first quaker

[Lockiel]

im getting my first quaker in a week and can any body give me some tips

[stepht25]

What kind of tips are you looking for? Will this be your 1st bird?

[kathleen]

This is a great place to start. My first bird is a quaker and everything I needed to know, I found here. I'm sure every bird is different and I read that quakers can be very territorial. Pumpkin was just a few weeks old and still syringe feeding when I got him. I wouldn't let him intimidate me and had my hands in the cage constantly. He is two years old now and I have no problems.

I feed him parrot pellets and a variety of fresh veggies.

I hold him and snuggle him often.

He enjoys travelling since I started him very early. He travels to grandmas house almost every weekend where my nieces and nephews love to play with him. He is very sweet about it, although, it's obvious he wants to be with mommy.

After he bit me, I held his beak and said, "no bite." He just looked at me and when I let go, he moved his beak forward as if he wanted me to hold it again. So, I did. Then, I started just gently rubbing his beak and few times he just fell asleep. If he gets too frisky I still do the beak holding move, but he knows.

I'm sure you will be able to find much more information and if you have specific questions we would be happy to answer them.

Good luck and have fun.

[Wally]

Yes indeed the beak rub. ... If our Sugar is really on a roll, I grab him fast, turn him so his head faces down, hold his beak so I can't get bit, and give him a kiss on the beak, telling him to settle down. This usually stops him cold. When I first did this, I only had to turn him upside down.

[FF218]

Kathleen watch out with that beak rub, you may be 'rewarding' bad behaviour which will only cause him to do it more. He may see that every time he acts like that, you rub his beak, therefor if he wants his beak rubbed all he has to do is act up. I wouldnt do it to often, you may be reinforcing bad behviour.
If he likes it, which it seems he does only do that when he does something good. [from what I understand]