Quaker stopped talking??

[alleng8304]

I rescued my QP on June 17th. He did take to me immediately but it took a long time to build trust. He now will let me pick him up, finally will step-up, loves to be scratched and enjoys his time out of the cage. During that earlier time he would talk up a storm, especially when I approached the cage. I feed him twice daily but also leave pellets in food cup all day. Switching to pellets changed his behavior and he has become more active and more tame. However, the only thing he wants to do is go to the top of the cage and rearrange his hanging toys. In early morning when I uncover him he will go to the top of the cage and come down to a side perch, give me a kiss and say "Hello", I give him a treat, and then he goes to rearrangement of toys. When he steps up, from inside the cage I take him to another room and walk around the house. When he gets enough of that he flys back to his cage. Except for the morning "hello" , I rarely hear a peep out of him all day, not even screaming. I know he knows how to talk, but just doesn't want to unless he gets nervous for some reason. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[Laurasea]

Hi, I have a rescue quaker and a young boy I got from breeder. They do love their toys!!! And my boy has to have time to himself to play with them, as he gets me know! Everyone birds seem to be molting right now, and that has caused mine to be less talkative right now. Offer a bath bowl every day. Have a separate play location away from the cage, lits of activities. Keep talking to them. Mine do the riff (or roll) for hours, so careful what you wish for!!! I'd like a little more quiet time around here.

 

[EllenD]

It could very well be due to something like molting (my god all of mine are molting their entire bodies right now, there are hundreds of feathers and fluff floating all over my house right now), it could be a hormonal phase, but more than likely what I think it has to do with is he is still settling-in to his new house, his new routine, his new "area" and "stuff", and to you. You have only had him since the middle of June, and for a parrot that is no time at all. You mentioned that "since he started eating pellets he's more active and more tame", but truth be told, his ever-growing tameness and level of activity has nothing at all to do with him starting to eat pellets at all, but rather has to do with him becoming more and more settled-in, comfortable, secure, and safe in his new home and with you.

Sometimes we as people don't realize how long it actually takes birds to make adjustments to change, to new surroundings and new people, to new training, etc. We bring home a new parrot into our homes and our families and we instantly fall in love with them. But birds just don't work that way, they sometimes take months and months to even years and years to adjust to new people, places, and things. And even though when we bring home a new baby/young bird that is at least semi-tame and they usually respond to us in an overall-positive way right from the start, that doesn't at all mean that they trust us yet, or that they've bonded to us closely yet, or that they feel comfortable or secure in their new environment yet, or that they have fully "taken ownership" of their cage, toys, etc. yet. And Quaker Parrot's are usually extremely territorial about their cages and everything in them, their toys, their perches, their food and water dishes, their play-stands, etc. If you've ever had the honor of living somewhere in the US where you are able to watch wild Quaker Parrot colonies living, you'd see right away just how territorial they are about their homes; Quakers build massive nest "complexes" that take up entire city-blocks sometimes, with all of the enclosed nests that they build up in the trees, on the power lines/poles, telephone wires/poles, etc. all connected to one-another so that their entire flocks can live together in basically the same "house" with each other. This is why they are still illegal to even own as pets in some states, because they are considered an "invasive" species, as they destroy power lines, telephone lines, farmland, etc. with their extensive building of birdie-duplexes, lol.

So being as you've only had him for about 3 months now, the personality and behaviors that he has been showing you since you first brought him home was actually more the "Honeymoon Period", and now he's starting to loosen-up and let down his guard. So what you are starting to see now is most-likely what his actual personality is like when he feels relaxed, safe, secure, and happy. He's now spending a lot more time doing his "job", which right now is working on rearranging the toys on top of his cage. He didn't consider that cage or those toys as being "his safe place" or "his belongings" before, but he's now comfortable enough to show his true colors, his true personality, and let his guard down enough to start working on "his jobs" in "his territory". So that why I said that the fact that he has started to become more active and more tame since he started eating pellets is simply a timing coincidence and actually has nothing at all to do with the pellets, and has everything to do with the fact that he's now feeling "at home" with both his cage/his space and also with you.

The constant talking that he was doing when you first brought him home was probably related to his own nervousness; parrots act like people do in a lot of different ways, and just like we tend to start gabbing away when we're nervous, anxious, etc., so do birds. So as you said "he used to talk up a storm, especially when I would approach his cage", that probably had very little to do with him talking "to you" in a friendly way, and more to do with talking out of nervousness, anxiety, and as a defense-mechanism. Not to say that he was ever "scared" of you, but you were still new, everything was still new.

I think you're probably going to see other changes to his personality, his behavior, and his activities as time goes on, but this isn't a "bad" thing, it simply means that he's adopting your house as his own home, and you as his owner/companion. The reason he's fixated on rearranging the toys on the top of his cage every morning is because he is now thinking of that cage as "his cage" and those toys as "his toys", and every morning he has a job to do...and this is a good thing, as he's learning to entertain himself in his own "safe space", and this is a sign that he feels very comfortable, safe, and secure, and is taking ownership of his "area". Quakers are one of the most territorial species of parrot, period. And once they take ownership of their cage, toys, etc., that means that they are happy, content, and feel safe. So these are all good changes, as you're now seeing the real him because he's now allowing to see it...

 

[alleng8304]

Ellen
Thanks always for the good, understandable info you provide. What a wonderful asset .

 

[EllenD]

Ellen
Thanks always for the good, understandable info you provide. What a wonderful asset .

Well, when it comes to Quaker Parrots, I have a lot of personal experience and knowledge simply from owning one for 3 years now. And long prior to bringing Lita home as a newly-weaned baby, I had become infatuated with Quaker Parrots after first encountering a wild flock of them living in Brooklyn (Coney Island colony) in 2013. I grew-up and have always lived about a 4-hour drive from NYC, and as a result I have spent a huge amount of time there. I actually used to drive-up to see a show at CBGB's at least once a month, usually 2 or 3 times a month during college and then for the few years after I graduated until Hilly was forced to close in 2006 (I am a life-long musician and punk/grunge/hardrock rhythm guitarist and alto sax player)...I went up to Long Beach for a music festival in 2013, and afterwards we went to one of the few remaining punk clubs in Brooklyn for a show, but not before hitting Coney Island for a few beers and to just hang. And that's when I got to see my very first wild Quaker flock, which was absolutely amazing to see. (FYI, the wild Quaker's are absolutely HUGE, I mean they look like green and gray Chickens, lol). After that weekend I went back several times just to hang out in Coney Island with the Quakers. And after doing my research online about the few remaining wild Quaker colonies in NYC (just like everything else cool and amazing in NYC, the Quaker's have also been destroyed and replaced with clothing stores where a tee-shirt costs $300 and high-rise apartments that cost $5,000 a month to rent). I spent several weekends trying to find the the elusive "Church" colony of Quaker's, and was certain that they too were gone, but we did finally find them with the help of a guide...They are just an amazing site to see, their housing complexes are something that is just unexplainable until you see them in-person. The complexity with which they are built is proof of their human-level of intelligence, no doubt about it at all.

Anyway, it was a given that I was going to add a baby Quaker to my flock, which at the time consisted only of my 8 baby Budgies that I had bred and then Duff, my Cockatiel. So I found a Quaker breeder on Long Island who had a clutch of blue and yellow/lutino babies that were going to be weaned in a few weeks, put down a deposit, went and visited them and chose Lita, and the rest is history...And one Saturday morning i left here around 6:00 a.m., arrived in West Hempstead around 10:15 a.m., picked-up my then 11 week-old Lita Ford, the big, bad, blue Quaker baby, and we drove from her breeder's house in West Hempstead to Long Beach, and we got to spend most of the day walking up and down the Long Beach boardwalk during their weekend art/craft/music festival, with little Lita on my shoulder. Then Lita got to walk on the beach for the first time and see the ocean for the first time...Then we took the long, scenic route through the Rockaways and into Brooklyn, and then Lita got to spend the rest of the day/night at Coney Island, and she had her very first bites of a Nathan's hotdog, lol. Then we busted a move up to Queens to visit a good friend of mine, where we spent the night, and then Sunday morning we went back to Brooklyn to visit the wild Quaker flocks..sadly we only got to see a small colony of them in their usual Coney Island spot, they just dwindle each time I go back...

If you ever know that you're going to be in Brooklyn, it's well worth your time to do you homework prior to the trip to find out where the current remaining wild Quaker colonies are currently residing, and then taking the time to go check them out. It's an amazing site to see. There are also currently a few wild colonies in RI, CT, and MA that I'm aware of...and I believe you can also spot a few smaller colonies in both NJ (Jersey City and Hoboken areas, near the water) and in MD somewhere, but I'm not certain on the MD location off the top of my head. See them while you can, because they'll soon be gone.

The bottom-line to this rambling post of mine, which went in a totally different direction than I even intended it to, lol, is that Quaker Parrots are in no way similar to any other species of parrot. They have a personality that is all their own, and their mannerisms, habits, sounds, just everything about them is unique only to Quaker Parrots and no other species of bird. They are extremely intelligent, and as someone who grew-up from the age of 9 years-old with an African Gray for a brother, it's my opinion that Quaker's are every bit as intelligent as the Gray's are (they can't speak nearly as well as the CAG's can, but that's about the only difference). Quaker's have a sense of ownership and territoriality over their "property" and their "possessions" that is very similar to that of human being's, and their sense of family/flock is also very similar to ours as well. And as a result of that sense of territoriality and "ownership" of both their possessions and their people/companions, they also have a strong tendency to develop very bad neurotic tendencies and anxiety over them; I have noticed Lita on more than one occasion suddenly, out of nowhere, lift her foot to her beak and start chewing on her toenail when one of the other birds (usually the Green Cheek) even sets foot on the top of her cage. She doesn't go after Bowie or even start screaming at him as she's not "angry" at him for being on her cage, she's just so possessive over her cage that when she sees him fly over and land on top of it she becomes extremely nervous and upset, and she usually makes her little "Quaking" noise very quietly, then usually looks over at me like "Mamma, he's on my cage again", and then her toenail goes right in her beak...I will get Bowie off of her cage, but then I still have to pick her up and comfort her because she suffers so much nervousness and anxiety over the territoriality that she just doesn't know what to do with herself...just like a person...

Before I brought Lita into my family I knew that having a Quaker was going to be a totally new and different experience from that of owning any other parrot...But I didn't realize just how different Quaker's are from any other parrot species until actually having one...and I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world...

 

[alleng8304]

WOW!!What a background-enjoyed it!. I too was a rock guitarist financing my college education playing in several bands. I am originally from MD but lived in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and now in SC. I did work in Manhattan for 6 years and also familiar with Brooklyn. (was in Brooklyn on 9/11). I have had two other birds- a double yellow head and a green wing Macaw. In February of this year my 14 yr old Lhasa poo died of a massive brain hemorrhage. I was very sad for months. I decided to get a budgie . He (Joey) a young bird that became very tame, loves to fly around the house and talks. In June I was told about two Quaker parrots that were up for adoption. One , a female that was very affectionate and laid eggs . The other a male? that was very feisty and did not like females and still does not. He likes one of my other dogs but does not like the budgie that fly's to his cage and sits on the towel on top. So the feisty one was the one I took-after all I could train him Ha Ha! I named him Stonewall Jackson. He immediately took to me-within limits. I re-named him"Vinny" because one day he went after my doughnut-so "Vinny bag of donuts" from the movie. Vinny and I have come along way but still have miles to go. Every morning he comes down off the cage to give me a kiss or get on my shoulder. He will step-up inside the cage but does not like to do so. I would love to be able to take him outside-but maybe next year. Oh yea- he is starting to talk again when I am not watching him. I enjoy your posts and thankful of your knowledge. Cheers Allen

 

[Laurasea]

EllenD thank you for all the wonderful info on quaker parrots!!! In 2004 in Rockaway Park NY I got to see a wild colony as well. Such amazing parrots!!!!! It was cold and snowing and I couldn't believe parrots were living there, and they were BIG!!! I'm thrilled to be owned by two, and they do strike me as being very different in their thinking! Compared to my past Foster and pet sitting parrots! I enjoyed brief parrot sitting fame 20 years ago, I sat for my bosses grey, then she told every large parrot owners, I think they all took vacations that year!!!! It was great exposure to many kinds. I followed their long hand written instructions to a T. Now all these years later I GET it lol. Sorry for going on and on I love Quakers! (And GCC, and keets)!