New to forum.

[Shirley55]

Hello everyone,
And boy, do I ever need help. I was given A quaker parrot from A friend of my husbands that he works with, then was followed by two more 2 weeks later, total surprise. OMG they are so lovable and pretty! I have put them in separate cages,, I have no idea of age or gender, and I do know they have never been handled or trained and was kept in an out door aviary, not under very good conditions.
They are to the point now that I can reach in their cages to get their dishes without them freaking out. I want to let them out of their cages, but how am I going to get them out? They say to always reach in and get them and not to let them get out themselves. How do you train them that, and also do I take 1 out at A time, in the same room, ,,seperate room,,, ext.?
The first bird we named Kiwi that fits for girl or boy, but are still looking for names that fit the other two that came together. The only way I can tell them apart is their size, but in time I know we will find differences between them.
And I really need A good food recipe for them as they are on A all seed diet that I am trying to change them from,,poor little darlings didn`t even know what apples were.
I want to thank you all in advance, I appreciate all answers and comments!!

[Wolf]

It seems to me that more information concerning these birds would be helpful, I understand that you don't have a lot of information at the moment, but it would be helpful to know if they all came from the same place and if so were they all kept in the same aviary. It would make a difference in what you can and can't do now as far as letting them out of their cages. At least it wouldn't hurt to try to find out more about them.

I feed my birds gloop for breakfast. There is no hard and fast recipe for this but several variations can be made using a basic mix of cooked whole grains, cooked white beans, brown rice, lentils and frozen mixed vegetables. You can make a large batch of this basic combination and freeze any amount that you would not feed in less than a week. You then can modify it by the addition of various fresh chopped vegetables and fruits. This will add variety to your birds diet as well as providing a more complete nutrition than anything else. I them provide a good quality seed mix for dinner, in your case a good non colored parakeet/ budgie seed mix without any sunflower seeds would be a good choice, and remove any seed mix not eaten after the birds go to sleep.
I don't know who they are but in most cases of they say, they are wrong. Quakers are known to get rather territorial about their cages and if they are it is much better to avoid confrontation by allowing them to come out of their cage on their own before asking them to step up.
I think that they should be place on a solar light schedule, think in terms of getting up at sunrise and going to bed when the sun sets. Get them switched to a healthy diet, this is something that will usually take some time and probably be an ongoing item to work on. You are going to need to tame them if you are wanting them to be companion birds. The best way to accomplish this is to set aside ten to fifteen minutes session times three or four time each day and spend this time talking to them and offering them the occasional treats during these time. This is to get them accustomed to you and to show them that not only are you not going to hurt them but that you bring good things for them. It will help build trust in them. When you have them taking treats from you in a calm manner then you can begin target training them. Look in the training section of the forums and you will find how to do this there. These birds are going to need to have 3 to 4 hours of free out of cage time on a daily basis as well as one hour of one on one time with you each day. The one on one time can be part of the out of cage time.
The sooner that they can get this out of cage free time the better it will be as by allowing them to fly about the room and get some exercise daily the calmer they will be. This is where the information that I mentioned at the beginning comes in as it will tell us how to best proceed with getting them time out of their cages.

[Pajarita]

Welcome, Shirley and quakies! Thank you so much for taking them, I love, love, love quakers!

Wolf gave you the right advice and asked the right questions so I'll just add a comment or two. First of all, it is imperative that you keep them to a strict solar schedule for the simple reason that, although this is necessary for all captive parrots, quakers come from temperate climate and NEED to follow the seasons or they become biters, screamers and pluckers. Secondly, yes, a change in diet is recommended asap but the good news is that quakers are excellent eaters and you should have no problem whatsoever transitioning them (try giving them fresh corn on the cob very lightly cooked so it's still nice and crispy and you will have three very happy birdies )

Last but not least, if these are parent-raised birds that lived in a flock (and it sounds like this is the case), you might never make them into companion birds. Quakers have very strong personalities and they are the original 'never say die' parrots and, although this works in their favor when it comes to survival, it doesn't work quite as well for humans who want to make pets out of them... especially if you have more than one which you do. But this doesn't mean that they will not learn to trust you and have affection for you, it just means they won't really bond and that you will need to treat them as aviary birds - which, in reality, it's the best thing for them.

Now, quakers are very social and very flock-oriented so I doubt you would have trouble letting them interact - they are so social that they will accept a 'three is company' situation with particular good grace (something unheard of in other species of parrots) - I had such a ménage a trois with a bonded pair of quakers and a male nanday and they never had a single problem (the nanday had nominated himself their protector and would often stand in front of them when I was changing dishes on their platform -they were not caged).

Please let us know as much as you know about them and we will be able to give you more concrete pointers.

[Harpmaker]

Welcome, Shirley55, Kiwi, and other Quakers! And kudos to Shirley for taking in orphans!

I know nothing about Quakers, partly because they are illegal in my state, as they are in many. If you move out of state, be sure to check. Apparently they annoy farmers.

[Shirley55]

Yep, I know I came to the right place!
I know they came from the same place, but not if raised in the same aviary, the two that was given to me at once were the last two he had, so they at least know each other probably. After A few days they started to kinda fight with each other, so having only 2 cages at that time, I switched one bird in with the other I already had and OMG,,you should of seen them! They cuddled, preened, bobbed their heads and squaked and( growled ) and really loved each others company, while the other one acted jealous, it was soo cute. One of the birds is bigger than the other two, so, could this be A parent bird? And I was wandering if I get A big cage would it be enough room for all three, because it looks like they would be fine together, or keep them separate untill their gender is known?
I changed their diet to A recipe I got on line, it has undercooked dried beans, veggie pasta, brown rice, carrots,corn,oats and green beans and peas. In the evening I give them fruits, such as bananas, apples, grapes and sweet potatoes, with brocoli and,califlower. I know no chocalate, caffine, avacadoes, onion, garlic or apple seeds. And you know what? Those poor little guys ate everything I gave them once they tasted it, I felt bad because I didn`t realize they were so hungry since the seed that they used to get always had some left over in their bowls.
I would love to have them as companion birds, but will be happy if I can just get them to step up hold them for awhile. They are already starting to talk, they say hello, and okay, their little voices are so addicting to listen to.
Okay,,enough of mommy bragging on her kids,,am I doing alright so far? I know I will be here ALOT, with more questions and I really do appreciate all of your time and answers and so do my babies,,thanks again.

[Wolf]

Even if it means overcooking the other stuff , I would get the beans cooked all the way. From the way it sounds the two that are preening and all are probably a male and female and it is possible that the larger one was a parent bird or it could just be older and more mature. As for putting them all together, Pajarita knows more than I do and in fact comes from a place where Quakers are wild.

[Pajarita]

Yes, Wolf is right, never feed them undercooked beans. All beans have a real bad lectin (it's actually two types of protein that are always found together and which function is to bind carbs) in them, it has a long scientific name but everybody knows it as 'kidney bean lectin' because these type of beans have the highest levels of it and it's so bad that it's actually consider a toxin (it affects blood cells). The good news is that you 'kill' this bad lectin when you cook them but beans need to be not only thoroughly cooked but also cooked at high temperatures because low ones don't destroy it. So, from now on, only thoroughly cooked beans, please. Aside from that, the dish sounds adequate although I like whole grains better than oatmeal and pasta. But you can't just feed them fruits and veggies in the evening, they need something with higher protein, especially now that we've just passed the autumn equinox (yesterday, as a matter of fact) and the days are getting shorter and shorter (mine get a 50/50 mix of a cockatiel mix -with some striped sunflowers- and a small psittacine one -safflower based).

Quakers are highly, highly social birds and always get along with each other. The only problem is when you have only one female and two overly hormonal males but they are fine when you keep them to a solar schedule because that prevents the problem from ever occurring. The females are dominant (aggressive) while the males have a sweeter temperament but, aside from that, they pretty much look the same -at least when they are young. People say you can't sex them visually but I can often tell whether one is a male or a female (the one I have now was 'Randolph' in her previous life but I could tell right away it was a girl and not a boy).

You seem to be doing everything right and, as we are now going into the resting season (winter), you will have plenty of time to prepare for the more difficult season (breeding) and, if I were you, I would make sure I have fake eggs to replace the real ones, just in case, because it does sound as if you have a male/female pair.

PS Give them 'building materials' (little branches, dried leaves, paper, popsicle sticks -mine even uses feathers), they love to build!

[Shirley55]

I am so happy that Wolf told me about the beans,,I would have never have known that, Thank you Wolf! I am happy to report all the beans are now in my compost pile
And Pajarita, I am sorry you can not have them in your state, I enjoy them so much. I whispered to them yesterday and said for them to use their indoor voice, and one of them said ( ok ) then they started squaking again,,I mean how can you not love them too cute!!
I am going to get A large cage and put them together, and stop guessing if they will get along, because of them being such social birds as you very kindly explained to me, and I appreciate it. I am still concerned about letting them out, I guess they will go back to their cage when it gets dark or untill they get hungry, I don`t want to scare them trying to catch them.
How big of A space do they need to build nests? I have A box in each cage now and only one uses it, and it is soo cute when he pokes his little head out and says hello. All of them say hello and ok.
I have them in front of A big window and just close the blinds at night so when the sun goes up or down they can always tell, so is that alright as they will know the seasons?
I finally have names for them,, Kiwi is the first one I got,, the bigger bird is BB, and the little one is still real nervous so instead of calling it chicken, the name is Chickie.
Thanks so much again

[MamaBirdie]

I just wanted to mention that, when it comes to birds in general, size does not matter. Baby birds grow quickly to adult size, then get their feather coats. As the flight feathers (the long ones on the wings) and, depending on the species, the tail feathers grow out, they may look like they are getting larger, but their bodies are not.

It takes a scale or your own frequent handling to perceive whether a bird is gaining or losing weight, because feathers are very deceiving. They may be fluffed or held very close to the body at any given moment in many species, depending on the weather conditions, the bird's state of health and other factors.

An individual may be smaller based on gender in some species, and may be smaller due to poor initial nutrition as a chick, or poor genetics or genetic defect.

In the case of your new Quakers, size does not relate at all to the age of the bird, so you should take that out of any equation when you perceive relationships among them. Happy birdie!

[Pajarita]

Actually, Shirley, you can have quakers in NJ, you just need a special permit for them (there are several feral colonies in the state already).