Hi all, new parrot owner here! I’ve recently adopted a super sweet Quaker that I’m just in love with. I spent 2 years researching, and making sure I knew how to care, what to expect, and even took bird care classes. I was prepared even knowing that I couldn’t know everything! Well, I adopted a 3 year old Quaker from a rescue a month ago, and he’s essentially a Velcro bird which is fine! I went into this really wanting a strong connection! We’ve got Java wood trees in the house, as well as even installing perches so he can chill whenever we are at and spends about 8 hours of his 12 hours awake time outside of his cage with us around the house.
Now, he’s a Velcro bird. He is OBSESSED with being on us, and acts terrified of being off us or away from us. We’ve worked on training him to see perches as a good thing by treating it as a trick if he steps up, playing with him there, and training there. He just never wants to stay on there for more than 5 min and will start shouting “cmon” which is what I say when I pick him up. I don’t mind havi him on us, but then he bites us. Birds bite!But when your bird wants to ONLY be on you, then will cuddle/preen you then randomly bite it’s been hard.
Most advice is when birds bite to treat shoulder time as a treat, but that isn’t going to work for him because it’s causing him anxiety to be off us. He paces back and forth just saying cmon until we pick him up and you can almost see the sigh of relief. How can we get him to be more comfortable with his perches? Is it just going to take tIme?
Thank you and apologies for the book….
To add, he can speak some, we’ve target trained him already to give him an outlet, I work on teaching him how to use new toys since he acts fearful, and I’m working on his diet. He’s on roudybush pellets, and I’m trying to introduce new veggies every day. He only eats corn…so diet is getting there. He steps up WONDERFULLY but fights stepping down because he doesn’t want to leave you. He really is just so sweet, but it’s unhealthy and we can’t make him THAT dependent as I know it’s damaging to them. He was owned by a 16 yr old boy before us who “lost interest” in him and that’s why he was given to the rescue. We don’t know anything else about his history other than that….
Now, he’s a Velcro bird. He is OBSESSED with being on us, and acts terrified of being off us or away from us. We’ve worked on training him to see perches as a good thing by treating it as a trick if he steps up, playing with him there, and training there. He just never wants to stay on there for more than 5 min and will start shouting “cmon” which is what I say when I pick him up. I don’t mind havi him on us, but then he bites us. Birds bite!But when your bird wants to ONLY be on you, then will cuddle/preen you then randomly bite it’s been hard.
Most advice is when birds bite to treat shoulder time as a treat, but that isn’t going to work for him because it’s causing him anxiety to be off us. He paces back and forth just saying cmon until we pick him up and you can almost see the sigh of relief. How can we get him to be more comfortable with his perches? Is it just going to take tIme?
Thank you and apologies for the book….
To add, he can speak some, we’ve target trained him already to give him an outlet, I work on teaching him how to use new toys since he acts fearful, and I’m working on his diet. He’s on roudybush pellets, and I’m trying to introduce new veggies every day. He only eats corn…so diet is getting there. He steps up WONDERFULLY but fights stepping down because he doesn’t want to leave you. He really is just so sweet, but it’s unhealthy and we can’t make him THAT dependent as I know it’s damaging to them. He was owned by a 16 yr old boy before us who “lost interest” in him and that’s why he was given to the rescue. We don’t know anything else about his history other than that….
