New Quaker

[ConureDad]

About a month ago I got 5 year old quaker (named... Quaker, lol). His old owner seems to have taken very good care of him but needed to rehome him because of limited time and money. He talks A LOT and was almost immediately friendly toward me the day I got him (I gave him some banana, and from that moment on he wanted to me on me whenever possible, lol).

He's been a great bird so far, but there are some behavioral things I'd like some input on. This is only my second bird (also have a maroon bellied conure) and first ever quaker. I don't have many specific questions really; I just want general advice/input/ideas on the situation.

1. He has been kind of obsessed with preening my face and was very gentle for the first 2-3 weeks, but recently he's started biting HARD seemingly randomly. If my hands get bitten I don't really care that much, but he's given me two pretty bad bites on the lip and one on my eyelid while trying to preen me over the past week (drawing blood and causing some bruising). He also hangs on, and it's very difficult to get him to let go. Since the eyelid bite I've been trying to keep him away from my face and haven't had any incidents since, but he does keep trying to get to my face to preen me. He also continues to have periodic "angry" outbursts where he will attack my arm or hand for some reason, then he goes back to wanting to hang out with me and get heads pets within seconds afterward.

I know quakers can be moody birds, and he is particular about a lot of things, so I'm not sure if this is just typical quaker moodiness, there's something I'm doing that he doesn't like that I haven't figured out yet, something is overstimulating him, or there's some kind of hormonal aggression happening. It seems weird that this is happening more now that he's gotten more comfortable with me and the new environment, not in the beginning when he was afraid of everything.

Note: He's getting 12 hrs of sleep time most nights, I've been getting him to eat some veggies and sprouts (he wouldn't before), and I've been encouraging him to fly (he almost never flew before), so I don't think there have been any negative changes in his sleep or diet that would be the cause. He also hasn't shown any obvious hormonal behaviors (rubbing on things or trying to regurgitate).

2. Now that he's already been here a month, I'm trying to get him and Apollo (my conure) better acquainted. I'm not planning on ever caging them together or anything like that, but I am hoping that it will eventually be possible to let them both be out of the cage at the same time and have them get along or at least ignore one another. Quaker is about 109 grams and Apollo is 73 grams, so there's a size difference but not a huge one; hopefully this isnt a big enough difference to be too unsafe to have them out together when supervised. I'm also hoping that when I'm away, having another bird/flockmate in the same room will keep them both from getting too lonely.

I have just moved Quaker's cage into the bedroom with Apollo and I (on the other side of the room), so that they can get used to one another's presence. I've also started trying to have one bird out in the room while the other is in their cage for a bit. This has worked fine when quaker is out. I will bring him near apollo's cage and give them both treats. Quaker seems pretty indifferent to Apollo (and he was known to get along with budgies at one point in his previous home).

Apollo, however, seems uneasy about another bird being around. This isnt too surprising, since he doesn't like other people (except me) to be in "his" house either, so I figured them getting used to one another might be a slow process. He mostly ignores him when they're in their own cages, and is okay with quaker coming close when I'm giving them both treats, but when I let Apollo out of his cage he has flown to quaker's cage and started pecking at the bars a couple times now. He even got his toe nipped once (no blood or anything, but he squealed) and then still tried it again later. Quaker isn't especially defensive about his cage for a quaker, but he still doesn't like for another bird to land on it and start acting aggressively.

This is worrying me that Apollo's toes might get injured if he keeps landing on the cage. And he hangs on to the side of the cage too, so covering the cage won't help unless I cover the whole cage like I'm putting him to bed. I want to be able to have them in the same room so they can keep one another company when I'm gone, but that might be hard if Apollo could potentially fly over to quaker's cage and get his toe bitten. Until they are both acting more predictably I may have to only let Apollo out in the bedroom when quaker's cage is covered though.

Does anyone happen to have any advice on helping an aggressive smaller bird and toe-biting quaker to coexist?

Anyway, here are some pics of him being cute and fluffy.

 

[WillowQ]

Hmm. I think your bird is getting very excited preening your face. I would move him away from my face as soon as he gets pinchy. My Willow Quaker loves to preen my face but he will pinch my eyelids at the base of the lashes when he’s grooming me. I just move him because I don’t think he means to.
Quakers have a very strong pair bond, which they express by allopreening, and Quaker is confused by moving to your home where there’s already a bird in residence. My Willow wants to spend at least 1/2 hr preening and cuddling every day. I have a bad cold this week and he hasn’t gotten attention for a couple days so I got some pinches today when he came out. I know Willow is upset so I’m not taking it personally.

My guess is that Quaker is confused about where he should fit in your household. He might have some strong feelings towards Apollo so I would keep them off each other’s cages and separate during playtime. I would try to give separate and equal times to both birds. That’s how I try to do between Willow (Quaker) and Jasper (Meyers). Each bird gets a treat, each bird gets conversation by the cage, each bird gets a time out of the cage with me.

watch his body language and if he’s getting excited and pinchy, put him down. Quakers are so smart that he will figure it out. If he’s starting to preen roughly, say “be nice” or “be gentle” and if he increases bite pressure put him down and ignore for a minute.

i think I would leave the sleep schedule as it is. When Quakers are hormonal you will know it; right now he just sounds like ge

about the cages: does appollo only land on the cage top? Block it with a sheet of plexiglass. My Jaspers cage is near my kitchen table and I have a plexiglass barrier to keep bird stuff off my cage, and the bird off my table.

you’re lucky to have inherited a nice Quaker who talks well! They are so much fun and say some very funny things.

Here are some other people who have multi bird households involving Quakers @Pixiebeak @cnyguy @Mizzely
I do have two birds but mine will never interact as Jasper is much bigger than Willow.

 

[Pixiebeak]

Congratulations on quaker! What a handsome birdie!

Never have one out and d one caged, unattended , no matter how good of friends they are likely to become. They will bite any toes or fight through cage.

Doing walk by and treats is great. Being in cages in same room great. But introduce in a neutral area with each having their own treat pile and st least 3 feet apart . You stay in the middle and I keep an envelope handy to put between them if one try to charge . If anyone is upset out then up sbd try again later. I would eayt st least 2 weeks if being in sane room before out of cage introduction. You can take turns with one out sitting next to the the caged one a d give treats and just hang out and hour or so do many times.

Gcc are feirce and tend to be more jealous. You really need to be extra spoiled and time with GCC.

Quakers kinda wanna test and beak bully you a little, really more can I get away with this??
But respond really well to beak pressure training. If pressure is more than you like say be careful, and move them to your knee or back of chair or nearby perch . Do not make drama or they will love to turn into a game! Just a calm no that's not nice, or be careful and be consistent. They learn pretty quick , but when they first are learning they will do extra nipscst first to test test test lol but once they've got it they will be gentle even if they are truly given you a correction nip. They are highly social and love contact. It could be just over excited to finally be getting attention and being allowed to preen their buddy ( you)! Mine preen me and each other a lot.

Bites to hands or arms..keep try to figure out what's caused this. They have a reason.

If yours is fine right now with you stick your hands in cage don't expect that to last. My lovies will not tolerate it. Have a perch in the outside and have him step out to there before interacting, it cleaning cage. Will save you a lot of needles drama dien the road. Sure the rare quaker won't mind cafe invasion, but most are following the program to defend cage.

 

[April]

@Mizzely used to have a Quaker and a Greenie that could hang out together let me tag her for you for her advice.

 

[ConureDad]

Thanks for the responses!

He hasn't shown cage aggression yet, and his previous owner said he never really got defensive over the cage but would defend particular toys instead.

Right after he bites I notice he usually says "bad boy quaker!," "no!," "bad bird!," or something else that may have been said to him when he has bitten people, so he very well might be looking for a reaction or treating it as some kind of game. He associates words with specific contexts extremely well. I was told that he knows what "no" means, so I have said " no" when bitten, but maybe I need to work on just making sure I'm calm and putting him down somewhere. Getting him off of me when I want to put him down somewhere else is quite difficult, though. I usually have to bribe him with a treat to get him to step off of me, and that probably wouldn't be a great thing to do after he bites, lol.

I'll definitely continue with separate out of cage times for now. The plexiglass on top of the cage is a good idea, but Apollo tends to land and climb on the side of the cage (that's where he was when he got his toe nipped), so I'm not sure what to do about that short of totally covering the cage whenever Apollo is spending any time out in the bedroom.

On a different note, his vocabulary and intelligence keep impressing me. It's more like what I would have expected from an African grey, honestly. And boy does he TALK. He spams "Good morning!!!" in the morning when he wants to be let out. I was trying to get a nap yesterday and he was in his cage talking, singing, making sounds. He knows "itsy bitsy spider," but he likes to mix the words around, so he will sing something hilarious like "down came the rainnnn! And dried up all the, dried up all the rain! Out came THE SPIDER!" He also does "pew pew" gun sounds when someone makes finger guns (in fact, he also sometimes does it when I put my finger out for him to step on, lol). And half the time I tell him to "step up" he ignores the actual command and just repeats "step up!" back at me instead. He also seems to understand context surprisingly well. One of the first days I had him he really surprised me when I put the sheet over his cage for the night and he said "night night quaker!" when I hadn't said anything.

 

[WillowQ]

Yes, they are very very smart.

I had two Quakers that were fine with me putting hands inside their cages. Totaling about 26 yrs. But then Willow came to me and he has some serious rules about what I can do with his cage.
He’s gotten more relaxed about it but I doubt he’ll ever not care what I do or youch on his cage.

 

[Pixiebeak]

Oh you are smitten!!!

What you can make a game out of, is stepping from you to random spots then back to you. Verbal reward is often enough just bragging on them. But start out with a treat. I started out asking my parrots to step to all these weird lol spots, so I could later stage them for pictures. So I had them step to picture frames , shelves, on stuffed animals... But you can just use furniture, cage too , you out of cage perch area. Then when it it is time to have him step off when needed he already has a positive association and habit of stepping off.

It's also a real good idea to desensitized to cage. By taking him random over to cage to step off and back to you. To eat a great snack on top or in cage then back to you. To use cage as his nap area . To set up a little foraging treat when you have to put them back for real. I use popcorn stuffed into things they have to work at to get.
No bird likes being locked up, they are intelligent and sociol and active species! Unlike cats , dog and some rodents that sleep/nap a lot. So incorporate into your life as much as possible and use cage inky for sleep, safe retreat, when you can't supervise it out if home.

Mine are out all day with me because of my life style. But....oh my , one time I was so sick and had to lock them up ...the nightmare of screaming!!! So I then worked to have postive cage time , and worked to have their mid day nap in cage and fit them to tolerate an hour or two cage even tho they can see mommy!! And it's such a postive now that they race me back to the cages to put themselves up!! They know they get something special ( random not always) . But I always brag in them and tell them what good birdie they are. Sbd their out of cage needs are met don't get aren't frustrated .

Make recall to the cage a game . Have a special bright colored perch attached to the door and target it . At first just get him good st going there fit treat when asked. Then only lock up for a minute or two then back out. Always use highest value favorites as in csfe inky when it's time to go beck . It's so helpful to change the mindset and make the csfe a postive olacec

 

[Emma&pico]

He sounds super fun