Hello and Questions

[Erik]

Hello Guys,

I am thinking of purchasing a Quaker, however my biggest concern is that my schedule keeps me out about 10 hours a day. I have been doing lots of reading on parrot care and I hear mixed reviews on the topic of them being alone. I am a huge animal lover, and the last thing I would want is for the bird to become lonely and stressed.

The second question is about the right place to find one. I want to adopt, however I have only found a few places in the NYC area, and none of them carry single quakers, usually they come in pairs. I would prefer to have a bird thats bonded with me over another bird if possible.

Appreciate any advice!

-Erik

[Wolf]

I like the Quaker parrot but you need to be aware that in some areas in the US these birds are forbidden while in others they are regulated by various means and I believe that New York state is among those with registration requirements and possibly other regulations. So you will want to check on this.

[Erik]

Hi Wolf,

I did check up on this. All quakers must be banded to be sold. There is no form of registration.

[Wolf]

Great! I only learned of such a thing after meeting a couple, who live in Tennessee, that were having to move to NC because Quakers are not allowed there at all.

[Pajarita]

Well, if you are going to be out for ten hours daily, you will have big trouble keeping a quaker happy and healthy. For one thing, they are very social so ten hours on its own is going to be VERY hard on the bird. For another, quakers are not tropical or even semi-tropical birds, they come from a temperate climate zone and, as such, they are intensely photoperiodic (regulation of the endocrine system through light) and that means you can't keep it up after sunset or you will end up with a very hormonal bird in your hands (in NY, during the winter, it's night at 5 pm and you won't be home by then so that's a huge problem -unless you work at night). Quakers are quite temperamental little birds even when they are happy and healthy so believe me when I tell you that you do NOT want a chronically sexually frustrated one (they scream VERY loud and become VERY bitey). There was one on another forum that started plucking his back and went on to mutilate himself there. They did all kinds of tests on him, everything came back normal. They changed his diet, let him out to fly more, got more toys, gave him avian herbal tranquilizers... nothing worked. Finally, the vet suggested they XRayed his entire body to see if there was a tumor or something growing there and they found that his gonads where hugely overgrown and he must have had a lot of pain from them because he was chewing off his own flesh right above where the gonads where. They had not kept him at a strict solar schedule so he had been producing sexual hormones all year round, year after year. You can get away with a human light schedule with low hormone, tropical birds as long as you are very careful with their diet, but you can't get away with it with high hormone birds or temperate zone ones. It's the way it is.

I would suggest you get yourself a pair of GCCs (lots and lots of them in CLs all the time and rescues), and, as they are going to have each other, they will be OK during the day when you are not there. The female will be sweet and loving while the male will be protective of her but, if you play your cards just right, you will be able to have a good relationship with him even though he might not be as loving as the female (at least, that has been my personal experience). Just be very careful with the amount of protein you feed them and this is not only so they don't become overly hormonal but also because they are mainly fruit eaters in the wild and require low protein.