A First Time Parrot Companion And A Couple Of Quakers!

WiddleBluBert

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Jan 22, 2018
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Hello!

(Warning, very long winded - honestly wasn't expecting this to be this long but had the free time and lost myself. Sorry!)

First, I'll go over my decision as to why I decided on getting myself a parrot. I love animals, and have ended up going to an agricultural high school to be around them. I was always interested in birds, having been obsessed with dinosaurs my entire life. My first few interactions with parrots were at my high school.

We have a bird club, which basically entails looking after the parrots, quails, canaries etc - chickens are separated as poultry club. Being in Australia, they're mostly native parrots - princess, rainbow lorikeets, rosellas and the like. They're kept in aviaries so they're not tame. But I've gone in a couple of times during lunch time breaks and they like flying over and eating food through the wire. I wasn't and am not in the club. Not sure if it even runs anymore but this is where my interest began to pique - I began researching.

After a long time reading up on parrots, and what to get as a first time owner - no, companion - I decided upon getting an Eclectus. Not wise from what I read at the time but they were just the right size for my imagination, and far quieter than the more readily available Galah and Sulfur Crest or any Cockatoo really.

I would have to wait a full year as I did have the money to buy an eclectus, but not for the cage, toys, vet bills etc. so being patient was likely the best course of action for me.


Well, that didn't come to be when I went to a pet shop to help my brother pick out some guinea pigs. Ended up falling in love with one of their Blue Quakers. I know it's not the best idea to buy parrots from a pet shop (as I would learn in the week to come), but over the next couple days I did a crap load of reading up on Quakers and fell further into the hole. The week after I got the money together, bought a cage, toys and all that and got the little birdie I had so fallen in love with, now named Spriggan (unsure of gender at the moment, but have decided on calling her a, well, her).

Pics of the little bub.
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Her cage is in the kitchen, probably the highest traffic room in the entire house. (Don't worry, all the non-stick pans are gone.) The pet store didn't give me any advice, other than telling me that it's okay if she grinds up her pellets into dust in her food bowl, it's still okay. I'd done my research, so I should be okay. Before I left the store, as I was going through some more toys in the other corner, they re-clipped her. I wasn't happy with this, but didn't make that obvious to them, it was a store policy apparently. Then we drove home.

Did the whole ignore for a week business, so she could get used to her new environment and get settled. After said week I had to clean out her cage, and her little hammock she'd been sleeping in. Boy did she scuttle off to the other side of the cage. After I did that, I left her cage door open and sat at the kitchen table having a snack. After a few minutes of looking around and climbing up and down the gate, she flew (I say flew, but more frantically flap both wings as the left provided all her lift and the right doing nothing as the pet store had butchered their trimming job - cutting off the secondaries only on the right.) right into the door leading to the lounge room.

I tried picking her up to get her off the floor, walking up and crouching down slowly whilst calmly speaking to her. She bit down hard and climbed up and boy did she bite, hard. I steeled myself as I'd read it was best not to react but she was upright, and well balanced but was still clamped down. I wasn't expecting this as she was fine climbing up and down my arms and shoulders at the pet store, and I hadn't even noticed her fear of my hands then. Which is probably a mistake on my part. But this is when I'd learnt of her fear of hands, I don't know what the pet store did but it wasn't good for not developing a phobia of hands. I spent a good week simply trying to get her to get over her fear of hands. Let's just say my hands won't forget that week!

She's cool with hands now, stepping up for basically anyone that asks for her to, or atleast was.

Over the course of the following week, my other little brother, he's 13, fell in love with my new feathery friend and begun wanting his own little birdie friend. This begun our search for his own little birdie. I spent a good week explaining to him his upcoming responsibilities and it's not all just the cutesie birdie climbing all over you, as he misses out on when I changed Spriggan's food, water, weighing and training. I did most of the maintenance stuff in the morning at around 5-6am before he woke up, and the training in my room (a neutral space for her to be).

Anyways, during said week we begun searching, making sure that we'd go straight to a breeder as opposed to a pet store. We had Rainbow lorikeets, sun conures, GCC's, Indian Ringnecks all lined up, but he didn't really connect when we went over. There was this one Pineapple green cheek that he liked, because he was neither afraid of hands and actually climbed onto his hand without biting - unlike his first experience with Spriggan (I told him to just had her a chunk of almond, but he wanted to be gutsy and try for a step-up because she had already stopped biting me - long story 'short' he didn't listen, got bit and pulled back. Good thing neither were hurt - well too badly in my brother's case.)

Pineapple GCC and my brother:
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(Don't worry, I checked up at the place where he was, apparently been sold to some lady that we came across in our search for birds, she's a nice one - I'm sure he has a good home now!)

Then came the Quaker parrots. These little guys weren't a blue mutation like Spriggan, my little brother didn't want to go through being confused about who's bird was who's (too bad!). They weren't really breeders as you would think of them. They were a very nice couple, with two Quakers of their own who'd decided to have little babies on their own. The babies were hand raised and fully flighted. Our first sight of them were of them flying across the living room together. It was nice to see birds flying around the house as opposed to through a cage or with them clipped.

Let's just say my brother liked them but couldn't decide. We went back into our car to go back home and mull it over and he instantly made his decision. This is when I made an impulse decision, I don't regret it one bit but sometimes my parents would probably have liked to have made me change my mind now that we have 3 birds screaming at us whenever someone comes home or leaves the house, I got a second Quaker for myself. My mum and other brother (he got his guinea pigs, don't worry) went back in with my youngest brother to pick out a Quaker as my Step-Dad sat in the car with me to go to an ATM so I could withdraw the $250 asking price.

Long story short, these little fellas didn't have a fear of hands, and are way more energetic than Spriggan and a way bigger hassle but I love it! My brother named his little fella Cypher and I named mine Breezy - they're both males.

Breezy:
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I've only had Breezy for a week, he's settled in well. I ignored the 1 week ignoring and only left it at 2 days, he flew straight out of his cage (which is in my room most of the time) and onto my hand. He's been a lot easier to train to step-up, and now trying to teach him to flight recall.

The real issue was introducing the birds, at first they'd squawk and nip at each other - or atleast try to through the bars. I held Spriggan in my hand as Breezy chilled out in his cage. It took a couple days but now they preen each other on the little homemade perch I have that they hang out on when I have them in my room for outside the cage time. Cypher's the real issue, he is not cool with Spriggan and doesn't seem to try to be, so we keep them separated.

Breezy and Spriggan having a bit of breakfast:
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I've also ended up having to pull Spriggan away suddenly from an electrical chord she was about to bite, and accidentally squeezed her a little hard yesterday. She's lost all trust in my hands, but doesn't bite, simply doesn't like to jump on out of her cage anymore. So here's really my only real question, how do I regain the trust of my little friend? Because I'm sure more situations like this will occur over the years.

Anyways, that's enough about that. If you got through all that, well done! So yeah, I forgot to say, my name's Albert. :)

Spriggan's first step-up, well without biting:
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Clearly very happy with myself :D
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Rival_of_the_Rickeybird

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2x Parrot of the Month 🏆
Jul 31, 2016
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None. My wife has one too many. Kidding!
Cute guys. I'm giving your thread a bump so that folks who know something about birds (that would not be me) will notice it. Good luck.
 

Carl_Power

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Oct 3, 2017
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England
Parrots
Quaker Parrot
Hi. Your just gonna have to earn her trust again. Be really nice to her and patient and she should forgive you for squeezing her. Pet her nicely as much as she will let you and it will help. Quakers can be really moody sometimes x
 

wrench13

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Nov 22, 2015
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Yup, moody. Mine was. Of course each parrot is different even individuals from the same species.
 

Scott

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Aug 21, 2010
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Goffins: Gabby, Abby, Squeaky, Peanut, Popcorn / Citron: Alice / Eclectus: Angel /Timneh Grey: ET / Blue Fronted Amazon: Gonzo /

RIP Gandalf and Big Bird, you are missed.
Welcome Albert! Enjoyed your introduction and pics of your gorgeous birds!

I would give Spriggan a bit of time to understand you are not a predator, and hopefully you'll become closer. Check out this link for advice on building trust: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

A quick question about the sleeping hammock you mentioned: Is it a fabric unit shaped somewhat like a triangle? They can be deadly, as birds often pick at the threads and ingest. Many are sold as the brand "Happy Hut" pictured below. If of thread-like construction I'd urge you to remove. If not, inspect at least twice daily for signs of picking.

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