I'm a new Quaker Daddy. Rescued Male.

[Bladesmith]

The parrot is a rescued male, not me.

My ex wife is a sort of Ellie May Clampett for rescued animals. She recently rescued a Blue and Gold Macaw, now named Noelle, since she was rescued Xmas eve. Anyway, we both have always wanted parrots, and I went gaga over Noelle, and wanted one of my own.


Since she's registered at several sites as a foster parent and rescuer, some people contacted her about taking their 5 year old male Quaker, "AJ" (Dreadful name. We're going with "Jarvis", instead.) off their hands. Seems the owners have a 17 month old baby and another on the way, and poor AJ has been getting ignored and neglected for the last 2 years, maybe more (Yeah. Don't get me started.) From what I've been told, he's been plucking, mostly under his wings. He's been doing it for so long that he's now got scar tissue built up and can't fully extend his wings, so he can no longer fly. His trip the vet here in a week will give me full details of the extent of his injuries, I hope.

I know the rules say that you're supposed to leave them alone for 2-3 days after rehoming them, but he was croaking and squawking a bit, and moving to the front of his cage (To their credit, his owners invested in a very nice cage. All of his gear, cage and toys came with him for free.) to look over his new home. So I took a chance and offered him a treat, in the form of a shelled peanut. To my surprise and delight, even though he had retreated to the back of his cage, he came forward to accept my peace offering. So we're off to a good start I think. I plan to take it slow and move at Jarvis's pace, see how much rehabilitation we can achieve.

I'm glad I found this site, as I'll probably need lots of advice. One thing I promise you, regardless of how he is, Jarvis has a forever home.

 

[Yogi]

Atta Boy. I loved your attitude of saying he has a forever home ,no matter what.

It does sound like you have a good start. Good luck at the vet.

Yogi

 

[Allee]

Congratulations and thank you for adopting Jarvis! Some quakers appreciate a quiete adjustment period, others take care of the intro with no help at all. I hope Jarvis' vet visit goes well. Sounds like Jarvis may have had a bad clip that could have triggered the plucking under the wings, hopefully the problem isn't too bad and isn't permanent. Please let us know what you learn from the vet.

Is Jarvis a talker?

 

[Bladesmith]

No words as yet, but he is vocalizing some. Squawks, chattering and kissy noises, esp. when my daughter does it.

He's pretty awesome.

As promised, some pictures. You can see the damage to his shoulders.

 

[Allee]

Awww, he looks like a real sweetheart! Some quakers don't talk but all of them have an amazing ability if they choose to use it. Do you know what kind of diet he had in his other home? They are very hardy birds, you should see him start to thrive in a short time. Can he fly at all, if so the exercise would probably be good for him. I'm sure your vet will be able to identify the problem with his wings.

 

[Bladesmith]

He's on a mix of seed and pellet, which I figure will make him fat in short order. So I'm working up a better diet plan.

He likes head scratches, and pets on his back, but shies away from hands underneath him. LOVES when the radio is on.

In an effort to make friends, I offered him a piece of the pasta we had for dinner. He loves pasta, clearly. He came all the way to the front of his cage to get it.

I'm not going to lie, I love the little guy to pieces.

 

[Bladesmith]

Just out of curiosity, would he like to play in the shower?

 

[Allee]

A mix of seed and pellets is better by far than seed alone. If he likes pasta, there's all sorts of healthy human food he can share.

My quakers love music and animated movies.

One of my quakers prefers a bath dish, the other loves showers, maybe try spray from a mist bottle before introducing Jarvis to the shower. Quakers seldom show fear but when something does scare them, they react accordingly. It's pretty easy to learn their likes and dislikes.

 

[cnyguy]

Welcome to you and Jarvis. It sounds like he's in the right home now. You might try offering Jarvis some fresh green peas-- that's the favorite food of my QP Ralph. A good treat is plain air-popped popcorn (no oil, butter or salt), another of Ralph's favorites.

 

[Bladesmith]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'll try the popcorn thing. He liked the pasta, until he didn't, let it drop to the cage bottom. Same with the Cheerios. I'd give him a Cheerio, he'd mouth it, then drop it into my hand. I'd give it back, and we'd repeat the drop and catch. I'm pretty sure he was smirking when he did it.

We, I mean my 10 year old daughter, has a Bearded Dragon, so we always have fresh greens and vegetables in the house. I'll make sure he has a variety of healthy food available.

I'm a bit at sea when it comes to how long to let him hang out in the cage before I seriously try to engage him. He's tolerated petting on his head and back, I've avoided his wings since the plucked areas look sore. I'd really like to put some Neosporin on them.

How long should I wait before trying to getting him to step up, or letting him out to play on top of his cage? I'm afraid that, having been largely ignored for so long, he's maybe become cage bound and won't come out.

I really don't want to screw this up, or screw up his already damaged psyche.

I've attached a picture of my current living room setup, and you can see Jarvis' cage in it's current location. He can see the whole of the living, dining and kitchen areas, but he can't really see us if we're on the couch. I'm wondering if it might be better to move his cage to where the light and coat rack is. He'd be better able to see us, and, when able, to move off his perch and onto the furniture to visit with us. Opinions?

 

[Bladesmith]

What a difference a day makes! Well, that and moving his cage a little closer to the couch. He's been vocalizing all day, and been demanding pets. Actually got to hold him for a bit! He's just an amazing bird, and getting better every day.

Yes, this was absolutely the best thing to do.

And Yes, I'm completely smitten. Yay Parrots!

 

[Allee]

Quakers are enchanting! I can tell Jarvis wasted no time working his magic. That room looks very inviting, you know the room and everything in it, including the humans belongs to Jarvis now. As you now know, Quakers usually aren't shy about voicing or demonstrating their opinions.

You were probably correct in thinking Jarvis was smirking while he was dropping the pasta. My female quaker calls my dogs to her cage so she can throw her vegetables at them.

I love it when a new addition fits so well. Looking forward to more happy updates.

 

[Bladesmith]

Update, with pictures! (Ignore the fat guy in them. I hear the parrot adds 20 lbs.)

We're definitely making progress in leaps and bounds instead of the recommended baby steps. Today, while I was giving him his morning scratches and treats, my daughter inadvertently startled Jarvis and he fell off his perch and pretty much into my open hands. So I decided to go for it and picked him up. He squawked and fussed a little, but quickly settled down for more pets. Several more times today I've gone ahead and picked him up out of his cage for cuddles. He won't step up, and when I try, he either ducks his head for petting or uses his bill to redirect my finger to his itchy spots. Does not like anyone reaching for or towards his undercarriage, but hasn't yet tried to seriously bite. Later today I took a chance and took him out and sat in my chair with him, giving him the option to stay on my finger or to walk around on my chest. That's when he marched off my hand and straight up to my face and started rubbing his bill on my lips and making kissy noises! So I made noises back, and the next thing I know, he's saying "Kisses?!" So we played that game for a while.

Also I noticed he wants to be right up against my neck/under my chin, but I'm not sure what that means. Just now he started laughing.

Not sure whats going on with his undercarriage. I took a look at him, and he has no scars or damage to his belly or feet. Clearly he has issues, but most of all I think he's just desperately starved for love and affection.

 

[Allee]

He's absolutely adorable! Great cage for a quaker, I know he is loving his new home and humans.

 

[flyingron]

Our vet pretty much said if Bacca will eat the Roudybush pellets she can snack on just about anything. Her current favorite is some raw pistachio nuts we picked up at the local bird place. Occasionally, she can't get one open, so she brings it over to us and drops it at our feet as if to say, "Please, help me with this."

She gets a small bit of my toast at breakfast. She's gotten to the point where she won't touch any other food until she's had that treat. She gets a slice of apple every morning as well (I put it on a clothespin on her perch). She'll gorge herself on papaya if we let her.