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Post by Aardman on Jan 22, 2016 16:30:36 GMT -5
Are you southern? I've lived here for ten years, and have gotten so used to being called Miss Linda that I use Miss on all my female critters. Trixie is is a great name! No, the "Miss" part of Miss Trixie is a character from one of my favorite novels - "A Confederacy of Dunces," which, now that you mention it, takes place in New Orleans.
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Post by Aardman on Jan 22, 2016 3:16:08 GMT -5
I don't know why it's taken so long to settle on a name for our quaker, but nothing seemed to please everybody. We got her in late October and here it is, nearly February, and we've finally settled on a name.
The first bird we had as a pet was a really sweet dispositioned budgie named Kiko. Our quaker is so mellow and affectionate the first name I thought up was Kiwi, close to Kiko. Then I discovered Kiwi is one of the most common bird names out there and as I didn't want our birds name to be common, so the search began.
We went through a lotta different names:
Link Kazoo Spiffy Zelda (Fitzgerald) Nurse Ratchet (or Nurse Racket) Birdo Polly Tweety (I nixed this one 'cause she doesn't tweet)
There were a few others we considered but they escape me right now.
Anyway, the name we settled on was:
Trixie
or Miss Trixie
Yeah, a totally new name previously never considered.
Trixie seems happy she's FINALLY got a name. It's about time, too!
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Post by Aardman on Jan 18, 2016 2:50:02 GMT -5
We're musicians here and our quaker is constantly hearing all kinds of musical sounds. She hasn't really responded to much except when I get out my Jew's harps and start to serenade her directly. That will usually get her going, making imitative sounds and sometime doing that head-bob thing they do.
I think sounds in general have got to be, at the very least, entertaining for a bird - more entertaining than silence or the sound of the refrigerator humming.
I'm not sure any music is inappropriate as long as it's not loud and blasting. If I was going to actually program music for a parrot to listen to I'd probably try to find something with an obvious beat and relatively simple melodic content, which is the definition of a Jew's harp!
I was in a pet story last summer that had a Macaw that LOVED the Beatles and would start to dance on his perch whenever they played some. I observed this behavior, so there's some kind of preference or "music appreciation" for lack of a better term that must be going on in their brains.
I read an article by Daniel Levitin, author of "This Is Your Brain On Music," a couple months ago, and supposedly the only animal that can truly synchronize itself to an audible musical beat beside humans is certain species of parrots, so there's that.
So, yeah, give your parrot some music - it's probably appreciated on some level.
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Post by Aardman on Jan 18, 2016 2:35:12 GMT -5
Before I start, no, we still haven't named our quaker. Kazoo is looking pretty likely, though, right now.
Maybe this is totally normal, but it's got us shaking our heads.
About a month ago my wife made a snuggle hut for our quaker out of pink felt. Pretty much a triangular tube suspended from the top of her cage with velcro. A piece of plastic cut from a one gallon milk carton was sewn in one side and works well as the base.
At first she ignored it which didn't surprise us, but after about a week she thought it was pretty cool and started sleeping in it at night. Not surprisingly she pooped all over the inside. After a few days of this we took it out and cleaned it while she was out of the cage and otherwise engaged. To our surprise she ignored it again for a couple of days before starting to sleep in it.
It gets a little chilly here late in the evenings (my wife likes to turn the thermostat down when she sleeps) so I was happy she found a spot to stay warm at night.
And, she somewhat addressed the scattered poop in the snuggle hut by starting to always sleep in the same orientation - facing the same way. Most of the hut stayed relatively clean while a small hill of poo started to grow in the back, somewhat out of her way. Still, you gotta clean it after a while.
The last time I cleaned the hut was two weeks ago and she has not slept in it or even gone in it at all since then. I know this because it's still completely clean inside. She'll sleep next to it on her perch, but won't go inside where it's got to be much warmer.
It's weird. I wasn't expecting such a reaction from just cleaning it.
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Post by Aardman on Jan 5, 2016 1:53:32 GMT -5
I was going to say the same thing as lynn40. Sometimes it doesn't apply to people that already own quaker pets.
But, y'know, even if it DID, personally, there's no way I'd give up our bird just to satisfy some state's asinine regulation. They don't have quaker patrols that go home to home looking for violations. This is one of those instances where I would probably become a scofflaw.
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Post by Aardman on Jan 5, 2016 1:45:56 GMT -5
I think she's pretty spiffy too, but we'll see what name finally rises to the surface. My son continuously calls her birdo, which, is kinda different, but I'm not sold on it yet.
When we first started looking into getting another bird I was originally thinking about a green cheek conure. In fact, I'd scoped out a few likely candidates and was getting close to a decision. I didn't think I'd find a quaker so wasn't considering one, they're pretty uncommon around here. Anyway, this little cutie-pie showed up and it didn't take long at all to decide forget the conures, here it is.
Today was a first. I've never seen her display the least bit of interest in any of the toys I've hung in her cage so far, but today was different. She climbed into her home-made snuggle hut then leaned out and spent a good half hour giving a complicated mass of wooden and plastic rings I'd hung a piece of her mind - chewing and shaking the daylights out it, pausing every once in a while to bob her head a few times then go back to it again - rinse and repeat. After this went on for some time, she grabbed the roof of her cage with her beak, swung out, then hung upside down for a while before swinging over to the side and down to get a bite to eat. This may not sound like much to most of you, but this was something to me because it was the first time I had seen her being playful with her toys. Mostly she just looks to us for entertainment.
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Post by Aardman on Jan 2, 2016 2:28:46 GMT -5
It's nice to know I shouldn't be concerned about the lack of interest in toys or her seeming willies over stuff I happen to have in my hand. Today some friends were over and one of them happened to notice she threw one of the clothespin pieces off of the top of her cage (I've not seen her have the slightest interest in them) so they picked it up and put it back and immediately she made a beeline off the top of her cage, squawking the whole time. Mostly I've been concerned for her mental state if she's not having an interest in toys. When she was in the pet store they SAID she liked battling the bell she had in her cage so we've put several bells around and I periodically flip them and act like I'm having a blast. She watches, but that's about it.
I'm retired and my wife works seasonally, so somebody is almost always at home, and she pretty much wants to spend most of her time hanging around with us, either climbing on our shoulders, or just watching what we're up to from one of her extraneous perches, so maybe that's why she could care less about toys, I dunno. She did eventually dismantle a string of popcorn we hung from the roof of her cage, so there's that.
As for names, both Link and Zelda are sourced from a video game I have no interest in but my son loves. I was fine with Link until I found out the bird was a she. To me Link is short for Lincoln, so it didn't work, much to my son's disappointment. Kazoo was brought up because I once spent a semester working on my DMA in researching the origins of the kazoo. It is a different name, but the only person that really liked using it was my wife (son disliked it). For a lark I wanted to name her Polly, but everybody glared at me over that one. Whatever we settle on, I learned my lesson from our last bird. When we got him he would buzz and buzz and buzz so we named him Buzzer which was shortened to Buzz. As soon as we settled on that name, he stopped making the sound. He never buzzed again!
I just hope she maintains the sweet disposition she has had so far. Has never acted in the least bit aggressive and has not bitten anybody a single time though she likes to touch / feel skin with her mouth and will try to groom little things like hangnails and the like, though that's perfectly natural.
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Post by Aardman on Dec 31, 2015 14:29:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the greeting.
Actually, she loves the hand. Perches on our fingers just fine and loves to be scratched on the neck (top & bottom), head & cheeks plus she doesn't mind full body petting as long as its gentle. When I put my hand in her cage she immediately jumps to her "pick me up" perch and steps onto my finger with no prompt at all. Objects in our hands, though, give her the general willies and if I try to even show her something is in one of my hands she's as liable to attempt to fly off as to run away. Of course, since her wings are clipped she just flutters to the ground then lets out a complaining squawk, but at least she got away from the offending object.
I've even tried setting items I KNOW she likes, like a cashew, on the top of her cage when she's sitting there and she will take a ridiculously wide detour around the offending object when she wants to climb back into her cage.
Still, I can't complain (and I won't) because she is easy going, likes to cuddle, and seems to get along with everybody.
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Post by Aardman on Dec 31, 2015 1:32:02 GMT -5
Hello everybody - new here (as you can tell)
My wife & I have kept birds on and off for about 30 years, but three years ago when our Cockatiel "Buzz" flew off a (my eldest son held the back door open just a wee bit too long) that was it, or at least for a while - until this past October when we picked up the sweetest dispositioned Quaker I have ever seen.
She (we had her DNA tested) was 7 months old when we got her. She is gentle and loves to cuddle and not the least bit nippy (well, until the last couple of days anyway).
She's still not named. It's ridiculous the number of names we've gone through trying to find one everybody agrees to. Some contenders:
Nurse Racket Link Kazoo Lime Zelda Fitzgerald Spiffy (my favorite) Birdo (my son's favorite)
One of my concerns at this point is she simply has no interest in play. She has plenty of toys but she utterly ignores them. I've tried some simple stuff like straws, dis-assembled clothespins & cellophane wrappers - no interest. She likes hanging around with us and gets particularly excited when I play the Jew's harp at her, and she sort of stares at the bird in the mirror (today, for the first time, she pecked at it) but as for playing with anything on her own - she prefers to just sit & stare. Same goes for the bath water I offer her every once in a while - no interest.
The other concern is I am unable to get her to accept any kind of treat from my hand. She likes cashews and sunflower seeds, but if I try to offer her one with my fingers she climbs up my arm or otherwise tries to get away. If I lay it in the palm of my hand once in a while she'll pick it up, but instead of eating it she drops it. I've tried millet sprays but those freak her out and she tries to fly away. I'd like to start training her (she came with the ability to step up already mastered) but that's kind of difficult to do if she won't take treats.
Every once in a while she makes odd noises like she is thinking about talking - but so far no words. She can imitate the dog howling (we have a Chinese Crested), and when I play the Jews harp she usually starts purring and making other odd noises.
A really nice bird overall & she's just now starting to show some more developed personality.
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