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Post by mango on Oct 2, 2018 5:19:40 GMT -5
Hi Folks, I’m all out of ideas for my Quaker. He’s become very aggressive towards everyone apart from me and my eldest daughter. Although there is times he will try to remove a finger from both of us!! He is extremely aggressive towards our youngest child of 4 years old, to the point he will go out of his way to chase her. Got to the point where we can’t let him out of the cage when she is there or if a stranger is in the house. He was hand rested and was very tame until recent. He would be 1 year old now. Talking plenty and mimicking the dog!!I’ve read all the posts on this but am really out of ideas on this matter.
He is not possessive of his cage, it’s all the time no mattter where he is.
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Post by siobhan on Oct 2, 2018 16:27:41 GMT -5
He may be reaching sexual maturity and it's hormones. Does he get plenty of sleep in the dark and quiet (that is, not in a room where people are talking or watching TV)? Have you been petting only his head and not stroking down his back (that sets off hormones, too). This is the kind of behavior that my Quaker exhibits when he's hormonal and he's very possessive of me, so if I speak to the other birds or my attention wanders, and sometimes even if it doesn't, he has a meltdown. It takes Clyde a couple of weeks to get through one of those spells and during that time, I don't handle him any more than I can help, he goes to bed early and sleeps late. You can try that for a few days and see if there's any improvement. When Clyde first reached sexual maturity, he'd even fly at me and attack me. They go temporarily bonkers and it's not their fault.
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Post by mango on Oct 2, 2018 17:35:43 GMT -5
To be fair he’s always around us so maybe he’s not getting enough sleep. I’ve been avoiding his back also. It could be his hormones as he is constantly humping everything in his cage 🙈🙈. Have been trying to socialise him with our new pup but he chases her and bites at her!
Do they calm down after they reach maturity, and what age do they fully mature at?
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Post by biteybird on Oct 3, 2018 5:35:23 GMT -5
Hi Mango!  You are asking the right kinds of questions....it's just hard to give the right answers! Quakers are in a league of their own as far as behaviours go.  Siobhan gave you great advice regarding sleep time. We find that when Bonnie is aggro to one of us she just gets put back in her cage for a spell of about 5-10 minutes...if she does it again, repeat. 3rd strike she's "out" - in the cage for the rest of the day. Start the next day fresh, clean slate. Be careful allowing your quaker out with the new pup, as he may go *snap* and that will be the end of your quaker. Your quaker should be fully matured by 1.5yrs. They do calm down to a point, but it's sporadic highs and lows. We are still mystified by some of Bonnie's aggressive behaviour and she is nearly 5 years old...:0 Good luck & keep us posted. EDIT: Try not to react to the aggressive behaviour - no yelling at him, or even looking at him. Simply place him back in his cage and don't respond in any way if he squawks/screams. Also, you might consider limiting his out-of-cage time to no more than one hour per day, just so he doesn't take you for granted and is on his best behaviour. |
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Post by siobhan on Oct 3, 2018 10:52:18 GMT -5
Birds turn their back on flock members who have misbehaved. Try that, too. Put him on his cage and turn your back and stand there (out of reach) with your back turned for a couple of minutes. Even Clyde, who is Chief Bird in Charge of All He Surveys, understands that. He'll be very quiet for a while, then he'll start making these questioning little chirps. Like "Mom? Mom?" and quite often, he'll be much calmer after that. This does not work on cockatoos. LOL Rocky knows darned well he's been naughty and he just doesn't care.
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Post by dinucci on Oct 4, 2018 5:59:04 GMT -5
All great options from everyone above. Getting him more sleep as well as having him covered completely so it's dark in his cage even when light shines thru the windows is imperative. Buddy let's us know he wants to go to bed by acting up and being bratty..after the sun goes down.
I just went thru a horrible hormonal stretch with buddy..we relocated his sleeper cage to another room that we keep dark all day, his day cage and playgym are encased in windows. When he wants to snooze,he flys to the other cage.
Keep any shredding material away from him as he may think he's building a nest with these items. I also removed the pan from the playtops of his 2 cages. Switching up toys and opting for preening like toys made of soft cotton rope ect has worked well too..I even gave him a few of my old cotton socks. Your vet may have some ideas too..which usually in love a series of lupron shots...I had to do this as a last resort,but would have preferred not to and probably wouldn't have had to had I made the changes quickly.
But I have my sweet lil pal back..
Best wishes to you guys..it's a trying time but will pass...also,buddy is just over that yr and a half stage and is becoming calmer for the most part..talking a lot more and playing vs screaming too.
Hang in there..always darkest before dawn !
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