Post by fletchbird on Feb 3, 2015 11:08:03 GMT -5
Hey folks -
New poster looking for a lot of different advice. Got a Quaker from another family this weekend. I'm not sure how to guess the age of the bird, which seems slightly thin/undersized to me, but I could be wrong. (Compared to my Conure I used to have in any case.)
I guess I'm looking for a few pieces of information here:
1) Best methods for hand-training the bird. My old Conure pretty much lived on my shoulder and climbed up and down me at his whim. This Quaker, for the moment, will take food from hand in-cage, but will aggressively nip at fingers otherwise. Her wings are totally unclipped, so I've not dared trying anything open-cage yet. (We have a dog and two children who are not acclimated yet as well.) Eventually, I'd like Tonks to be willing to climb on up any old time.
2) Best methods for reading the bird's behaviors. My old Conure I got very young, and as a result I learned to read very early. This one's behavior and body language is already pretty set, I'm guessing - looking for some help on learning what she's trying to tell me. Already noting that despite the aversion to hands she's completely comfortable near faces by her cage, and will look at us closely, imitate noises without going into "bite mode." She'll also take Kix as a rare treat from fingers without trying to nip at them, and generally afterwards will tolerate hands near the bars of her cage, but sometimes afterwards she goes back into "beak open/back off" mode.
3) General tips for acclimation and behavior. My old Conure was a *lot* noisier than this lil' girl so far. Comparatives between the two birds would be great. I'm led to believe that Conures are actually considered "harder" birds in every respect than Quakers (training, talking, etc) but I have to balance that against the fact that this bird has probably been with at least two families prior to mine, and at least one (if not both) were neglectful of the bird.
I'm aware a Google search would pull up a decent amount of information, but honestly, I'm hoping to get some help sorting the good information sources from the dubious ones, etc. My information is out of date enough that I wouldn't easily be able to tell good advice from bad...
...and I hear people around here like talking about birds.
Lil' help for Tonks please?
New poster looking for a lot of different advice. Got a Quaker from another family this weekend. I'm not sure how to guess the age of the bird, which seems slightly thin/undersized to me, but I could be wrong. (Compared to my Conure I used to have in any case.)
I guess I'm looking for a few pieces of information here:
1) Best methods for hand-training the bird. My old Conure pretty much lived on my shoulder and climbed up and down me at his whim. This Quaker, for the moment, will take food from hand in-cage, but will aggressively nip at fingers otherwise. Her wings are totally unclipped, so I've not dared trying anything open-cage yet. (We have a dog and two children who are not acclimated yet as well.) Eventually, I'd like Tonks to be willing to climb on up any old time.
2) Best methods for reading the bird's behaviors. My old Conure I got very young, and as a result I learned to read very early. This one's behavior and body language is already pretty set, I'm guessing - looking for some help on learning what she's trying to tell me. Already noting that despite the aversion to hands she's completely comfortable near faces by her cage, and will look at us closely, imitate noises without going into "bite mode." She'll also take Kix as a rare treat from fingers without trying to nip at them, and generally afterwards will tolerate hands near the bars of her cage, but sometimes afterwards she goes back into "beak open/back off" mode.
3) General tips for acclimation and behavior. My old Conure was a *lot* noisier than this lil' girl so far. Comparatives between the two birds would be great. I'm led to believe that Conures are actually considered "harder" birds in every respect than Quakers (training, talking, etc) but I have to balance that against the fact that this bird has probably been with at least two families prior to mine, and at least one (if not both) were neglectful of the bird.
I'm aware a Google search would pull up a decent amount of information, but honestly, I'm hoping to get some help sorting the good information sources from the dubious ones, etc. My information is out of date enough that I wouldn't easily be able to tell good advice from bad...
...and I hear people around here like talking about birds.
Lil' help for Tonks please?
