In my experience, I have not noticed any differences between male and female Quakers in personality, talking ability, train-ability, aggressiveness, intelligence or any other trait or skill. There are only a few responses to the question so far on the forum, but those who have responded up to this point agree with my own experience.

Now, I have to qualify this statement to say that this is true when Quakers are housed separately. When a male and female are kept in the same cage, all this can change. From what I understand, this is true of other types of parrot pairs as well. For a particular species, generally either the males or females become more aggressive when kept in pairs. For Quaker Parrots, it is the female that becomes more aggressive. But again, this is ONLY when they are kept in pairs. This extra assertiveness does not present itself when a female Quaker is caged by herself.

With one of my pairs, this female aggressiveness is particularly evident. The female will squawk and try to get a nip of me through the cage bars whenever I go near the cage. The male will actually push her out of the way and then squeeze his own beak through the cage bars. The only difference is that he is asking for kisses instead of wanting to rip my flesh apart. LOL!

So there you go. In case you were wondering if a male or female Quaker would make a better pet, I'd like to reassure you that males and females make equally wonderful companions. We have 5 females and 2 males in our household, and I wouldn't hesitate to add either a male or female to the flock if the inn wasn't already full here. ;-)

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A remembrance page has been set up if you would like to express your condolonces. And many newspapers around the globe have reported on Alex's death (See Bird Brain or Parrot Prodigy and Death of Gifted Parrot Stuns Scientists). I'm sure you can also visit any parrot forum on the Internet to witness an outpouring of sadness and respect for this very unique Grey.

Dr Pepperburg has stated that Alex never stopped learning. In one of the above articles, she relates how Alex made some new progress just last month. We have learned so much about our own parrots because of Alex. This was the first real research that showed parrots are able to go beyond simple mimicry and actually understand the human words that they learn to say. Alex the Grey will be deeply, deeply missed.

Simply put, our Quakers should eat as we should. Not as we do, however. Quakers are somewhat prone to fatty liver disease and hypertension, and therefore it is extremely important to offer them only foods that are low in saturated fats and sodium (salt). There is some debate over the ratio in which our birds should eat, but it is somewhere between 60%/40% pellets-fresh food and 80%/20% pellets/fresh food. Your Quaker will probably set its own pace somewhere within that acceptable range.

To learn more about the best foods to feed your Quaker, please click through to The Best Quaker Parrot Diet. A list of toxic foods is included at the end of the article.

I noticed him a few days ago. I think he was even a little bit smaller then. As I walked up to… err… dispose of him, my body cast a shadow over him, and he scampered to a little web that he has made for himself. Here is a picture of our itsy bitsy spider in his little web house.

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A while back I wrote an article that discusses egg laying in parrots. It focuses more on chronic egg laying, but the advice in the article is still appropriate and helpful even if your Quaker only lays one or two eggs. If your pet Quaker has suddenly produced an egg and you're wondering what to do, this article on egg laying in parrots should help.

When I first became involved with Quaker Parrots, the wisdom of the day was to purchase a cage that is no smaller than 18×18×18. I believe the thinking was that this size would be sufficient to allow a Quaker to stretch and flap its wings. Of course, that would depend on how many toys and other items are in the cage, but that was the general idea. After living with these birds for a number of years, I agree that this size provides a sufficient home for a Quaker and personally would never consider a cage that was smaller than this.

Read the full article: The Best Cage Size for Quaker Parrots

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My husband and I live with 8 Quakers, and while we have our noisy times, the majority of the time it is fairly quiet in our home. These methods really do work, but they do not work overnight. Once again, patience and consistency are the keys. And it helps to remember all of the wonderful qualities that our Quakers have to offer - and that we humans are not so perfect either.

Read the full article: Parrot Screaming - Causes and Possible Solutions

Over the years, I've heard over and over again how parrots are creatures of habit. I also believe that they have an incredible sense of time, perhaps some sort of internal clock that keeps accurate track of the passing hours and minutes. I was recently reminded of just how true this is when for several days in a row I got up a little earlier than usual to get some extra work done.

Be sure to read the full article to find out where this is going: Parrots Do Love A Routine