Baby Quaker Parrot

[lluke]

Hello, I just purchased my first baby Quaker parrot. She is 3 months old and I've decided to let her be a flighted parrot. Any and all tips and tricks will be welcomed to help me raise this beautiful little bird.

[marie83]

Welcome to the forums.

Give your new parrot a few days to settle in and whilst you are waiting read through Michaels trained parrot blog. There are links at the top and bottom of the forum pages. Once there if you click on site map it will give you a list of various articles so you can read the ones most relevent to you, like training step up etc. If you need any further help everyone is lovely on here and will help you with any questions you may have along the way

[Michael]

Sorry, I'm just too busy to give you an adequate response at the moment. I'll get back to you when I can. Welcome to the forum.

[janetafloat]

Hi, welcome! Marie's right, pretty much everything you need to know is on this site if you take some time to familiarise yourself with it. It's been so helpful for me already...I have a flighted baby cockatiel

[CarlosQuaker]

Please take time handling and playing with your Quaker!! I was in exactly your situation about 7 months ago. I didn't handle my Quaker as much as I should have, and now he's not the "cuddly" bird I thought he would be. I still love him to death, and can give him big head scratches. But I can't cradle him in my arms as I planned to do with him. But not all parrots are cuddlers anyway.

Also let lot's of other people handle her too. My baby is a bit aggressive towards anyone other than myself and my mum. Introduce lots of different people to her, so she becomes more tolerant.
Goodluck with your baby

[marie83]

I disagree with saying spend as much time as possible with the bird, dont spend more time that you can manage forever otherwise your heading for a fall when your normal routine kicks in.
Instead keep your bird used to change, you need your quaker to be independant otherwise its going to be stressful for the bird if something happens. I learned this the hard way.

I do completely agree with getting your bird as socialised as possible, this is much more healthy for your bird. Lots of reasons for that including the agression issues but think how much easier it will be to find a sitter or how much less stressed s/he will be if you ever need to rehome etc.

Also not all birds are cuddlers and it wont matter a jot if you spend an hour with him or 8 hours if he isnt a cuddler. You can train them to tolerate a bit of touching but thats a different matter.

[friend2parrots]

i agree with marie: please DO NOT spend as much as time as possible handling your parrot at this young age. this is a recipe for disaster, in every way, shape and form. it will lead to serious behavioral problems, such as feather plucking, screaming, and biting in a few years, when the baby grows up and enters puberty. also, too much cuddling is extremely unhealthy for parrots, even baby parrots - it stimulates their hormones and can lead to hormone overload, which in turn can lead to a whole host of behavioral problems, including the three mentioned above.

also i agree that the number of hours you handle your bird today should be the same number of hours you plan to handle the bird for every day of its life with you in the future.

there's good info on this blog and forum about setting up a regular schedule for handling your bird, so it does not become overdependent on you, and learns to play and enjoy time on its own.

also, as both marie and carlos quaker have said, letting others handle the bird (not just to cuddle but to interact in a holistic way) is a great way to socialize the baby.

good luck with your baby bird!

[janetafloat]

Hmmm.....that sounds interesting.....I may be falling into the trap of handling my baby 'tiel too much, as I'm home all the time at the mo. He's becoming quite demanding and wants to be on me all the time. Can someone tell me where the 'schedule' info is to be found on this sight?
Thanks

Janet