Strange behaviour?

[Audio_bubbles]

Hi am new to owning a quaker and was looking for some information on what my parrot is doing. I believe it's a she and when on soft ground such as my sofa or a towel she has been fluffing up squawking loudly squatting down and reversing a lot kinda looks like she's straining and even reverses her back end up onto my hand and sits there while also looking like she's going to regurgitate. Is any of this normal behaviour or should I be worried. She's also been very aggressive the last few days and just seems over all angry.

 

[Laurasea]

Sounds like she's " pleasuring" herself. Make sure you only pet and scritch the head, not the rest of her body. So you don't get her all worked up.

 

[Audio_bubbles]

Ha I can't even pet her anywhere she's being biting me something awful. All I can do is let her perch on my finger.

 

[noodles123]

Yeah, I second that (Laurasea)--do not touch anywhere besides the head, eliminate any access to cuddles and/ or shadowy places (huts, pillows, boxes, furniture, tents, blankets, laps etc) and immediately change the subject when this happens. Hormonal birds can and will turn on you when sexually frustrated. They may also scream, pluck, self-mutilate or become egg-bound. Don't give any opportunity to encourage this..

 

[ChristaNL]

This is sort of normal behaviour (for an adult quacker) but not the kind you want to encourage

She is just trying to get you to mate with her.... and yes, she will get pissed off because she is not getting what she wants.

So apart from friendzoning her (no dear, we are not going to do that, ever!) you can shorten her days (sleep for 12 hours minimum, 14 would be nice)- because breeding season is in the longer days of the year, so resetting her biological clock might work.
If she is interested in doing other stuf...step up the training regime-> interact in a 'professional way" and "keep her busy" (more difficult fouraging for food etc.).
Not sure if you give a lot of fruit... cut down on her sugar intake as well.
(Veggies are healthier anyway)
Do not give her any nesting material in/out the cage (so no blankets, snuggeling under your shirt etc.etc. and no sleeping/snuggle hut whatsoever)

If she responds to you 'changing the subject' the battle is almost won.

 

[EllenD]

You've gotten all the advice you need above, so all I want to say is please make sure that if your birds, any of them, have any type of "Happy/Snuggle Huts", tents, hammocks, any type of boxes (nest-boxes, wooden boxes, cardboard boxes), towels, blankets, any type of "bedding" material such as wood chips, shredded paper, newspapers they can get underneath, or anything else that could be considered a "nest" or "nesting material", it all needs to be removed from their cages/play areas immediately, and they should never have access to any of this stuff ever again.

All of this stuff causes their sex-hormones to go crazy and will cause the sexual behavior your Quaker is displaying, along with the aggression/biting. And this includes not letting your birds ever get underneath any furniture, inside of cabinets, etc. No "small, dark places"...And as for the "Snuggle/Happy/Cuddle Huts, the fuzzy tents you buy for birds that hang inside of their cages and that are usually yellow, purple, or green, they are not only bad for their hormones, but they have caused the sudden deaths of thousands of pet birds, so that's actually the more important reason you need to remove them if you have them... Birds pick at the material bit-by-bit, little-by-little over time, and it's totally non-digestible...So little tiny bits of it build-up inside of their Crops, their Stomachs, and their Intestines, until one day it's forms a complete blockage and the bird dies quite quickly...The other way they kill birds is they are full of threads that are inside of the material, and little strings let-loose and they end-up getting themselves wrapped-up in the loose, hanging threads...Most end-up hanging themselves with the threads around their necks, and a lot have also gotten the threads wrapped around their legs/feet, and then they end-up hanging by their leg/foot all day long until someone comes home and finds them...And many end-up chewing through their legs/feet and bleed to death...They're terrible things that shouldn't be sold. So if you or anyone you know has one of them for their birds, please warn them and tell them to remove them and pitch them...