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Post by skyler11 on May 18, 2015 7:05:32 GMT -5
Hi all, I'm so looking forward to meeting all the birds and the people they own.---- My boy is Cricket --- He is quite a talker and has about 200 words almost always used in context. He will "sing" the Quaker song with prompting and while under his newspaper playing peekaboo. Unfortunately he is very cage protective and also bites. I thought I was having a measure of success using positive reinforcement ---putting my finger forward with saying gentle and then crooning "good boy" when he barely touched me. And also staying alert to body language. But then after a few months of peace the last few times he stepped up---he nailed me. He did run around after both assaults yelling "don't bite Mommy" (thanks).
I can't wait to pick up new techniques, new info and stories. And I'll learn how to post pics and video |
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Post by Jan and Shah on May 18, 2015 8:49:24 GMT -5
Hi, welcome to you and Cricket. That's a pretty impressive number of words. He sounds like one smart little boy.
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Post by aaron on May 18, 2015 9:07:28 GMT -5
Welcome to you and Cricket! He sounds quite impressive with that vocabulary! Such a stark contrast to our QP, who is an avid laugher, but does not talk (at least not yet, she is almost 4).
Sorry to hear you are having some issues with biting... How old is your little guy? How do you react when he bites you (obviously not easy to avoid yelling or making a loud 'OW'... but this often encourages them)?
Another thing is that if you are having territorial issues, you may want to avoid him playing peek-a-boo under newspaper or anything like that, because this is actually stimulating a nesting instinct, and that will almost certainly lead to more territorial behavior if he feels he has a nest to protect. We used to allow our QP, Cupcake, to have a tent, and lots of little hiding places, and even to do nest building but finally came to the conclusion that it was really detrimental to her behavior... So now she does not have access to anything of that nature, and she seems perfectly happy that way. It didn't resolve every behavioral issue, but there was definitely a dramatic improvement.
Anyhow, welcome and please feel free to ask any questions you might have. We are all happy to help!
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Post by easttex on May 18, 2015 18:56:48 GMT -5
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Post by cnyguy on May 18, 2015 19:53:05 GMT -5
Welcome to you and Cricket! He does have an impressive vocabulary.  |
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Post by julianna on May 19, 2015 12:26:56 GMT -5
Howdy to you and Cricket. My quaker surprises me at the best of times with biting. Today (for instance) I am relaxing on the couch and he crawls up my arm to join me. Within a few seconds he decides that he does not like my left hand so he attacks. I did not jerk away as this will sometimes encourage them.... if it runs... they will chase it. He did calm down instantly but then I covered my left hand with my right hand.... Needless to say I now have blood dripping from my right hand on the thumb.
99% of the time he will not attack me... it is that one percent we must watch out for and it is not easily predicted.
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Post by skyler11 on May 19, 2015 14:01:49 GMT -5
Thanks for the welcome. I will post later in another section about Cricket - He really does have a good reason to bite---- he arrived to his current home via postal delivery
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When people mention biting problems, I like to refer them to this link: 
