my first parrot a rescue Quaker

[jrbritton88]

Hi everyone, I am brand new to the forum and just looking for some advise. So my family and I were planning on getting a baby gcc in november for our first bird but plans ended up changing lol. I had been doing a lot of research over the past 4 months on all types of parrots on this forum and many others. I had noticed a lot of people actually thought older birds could make great first birds, so I started looking into some rescues on craigslist. I came across a quaker that was three years old so today i went to look at him. When i got there I was completely mortified by his living conditions. His cage was so dirty it wasnt even funy, all he had were two perches, with no toys at all. His water bowl was filthy and he was on a all seed diet while also being feed .chips and hot dogs. I could not leave this bird with these people. I had to take him weather he was a nice bird or not, so I paid 100 dollars for him and brought him home.
So day one has gone very well and i am very surprised how friendly this little guy is. The first thing I did was bring him into the bathroom and opened his cage to let him come out on his own so i could clean his cage. It only took him about ten minutes to come out and look at me and say wtf lol. I was shocked at that cause they told me he didnt speak. He then perched him shelf on the toilet paper roll and watched me clean his cage. After about 15 minutes of cleaning his cage he decided he wanted to be on my head and flew over and landed on me. I slowly moved my hand towards him and slowly started to pick him up when he decided to bite me lol. I sternly told him no bite and continued to pick him up and he actually let me. I told him he was a good bird and rubbed his head then set him back on the toilet paper roll. we continued to do this for the next hour hahaha. He would let me clean for 5 minutes then fly to my head. I would tell him no, go to pick him up he bites me, I say now bite he stops and lets me pick him up, then i would rub his head again tell him he was a good bird and then set him down.
After his cage was clean he let me hold him and rub him for along time. I did get bit several times but he seems to respond very well to no bite. he stops the minute I say now bite then wouldnt bite me again for 10 minutes or so. And just so everyone knows, i do no the difference between beaking and bitting. When i say he bit me they were hard bites. I did not pull back or jump, just left my fingure there and said no bite sternly and he would stop.
So the behavior issues I have noticed today are he is very nippy and he is cage aggressive and he refuses to step up, he puts a death grip on the perch even if you push up on his belly. All in all though i was very impressed with this little guy today he did not seem scared at all and seemed to want to be with me. I didnt even plan on trying to hold him today. I was going to just let him get use to all the new stuff.
So what i am looking for is critiques on how you all feel i did with him on day one and anything you feel I did wrong. I am also looking for training advise and any other help you guys feel I might need. As I said this is my first parrot and i want to do the best i possibly can with him.

 

[WilliamKenyon]

He is a lucky bird to be out of those conditions. You are a great person to have taken that bird even though he had no guarantee's. Also with the stepping up it could help to get some millet spray and put it just behind your finger so their is more of an incentive for him to step up. I hope you and your bird have a great relationship, good luck

btw have you got a name for him yet.

 

[Allee]

Bless you for helping a needy little quaker! Congratulations! It sounds like he's wasting no time getting your training sessions started.

 

[Mimsy01]

How wonderful for the little quaker! I love hearing stories like this and even though you expected to get a certain type of bird as a baby you opened your heart to one who needed you.

Sounds like you are doing well and a patient person, which is what he will need. Foo came to us as a biter as well, sounds similar style. Not drawing blood (very often anyways) but territorial of her cage and trying to push boundaries a lot with us. Sounds like he really wants to be with you, which is how Foo was too, I think this helps so much in the training. I think it must be much harder if you have someone who would rather you leave.

With that said, I think you are doing great on your own, but I'll give you some warnings since he sounds so similar to when we first got Foo. Expect him to get worse before better. As he becomes more comfortable in his new surroundings and his personality fully comes out he may try to become a lot more bossy about how he thinks things should be.

For getting him to step up from inside his cage see if you can't find a treat that is his favorite and then only feed that during training. If he was on a all seed diet, I would not be surprised if sunflower seeds would be a huge fave, they were to Foo. of course with him, it might be chips lol. (if that is the case, though not super healthy I would try and find the most natural, least salty ones I could find and use them for training)

he'll figure out fast that stepping up from inside his cage means yummy treats, that he only gets during that time. Foo would usually let me or my daughter get her out of the cage, but my husband it took a good year before she tolerated him touching her cage and can still be a little poopy about it.

I can't wait to see pictures and hear more updates with your new feathered friend.

Thank you for helping him.

 

[jrbritton88]

Thank you guys for your input and comments. As far as a name goes we are still working on that lol. Our top two choices so far are oliver and remmy. Day two was great with him, he learned to step up and really seems to enjoy it now. I tried the millet spray but he has no interest in it what so ever. He does seem to like papaya bites but is not interested in them when i am interacting with him. So when i am training him i have just been giving him lot of praise when he is a good boy and rubbing his head. He loves this and make a face like a chipmunk when i do rub his head. The first time he finally stepped up i was so excited and told him what a good boy he was, he told me " i'm a pretty bird " I laughed and he started to laugh right along with me it was very cute. So far i couldn't be happier with the progress that has been made. We are a lot further along then I expected to be after 2 days