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Post by newquakermommy on Mar 26, 2020 6:59:22 GMT -5
Someone in my neighborhood had a quaker parrot show up in one of their outbuildings (rural on a farm) - they rescued it, and it lived in their bathroom while they looked for someone to take it. Not super friendly, but let one of them pet it some. My daughter (pre-teen) has been wanting a parrot for a year, and has been researching, and working toward it for the whole time, so I agreed to go take a look. We went in, and it hopped out of the shower and ran over to her like it knew her. So of course, we were sold. LOL. We brought it home and it was perfectly comfortable in the car (we put it in a little soft-sided cat carrier) and happy to go into the gigantic cage that had been sitting empty since my daughter earned enough $ with chores to buy it during her year-long quest for a bird. We decided it is a boy because he bobs his head a lot - but really don't know for 100% sure. (and not interested in plucking feathers for a DNA test at this point, lol)
He is VERY SWEET and loves to be near us. He loves to be petted on the back of his neck. He whistles a wolf-whistle, and will make the kissy sound back at me when I say, "give me a kiss" and make the smoochy noise. He LOVES to come out of his cage and sit on a little perch on the outside of his cage. If he flies down (his wings were clipped by the vet the ppl took him to before we took him home) he will climb back up my pants leg if I sit down next to the cage, and climb back up on the cage that way. BUT.
He will not step up for anything. Not a hand, not a perch, not an arm covered in a sweatshirt. Whatever we put in front of him, he pushes it away with his beak and scolds us. If it's an arm covered in a sweat shirt, he bites the sweatshirt. If it's a perch, he bites it and then pushes it away. If I gently put a hand behind him, just touching his tail feathers, he will LEAP over what ever is in front of him, to the other side. This baby will NOT step up. Also, he has no idea what toys are, or how to play with them. I got a beaded ladder so he can get up and down easier, because he climbs the walls of his cage to get down and pick up something he dropped, but he won't touch it. I got shreddy toys, I got beadey toys, I got one of those twisty rope perch thingies. He won't touch them. Nothing. All he wants is to sit near where we are, and preen while we talk or play games, or read out loud. (Sometimes, when I read out loud, he starts talking along with me in this funny muttery voice - you can't hear any words, but it's clearly copying 'talking' - very adorable)
I don't mind that he doesn't want to play w toys - I wish he would for his own amusement, but my big concern is that he won't step up. How can we possibly manage this? As it is, we're rolling his gigantic cate from room to room to keep him with us, and it's not manageable at all. We open the door so he can come outside on his perch but every time, we have to just wait until His Highness randomly decides to go back in for a snack or to sit on his favorite perch and preen, to be able to close the door and move him again! Any ideas would be VERY welcome. Thanks!!
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Post by cnyguy on Mar 26, 2020 19:57:00 GMT -5
Welcome to the Forum!  You're off to a good start, despite your feathered friend's refusal to step up. It may be just a matter of needing more time before he's ready. I had success with my QP Ralph by using a spare perch and I'd recommend that you keep trying that. Maybe someone else here will have some other suggestions for you. Parrots don't instinctively know how to play with parrot toys. It could help for you to play with the toys while your parrot (have you given him a name yet?) watches. Show him how to play with them, and let him know how much fun they are. Before long, he may be ready to join in the fun. Head bobbing is not necessarily indicative of a male QP-- males and females both will do that. Unless the parrot lays an egg, the only sure way to know the bird's gender is to have a DNA test done. You can arrange for the veterinarian to handle that rather than plucking a feather yourself. |
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Post by newquakermommy on Mar 27, 2020 6:55:45 GMT -5
Thank you so much! I've tried spare perches & I've tried perches from inside the cage that I know he likes to stand on - anything comes near him in the 'step up' area, and he doesn't like it anymore, lol! I'm going to start clicker-touch training him, I read that's a good way to get them to learn how to do stuff. He's a clever little guy, so I'm sure he'll pick it up. We called him Bilbo bc he went on an unexpected journey, haha - who knows where he came from! He loves to be petted and scratched on the back of his neck - he kind of leans his head over and turns his face as an invitation. He doesn't seem to be afraid of hands at all EXCEPT when they come in a 'step up' configuration. Even his favorite perch becomes the enemy when it comes slowly in the direction of his lower abdomen! I don't know if he was mistreated, or just somehow never learned to step up, or is just holding out.
Yeah, I know it's not written in stone that he's a boy, I was just looking for a 'pick a gender' so we could give him a name and a pronoun. If he lays an egg, we'll change his pronoun, lol.
He is literally afraid of all his toys. Won't go near them. I had a foraging toy - little wicker ball hanging by beads - stuffed with sunflower seeds & he circled it with his head low and swaying for 5 minutes, darting at it every few minutes - finally I just took it out so he'd stop being so stressed. I hang them on the outside of his cage so they're a little further away, and that doesn't stress him out. Then I put them on the inside, but against the wall, so it's not in his space, and then he can ignore them. and then I move them about half an inch into the cage space, and he can ignore them, As soon as they get close enough to a perch that he could actually play with them, he does the circle-dart-sway-hiss thing until they're gone. I just keep putting more and more perches in so at least he has something to chew on and something to do. He likes hopping from perch to perch and running up and down. I put in some diagonal so he can run up and down them, and so on. Maybe he just needs more time to settle in and feel comfy and settled and then he'll feel like playing.
Do you know of any way to tell the age of a quaker? Any indications? He's pretty large, so full grown, but other than that, I'm clueless!
Thank you again!!
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Post by cnyguy on Mar 27, 2020 20:42:23 GMT -5
My QP Ralph really prefers things that aren't parrot toys. He loves to chew up popsicle sticks, weave leather laces through the cage bars (bird-safe vegetable tanned ones are hard to find, unfortunately) and build with his sticks, thin wooden dowels about 9" long. Ralph has some of the Quaker nest building instinct, but doesn't build a nest; he just likes to arrange and rearrange his sticks. You might try a few things with Bilbo that aren't actual parrot toys. Some parrots like to shred paper so you could give him something like clean printer paper to try. And do try playing with some of Bilbo's toys, away from his cage but where he can watch and see how much fun you're having with them. If he's fearful of any toys, leave them outside the cage where he can see them so he can get used to having them around without having to be close to them.
Once a parrot reaches maturity, it's hard to tell how old they might be. Ralph doesn't look much different now than he did when I brought him home 10 years ago. Sometimes the parrot's leg band will show the year the bird was hatched, but not always; if Bilbo has a leg band and will let you take a close look at it, you may find a clue there.
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Post by newquakermommy on Mar 29, 2020 5:40:51 GMT -5
Thank you for the ideas! I tried popsicle sticks and square-end toothpicks and pretty much anything he looks interested in. He held the popsicle stick for a minute and bit it but then dropped it. He really liked the look of a stainless steel washer i was using to fix a perch on the inside of his cage, so I gave it to him and he looked at it and tried to bite it and held it for a minute, then dropped it. I thought maybe it was hard to hold so I put it on some of those little plastic clippy things so it'd be a toy for him and then he was afraid of it! It seems like he's afraid of anything that hangs and/or swings. A toy he seems OK with hanging there and then I brush against it while I'm putting something in his cage and it becomes an enemy for life.
Confession. I have no idea how to play with a parrot toy!! LOL!!
He doesn't have a legband, sadly - we're just going to have to wait and see, lol.
Food question - so we're feeding him a combo of Roudybush pellets, some other fancy brand that looks like kid's cereal fruit bits the vet gave us, and parakeet seeds + fresh fruit and veggies, and sunflower seeds for treats. We gave him a few pieces of popcorn yesterday (plain, no chemicals, organic stuff, popped in a plain paper bag in my microwave) and he lost his mind over it, haha, but it seems like he is just eating cucumbers, seeds, and whatever we give him for treats. He avoids the pellets & fruit-shaped bits like they were poison. Is he going to get ill from just eating the seeds and cucumber and a few sunflower seeds every day? he does eat a little bit of lettuce as well. I'm just worried about his nutrition. And since I can't get him to step up, I can't weigh him, and so I worry he's losing weight and I don't know it. He does have plenty of poops, lol, and they are white with a stripe of green.
Thank you all so much!!
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Post by newquakermommy on Mar 29, 2020 12:29:28 GMT -5
Progress, I think! I was sitting next to his cage, not really doing anything, browsing around on my computer, while my daughter played solitaire in front of his cage (taking a break from the touch training, trying to do a few minutes here and there and just hanging out with him in between), and he walked down the cage right next to me, then went back up... I got a bolt-on perch and put it right next to me, and after a minute, he climbed down & sat on the perch - then hopped over to my shoulder!! he picked around for a minute, I asked him to 'give me a kiss' and he made the smoochie noise, I gave him a sunflower seed... he picked at my braid, my necklace, and sort of looked around for a minute, then hopped back onto his cage and went back to hanging out on top. He was totally relaxed the whole time - very cool!!! He does let us pet him but has never sat on either of us before.   |
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Post by cnyguy on Mar 29, 2020 19:43:04 GMT -5
That is progress. Time and patience almost always pay off. You might try softening some pellets in water or unsweetened fruit juice. Most parrots who aren't used to eating pellets or are reluctant to eat them will usually try the softened ones. Though my two parrots eat dry pellets, they both enjoy softened ones and I give them some every day. I put some pellets in a small glass (I use a shotglass or a cordial glass) and add just enough liquid to moisten the pellets. Let them soak for a few minutes then offer some. You can try offering them on a small spoon or just put some in the food dish. QP Ralph thinks he's getting a special treat when I give him softened pellets from a spoon. You can just make up a game using the parrot toys-- juggle them, drop them on the floor and pick them up, whatever. Show lots of enthusiasm as if you've never enjoyed anything as much. It often gets a parrot interested. Try the popsicle sticks again from time to time; it sounds like Bilbo showed at least a little interest in them. |
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Post by newquakermommy on Mar 30, 2020 5:49:25 GMT -5
OH that is excellent!!! I will try all of those ideas!!! He also likes yogurt (plain unsweetened) so I might try crumbling them or soaking them and mixing them in there. Didn't even think about it before!
OK I can do that - I'll mess around with them and make a big deal of it. Maybe that's why he was interested in the washer, lol, since I kept dropping it and laughing! LOL
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Post by cnyguy on Mar 30, 2020 19:57:34 GMT -5
The yogurt is a good idea. It's good for parrots too (of course, neither of mine will eat any).
Definitely, when you show lots of enthusiasm (like laughing) a parrot will get interested.
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Post by newquakermommy on Mar 31, 2020 9:09:33 GMT -5
That would explain why he wanted a playing card the other day. My kiddo and I were playing gin rummy and he really wanted a card - I let him see it and he hole-punched it! So I got out a deck of cards missing a few, so he could have his own while we played.
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Post by newquakermommy on Mar 31, 2020 9:09:48 GMT -5
That would explain why he wanted a playing card the other day. My kiddo and I were playing gin rummy and he really wanted a card - I let him see it and he hole-punched it! So I got out a deck of cards missing a few, so he could have his own while we played.
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You're off to a good start, despite your feathered friend's refusal to step up. It may be just a matter of needing more time before he's ready. I had success with my QP Ralph by using a spare perch and I'd recommend that you keep trying that. Maybe someone else here will have some other suggestions for you.
