quaker parrot aggression, pls help!!

[babybirdii]

I have an 11 month old female quaker (bubbles) that i have had since she was only 3 months old and I’m looking for some aggression advice. I have 8 birds total but bubbles is by far my most difficult to work with, she hates all my other birds and hardly gets along with me, only rarely she will step up if she feels like it, she is definitely a more independent bird which i am okay with. my main concern is her abusing the flock, she’s already taught my conure some aggressive behaviors from always trying to fight with him, i don’t want her to make the rest of the flock aggressive i love her so much i really don’t want to have to rehome her, but the thought has crossed my mind since she bit my indian ringnecks foot a few nights ago (and he can hold his own, his beak is nearly twice the size of hers, most of the flock knows his authority) but he is a sweetheart and just growled at her, he’s never bit anyone before and now he has a small cut by his nail, i fear he will pick up on those aggressive behaviors and that’s the last thing i need because he can do serious harm to the flock if he wanted to, but this isn’t the first time she’s drawn blood from another bird (and myself) i just feel like she’s a bully to my other birds and it’s not fair for them, i always bring them downstairs to hangout away from the cages because she’s extremely aggressive by her cage, i thought that would help but she’s still always looking for a fight. if anyone has any advice on teaching her to be more friendly it would be soooo greatly appreciated!! i’ve never given up on a bird before and i would hate to start now, but i just fear for the safety of the flock, i feel like she would thrive in a home with no other birds, but at the same time im attached to her and i would have so much anxiety trusting someone else with my baby especially knowing how mean she can be i don’t want her to become neglected / abused in another home because i know under all that anger she’s just a misunderstood sweet baby that deserves the best!!

 

[Pixiebeak]

Hi.
I need to understand your setup and routine a little more to be able to better help you. Maybe pictures?

Are they all in separate cages ? Where in the home are the cages located? What species of parrots?

Baby birds( most all species) are tolerant, but as adults they want their space respected , and have their own idea of what's acceptable.

I can come across blunt, but I care deeply, and want parrot's and people to succeed and be happy.

Asking all these questions, and your honest objective evaluation, is extremely helpful in understanding the dynamic going on.. and what changes might be helpful to you and your flock .

I don't know how rapidly you put your flock together? What's the timeline? How did you manage introducing? Are all the birds young?

I'd probably start off by saying your quaker is frustrated and that leads to acting out. Quakers are well known to protect their cage . And that is normal, and something you adjust too.

All 3 of my quakers are cage protective. I can't stick my hand in their cage or do food and water while they are inside. That causes them to scream and attack . No birds can land on their cage while they are inside that causes them to attack the bird on the outside of cage. Even if that's their best buddy out there. To be fair my GCC will attack sby bird landing in her cage as well. But it's just not an issue for me, because I have perches on the door and outside of the cages. I have them step out of cage to their special perches on the outside by the door , in the beginning I gave treats and praised lavishly, but now it's so ingrained as our routine they just hop right out. Then I can service their cage with zero drama. Sometime I need to move them to too of cage outside perches or nearby play area. Away from their cages , they are all babydolls.

I took a lot of time , and care , observations, and adjusting to create a flock , and tolerance for those individuals who don't want up close interaction with some of their flock mates. And have individual time and ritual with individuals.

Until we work through your set up and routine, and redo introductions and flock dynamics, you should not have your birds out together. And whoever is out should not have access to land on anybody's cage.

 

[Pixiebeak]

You might need to redo your out of cage set up , and a ton of perch areas , toys and food and water dishes.
I have about 30 perches and 7 seperate perch plsy areas not counting the cages which on the outside iv added tons of perches for my flock of six. When all are out and nobody is inside cages, I close the cage doors to prevent birds going in and maybe fight when trapped. Then they are all fine with each other climbing on the outside of their cages.

Having all this room to retreat and spread out is very important. Bring flighted is important, they simply fly to a different perch area. It's setting your flock up for success.

Untill I can find the thread of my bird cage set up . I'm linking this one , it just shows a few things I've done .

Cheap n Easy

I use a lot of suspended perches, cheap and easy. I use ceiling hooks and heavy weight fishing line ( it can be weighted to catch fish of hundreds of pounds). If mine had bigger beaks or were inclined to chew the fishing line ( they don't ) id use plastic chain to above their head height on...

forums.avianavenue.com

 

[Pixiebeak]

This thread has so many peoples creative set ups! I love getting inspiration from members

Post your cage set-ups!

FYI I thought this was the rubber toy It's a hard plastic ball with cork plugs and hard wood blocks, for clarification.

forums.avianavenue.com

 

[babybirdii]

First off thank you so much for the input! and don’t worry about sounding blunt im always looking for ways to improve my care! but i have 4 budgies (2 of them are a little over 2, the other 2 just turned 1 in may) a green cheek conure (around 2 1/2 years old) a cockatiel (im not sure how old because he/she was a rescue) an indian ringneck (our newest edition he’s only 6 months) and obviously a quaker, she will be 1 October 27th. I got her towards the end of January and i got my indian ringneck mid june, when i first brought bubbles home her wings were clipped and she was not tame at all, it took a while to get her used to me, but i was able to teach her step up (which she still will only do if i have a treat lol) and she would sorta get along with my green cheek. they have a love/hate relationship, he would try to preen her sometimes and she’d let him but then occasionally they’d have small squabbles (just growling at eachother with angry body language) where i would separate them before it turned into a fight. i feel like as she’s getting older she’s disliking him more, and he can be a little invasive sometimes so that’s something i can work on with him. Also I quarantine my birds for 30 days and then introduce them to the bird room over a few weeks, it starts by letting the new bird in there for a little bit each day, and building it up to basically being in there all day (ex. 1st day like 20-30 mins, next day an hour, and so on) this depends on how the bird is doing as well, if i see they’re stressed or a bit aggressive it takes longer, bubbles wasn’t moved in for another month or so after her quarantine month just because she seemed more timid and harder for me to work with in there. eventually she got comfortable though and now she calls for the other birds anytime she’s away so i know she thinks of them as her flock even though she seems like she dislikes them at times. and for the room set up i can see if i can find a pic, the bird room is currently being redone so the cages are not in their normal room or setup but i had my budgies & cockatiel on one half of the room & my green cheek, quaker, & irn on the opposite side, they all have lots of toys and perches outside of their cage & i have 3 cagetop playstands, i want to add one of those big branch stands for the center but i can’t afford one at this exact moment, i’ve seen ppl diy a pvc pipe community stand though so maybe that would be a good edition for the time being, they also have a bigger table top stand in the living room, but they mostly perch on the kitchen cabinets when they go down there. They go down there often to fly because we have high ceilings and it’s a nice open space for them. She is also on a good diet, she eats harrisons pellets & is a very good veggie eater, i heard bad diet can lead to bad behaviors but she is honestly one of the least picky eaters i own lol she’ll eat practically everything except cauliflower. I will definitely try to add more stands to use outside the cage because that seems it could be part of the issue, they just act like little kids lol whatever one has the other has to have, I could buy 2 of the same stand and i feel like they’d fight over the same singular branch, especially my green cheek he wants whatever the others have (possibly could be a dominance thing because he was the first?) my irn is very laid back though probably because he’s so young so i am trying to protect him from any aggressive activity since he is my biggest bird i can’t have him picking up on bad behaviors, that would put all my birds at risk. i think it’s also worth noting the budgies still don’t have interaction with my quaker or irn since those two are still fairly newer to the flock and the budgies are so small in size, i get nervous one of the bigger ones would harm them. the only reason i allow them to interact with my green cheek is bc the budgies & my green cheek were my first birds (of this flock) and my green cheek ended up bonding to one of the budgies, we’re convinced he thinks he’s a budgie himself lol. but i was hoping one day she could be friends with the flock, i feel bad for her like she’s the outcast because the other birds are friendly, most were hand raised and socialized well so i believe they would be accepting and love spending more quality time with her, especially my green cheek he enjoyed when she let him preen her. Maybe more 1 on 1 time would be good, do u think if she had a stronger bond with me she would be nicer to the flock since she sees i accept them? if so do u have any tips on forming a stronger one, i feed her treats so she knows i’m not a threat, she just kinda chooses when she wants to spend time with me, sometimes i offer her a treat to step up and she’ll snatch it then fly away. I want her to enjoy spending time with me so i try an make every interaction positive

 

[WillowQ]

I wonder if you might have better luck if the Quaker’s cage were further away or higher up than the other birds. I’m guessing they are just too close to her home and so she’s being aggressive. It seems like she needs more space.
I might be a bit concerned if the irn gets bolder as he matures, because he will be bigger than her. Right now she’s the boss but I don’t know if that will last. Quaker parskeet snottiness causes smaller birds to lose toe parts and results in Quakers getting hurt by bigger birds.