Aggressive Quaker

[Talven]

I recently got a just weaned Quaker parrot ,Atlas, and my 3yr old Quaker ,Nimbus, is very aggressive (For him anyway). He will fly off and make his way to Atlas's cage and attack him through the bars. (So much for quarantine ) He tries to break out of his cage whenever he hears him and he has started to bite hard enough to draw blood if you try to get him away from or prevent him from getting to Atlas.

Normally I would get Nimbus out and sit and watch Netflix or maybe play a game on the computer with him on my shoulder or the back of my wrist. He would sit and groom or maybe have a quick nap. Now he just makes a beeline for Atlas any time he is taken out of his cage.

I can't get Nimbus out of his cage without him flying off to get to Atlas. I have to get Atlas out to feed him as he's regressed and stopped cracking seed and to interact with him to build a relationship. Which of course makes Nimbus want to attack him more.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? We've only had Nimbus for about 8 months. Not his first owners closer to 6th. Just in case it's relevant.

 

[Laurasea]

lavish Nimbus with one on one time. Move their cages father apart, or ideal move tge new guy to a bedroom.

If their are 2 of you, each person takes a burd and stay in sight but 8 feet or more apart. Feed and praise both birds. Repeat often. When they can stay calm in sight, slowly move a little closer and repeat often. This should take days. Only move a little closer after several times of them staying calm at that distance. Until hopefully you can bee about 2 feet apart. Hold there for a week..or longer if needed try abd spend longer amounts if time st tge 2 ir so feet distance just hanging out. Do not let them go near each other.

Then you can introduce in a neutral are with lost if space and feed them on opposite ends, while you make sure they don't nt get to each other. Repeat that several times till they just don't care that the other one is there. If any one trys to act up tgey go back to their cafe for a time out.

Unfortunately once you have had aggressive contact between burds tge hold a grudge abd its harder to work past that. Takes lots if postive association and no more attacks to get past.

I've introduced a lot if burds. The most important thing is to go slow, and to never allow a fight. Only once dud I fail to prevent a fight, took months to get them neutral with each other. They avoid each other drill sbd stay apart. It had been a year since a fight but I had one recently when Ta-dah invaded Penny's cage due to some hormonal nest seeking

A rushed introduction usually leads to the original burd becoming territorial aggressive.

 

[Talven]

Thanks for the great advice. Will definitely work on a better way to keep them apart. Will have to rearrange a few things but I think I should be able to work something out.

 

[Laurasea]

Thanks for putting up with the typos.

I believe you can get it all worked out.
Nimbus behavior is completely normal. That's how birds act when a new burd invades their home. But birds are flock creatures especially quakers. So learning to have other burds around is also normal and achievable.

I've worked with animals all my life. And introductions and how you do it and taking time, is important. Hopefully your thread will help others. I hope you keep it updated.

 

[Talven]

Well Nimbus is still taking off and flying to land on Atlas's cage but I've taken to tossing a blanket over the top of the cage. He lands and ends up looking around for Atlas confused which is enough to allow me to move him before they can get to each other. It's helped to reduce to aggression quite a bit but not entirely.

I was able to spend about 10mins with Nimbus before he took off to try and find Atlas. Prior to the blanket I was lucky if it was 1min. Only time will tell how things will go.

It's the first time we've had this sort of aggressive behaviour when bring a new bird home. I'm guessing it's a Quaker thing.

 

[Laurasea]

My green cheek conure acts that way. Its more individual I think . My other 3 quaker introductions went smoothly. I went slow, like several weeks, as I Quarantine them .