Hello! I have a quaker who is very sweet and loving to my fiance and myself but, as of 2 days ago, decided he hates us (me especially!). My fiance is still able to pick him up but that's about it. If Eddie tries to pet Mai Tai he starts doing his angry head shaking and chatter and goes to bite him. If I go anywhere near his cage he lunges at me to bite me. If he is away from his cage he still tries to lunge at me. I have clipped his wings, I have wrapped him in a towel to take to another room to see if he is being house proud but no- he's just flat out angry and aggressive towards me! If my hands get anywhere near his eyesight he lunges for them...

I'm not sure if I have done something to make him angry or if this is some sort of pubescent aggression. I have tried going through the forum looking for other articles on the topic but I haven't seen anything that really applied to Mai Tai yet. One person mentioned something about birdy "rage," what is that?

Oh no:( I'm sorry you are going through this. How long has it been going on? Our quaker goes through bad days sometimes. Did you change anything in his environment lately...his food, schedule, your schedule, furniture, new toy, your hair (mine gets confused when I get a drastic hair cut). Also, sometimes they can get attached to a certain type of toy and are protective of it. I know you said you took him to another room but mine hates being toweled so maybe that was adding to the stress. How long have you had your quaker and how old is he? This might help people who are answering

Mai Tai was 5-6 months old when I got him in February so he is about 14-15 months old now. I doubt anything is wrong with the environment- we moved to a new house back in June and he adjusted a lot better than I thought he would and nothing has changed.

The aggressive behavior started Halloween night and has been continuing to today: 11/2. There were no trick-or-treaters to our door and we didn't have on crazy costumes or hair do's.

There are two things I can think of which may be upsetting to him. #1 I have been really busy lately with work and errands so I've been in and out of the house without giving him much attention. However we always have cuddle time before he goes to bed (at least 10 min.). #2 I have started taking video of his tricks for my parents and I showed him one of the videos the other night and it was the next day that he started the aggressive behavior. He could hear my voice in the video so maybe he thinks I may have a new bird... idk.

I just want my baby back!

Hmmm....all I can tell you is from what's been going on with our bird, and what we've done to improve his attitude. About 3 months ago, Simon, my qp was in his outside cage, and my hubby tried to get him to step up to come into the apartment. Evidently that was NOT what he wanted to do, and for the first time ever, he bit hubby so hard it made him bleed...and not only did he bite, but he latched onto his hand and Mark had to literally shake him off. He yelled as well, even though he knew that was a bad thing to do, it just took him by surprise. Quakers love drama, and evidently Simon decided this was a real funny game to play, so from then on, he pretty much did that to Mark everytime he tried to get him to step up. Not only that, but he also suddenly started hissing at him and lunging at him trying to bite anytime he was close to him. One night we had him in the bedroom on my shoulder, and he ran down me and onto Mark just to bite him. Poor Mark was heartbroken because he loves the lil dude as much as I do.

This became a regular pattern, and to make matters worse, we also moved during this time period, and added a caique to our 'flock'. What we have had to do that has made a big difference is two fold. First of all, Mark HAD to start trying to get Simon to step up again, and just endure the bites and show no fear or make no sound at all if it happened. I'd hold him on my finger, and Mark would do "step up" and if Simon tried to bite him, I'd say "no bite" and do the eathquake with my hand (if you don't know, this just means that you drop your hand just enough for them to lose their balance a bit, which makes them have to stop biting in order to hold on). Also, if he did try to bite, Mark had to push into the bite, which also throws them off balance long enough for the biting behavior to stop. Since we have been doing this, Simon has gotten much better about stepping up for Mark. The other thing the vet told us to do was for me to completely stop giving him treats at all, and let Mark be the treat giver. Simon loves sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and gets about 2 of each a day, so when Mark approaches him, and I'm not around, he offers a seed and Simon must step up to get it. That's worked pretty well too.

Is your baby being more aggressive to one of you than the other? Our vet told us that at about a year old, most qp's will choose one person that they like the best...which in our case, is me. If you have a stubborn birdie as we do, it takes lots of work to get him to accept others once he's chosen his "favorite". I'm sure others will be along to give you more ideas, hope it helps!!

Well, I thought we had a break through today but it was shortlived! Eddie decided to clean the outside parts of the windows with a broom and it freaked Mai Tai out and he flew off his cage (which is right by one of the windows). I grabbed him and calmed him down and then started giving him treats and he started to let me pet him. After a few hours, however, he forgot he was being sweet again and went after me when I went to get him off his cage.
He will sit on my shoulder just fine but he hates my hands!
He is not being as aggressive towards Eddie as he is being towards me.

I will try bribing him with noodles tomorrow...