Hello everyone. My name is Kevin, so don't let the slightly ominous nickname fool you. I'm a nice guy, and soon to be a new Quaker owner.I have him all picked out, and he is on hold until sometime this weekend. I just picked up his cage, perches, toys and food and the like. The plan is to get his new home all set up and ready for his arrival. I have been reading up and studying everything I can get my hands on. I'm sure I'll still have a ton of questions.

Welcome, Kevin!
Congratulations on your-soon-to-arrive Quaker! They are wonderful companion birds. Feel free to ask any & all questions, we try to answer if we can. Are you going to have him/her dna sexed? Any name ideas? I usually wait until we have had some time together before they help me decide on their name. Once again, welcome! I'm Jess & I'm owned by 5 birds (2 macaws, 2 cockatoos & last but definitely not least my little green Quaker!)! Oh, I highly recommend Mattie Sue Athans' book entitled, Guide to the Quaker Parrot. It is the best book I know on Quakers if you haven't already discovered it!

Jess

You are smart! I do not know why, but I did this totally backwards!!!! I bought the quakers and visitted them and visitted them and fell ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE with them, brought them home and then started to study them! DUH!!!!!!!

I JUST LOVE this website!!! I have learned so much on here! I have also read The Guide to Quaker Parrots that Jess
is talking about and I am excited to read the new book by Shelly Lane that is posted on here this morning. I am
telling you that every bit of information that I have absorbed about these little guys has proven to be helpful!!!
These people really know these birds!! Without this website, I probably would have gone crazy by now! But each
time I am having a problem, these guys know just what to do!

Congrats on the addition to your home!

Julie

Welcome to the forum! Congratulations on your new baby. Like Julie just posted, our own Shelly, owner of the forum just offered her downloadable book online today. It is 122 pages of very informative things about being owned by a quaker.

Sorry I haven't read Shelly's new Quaker book yet & it is advertised on this forum. Even though I am sure it is an excellent book, I personally do not recommend things I am unfamiliar with. I have read Mattie Sue's Guide to the Quaker Parrot & still would highly recommend it. There is no one who has ALL of the answers and it is good to have more than one resource especially when you are doing research. Perhaps it is from my college days but when doing research the more reliable sources I had to support my research the better! Anyway sorry if I am ruffling any feathers! When I can I would love to get Shelly's book so that I can from my own experience reading it recommend it.

Jess

Welcome Kevin! We too did a LOT of reading here on the site before we brought Nico home. Good for you! Keep reading here, and soon enough, we will all be looking to YOU for advice!

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I'll just try to answer some of your queries. Yes, we have a copy of and are reading The Guide To The Quaker Parrot (2nd edition). Oh, we is my wife and myself and we are passing information on to the kids, aged 18, 16, and 13. We have quite a household of animals, with both my wife and myself being animal lovers and combining our families a year and a half ago. We have two dogs (German Shepard and Choc Lab), three cats, a hamster (cutest one you could ever ask for) and some fish. My Brother-In-Law lives with us, and there are two ferrets, but they do not have free range of the house and they have a HUGE play cage in the club basement.

I have had birds before, but had to give them up when I went through a divorce years ago and was afraid that they would then suffer with me needing to work two jobs and not able to spend as much time with them. In those days, I had two cockatiels, a little Meyers parrot that had a bite that could lay a finger open in the blink of an eye, and a very sweet Cherry Headed Conure who I miss the most. I found good homes for all but the Meyers. No one would take him because of his severe biting habit. I ended up having to use gloves to handle him. he would thrash in the cage and try to attack if you showed any signs of trying to take him out of his cage. In the end, it killed him. I was trying to clean his cage and he started attacking. After a short attempt at trying to get him to come out, I left him to go get the gloves. I came back and he was on his back at the bottom of his cage and stiff a a board. The vet said that he likely had a heart attack. Looking back, I see where I did a number of things wrong. I had the Meyers and the Cherry in separate cages but side by side. That was probably as bad as having them in the same cage as far as the territorial reaction goes. I still feel bad for my mistakes, and now I am doing alot more reading and trying to understand much more of what motivates these little guys so I do not repeat those mistakes.

So anyway, I have the cage all built and setup and in place. Thinking we will pick him up this friday (tomorrow night). Need to pick up a few more toys to put inside until the ones I ordered on the internet come in. Any thoughts on cleaning a brand new cage? Would it be safe to use alcohol or a bleach solution if the cage will have a good 24 hours to dry and evaporate before the bird goes in? Same for the food and water bowls? Maybe just put them through the dishwasher?

We have thoughts on names, but I think I will hold off till a DNA sexing is done. I have already sent off for the DNA sexing survey card. I was thinking of Maximus Decimus Meridius Parrotus, and then calling him Maxi for a short name. That long name for those that do not know, was the name of the lead character in the movie Gladiator. Of course the Parrotus part is the funny add-on to the character name. That was a thought, and it's still in the running, but my wife came up with a name that I keep going back to. She suggested Chulo (sic?). That is Spanish and basically means attractive. I'm sure someone much better at Spanish can define it better, but it one of those words that can mean a few things, but all regarding attractive an/or pretty. My wife is of Mexican heritage, so we will be trying to teach him some Spanish along with English.

I am thinking of getting another smaller sleep time only cage and keeping it in our bedroom. Any thoughts?

Well, that's about it for now. Tonight I will come up with something to clean the cage with, and I'll get some more toys and I need one more perch. I'll probably post again this weekend when we have him settled in. Hopefully we can get some pics posted up as well.

My best suggestion on cleaning the new supplies is using straight white vinegar. Then, if you REALLY want to be safe, use hydrogen peroxide. That's a double whammie, and I personally try to use bleach as sparingly as possible - but there are some times I think it works best. I don't think you need to go that far this time. Do you have a dishwasher? That is probably fine for the food and water bowls - that is how we wash ours here every day. The plastic water bowls do, after several weeks of use, get a little icky "film" in the corners that only bleach seems to get out. So, I put bleach in them at that time, and then rinse rinse rinse and then they go in the dishwasher. There are lots of members here who use bleach all the time - I just think it is pretty nasty stuff, so try to avoid it if I can.

We had a sleep cage in our bedroom for Cora, our Cherry Head, for a while, but I would not recommend it. She now has her happy hut in her big cage and sleeps in the bird room with all the other birds. Have you looked into happy huts? Many members here use them, and some birds will sleep IN them, some ON top of them, and some want nothing to do with them! Nico and Jola sleep cuddled together in something like this, and Roxie and Diego each have one of these in their cages that they like to sleep in. Juni won't sleep in anything - she hangs on the side of the cage and it looks SO uncomfortable, but Cora sleeps on top of her happy hut. So, although I made about 8 happy huts, only ONE is slept ON! Go figure!

I am sorry about your bird that died and also sorry you had to rehome your others......As far as cleaning the cage if you use a bleach solution, you have to rinse, rinse and more rinse. I would recommend using white distilled vinegar (it is a cheap, great disinfectant) As far as washing anything in the dishwasher, that is ok also. I tend to wash all my FIDS (feathered kids) toys, perches, small things in the distilled white vinegar, also. I have day and night cages for both of my birds......

Ok folks, we brought the little guy home last night. His new full name is Chulo Verde, but his everyday name is just Chulo. He is also reffered to as Chulito from time to time. I am trying to add a photo to this post, but it's my first time and I've got my fingers crossed. It's only a cell phone picture. Sorry.

Chulo came home in the crate that he was shipped to the store in from Michigan. Poor little guy didn't care much for it, and hung onto the front of the crate door all the way home. It was a tad chilly last night, so I bumped up the heat a bit to keep him warm.

We picked up some more toys, a little baby blanket and his night time sleeping cage when we got him (him = myself and two of the kids. Wife was in a evening class.) Got home and got him out of the cage, and he seemed quite happy to be out and held. Played with him for a hour or more until the wife got home and then she played with him for awhile. Only had one cat show to much interest in him but that is the kitten and she is way to interested in everything. She seems to be losing interest slowly.

It was getting rather late, and it was time for everyone to go nite-nite. Already had the sleep cage cleaned and a couple of quiet toys in there and the snuggie hut. He doesn't seem to interested in getting inside the snuggie, but he liked having his head touching it. Placed the cage on my low dresser on my side of the bed. Got him in, said nite-nite, and then covered the cage. He had a great night. Early on we heard him moving around in the cage, but he soon settled down and then it was quiet all night.

I got up earlier than usual so that I could spend some time with him before going off to walk. That will be my new routine now that there is a baby in the house. We set him up with a towel at the end of the shower and he got a mild steam bath and I dribbled enough water on him to allow hime to get wet. He seemed OK with getting wet, but didn't act like he wanted to be to close to the flowing shower water. I'll have to try him with a pan bird-bath.

While we were getting dressed and ready for work, he was preening very happily and was vocal even if we couldn't make out what he was saying.

The only problem we have is that he doesn't usually like to come out of his cage willingly. I think it is more a case of his new surroundings and he was probably nervous. Overall, he seems relaxed. He blinks and/or closes his eyes with everyone in the family when being held and pet.

Got Chulo into his BIG playtime day cage, and he was already starting to show interest in his toys. I said "I'm going to work now", and rolled out. I think I may ride home to check on him at lunchtime today. Luckily, I live pretty close to work. Then the girls get home about 2 1/2 hours later. Hopefully, he will play, but he looked like he was ready to go back to sleep. He didn't get his 10-12 hours, so he will likely snooze. When awake, he has a view out to the back yard which always has birds in it and he has a fair number of toys to play with. There is also another window in that room that will allow some indirect sunlight into the room.

I guess that's it for now, and Chulo's big homecoming. Talk to you all later. Fingers crossed that the photo works.

Oh, forgot to mention that Chulo was hatched 06-18-2009.

Welcome to the forum, Kevin!