers live without them happily (and there accounts of owners saying that removing these huts decreased cage aggression etc)..In general, with parrots, shadowy spaces can trigger hormonal behaviors but more importantly, when it comes to snuggle huts, your bird can ingest the fibers or become tangled in them (which is why I suggested a more natural and slightly less shadowy alternative if you must). Those huts are a prevalent cause of injury and illness in pet parrots. If you do remove the tent- don't let your bird see you do it or that could make your bird mad at your for a time being lol.

Toweling should also be avoided whenever possible--- you want to work at your bird's pace and do whatever you can to keep from scaring or stressing them (within reason). So you likely need to start back at the basics again as far as rebuilding trust (you will get there).


How much sleep is your bird getting nightly? They need at least 12 hours on a set schedule to regulate mood, hormones etc.
 
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Laurasea

Well-known member
Aug 2, 2018
12,593
10,702
USA
Parrots
Full house
Hi,
The phone takes a lot of your attention. This makes parrots jealous. I has the exact same thing going on with attacks on my phone, telling my phone no! What i did was teach postive association with the phone. I gave its of treats while holding phone. Soon the phone was good, then I slowly gave less treats with phone use. The phone is a non issue now. Of course is still something they would chomp on for fun if given a chance .

On bites here and there, sure its just a beak spare, a correction fir hitting a pin feathers. They aren't out for blood, or vicious attacks. The beak is like there hand they are going yo use it. Especially if you aren't paying attention to body language..ect.. I will link some articles.

Wing clipping doesn't fix behavior, according to several parrot behavior experts.

2 hours out if cage time just isn't enough . Tiu needs to find ways to evolve her in your life more. Have her " own" furniture, places and oer he's for her around the house. Useing rge space above her cage to create a jungle gym for her.

Do not towel her to out her back!!! This breaks your trust with your parrot!! Instead work on target training. You can also do postive association with her at the cage. Walk towards cage in a random way praising and giving treats. Dont put her in, repeat often. Also set up very special yummy like an apple slice, in the cage, before you take her back. Do short sessions in the cage then right back out. you can teach her going back is postive. I have trained budgies who are nit tame to go back to the cage. When I first brought home my newest quaker from the pet store he had a huge fear of hands, I couldn't pick him up and take him back to the cage. I trained him to go back. He new I used the same phrase, that a special treat would be waiting, and I praised him a lot. He also knew he would get lots of time out of the cage, so the cage wasn't an endless prison.

I will be back to link stuff later.

This goes over different behaviors, then goes over bites sbd common reasons for bites.
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/bird-behavior/
 
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