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Post by julianna on Jan 5, 2018 14:47:27 GMT -5
We all know that our Quakers have their instincts which they just cannot help but must do... such as protecting their food source or their cages. Just wanted to share a few tips that I have noticed with my Oscar and how I work around his instincts.
Placing Food in his Dish When it is time to give him a clean dish of food Oscar will be right there watching me and waiting. Getting the food bowl out is not usually a problem as he will sit on the perch on the door of his cage and watch. When I remove and empty the dish... he gives me the open beak ready to attack mode. I refill his cup and get him to come onto my finger of my left hand. Now with the bowl in my right hand, I will reach for the top of the cage to replace it meanwhile I move my left hand (with Oscar on it) away from the bowl until I can lower it. Once lowered, I put Oscar onto the perch so he can go and eat. Saved myself a good nip there... lol.
Wiping his Cage Oscar does not like me touching his cage and will tolerate it. When I get the wet paper towel to remove poop droppings, he will immediately go after the paper towel. I also have to put this towel inside his cage to wash the bars in there. What I have found is that if I start to sing while cleaning his cage, he will start to scratch his leg and ignores me cleaning. I can reach anywhere I want to now... as long as I keep singing. He doesn't always scratch his leg... sometimes he will just look at me like he is asking me to take singing lessons... lol
Bites when Hubby Wakes in Morning When Oscar sits on my hand in the morning, we are usually in the living room watching TV. When hubby comes into the living room the first thing Oscar will do is bite my hand. I believe he does this because he feels threatened that my husband might get my attention. So what I have started to do is place Oscar on my belly (off my hand) and remove my hands from his reach. Without them there he has nothing to attack. I do not think he has put together the thought that my hands are part of my body... lol
Maybe these tips will help you as well. |
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Post by biteybird on Jan 7, 2018 0:27:25 GMT -5
Haha Julianna, I have to laugh as NONE of this would work with our feisty Bonnie... *Food dishes - we put in her fresh food and water in her Day cage before we transfer out from the night cage. If we have to change the food/water after she's in the day cage we have to put on an oven glove and shove it in the dish opening so we don't get bitten. (Even better, shove her backwards with it...!)  *Wiping cage - Not happening unless she isn't in it. We clean both her cages when she is in the other cage (in a different room). *Biting - Bonnie will bite other places if the hands are removed as an option (has bitten hubby several times on the belly and back when he put his hands out of reach). :0 Sorry to put a dampener on all your advice! :0 ... I just had to share all this, I think we have a more-than-normally-weird quaker.  Oscar is most definitely better behaved than Bonnie. |
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Post by julianna on Jan 7, 2018 16:01:29 GMT -5
lol biteybird.... I laugh at the oven gloves.... Oscar is terrified of these and he has enough stress in his life right now.. I couldn't imagine. Too funny how Quakers can be so same... yet so different.
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Post by PaScuba on Jan 12, 2018 0:44:46 GMT -5
There are several ways to curb this agression. First would be to train your fid to go to a neutral corner and stay while you do the work. I admit that this does take more time and patience than a lot of other behaviors. But once you have the "go to your corner" behavior working - you can then work inside without fear of new scars. I do admit that I have my share of scars. And "go to your corner" doesn't necessarily mean a real corner. It could be where ever your want it to be. Like on a perch on the other side of the room, for example. Be sure to reward for staying in the corner. That's called displacement behavior. You are changing the focus from biting your hand to eating some food. Can't do both at the same time. Any distracting behavior - like whistling, singing, dancing, open eagle, wave, play fetch, can help distract your fid from worrying about the cage and focus on dedicated training.
Bottom line - this is a case of trust. Your fid must trust that you are not (from the fids point of view) stealing it's food and water, nor destroying the home.
Remember the three rules of training? 1. People don't get hurt. 2. The fid doesn't get hurt. 3. The fid is calmer at the end of the training session.
I would be lieing if I said that I never got bit for no apparent reason. Maybe I missed the fly on the wall that was buzzing the "Charge ... " call asking the fid to bite you. But usually when I really study the situation and look for the antecedent, I can find one. Then add that to the list of behaviors to work on. The Antecedent is what was going on just before the bad Behavior (the bite), with the resulting Consequent - you leave. That's know as the ABC's of training.
Hope this helped a little. Have a Great day today and a better one tomorrow. Remember that 10 minutes of training today will bring hours of joy later.
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Post by thorolf on Jan 29, 2018 9:43:44 GMT -5
Oscar sounds like he and Beowulf went to the same finishing school ! Even though he loves me I still get the open beak display when I reach for his food bowl even though he knows I have to get the bowl if Beo wants food . He seldom actually bites (Notice that I did Not say "never!" ). My biggest contribution to this thread is to note that at this time of year( winter ) we often see behavior problems or aggression from our fids. All I can say is that we usually must learn to just let our little birdies work through these problems on there own, after which we will have our same old loving fids back !! Hormones wait for no man ! :-)
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Post by pidgesmum on Feb 12, 2018 19:16:52 GMT -5
I'm not sure what fid is. Luckily I don't have these problems....yet. Pidge is only in his cage a few hrs a day so hopefully I can avoid it.
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Post by rickygonzalez on Feb 16, 2018 0:37:55 GMT -5
I guess I have been very fortunate. I have had 3 Quakers, none have ever been this way. It's interesting to read these stories. I hope my luck holds out with "Trump." Somebody asked me today, why I keep going back to Quakers? I personally think these birds for the size are as interesting and intelligent as you can have. They are fun to own or be owned by I suppose... lol
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Post by julianna on Feb 18, 2018 15:53:14 GMT -5
lol ricky... you got that right "be owned by"... lol
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Post by PaScuba on Mar 1, 2018 15:52:05 GMT -5
Fid is a Feathered kid.
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