I've been around a fair amount of birds in my day, but my adopted QP (rescued him about a month ago) is super quarky. Most of it makes me love him even more. But wanted to see if anyone else's babies did this and if you know why?

First, he loves being at the bottom of the cage. He seems to have a good time down there. I eventually moved some of his toys down that way because he has no interest of being on the perches unless it's to eat or drink or just to come out of his cage. I know that when a bird is at the bottom of the cage, it can signal of sickness. But he's very active down there and he's been doing it for a month now so I assume it's just what he likes. I bought him this huge cage for nothing it seems lol. He is exploring it a little more nowadays though. He used to not touch the boing but now will go up and down it when he doesn't think anyone's looking.

Another thing he does is that he feels things with his foot. He'll walk up to dog beds, my pillow, the couch, shoes, etc and he'll put his little foot on it and then scrunch his foot up, back down, then up. Like he's feeling it. He's cocking his head looking at his foot doing it the entire time. What is he doing? lol

Another thing is that he doesn't like to step up while in hise cage. He doesn't get mad or upset at the attempt (I was told when I got him that he was cage agressive but I havent found this to be the case except with new people he doesn't know.) But if you put his hand in the cage while he's at the bottom, he immediately starts chattering up a storm. At lunch time, I call my girlfriend to have her put her hand in just to hear him talk. He talks, laughs, makes all sorts of funny noises etc until she takes her hand out of the cage. Then he goes back to normal. He'll do this for quite a while.

The other thing is that I do think he's OCD, which would explain his feather plucking. He's on a contstant mission to pull the hairs out of my arms, head, legs, wherever he can find a hair. We've been discouraging him from doing this by putting a toy in front of him when he starts or moving so he cannot pluck us. I'm also going to begin clicker training soon with him to see if we can remove the behavior entirely.

Thought I would share and hopefully get some feedback! :-)

I think that quakers just have their quirks. Morgan for instance will not stay in a cage. He has a dog kennel that he turned into his house. My mom's quaker Mr. Grumbles is a rescue. He loves noise, especially plastic ones. He taps them with him foot to hear the noise. He also does this with styrofoam. He loves to crawl into paper bags and roll around the floor. So you see all birds are a little nuts.

I'm with Sgt. Cluck. If mine is any barometer, Quakers are self-appointed heads of the entertainment committee, and if they think something they do can make you laugh or squinch up your eyebrows trying to figger 'em out, they'll do it. Clyde does stuff and laughs at HIMSELF. When he does something bizarre and I say, "WHAT are you DOING?" he'll laugh. Relax and let him do his job. What's his name?

Kiwi tests with his foot. I guess its the equivalant of us putting our foot in water to see how cold it is? he's being cautious. Kiwi did that with me at first. I'd put my hand to have him step up and he'd preen my hand but not step up..then he did this little I don't know dance and then finally did a toe touch on my finger and just got up.
He is very quirky too. I guess its not diff than a person. I think Kiwi is more a person anyways. I had to remind myself again today he is a SMART BIRD but not a person LOL I talk to him like I would anyone else...maybe its me who's weird ?? LOL

I am now convinced that your qp is Ross's long lost brother b/c ross does the EXACT thing you talk 'bout when there on the bottom of the cage! ross can't ever get enuff of it, and he just talks up a storm!!LOL its really cute watching him, but ross will rub his head all over the newspaper which ive yet to figure out why? like he's marking his terrority or something, who knows! we love him no matter how corky he is! thats what makes qp's SPECIAL!

Well, Peanut Butter always runs to the bottom of her cage as soon as we get ready to cover her up for Nigh' Nigh'. She will tell us Nigh Nigh Bird around 10 p.m. and then as soon as you get up to get the covers, she runs to the bottom of the cage and runs all around to all the corners. I don't know how long she stays down there, but at some point she gets back up on her perch because that is where she always is in the a.m.!

When I first moved Relly to a large cage she exhibited a similar behavior. She would only stay on about 5 inches of the bottom perch, right in front of the food dish and then sometimes make a quick run to the water dish and back. I kept her cage laid out as it was and began putting her on the top perch when it was time for her to go into her cage. She began expanding her comfort zone and a year later she's finally utilizing all of her space (it's a big cage).

She is also a plucker who started going after my body hair. Whenever she would pull a hair out, I would tell her no, set her away from me and grooming time would be over. She stopped the behavior rather quickly, though I did have to retrain her when I started getting my first gray hairs. She just didn't think they belonged, I guess.

oh this thread is full of win
the stories gave me a good chuckle

wasabi pulls out my arm hairs too. he seems to be very, very mouth oriented
and he used his foot in a very dexterous way - he lifts it almost straight up against his body when he holding something he's eating
i have a photo of it somewhere

i would have to agree that they are very quirky
he is incredibly entertaining