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Post by Aardman on Feb 29, 2016 13:43:06 GMT -5
Some may think this is a blessing, but I'm a little concerned.
Our Quaker, Trixie, seems little interested in anything besides us - mostly me. She primarily just sits inside or on top of her cage and waits for attention, which, if she doesn't get, she lets out some squawks to make sure we know she's tired of waiting. Even in the noise department she's pretty tame. She will get vocal when she's gotten tired of waiting for some attention, or maybe thinks her food bowl is too low on chow, but even then it's nothing compared to what our cockatiel used to do.
I have only seen her play with anything twice since we got her about six months ago, and that was only for a few minutes.
Because she craves our company so much I've got stands in different rooms of the house where we work so she can always hang out with us, but even though these stands have toys, all she does is sit and stare at us, making little soft oink-like sound whenever we look her way. She'll hang out on our shoulder all day if we let her, but that can get messy after a while, plus, she enjoys grooming us which can occasionally get painful when she tries to pluck out a beard hair. She could spend all day having her neck and head scratched and her beak rubbed. She blisses out on that kind of attention, closing her eyes and leaning in.
She has NEVER bitten anyone - never.
She doesn't seem to have any interest in talking whatsoever. She has a repertory of about three sounds. A monkey-like squawk when she wants attention - a cute peeping sound when you pick her up, and soft pig-like grunts when she's content and walking around on your shoulder. She used to make a few more sounds but those have mostly stopped.
The only real behavior issue she has is a complete reluctance to accept anything from my hand, even stuff I know she likes like sunflower seeds. The minute I try to offer her anything, off she scurries. On the rare occasions I've gotten her to take something out of my hands she drops it immediately.
Maybe I'm looking for problems where there aren't really any, but I didn't really expect her to be this mellow, especially from what I've been reading.
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Post by easttex on Feb 29, 2016 15:57:34 GMT -5
Have you tried teaching her to play? She might never have learned. Coupled with what maybe is a more-reticent-than-your-average Quaker personality, she may need more instruction from you. You could approach it as a training project, using positive reinforcement.
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Post by siobhan on Feb 29, 2016 18:59:27 GMT -5
I have a tiel like that. If no one is interacting with him, he sits on top of a cage and stares out the window or even at the wall. Just sits there. Thankfully, we have two tiels, and the other one, Freddie, is a firecracker who keeps Johnny entertained and busy most of the time. It's only if Freddie has wandered off to eat or something that Johnny goes into what I think of as "pause" mode. Like somebody turned off his switch. I suspect he didn't get much interaction at his former home and maybe adopted this behavior as a coping mechanism. Where did you get your Quaker from? It may just be a matter of playing with toys with her, and trying to teach her sounds to make -- doesn't have to be words! You could teach her to whistle songs or imitate other animals or something -- and just sort of stimulate her little mind.
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Post by Aardman on Feb 29, 2016 23:23:01 GMT -5
Have you tried teaching her to play? She might never have learned. Coupled with what maybe is a more-reticent-than-your-average Quaker personality, she may need more instruction from you. You could approach it as a training project, using positive reinforcement. I've tried things like playing with some of her toys myself and acting excited but that goes nowhere. The problem with training is the one thing she DOES do is avoid anything I try to give her in the way of a treat, which is really unfortunate because the only thing she wants from me is attention, and I don't think it's a particularly good idea to withhold that just so I can use it as a reward. I've caught her playing twice, that's it. Once she was leaning out of her snuggle hut and chewing some rings hanging from the top of her cage. The other time she was leaning down from her perch on her portable stand and trying to grab some wooden stars hanging from it. The problem is, if she notices I'm looking at her playing, she immediately stops and starts pacing around trying to get me to pick her up. On one hand I'm happy she's so mellow and affectionate - those are real virtues in a pet like this, but on the other hand I think its important she knows how to entertain herself and clown around some - not just to amuse us but also for her own emotional well being. |
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Post by Aardman on Feb 29, 2016 23:29:20 GMT -5
I have a tiel like that. If no one is interacting with him, he sits on top of a cage and stares out the window or even at the wall. Just sits there. Thankfully, we have two tiels, and the other one, Freddie, is a firecracker who keeps Johnny entertained and busy most of the time. It's only if Freddie has wandered off to eat or something that Johnny goes into what I think of as "pause" mode. Like somebody turned off his switch. I suspect he didn't get much interaction at his former home and maybe adopted this behavior as a coping mechanism. Where did you get your Quaker from? It may just be a matter of playing with toys with her, and trying to teach her sounds to make -- doesn't have to be words! You could teach her to whistle songs or imitate other animals or something -- and just sort of stimulate her little mind. She came from a local pet store that usually has lots of birds, mostly conures. She stood out as the first Quaker I'd ever seen there, plus, she was really easy going. They said at the pet store that she likes to play with her bell (she had a hanging toy with a bell on it) and she sometimes gives is a piece of her mind, so we made sure to get a few toys with bells on them. She could care less about the bells or the toys they're attached to. We have managed to teach her to do the head bobbing thing by bobbing our head at her or by motioning that way with our fingers, and she does seem to get pretty worked up when I play one of my Jew's harps at her, occasionally trying to imitate the sound, so it's not like she is incapable of other behaviors - she'd just rather wait for one of us to pick her up and play with her. Now, on the other hand, our necks and hair and glasses and my hearing aids are an endless source of fun for her. When she sits on my shoulder she very actively preens me and tries to remove my glasses, pull out my hearing aid, remove moles (ouch!) that sort of thing. |
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Post by easttex on Mar 1, 2016 6:47:45 GMT -5
Peppy doesn't play with toys much, but he does seem to love his plastic chain. I've seen others mention this type of toy being favored, also. You might try hanging one of those. It is possible to use attention/affection place of treats as a reward, though it's more of a challenge. My grey will not work for food, either. You could try putting a perch in an area Trixie is not familiar with, and start with something pretty simple, like target training. In the beginning, heap praise on her when she so much remains calm in the presence of whatever you're using for the target. Start really slow and don't keep at it for more than a few minutes in a session. At the end of each session, give her a good scritching and then return her to her usual place. This is best started before she's able to fly.  |
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Post by julianna on Mar 1, 2016 14:20:12 GMT -5
I don't think there is anything wrong with Trixie.... she just wants to be a human too. Oscar does a lot of the same things as you mention with the exception that he loves to build houses or play in the cupboards. He constantly wants to be with me and do his best to follow me from the kitchen to the living room.... (like a little puppy dog).
He never plays with any of his toys and I have a huge box of them... I tried everything but he would rather have... like you said.. my glasses or jewellery or to chew on my face. It is the human things that keeps him interested.. like a box of Kleenex or my favorite book to tear apart.
Because she is reluctant to take anything from your hand might mean that something spooked her before and she is frightened? Try to put her favorite treat in the palm of your hand and keep your hand flat down. She if she will climb up to get it. I don't know what it is with Quakers but I have heard a lot of stories where they will attack the hand. Oscar does this once in a while too... and for no reason. I sometimes think to myself... if I was a little bird and this big hand is coming toward me... I might be scared... and run or bite.
Best wishes.
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Post by julianna on Mar 1, 2016 14:24:10 GMT -5
P.S. Oscar's newest toy is my jeans. When I lay on the couch he comes up my belly and tears the heck out of the top of my jeans. He will sit there and tear and tear every little string he can for hours. Of course I can no longer wear these jeans outside the house but I certainly put them on whenever I am in the house. Loosing one pair to Oscar is enough.
First he tore out the metal pieces and now he is at the waste band... lol
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Post by siobhan on Mar 1, 2016 14:56:42 GMT -5
It could be she just hasn't found THE toy yet. Jade loves bells. She has a huge number of them. And she is not even slightly interested in anything else. Freddie likes paper and will spend most of his time tearing it into tiny pieces. I often threaten to hire him out to make hamster and mouse bedding. Clyde has one toy he likes, but mostly he ignores toys and prefers to sit on his boing with his tiny minion, Benjy, and just lord it over the rest of the birds. They're individuals with different tastes. If yours likes the Jew's harp, maybe music is her thing. Have you tried playing the radio for her, or singing to her, or even getting her a baby toy that makes music? Toys meant for baby humans are safe for parrots. My 'too has a toy xylophone and a teething ring. It has taken a long time to figure out which toys suit which birds, but the good part of having so many birds is, if I buy a toy for one and it's not to his/her taste, probably someone else in the flock will like it. The teething ring, for example. It's belonged to my starling, to Clyde and now to Rocky and so far, Rocky's the only one who actually plays with it. Keep trying different things and maybe you'll stumble on one she likes.
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Post by aaron on Mar 3, 2016 10:07:05 GMT -5
I don't think anything is wrong with Trixie. In a lot of ways she's just like our QP Cupcake, who is often content to simply sit and wait for attention. Attention from us is definitely her favorite thing, and while she can be quite patient at times when waiting for it, she's really not interested in amusing herself with other things while she's waiting. If I was to let her build a nest, that would be different... she'd be focusing on that every waking hour of the day, but otherwise, playing with toys just isn't her thing. In general, she wants to be exactly where we are, and she'll follow us around the house as we do things, but you rarely catch her going to play by herself. If she does, it's usually this one simple little foot toy that she slowly destroys. She too does not have much interest in complex vocalization. She has a repertoire of sounds that mean different things, but they are all relatively simple. In the shower, she will occasionally make noises like attempted speech, but she's nearly 5 years old, and not a single clear word thus far. She also is not much of a biter... while she has landed some minor bites over the years, they are infrequent and have decreased in intensity substantially. It's been well over a year since the last time she actually broke skin, and that wasn't very bad. She doesn't have any problem with accepting things from our hands, but I imagine that will come with time with Trixie, once she finally realizes you're offering good treats We bought Cupcake from a pet store when she was 9mo old. She was kept in a container by herself, had one simple toy, and mostly just sat there. I have this theory that pet store birds in this kind of solo scenario that are treated well are often more mellow, for better or worse, because they have spent so much time sitting around waiting for the next time the pet store employee comes to change food or water or say hi, and have become accustomed to waiting. Kind of sad on some level, but Cupcake is very well suited to human life in this way, so in many ways it's a good thing. |
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Post by Aardman on Mar 31, 2016 0:28:06 GMT -5
This is an interesting discussion. Trixie is a great pet, quite affectionate, but I do worry about her well being over the long term.
Toys aren't the only thing she has little to no interest in either. She could care less about baths or fresh food / greens / fruits. I've got quaker sized bird bath that I dutifully fill and put in her cage for a day or two every week but she has never used it. I tried showing her a cake pan of lukewarm water on our kitchen counter - splashed it around a bit - no interest. After a while I finally set her down in the pan of water. She didn't freak out, but she immediately climbed out.
Any food that isn't her regular stuff is ignored until it becomes in-edible, with the exception of sunflower seeds.
In fact, she's kind-of easy to spook if you approach her with anything in your hands she's not familiar with - even accidentally. She can't fly, but she tries and winds up on the living room floor squawking for somebody to rescue her. I walked by her cage this afternoon with a couple of rolls of gift-wrapping paper not even thinking about her and off she went.
I guess the bottom line is to continue having LOTS of patience. If she never plays with toys but is happy that's fine, but I think for her own physical health she should be taking occasional baths and eating fresh foods every once in a while.
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Post by Jan and Shah on Mar 31, 2016 4:17:45 GMT -5
Quakers teach us patience. Keep trying with the fresh food. Let her see you eat it - she might be interested then. Shah never used to bathe until I caught him in a very small bowl trying to have a bath. I tried a series of dishes until I found a crockery casserole dish - it is white on the inside and a pale yellow on the outside with handles on each end. It doesn't hold a lot of water and is not very big but he loves it and fits into it nicely.
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Post by easttex on Mar 31, 2016 5:18:13 GMT -5
Neither of my birds are fans of fresh foods. One thing I'm giving them daily that they do like is Higgins Snack Attack Leafy Greens. It's dried, and it's not the kale I'd love to see them eat, but it's a start. It has a little cinnamon, and that may be what makes it palatable to them.
How the food is presented can make a big difference. For example, I've offered a raisin many times to my grey, but she refuses them. But there are some in the cooked rice dishes I give them, and I've noticed the raisin is the first thing she goes for. You never know.
For some reason, vacuum cleaners stimulate a lot of birds to bathe. Peppy is afraid of it so it doesn't work with him, but it works on Allie CAG. Try running it across the room from Trixie. You can also use a fine mist sprayer on her. Spray it above her so it settles gently on her, or it's likely to scare her. If she decides she likes it, you can spray more freely. It doesn't work as well as a bath, but it might serve as in introduction. Have you tried bringing her into the shower with you? It's best to start very slowly with this, but eventually you might be able to put her on a perch in there. No direct spray, but even if she doesn't get wet, the humidity will be good for her.
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Post by aaron on Mar 31, 2016 9:37:40 GMT -5
Cupcake periodically asks for baths, but not often enough that I'm comfortable with just letting her bathe on her own schedule. I take her into the shower once a week and carefully and gently wash her under cool water (no soap of course)... She doesn't love it but she tolerates it, and I feel like that deep clean really helps her. Trixie sounds a lot more skittish than Cupcake, though, so I'm not sure if she would be okay with that. A good first step would be her just observing the shower... taking her in there and putting her on a perch out of the water's reach, as Easttex recommends. Shower time is Cupcake's favorite thing in the whole world. If my wife or I are taking a shower, she will be furious if she is not included, and literally sits outside the bathroom door screaming at us. Haha.
Cupcake is a sucker for warm, soft food. I feel like she'll try anything if it has that consistency and temperature. Steamed spinach or a sweet potato/butternut squash... both big hits. Have you tried warm/soft food with Trixie? Not fresh, but still very nutritious.
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Post by biteybird on Mar 31, 2016 18:26:14 GMT -5
Bonnie does not care for baths (once per week at most) or for most fruits and vegetables. She also does not often play with toys, much preferring human company. Sometimes she will play with pieces of paper or items on the table/bench, but we have to initiate and remain engaged with playing or she loses interest quickly.
I've been intending to experiment with a shower perch for Bonnie, because I feel that her feathers are too dusty and she needs at least one misting between her infrequent baths.
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