Things they don't tell you about getting a Quaker Parrot
Dec 22, 2015 12:43:12 GMT -5
easttex, aaron, and 1 more like this
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.
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.
Ralph isn't quite as messy as George the YCA was, but is more creative at spreading the mess around. He's not nearly as loud as George, but his bites are every bit as hard. 
. Chuckie forcibly ejects food that he doesn't like from the cage, sometimes a surprising distance. He also is very bipolar about treats, one day he will devour a nut, the next day he will drop it and look at me with a "you are nuts" expression. And, much to my amazement, he is lifting his whole food cup out of the ring it sits in and dumping it onto the bottom of his "house". Given that the food cup and the "anti poop in food cover" is almost as large as he is, I didn't think this would become an issue. As I mentioned elsewhere, Chuck was a very set in his ways bird when I inherited him. And I have the scars to show from his nips. It has been a challenge for me to learn not to react in any way when he nips. One action that serves pretty well as a intervention when he starts getting too aggressive when he is perching on my finger or arm is to shake gently. This distracts him because he has to find his balance. Zim, you may find that Yoshi starts play grooming your hand and fingers. Chuckie will even gently grab hold of my fingers and start talking. Please continue to share Yoshi's adventures with the forum, I for one enjoy reading them. 
