BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds quaker parrot

I just have a couple of questions that I need some advice on. Last Mon., I went to a small pet store and found a Quaker Parrot, that I thought was staying in poor conditions. He was in a small cage, in the back of the room, no toys, and on a seed diet, and didn't make any noise. I couldn't leave him there so I bought him. I was told he is still young, they couldn't give me an exact hatch date, but sometime last summer. I am in the process of weaning him to pellets, and he loves to get out of his cage and play with my Sun Conure. He actually follows him around and when he's not on his cage, he whines like a puppy for me to bring him back. The problem with the Quaker is this....he is scared to death of hands. I can't get close to him. I have a feeling it has to do with the pet store owners who I witnessed getting him out by chasing him around his cage till they caught him with their hands. I need to know if there is any chance and how to go about getting him on my hand. If I get close, he snaps at me. If I have a towel over my hand, he does better but won't get on it, but will stay still and let me rub him with the towel. I'm sure I have my work cut out for me, but I really want him hand tame.

It will take time to get your quaker to be fully hand tame. I would suggest just taking it like you are but just have the cage buy you with you hand in the cage while talking to him. Soon he will get to know that you are not going to hurt him.

The word to remember here is PATIENCE.
There is a good chance that he was originally handfed, but being in the pet store for months and probably pretty much ignored, it will take some time for him to remember that people's hands are good.

If you have figured out what his favourite treat is, you can give it to him by hand. If it is sunflower seeds, make sure there are no sunflower seeds in his cage and in order to get them, he will have to take them from your hand.

Move very, very slowly. Maybe eat one or two in front of him, and show that you are enjoying them. Offer him one. If he doesn't take it, eat it yourself and offer him another one. Try this for about 10 minutes or so. If he hasn't taken one from you, leave the last one where he can see it, so when he goes to get it, it knows what it was that you were offering. An hour or so later, do the same thing all over again.

Once he begins taking treats from your hand, it will be much easier to get him stepping up.

Will he step up on a perch to transfer from cage to somewhere else? I have this issue with my cockatiel, Charley. The only time I can get him to step up onto my hand or finger is when he is scared or stuck somewhere. But, he will fly directly into a butterfly net when it is time to go back in the cage! Did I mention he will not step up on a perch either-he will step on it and hop over or go under but not stand on it. We have had several discussions and demonstrations with my other two tiels on how to do this, lol. Once he is in the butterfly net, he will allow me to scritch him, he will stand on my finger through the netting as I hold him close, stand on my finger as I carry him and the net back into the house from the porch to go back in the cage-go figure! We are going on 4 years now. The first two years, he just freaked out everytime I put my hand in the cage for something. Charley was a Hurricane Charley refugee and was traumatised by his experience when I first got him. Maybe another two years and he'll voluntarily step up? Like Mavis said, Patience.....