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Adopted Quaker

MPSS2018

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Samantha
Hello everyone,
about 4 months ago I was given a full grown Quaker parrot, she was left in the cage all the time was left outside in a screened in dark porch shoved in a corner. When I first got her she was missing a lot of feathers very very aggressive ( she dose not like anyone else but me). She has now grown her feathers out and I refuse to shut and lock the cage on her because I wanted her to know she will never be locked up like that again. Recently she has started attacking me to the point it’s hard to even get close to her or even her cage. She has never since the first day I brought her here been this mean to me. I Have tried everything and anything to try and socialize her and nothing seems to be working. This is my first time ever owning a bird and I love her but I’m really getting worried she is just not happy here! I’ve moved her cage around thinking maybe she don’t like where she is that’s not helping I have tried giving her treats and at first it was but now not so much! She attacks my fiancé, he can’t even get near the cage without her flipping out. Any ideas? She is getting to the point where she does not even like me anymore. Any suggestions!

-Samantha
 

Hjarta5

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How is her cage set up?

How much sleep is she able to get without being disturbed?

What is her diet?

Has she been checked out by a vet yet to make sure she has no underlying health issues?

What is going on when she attacks you? Are your hands in her cage? Are you with someone else at the time, etc?

Do you think if shes hormonal? Has other behavior of hers changed recently?
 

MPSS2018

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Samantha
I have her cage by a window so she can get plenty of sun light, she has her own space right off the kitchen but the way everything is set up she can see me at all times.

i have a curtain in the window that she like to go behind and hide and sleep during the day there, funny she sleeps when I’m doing school for a good three hours a day. And night time I turn her lights off 9 pm and lights back on in the am ( get up with the other half before he leaves work).

I didn’t change her food kept her on the parrot food she was on, I did take her to the vet and she told me to try and explore with fruits and vegetables treats. No underlying problems, the plucking of feathers was due to being stressed and cage rage.

Well today she was on top of cage like any other day and I went up to her because I was talking to her and she was responding back to me and when I put my finger out and said step up like I normally do she was not having it attacked my finger, I left her alone for awhile and tried again and same reaction
 

Monica

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What exactly is "parrot food"? Is that... seeds? Pellets??? If it's seeds, then I would recommend, at minimum, switching her over to a pellet based diet while you work on getting her to eat fresh foods. Sprouted seeds might be an easy gateway to doing just that!




If she came with a small cage and you haven't upgraded her cage yet, I would highly recommend getting her a new cage that's *at least* a 32x21 flight cage or larger. Small cages have the potential to encourage aggression in birds - although they can be aggressive in a larger cage, they have more room to move away or alternatively, you have more room to work with in order to teach a bird not to be aggressive!


If she's attacking you and your fiancee, *especially* if she is going out of her way to attack, then I'm sorry, but you need to lock her up! This isn't to be mean, or to punish her, simply as a method to create a "reset", so to speak. This is even easier if she is already on a pellet based diet! If not, that's okay, too! Simply find the first 1-3 foods she eats in her main diet and take those out! Set up a treat cup in the cage, at the front. Metal is recommended. Set up 'treat stations' 5' or so away from the cage, either side. Any time you or your fiancee walk by the cage, pick up her favorite treat and drop it into the dish! Do not expect her to take the treat from you - this could result in a bite! Do not stand there and wait for her to eat it... simply drop and go! This can help to teach her to look forward to both of you coming over!

After at least a few days of this, get a target (purchased target stick, knitting needle, acrylic stick, chopsticks, bamboo skewer, empty pen case, etc...) and start working on teaching her to reach for (not necessarily touch!) the target in order to receive a reward. Do this at least a few times throughout the day. You could set up 3-10 *short* training sessions, only needs to be 1-5 minutes long, and just work on getting her to target towards the object.

Once she is good at targeting to any location within the cage - through the cage bars, then you can work on target training through the open cage door, around the outside of the cage and eventually away from the cage.


Ideally, it would be great if both you and your fiancee can do the training. It doesn't necessarily have to be together, but both of you work on the same behaviors with Piper. Also important!!! *AVOID THE BITES* Yes, I know, easier said than done! However, by "allowing" her to do any undesired behaviors, you are only "encouraging" her to continue doing those behaviors. After all, practice makes perfect! ;) So learn to give rewards without getting bitten. This could be having her reach through the bars in order to receive a treat, using those treat dishes to drop the reward into, offering the reward via a spoon or cup or any other method that does not result in either one of you getting bitten!

If she has any aggression in, on or near her cage, then work on station training, too! This can make it easier to open and close her door or changing out the food and water dishes.


Once she has those behaviors down, you can continue training other new and fun behaviors!

 

MPSS2018

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Samantha
Thank you so much for writing back, I added two pics too to show what food she has been on and her cage that she has been in, I ordered her a new bigger cage it should be here in a few days ( ran into some money issues or would have gotten sooner) and it’s weird She only goes out of her way to go after my fiancé. I was thinking because the owner before me was a male and he just pushed her in a coroner and that’s that, he had to dump food in the bowl from outside the cage he wasn’t able to hold her or anything, she does come to me and yesterday I figured out she does not like when I have my hair down trying to handle her the min I put my hair up she came right on top of the cage to get closer to me! I am def going to change her diet and do the cage reset and see where it goes from there! I can’t tell you how helpful you have been!
 

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Ali

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That food looks to have a lot of sunflower which is fattening.

Is this the cage she came in when you got her? What cage did you get for her?

Ali
 

MPSS2018

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Samantha
Yeah there is a lot of sun flower seeds in that brand of food. And yes this is the cage she came with. I added the screen shot of the cage I’m waiting to be shipped to the store to pick up.
 

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Kiwi & Co.

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Yeah there is a lot of sun flower seeds in that brand of food. And yes this is the cage she came with. I added the screen shot of the cage I’m waiting to be shipped to the store to pick up.
What are the dimensions?
 

Kiwi & Co.

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Kiwi & Co.

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Well there just went 500
That's a lot of money for a cage that size, I assume you're not in the us? It will work temporarily (better than his old cage) but it's not the best.
 
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Ali

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MPSS2018

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Samantha
That's a lot of money for a cage that size, I assume you're not in the us? It will work temporarily (better than his old cage) but it's not the best.
I live is Florida I went to pet smart at first but they didn’t have any big cages so the lady there picked out a cage from petco that she bought her quacker
 

MPSS2018

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Samantha

Kiwi & Co.

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I live is Florida I went to pet smart at first but they didn’t have any big cages so the lady there picked out a cage from petco that she bought her quacker
Wow that cage was $500 :eek:

Lesson learned! I will have to return and replace with this one! I paid 580 for the one I showed you can you believe that!
You can probably get a much larger one for the same price or less.
 
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