Adopted quakers, grumpy! Help!

[Sympledom]

Hi everyone! I own a pet store, and was surrendered two Quaker parrots with not a lot of background history so I will give everything I know about them here:

Lulu - female we were told, “hates” children and men, had a mate before but died(?) is 2-4 years old. She has a bald spot at the base of her neck, constantly regurgitates, and is mean! She is cage aggressive, food aggressive, and hand aggressive.

Sky - Male we were told, was purchased as a replacement for lulus mate, 2-4 years old, preens lulu, talks, will step up and talk and whistle. He gets aggressive when lulu is aggitated otherwise is a super nice bird

They came to us in a very small cage, and since then have been moved into a decent sized cage, could use a bigger one but it’s what we have for the moment. They are being fed a mix betweeb parrot pellets and seeds as treats and bribes to go back in the cage. They have fruits and veggies, they have toys, they have a lot of interaction as they are in our office and we do our best to give them at least an hour of out of cage time per day.

We have learned a lot about what they are afraid of or don’t like but it all boils down to the fact that lulu is super aggressive and sky is a nice bird but gets all grumpy when lulu is

I just don’t know where to go from here, our thoughts are to separate the permanently, hoping to work on lulu one on one and earn her trust and then for sky to be able to socialize more because he won’t be getting so aggressive around lulu... please let me know what you think bird friends!! I’m at a loss!!

 

[1oldparroter]

Read my bio. I will drive 2 hrs to get a bird. jh

 

[Laurasea]

I think putting them in cages side by side maybe a foot or two apart is a good start.

You can not work with a Quaker in a cage.
Even my very snuggle Quakers loose their mind if I try to put my hand in the cage, or even give a kiss from outside the cage.

So have a shirt perch so when you swi g the door open, the perch goes with the door, and like magic is outside the cage, therefore in their minds neutral space. Some may need to be further from the cage tho. You set up the top of the cage, or set a table with home made playstand or perches.

You break every little step down to small steps. You are slowly shaping behavior. I've had this work with suck rescue parrots I worked with. I've seen it work in many species including wild caught confiscated animals and birds, it does work!

But it starts small, with many small steps. You want the mind moving towards you.

For in the cage work, to just get positive association, before you start out if the cage work. Out a treat dish on the opposite side they normally hang out. You show the seed I think 100© safflower seeds are loved and easy to use, doesn't even seem to matter if they have these in their diet, but you could remove from normal diet. Say hello show seed, walk to treat dish, if they look at you, put seed in dish say good bird, walk away five feet or so, watch them come get seed, when they do say good bird! Then go away. Come back in ten minutes, and repeat. Do several times a day, for days until they will quickly go get seed after you walk away. Then you do the same thing show seed say hellos, but don't out seed in dish until they take at least one step towards you, repeat as above, saying good bird when they take treat. Then they have to take a couple if steps towards you, repeat. You work up to them coming to stand by fish before you out treat in. This takes as long as it takes, or adjust if they get the idea quicker.

Then you move the treat dish to a different spot, do they are moving towards you for treats easily,
Then you out the dish outside the cage do when you open the door they can reach from the perch by the door. repeat till that is easy. Then move to handing the treat to them. They take you say good walk away. Then you can work useing s hand held perch , have them kesn over to get treat, but make very easy , the perch right next to body. If at this next step pint they are afraid of the band held perch, then brake it down more. They look at the perch they get a treat, they let perch come near them they get a treat, this step can also take days, and need to end in positive note. Maybe you have to show hand held let h a few feet away at first... Then set it down go out treat in dish. You work towards the pint they touch the hand held let h to get a treat, then step up to hsbd held perch to get a treat. Then to walk shirt few steps from cage and back to cage. Then you start shorting the part of the pet h they can step up do your hand is closer, until you work to them stepped for you into hand.

I don't care what point your stecwith them right now, even if they already take treats by hand sometimes. Still go through all those steps, because you are teaching the mind to move towards you for positive rewards. You are teaching them to learn steps. That this is an interactive process. But you adjust to them. If they catch in quickly to meet you at treat dish. Then do a few times to reinforce this. They learn the good bird equal treat. Then move to the other steps.

When you get to wear you open cage, msjecdure house is safe. If they freak and fly around, just wait till they land and catch their breath, say good bird, sbdvwskk with your hand held perch to retrieve them. They will want to be saved,! If they do freak again, stand still till they land sndcresoest. Till you can take them back to the cage and praise lavish.
Hope this helps, and helps you break it down in your mind as you train.