Baby Quaker Shakes

[Jaime1215]

Hello!

I am a new parront but I have been around small and medium adult and newly hatched parrots before. I am not familiar with the stage my little Quaker is at, so I have a quick question.

Background: Percy is a 4 month old blue QP that we've had for 2 weeks. He has a smaller sleep cage inside, he sleeps on one foot with head under wing as parrots should. He has a large daytime cage with a play top on the screened in porch that he is learning to maneuver. He hangs out and naps on one foot, brings large toy rings to his beak with his foot. Walks steadily, loses balance on perches sometimes (his wings were clipped when we got him adding to balance issues of a baby bird). He eats like a champ, we've started nutriberries to ease the transition to pellets. He LOVES kale, broccoli, and green beans. He is a loving, cheerful, chatty little bird.

Question: Percy picks up a piece of chopped kale (or another smaller object/food) with his beak and tries to grab it with his foot. Sometimes he misses completely and others he manages to grab it and hold on. When he goes to grab the kale, he shakes like he's struggling to stretch that far. Is that normal for a baby learning to use his feet/figure out his body?

I've never been around the "between stage" for parrots and I've never been around parrots with clipped wings. So I'm really at a loss and my vet is on site at the wildlife rehab today.

Thank you!

 

[Allee]

Percy is a lucky little fellow, I bet he loves his new set up on a screened in porch. It sounds like Percy is growing and developing exactly as he should be. My youngest quaker is one year old, he had a botched wing clip that took him almost a year to recover from. The wing clip at a young age combined with a young bird learning to navigate a new environment causes a certain level of temporary clumsiness. You will be astounded when Percy trades his klutziness in for pure grace, quakers are extremely good pilots.

Transferring food from beak to foot usually takes a little practice, holding food in a foot is common among quakers. It's possible the shaking you've noticed is actually quaking, it's where quakers got their name. All baby quakers shiver, shake, quake when they are little, it's a feeding response, some quakers grow past the quaking behavior by the time they reach maturity, some quakers quake well into adulthood or continue the behavior for life. My older quakers will quake when they are super excited, usually over a treat and sometimes they just do it when in a particularly friendly mood. Most bird lovers see the behavior as one more endearing species trait of the quaker parrots.

Offering a variety of foods to Percy at a young age will teach good eating habits for life. Good for you.

Some quakers speak clearly as early as six weeks of age, my blue quaker started talking at about nine weeks. Not all quakers talk but it's safe to say most of them do and in context.

Have fun with your sweet little guy, they grow up fast.

 

[Jaime1215]

Thank you so much for the reassurance Allee! I had hoped it was just his learning curve. He amazes me every day with how much he learns. He actually took his first "on his own" bath today. It was in cold water from the fridge in his big water dish (its 90 degrees in south Alabama so the cold water probably felt great), but it just made me so happy. I just sat quietly and I was lucky enough to catch it on video. I swapped his water dishes when he was done and he just looked so proud of himself.

He is already practicing words and saying stretch (which more sounds like just a long squawk right now lol) while lifting his wings. He's such a bright little bird and I can't wait to see him fly. He flaps all the time and tries to take off, I know he'll be so happy to have that ability back.

Your Harry stories are actually what brought me to the forum! My boyfriend would read them out loud or show me and I just knew I had to join. The conversations you shared that your three quakers have had us in tears laughing.

Thank you again for your quaker wisdom and reassurance.

 

[Allee]

I feel for you, the heat is ridiculous in Texas at the moment too. I love watching parrots bathe, they all have their favorite methods. Harry bathes in her big water dish, Sammy loves being misted, his new favorite is getting sprayed with a bonsai mister. Wilson likes both according to his mood. I've been adding ice cubes to their dishes when I change the water, Wilson likes to fish the ice cube donuts out and play with them.

Thank you for mentioning Harry's stories, that means a lot. I'll tell her, she'll be happy to know she helped bring a new quaker into the PF flock.