Quaker parrot suddenly becomes aggressive

[marcham93]

Hi everyone,
I’ve been having problems with my little Quaker parrot buddy, Charlie. He has always been comfortable and sweet around my intermediate family and aggressive towards guests – that is, until a few months ago.
Suddenly Charlie started becoming extremely aggressive towards myself and other family members. I responded by rearranging his cage and no longer allowing him outside of the cage alone. He must now rely on myself to take him out of his cage and stay with him. These changes have definitely helped, but he is still being aggressive.
I’m at a loss and really appreciate any advice anyone can give.
PS- He seems to attack his foot when stressed; I’m not sure if that is relevant.
Thanks everyone.

 

[jacksmom]

It sounds like Charlie may be going through puberty, or has already done that and is full in the throes of mating season - and you are just not enough of his type for that.

How old is he? A few months ago could be the start of "the season" for him...depending on his species, which I admit to knowing next to nothing about, lol...

 

[MonicaMc]

It may be a good idea to start teaching him new behaviors aka "tricks" to give him an outlet. Exercise and foraging may also be great opportunities for him to keep himself busy.

 

[marcham93]

He is two years old.

He talks A LOT and definitely loves his environment. He still greets me in the morning by saying "Good morning", but gets aggressive *sometimes* when I go near him. It is really odd behavior for him.

 

[jacksmom]

Cool, I have not known any quakers who could talk!

Ditto on the foraging and "tricks"...he is obviously very bright for his species, talking so young. Shoot, my four year old blue and gold doesn't say anything that complicated.

Is Charlie on a daylight cycle? This helped a lot for Jack in the "terrible twos", aka puberty, lol...sunrise to sunset, no matter how much you want to play with him after dark...

 

[marcham93]

Cool, I have not known any quakers who could talk!

Ditto on the foraging and "tricks"...he is obviously very bright for his species, talking so young. Shoot, my four year old blue and gold doesn't say anything that complicated.

Is Charlie on a daylight cycle? This helped a lot for Jack in the "terrible twos", aka puberty, lol...sunrise to sunset, no matter how much you want to play with him after dark...

Charlie knows about half a dozen words including: Hello, Good Morning, Step Up, Gimme Gimme, Good boy, and Xbox (long story).

Thanks for the advice everyone! Glad to see it is probably just his terrible twos and nothing serious (aka: he turned on all of us).

 

[Louietheparrot]

Hey there! We just got a young quaker parrot named Louie. We're first time bird owners. My wife fell in love with him when we were getting DOG supplies.

Louie was SO affectionate and easy going in the store and for the first week that we got him home (this is 2nd week). We hold and play with him all the time and try to include him in everything we do when we're home (we both work full time).

The past 3 days, he changed. First, was just restless when you brought him to sit with you, now just MEAN!

The store said he was about 6 months old (however, who knows - the store told us a lot of falsehoods like 'to find out the sex, you gotta feel them a certain way' LOL! and sold us a sandy perch, etc. -- we know better).

Any way... any ideas? Is this mating season? Do you think this will pass? What should we do when he's like this? (They said you should give him as much attention as you can - I don't want to ignore him when he's like this).

Any help for a first timer would be MUCH appreciated!!

-David

 

[MonicaMc]

David, don't know if you are still around, but I would recommend clicker training, if you ever read this.

Clicker training aka positive reinforcement training (not that a clicker is required, but is recommended) can help to prevent and redirect behavior as well as teaching new, desirable behaviors. Done right, a bird may start to perform good behaviors over bad because they learn that good things come from doing desirable things!