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Baby Quaker, some help needed

ciaciu

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Hello, i state here that i am from italy and i could mess with both my english and the specific terms. I hope that i can explain myself properly.
I've bought yesterday a 4 weeks old baby quaker. The brooder taught me the proper handfeeding tecnique, formula temperature, etc...
However i always try to get second opinions and so i read Aviator's article "the science of handfeeding and weaning the baby parrot". Even so i still have a huge doubt, which i haven't been able to solve even searching and asking.
Beside the time spent feeding him, how much time should i spend touching/interacting with him/her? Is there some things that he could like better than other or are more important to do in order to achieve a proper develop?
P.s. we are starting to bond and he/she is really curious about me, and he likes a lot my nails and my fingertips which "bite"/lick, i think to explore, he's really gentle doing so. Should i let him do it or he could learn that biting is good from that?
Thanks in advance to everybody.
 

sunnysmom

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Welcome to the forum. I don't have baby experience but will tag some people. @Mizzely @Zara
 

Zara

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Welcome to the Avenue 1.welcome signs.gif

Sorry, I don´t know what the timeline for development is like for a quaker. Could you call the breeder and see what they suggest?

he/she is really curious about me, and he likes a lot my nails and my fingertips which "bite"/lick, i think to explore, he's really gentle doing so. Should i let him do it or he could learn that biting is good from that?
Curious and exploring is good. Biting is bad.
So you can allow your bird to carry on, but if they start to actually bite you, then you need to take action. Don´t let them bite you. Some people think that letting them bite and not reacting is good, but in reality it is not because it will teach them that it is ok, which it is not.
So observe your bird, and if you see them bite, figure out why is the bird biting? And then try to not create those circumstances. If you see the bite coming , move out of the way. If you get bitten, ignore your bird for a good minute or so immediately. So if the bird is perched on you, remove them and quickly put them down on the nearest bird safe surface, and then turn your back to them. You have to do it right when they bite you so they make the connection. If you take a long time to remove the bird from you, then they may not figure out what is going on, and if they do not understand, it may continue.

I have lovebirds, and I found with them, a common thing they did as youngsters was bite my fingers on the computer mouse. So I learned, to be vigilent and remove my hand if I see the bird coming, and then I distract them from that with maybe a small toy or talking to them. Once my birds grew up, they never tried to bite my fingers on the mouse again.
It´s important to teach them the boundaries while they are young.

I hope that helps, and if you don´t understand a part of what I wrote please tell me and I will try to explain it a different way :)
 

melissasparrots

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Baby quakers give the most gentle kisses. I would let him continue exploring with his beak. If he bites, put him down. I doubt he will bite at this age or any time soon. You can spend an hour or more every day with him sitting in your lap getting petted. If he seems cold, drape a towel over him. By 4 weeks old, he should have some ability to maintain body heat though.
 

ciaciu

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Thanks to everyone for the kind answers :thanks:
Sorry, I don´t know what the timeline for development is like for a quaker. Could you call the breeder and see what they suggest?
Luckily my breeder is very close, so i can easily ask him and receive answer, but i tend to second guess everything and look for the more opinions i can. To be honest though, i've already asked to the breeder, and he said that he does not really pet or spend time with the parrots he feeds, nor he pets them, so he couldn't proper answer :chin:

Curious and exploring is good. Biting is bad.
So you can allow your bird to carry on, but if they start to actually bite you, then you need to take action. Don´t let them bite you. Some people think that letting them bite and not reacting is good, but in reality it is not because it will teach them that it is ok, which it is not.
So observe your bird, and if you see them bite, figure out why is the bird biting? And then try to not create those circumstances. If you see the bite coming , move out of the way. If you get bitten, ignore your bird for a good minute or so immediately. So if the bird is perched on you, remove them and quickly put them down on the nearest bird safe surface, and then turn your back to them. You have to do it right when they bite you so they make the connection. If you take a long time to remove the bird from you, then they may not figure out what is going on, and if they do not understand, it may continue.
...
It´s important to teach them the boundaries while they are young.
Thank you for this! I will definetely use this later on if he starts biting. I've expressed myselft pretty badly, he's not actually biting but he takes my fingertip and my nails in his beak and gently squeeze it. In your opinion, is something i should let him do, or it is a thing from which he could learn that biting is good?

I hope that helps, and if you don´t understand a part of what I wrote please tell me and I will try to explain it a different way :)
It sure did, and don't worry, i've fully understood what you wrote!


Baby quakers give the most gentle kisses. I would let him continue exploring with his beak. If he bites, put him down. I doubt he will bite at this age or any time soon.
I've expressed myself badly, he's not biting. He actually takes the soft part of my fingertip and gently squeeze it, or he holds my nails in his beak and lick it.
Do you think he's trying to "explore" me, or he could learn to bite from that?

You can spend an hour or more every day with him sitting in your lap getting petted.
Do you advise to do so after meals or far from them?

If he seems cold, drape a towel over him. By 4 weeks old, he should have some ability to maintain body heat though.
Actually i'm far more concerned that he could be hot. In this season in my house i have 84 F° during the night, and between 87 and 91 during the day.
 

melissasparrots

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Thank you for this! I will definetely use this later on if he starts biting. I've expressed myselft pretty badly, he's not actually biting but he takes my fingertip and my nails in his beak and gently squeeze it. In your opinion, is something i should let him do, or it is a thing from which he could learn that biting is good?

I've expressed myself badly, he's not biting. He actually takes the soft part of my fingertip and gently squeeze it, or he holds my nails in his beak and lick it.
Do you think he's trying to "explore" me, or he could learn to bite from that?

Do you advise to do so after meals or far from them?

Actually i'm far more concerned that he could be hot. In this season in my house i have 84 F° during the night, and between 87 and 91 during the day.
I would let him explore. You'll know when he's biting from aggression. Right now he's just being a baby. In order to encourage him to learn to eat on his own, I'd give him a hand-feeding and then put him back in his cage with some adult food to play with. He will probably just crush it and waste it, but at least he will be learning about adult food. Come back an hour or two later and hold him. Although, it really doesn't matter that much at this point because he won't actually be eating very much adult food until he is closer to 7 or 8 weeks old.
 

ciaciu

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Thank you! I'm always leaving in his cage panic spikes which he likes a lot, and fresh fruits and veggies in very small pieces. When he's out of the cage and far from meals i offer various things and he gladly accepts them. For now he tried (and liked): apple, banana, pear and cherries. He's not a veggies fan though.
I have another question to ask. The breeder assured me that he's 30 days now, but when i asked when the baby was born he couldn't answer. Even in the CITES i have, there is no date of birth. I don't really care to know the exact day he was born, but i would like to know if he's around 30 days old for real.
That's him/her today.
Today.jpg Today2.jpg Today1.jpg
 

melissasparrots

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He looks just a little bit older than 30 days in those pictures. Maybe closer to 5 weeks. However, it's been several years since I've raised baby quakers.
 

ciaciu

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It's even better, i just wanted to know that he was not younger than 4 weeks.
 

ciaciu

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Hello, i'm here with some news and a question!
Kiwi's doing really fine. He's now almost 7 weeks old, he started flying and eating veggies and fruits and he's trying pellets with some succes.
Now he's losing weight as he's weaning and i would like to check with you if he's doing fine (i've read that it's normal to lose around 10% of body weight during weaning, but still worth a check). Even if he has almost 50 days he still asks to be fed 3 times, one meal with 5cc (usually the afternoon), and around 10/11 cc the morning and before sleep. I tried to remove the afternoon meal three days ago, but he was really hungry at night. He reached his weight peak 8 days ago with 101.5g since then, he stared asking less food in the afternoon and he lost around 1g per day, and this morning he's 93g. Should i be concerned and take him to the vet? or is it normal to lose weight so fast?
Thank you
 

melissasparrots

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The safe answer is to have a vet check when in doubt. His time line for loosing weight is a bit different than I've experienced. A gram's stain or culture and sensitivity would not be a bad idea. However, a weight loss of 10% or more is normal. Keep the adult food always available. My baby quakers would rapidly start transitioning to adult food as they neared 8 weeks old with most being weaned by about 8.5-9.5 weeks old. However, they would often want 2-3 feeds per day up until a few days before they were done completely.
 
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