New Quaker Parrot

[jaixion]

Hi everyone, just yesterday I picked up my hand tame, hand reared 12 week old Quaker. He's not hand shy and already knows 'step up/hop up' and he likes a scratch around the neck. I'm planning to leave him in his cage for a two days or so for him to get used to his new surroundings before taking him out.
I'd love to bond with him very well as I am home 70% of the time. He has a huge cage, plenty of toys and a homemade play gym made of natural branches and covered in toys, so hopefully stimulation and enrichment won't be an issue. However I'd like some advice on bonding activities for him and myself. Any advice or information on homemade toys and bonding activities would be appreciated and I'd love to hear about your experiences with your Quakers. Please feel free to include your Quakers diet and any of his favorite treats as I'd love to expand his diet. Thanks guys.

[Pajarita]

Babies are not like adults, they need the company and physical warmth of another body next to theirs so don't leave the baby in the cage all by himself. It would be very stressing to him... Just carry him around in the crook of your arm or on your shoulder, you don't need to actually interact with him, just keep him company.

As to diet, quakers are excellent, excellent eaters! They pretty much eat anything you give them, bless their little hearts! And, at 12 weeks, he should still be eating soft foods and getting a little hand-feeding every day (the best bonding tool ever!) so try some nice, good quality multigrain bread, polenta, couscous, oatmeal mixed with apple sauce (the plain one, not the one with sugar added) or some other type of baby cereal. And slowly start incorporating fruits and veggies by adding them to the soft foods making the texture rougher and rougher as he learns to eat them (for example, you can start with adding some cream corn to the polenta, then make it plain corn and finally a nice, big piece of corn on the cob - or some apple sauce to the oatmeal, then diced apples -don't peel them, get the organic apples and just wash them- and finally a quarter apple piece... like that).