Hello, bear with me as i navigate this place. I was given 2 qps in a cage a week ago. I believe a male and female ages unknown. I named them earl and elvira. earl has most of his feathers and elvira is completely nude except head and wings.. she vocalizes more than earl. They vocalize but no actual words and i assume they are bonded to one another and will never talk actual words. I have taken earl out and he licks me and nibbles and seems to like being out he has not been clipped so he does fly around a bit. Elvira screams when you remove her and flies off and if i try to handle her she bites and draws blood...i now use a towel with her. she has not been clipped either. Anyway my question is can they be trained or should i just let them enjoy one another? could they be taught to talk? elvira laughs if you laugh. I am clueless on what to do or where to begin. i was working on the basic step up and still neither will do it. any help with these two would be a godsend. thankyou.

Congratulations on your new fids. I really can't help with your questions as only have one quaker but I am sure the others on here with more than one will be with you soon. Just wanted to welcome you and to say keep coming as you will learn alot here.

I guess they can be tamed as least the one seems to want to be, but I would get them trimmed by a your local bird vet or at least by someone who REALLY knows what they are doing, gain their trust, love them, feed them well, love them, talk to them, love them! lol

If the male is showing a willingness to be friends with you, concentrate on him for now. Keep working on stepping up and try bribing him with food -- mine loves millet and sunflower seeds and while you don't want to overdo the treats, a bribe can really go a long way . Just go slow and gentle and give him time to get used to you, and once you've won him over and the female sees him getting attention and not being harmed, she might come around, too. Nothin' like a like envy to get a critter to come to you for attention! It works with dogs, cats and horses, so why not birds?

Welcome to the flock! Your fids sound so cute~!

I would consider caging them separately and tackling each as a totally different problem. The male seems to want to interact and you may have more luck with him in the long run, he's not as much of a problem...

I'm really sorry to hear your female is bald...this is not good. I would reccommend taking her to a vet to get some tests done to see if she is plucking for a medical or mental reason. It is also possible that the male is plucking her, hence separate them. Connie (andies mom) has a little plucker and I'm sure she would be able to give you advice regarding solutions. I would also put a feather boa in with the female, if she needs to pluck/preen let her do it on something other than her own feathers (Connies suggestion on a different thread in this forum).

Just because the two birds were housed together when you got them, it doesn't mean it's always been like that, they could have very different backgrounds. I don't think that either is beyond taming, but start slowly (especially with the girl) try just talking to them through the cage bars for a while and let them settle into their new home....

One last thing...

PICTURES PLEASE!!! We all love pics on this forum so if you want to post any you'll probably get a number of compliments about you two little ones

Oh, one other thing, what sort of a diet are they on? Is it seed and/or pellets, have you been giving them fresh fruit and veggies? Depending on how much the person knew about keeping birds before you got them, they may need a bit of extra TLC in the food department. Try looking under the "diet and health" section of the forum for more info. If they aren't being feed a proper diet it can lead to behavioural issues (possibly plucking...)