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Post by zim on Dec 29, 2015 13:56:26 GMT -5
He's finally catching on to his first trick! We still struggle with step up, but he seems to understand "shake my hand" now.
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Post by zim on Dec 28, 2015 22:30:57 GMT -5
I haven't had any problems like this yet with Yoshi, but it could (and probably is) because he's very young. He still shys away from my hand, so I don't foresee him rushing to bite it any time soon.
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Post by zim on Dec 27, 2015 22:05:03 GMT -5
Interestingly enough he really does seem to like Phil Collins. That song in particular!
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Post by zim on Dec 27, 2015 19:02:11 GMT -5
My little Yoshi has been making lots of these noises over the past few days, especially when I'm playing music. I'm thinking he's practicing learning his voice?
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Post by zim on Dec 24, 2015 10:09:07 GMT -5
* Stealing things: Offer our QP something to eat and she is not interested...but leave the same thing covered with plastic wrap on a kitchen bench and it becomes the most attractive item on earth. Lesson=if you want him/her to try something new just put it on the bench and APPEAR not to be attentive (just watch that they don't ingest plastic stuff.
This makes me think of my dog, Wanda. She's a very picky eater, and will spurn even things like bits of prime rib that my husband shares with her. (Aggravates him no end.) But let one of the birds toss anything outside the cage, and she's all over it, as if it's nectar and ambrosia. If I'm in the kitchen and say "uh oh", she comes tearing in, frantically searching for what I've dropped. My parents have a Toy Poodle who does something like this. He ALWAYS wants a piece of what you are eating, but rarely likes it after you've given him a piece. So after he gets a piece, and decides he doesn't like it / want it, you can call for the cat as if you're gonna give his piece to the cat. Once he thinks the cat is gonna get it, he eats it with haste! Quite amusing.
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Post by zim on Dec 23, 2015 16:46:30 GMT -5
Zim, you may find that Yoshi starts play grooming your hand and fingers. Yep, he's already been doing this. He still shys away from my hand when I move it near him, but if I leave my hand near him really still, he gets curious enough that he comes over and starts exploring it with his beak. I think when I jumped into taking him away from his cage to practice "step up", I stepped too far outside of his comfort zone. He still doesn't want to be away from his cage, and any attempt I make (which I haven't in a couple days) to take him away from it usually results in him trying to fly back to the cage right as we are walking away, and him ending up in the floor. For the past couple days I've just let him be out of his cage. He climbs up to the top and plays up there for hours, or just perches up there and watches me. I am curious, however, if this isn't a good idea since he is much higher than me. I don't want him to start thinking he is boss. Heck, who am I kidding, he will always be boss, won't he?
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Post by zim on Dec 23, 2015 10:32:17 GMT -5
Very easy to relate to. I'm still trying to get Yoshi off of eating seed, so I know I shouldn't be giving him sunflower seed treats or nutri berries, but it's extremely tough not to!
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Post by zim on Dec 22, 2015 13:02:10 GMT -5
Yoshi has had his warmer for a few days now. He seems to like it! I put it right at his favorite perching spot in the cage, and I've noticed multiple times him being snuggled right up against it!
It took him about half a day to get brave enough to inspect it after me putting it in.
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Post by zim on Dec 22, 2015 12:43:12 GMT -5
I've had Yoshi for a tad over three weeks now, and I thought it would be fun to make this thread and share all the ways he has surprised me. I consider myself to have done a lot of research before making the decision and purchasing him, but he has still done many things I did not expect. I'd love if long time Quaker owners would chime in as well, as maybe some things will pop up that I can prepare myself for!
1. They can make you bleed! - Sure, I had read that they can pack a mean bite, but wow I was not expecting this. Three days after I had brought Yoshi home, I opened his cage and out he flew. He roamed around the floor, and I kept a little distance, as to not make him feel cornered or threatened. He makes his way over behind my computer desk, and decides to start climbing the wires. Nope, this is a bad idea! I'm forced to pick him up, he of course holds on to a wire with both feet for dear life! Finally he lets go, then immediately goes to town chomping on my index finger as if it's a piece of tough meat he's determined to chew through. By the time I get him to his cage my finger looks like a bloody, well used chew toy that needs thrown away. Thankfully this was a one time occurance, and he hasn't bitten me hard enough again to draw blood (yet!).
2. They are very, very messy! - Yes, I read this before getting him as well. I also remember reading that buying a cage with a seed catcher surrounding it made a big difference. If that is true, I can't imagine what my floor would look like if I had purchased one without! Seriously, I clean around his cage area every two days. I roll his cage away and vacuum everything. By the day after cleaning it looks like I've neglected the area for no less than 3 months! I'm honestly having a hard time trying to figure out where it all comes from! I'm convinced he has a stash of torn up paper, seeds, and other random trash that I cannot locate, and only pulls it out to throw on the floor while I'm not looking. I'm just extremely glad I went with vinyl tile instead of carpet in here. Wow, I can't imagine the joy of cleaning up this mess on carpet.
3. They train you just as much (or more) as you train them! - I've seen people here "joke" about this. Let me tell you, they aren't joking. At all. My best example: I feed Yoshi a mix of corn, peas, green beans, and carrots daily, usually for breakfast. When I first started, he would take his sweet time and eat the insides out of the peas and discard the outside. With the green beans, he would carefully extract the bean from within and discard the rest. After a few days he decided this takes too much time, and simply threw the whole thing to the floor. So finally I started taking the beans out myself, and peeling the outside from the peas. After doing this for a couple days it finally hit me - this bird, with a brain the size of a marble, has just trained me to do its bidding. Wow.
4. They are thieves! - This one is quite funny, to me at least. As we work on learning "step up", he continually looks for ways to get a treat from my hand without doing the work of stepping up. He will go well out of his way to do so! If I'm not paying attention and have my treat hand too close to the side of his cage, instead of stepping up to the handheld perch (right under his belly), he'd rather climb across the side of his cage to try to snag the treat from my hand. And it's not like he doesn't know by now that stepping onto the perch = a treat. It baffles me as to why he would put in so much more work than he needs to just to get the treat...but he does!
5. You should wear a rain coat while they eat! - I don't know if they are all like this, but I think my little Yoshi makes a game of seeing how much of his food he can manage to get all over me. This mostly occurs with corn (which he absolutely loves). He always manages to get half of a piece of corn on the outside of his beak. After he's finished eating it (the other half...), he shakes his head to slang the remnants on his beak wherever he can. They often end up stuck to the wall, the computer monitor, or my face.
6. They will scare you and make you worry. - A fact that I somehow missed during my months of research, but was thoroughly told to me by the vet and members here - These little guys will hide sickness often until it's too late. This information has possibly made me paranoid, and anything that he does that I think might not be right has me rushing to Google to see what's going on. A few nights ago he was adjusting his crop for the first time (that I saw). I was for sure he was choking or something! This had me scared. Thanks to members here, however, my worry was put to rest.
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Post by zim on Dec 21, 2015 14:00:58 GMT -5
The easiest way to tell when the pin feathers are mature is, the top part of the feather will visible. Thanks! This is kind of what I was thinking. He's finally let me help him with a few of them, we are making progress! But after I've helped with a couple he decides that's enough and nips at me.
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Post by zim on Dec 20, 2015 12:25:51 GMT -5
If Yoshi will let you, once the pin feathers on his head and neck mature, you can gently rub off the sheath. How do you tell when they are mature?
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Post by zim on Dec 19, 2015 21:07:22 GMT -5
One more thing to add to this, I finally caught it on camera. He's done this a handful of times tonight. He doesn't make any sound when he does it, it's got me baffled.
Sorry for all the questions, I think I'm a little bit paranoid after reading and hearing from the vet about how they hide sickness until it's too late :\.
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Post by zim on Dec 19, 2015 18:04:04 GMT -5
I've noticed for the past 4-5 days, Yoshi has been shaking his head. Not the bobbing of the head like Quakers do, but shaking his head as in "no" rapidly. He seems to be doing it a good bit more today.
On top of this, he was napping earlier and was rocking back and forth (front to back). I'm not sure if he normally does this when he sleeps or not, as I cover his cage at night, and he's always awake when I take the cover off.
Are these behaviors something I should be concerned about?
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Post by zim on Dec 18, 2015 14:48:54 GMT -5
awww pretty little Yoshi. It appears he has many pin feathers and those can be very painful for the bird. Be careful when petting as this will probably hurt. I usually give my Oscar a few extra baths when he has so many pin feathers as it will help soften them up. I've tried helping him with those, he's still not wanting to let me tho. He loves scritches tho! I've also tried giving him a bath twice now. I used a Pyrex dish and put about 3/4 inch of water in it. He got down in it and waded around for a minute or two, got a drink, then jumped back up on the side and was done lol.
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Post by zim on Dec 16, 2015 20:42:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice, I did just that 2 times today. It seems to be working (but only if he is in the mood, lol).
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