I need advice for my Quaker Parrot! Please Reply!

[MeAndMyQuaker]

Okay so I have a baby Quaker 3 months old (20 weeks old) and I've had him for maybe a little over a month now and I was wondering how long it takes them to get used to their owners?
He's very skittish and doesn't let my hands by him, he won't step up unless I have a treat and it's a wood dowel and I'm just worried I'm doing something wrong.
I was wondering if someone could give me some training tips and things I should start doing (I mean any tips really like, Relationship tips for my bird and me, Training tips, etc) Or any other advice please help!!
More information:
He always screams and he tries to bite me.
I got him on Thursday, December 9th and he was good but loud and wouldn't let me go near his cage (which I was expecting) but this is one month mark with him and he lets me hand feed him spray millet, lets me change his food, water, etc, and he lets me go near his cage, and more. I just wanted to see if anyone knew what to do or expect I want to try teaching him to step up onto my finger but I don't know how or when the right time is, I tried to let him out of his cage for a little bit (I used his wooden dowel to get him out which worked but he tried to go back to his perch) I just don't know what to do and when to do it so can someone please let me know because I love him so much and just wants to do what's best for him. (I also got him from a professional breeder, and he was hand tamed and hand fed and weaned onto Zupreem Seeds but now on Tropican Pellets.)

Tips? Advice? Anything?

It would be greatly appreciated since I'm a beginner bird owner. (but I’ve had some past experience just not my own)

Thank you!

 

[Gemster]

You need to build trust. Stop bowl feeding and feed from hand, one piece (seed/pellet/fruit/veggie/other) at a time. If that’s too much for him he may be able to eat from a spoon or you can gradually drop the food in the bowl. Set your bird up for success and try to prevent times when you bird may cower away from you or lunge/bite, if you mess up it’s fine just don’t be discouraged, learn from it and continue at a lower criteria.
This may seem time consuming and boring but what seems boring for us can be really peaceful for fearful birds. I can only advise you but you have to put in the hard work.
Play some music, it’ll comfort your bird and hopefully bring you to enjoy the training (if you already don’t)

Confidence building


1.
For days when you don’t have time for the exercise above, use a foraging toy and/or use a (small) cardboard box, fill it with crinkle paper/other fillers and add the food there. This will help your bird gain confidence to finally be able to take more steps with you and will also improve his drive to work for food.

2
Put treats around his environment and leave him to forage and explore. The first times you do this, make sure he can easily find them and it doesn’t take a lot of work to reach the treat. Eventually expand the area where you put the treats.

Continue for a few weeks without trying to get your bird to step up. If your bird is quickly stepping off your going too far too quickly.

 

[Laurasea]

Hello and welcome to you and your cute quaker!

This time when your are newish to parrots and have a new bird can seem overwhelming and frustrating. I wish so much I could come over and help in person! But I will do my best to write stuff out and share links.

First I think a larger cage and more perches would be better. Also turning the outside and top of cage into a play area that they can come out and hang out is good. It's often much easier to work with them outside of the cage. Putting a perch just outside the door and having them step to that before stepping to you can be very helpful with quakers.

Enrichment ideas, share yours

I'm often posting how I use ceiling hooks abd heavy weight fishing line to create what I call an aerial gym. I attach foraging stuff, stuff to chew, and treats to find to keep my flock busy. So now I will share examples to inspire you. Hopefully you all will share yours to inspire me too! this...

www.parrotforums.com

Target training can be very helpful. Bird trivks has some good you tube videos I will link.

Will write more later. But chin up, you will get there.
With my Phoebe she had such a phobia of hands it took months to step up. I fact I dropped training at all for a month or two and just focused on hanging out and trust building and kisses . Then she improved but I thought just wasn't going to be cuddling bird. But as more months went by she trusted more and more lost fear of hands completely and because a wonderful snuggle girl addicted to head scratches.

 

[MeAndMyQuaker]

Hello and welcome to you and your cute quaker!

This time when your are newish to parrots and have a new bird can seem overwhelming and frustrating. I wish so much I could come over and help in person! But I will do my best to write stuff out and share links.

First I think a larger cage and more perches would be better. Also turning the outside and top of cage into a play area that they can come out and hang out is good. It's often much easier to work with them outside of the cage. Putting a perch just outside the door and having them step to that before stepping to you can be very helpful with quakers.

Enrichment ideas, share yours

I'm often posting how I use ceiling hooks abd heavy weight fishing line to create what I call an aerial gym. I attach foraging stuff, stuff to chew, and treats to find to keep my flock busy. So now I will share examples to inspire you. Hopefully you all will share yours to inspire me too! this...

www.parrotforums.com

Target training can be very helpful. Bird trivks has some good you tube videos I will link.

Will write more later. But chin up, you will get there.
With my Phoebe she had such a phobia of hands it took months to step up. I fact I dropped training at all for a month or two and just focused on hanging out and trust building and kisses . Then she improved but I thought just wasn't going to be cuddling bird. But as more months went by she trusted more and more lost fear of hands completely and because a wonderful snuggle girl addicted to head scratches.

Thank you! He has a big cage with lots of toys and perches (Those were old pictures) and I will take your advice so thanks a tonn!! I will also be sure to watch the videos

 

[MeAndMyQuaker]

You need to build trust. Stop bowl feeding and feed from hand, one piece (seed/pellet/fruit/veggie/other) at a time. If that’s too much for him he may be able to eat from a spoon or you can gradually drop the food in the bowl. Set your bird up for success and try to prevent times when you bird may cower away from you or lunge/bite, if you mess up it’s fine just don’t be discouraged, learn from it and continue at a lower criteria.
This may seem time consuming and boring but what seems boring for us can be really peaceful for fearful birds. I can only advise you but you have to put in the hard work.
Play some music, it’ll comfort your bird and hopefully bring you to enjoy the training (if you already don’t)

Confidence building


1.
For days when you don’t have time for the exercise above, use a foraging toy and/or use a (small) cardboard box, fill it with crinkle paper/other fillers and add the food there. This will help your bird gain confidence to finally be able to take more steps with you and will also improve his drive to work for food.

2
Put treats around his environment and leave him to forage and explore. The first times you do this, make sure he can easily find them and it doesn’t take a lot of work to reach the treat. Eventually expand the area where you put the treats.

Continue for a few weeks without trying to get your bird to step up. If your bird is quickly stepping off your going too far too quickly.

Alright! Thank you so much! Now I know what to do, I just wanted to ask something else, my bird screams and flaps his wings what does that mean? And sometimes he'll make baby noises and be cute but again I'm not sure what that means.

 

[Laurasea]

Watch the second linked video first, as it gives tolts of tips about teaching to target tge chop stick firstly, before moving on to other things.

If the cage in your picture is his cage, then the cage needs to be larger.

Quaker will start screaming when caged all day and in a smaller cage. Then their frustration can turn to plucking as well. As a species their frustration turns to screaming very easily. They are a very active and intelligent and social species.

Hopefully target training abd step up then right back to cage perch starts going better. Then you can increase the time before setting them back by a few seconds. Till you can Hopefully have him stay in you long enough for a few steps around then room then back to cage. Keep training short and sweet only a few repetition at time then a break before your do again. Then hopefully you can start giving him a short tour around the house before back go cage, start with the room he is in showing him the wall and curtains across window. This will help later with flying or panic flight. Then you can move on to more if the house after he trusts you more.

So out of cage time right from the start even if not trained is important. It is possible to train them to return to cage hands off . It takes some patience and fooling around time and lots of treats in tge beginning but they pick it up pretty quickly. I trained my budgies and quakers to do this.

Hopefully you can have him calmly come out if cage and explore perches and treats you out on the outside. And you can offer treats by hand and hang out. Then if he starts to go back in you can use your phrase ( I say time to go back) and when he goes inside tell him how good he us and give treats. If you need to lure and start teach him to go back. Find a high value treat , I use an apple slice or fresh corn on the cob. I show him and put inside. Then I move back and behind and point to the cage and say time to go back. And every step he takes towards going in I praise, I kind of gently herd and wait and praise. If they are moving towards going in I wait and praise, if they stop I step closer and point and repeat.
And big praise for going in even more seed treats even though have high value. The first few times you need to have plenty of time to mess around and not get stressed or frustrated. If they panic or fly off. Stay calm do not chase don't speak. Wait till they land then calmly walk over talking to them sweetly. Oh silly bird let me come rescue you. They usually want to be rescued and will step up. Tske them calmly back to cage top give treat st Cage. If they fly off again before you get there, wait again till they land and repeat. They usually tire quickly and you can rescue them. If Tgey won't step up to be rescued you can use your hand held perch or scoop them up.



The flapping is probably because he is of the age to be flying. They do flaps to build up flight muscles. Hopefully he is not clipped , and you can try to make the home as safe as possible and let him start practicing flight. They are programed at this age to learn and it way more difficult fir them to learn when older. You would close all doors to other rooms cover windows, lay out blankets on the floor.