Any other quaker owners have this issue?

[ilovetoby]

Hi, I have an 8 month old quaker who is a beloved member of the family. We recently moved into a new apartment that is fabulous, but since we have been here my sweet Bobbie has gone through an extreme change. One minute she'll be sweet as she normally is, being talkative and cuddly, and then the next she'll be vicious. This is totally unlike her. She went as far as to rip a big chunk of skin off my husband's hand. Has anyone else run into this? What do I do to deter this behavior?

[amanda143]

Maybe she is molting? Ours is like that during hormonal times.

[Kolkri]

Ya I have to read Topaz very carefully before I ask her to step up. It could be the season or the new home. Just avoid the bites.
See if you can find anything that might be triggering them. Like does it happen when you take her out or put her in the cage? Did it happen to your your husband cause you were standing to close? Or was it cause she wanted to be with you not him?

[nestbox]

Bird have to get used to change, they are creatures of habit. They don't like change, give them time to get used to the new place. Try her cage in different places, maybe where she can see out side. Good luck, those bites do hurt.

[slic102]

Oh yeah, been there done that with our quaker. Simon's (our qp) weird behavior with my hubby began as we were prepairing to move about 8 months ago. I think all the boxes and things being stacked around in the living room where his cage was freaked him out. He attacked hubby one day out of the blue when he was getting him out of his outside cage to come in. Mark was so shocked that he forgot the cardinal rule of quaker bites....NOT to react. (so easy to say and hard to do) They just love drama and so if they get it when they bite, it just makes them want to do it again. Here is my advice....first of all, when she goes to bite, do your BEST not to jerk back or yell or show response at all. If you can, push into the bite. That will put her off balance and make her release your finger to regain balance. If she is showing a preference to you rather than to hubby, take her in a bathroom (be sure to close toilet lid) and leave her on the floor for just a few minutes....close the door. Then let hubby go in and "rescue" her. When she steps up for him, tell him to make a huge deal of it by praising her. You may have to do this several times before you see a difference.

I will add that quakers tend to become one person birds and she may be choosing you over your hubby about now. That's what has happened to us, even though my hubby was just as interactive with our bird as I was for the first year we had him. Honestly it's just been in the last few weeks that Simon has started being nice to Mark again, and I'm not sure why it is. He still shows an obvious preference to me though, but Mark can finally get him to step up and not get attacked in the process.

Another thing that may be going on is the hormone issue. She's about at the age that she could be getting hormonal for the first time. Good luck!