I have just received a Quaker from my vet.It flew into his backyard, and he gaveit to me.I call it a "her" although I have no clue as to sex(any home ways to tell??) Her name is Bo (for bociferous).She doesn't talk, but when I talk to her,she turns her head and watches me.I have no idea how old she is,or anything.It took me a couple of days for her to trust me, but she gets on my arm with few exceptions now, and rarely trys to bite me.Also, she doesn't raise her 'hackles' at me when Icome to her cage, although she will with others in the house.We're working on that though.I guess I'd just like to talk to others out there that know more about these babies than I do(which is about everyone). :O)

I have 3 little quakers that I love very dearly, they are my everthing everday they're my life. Communication is the key, I call them feathered children,little people in bird suits they are to smart to be birds at least my 3 are, they understand everthing and I do mean everthing you say to them and they do exactly what is being said to them When I say NO to something IT'S NO and when I say to STOP SOMETHING mine do just that at both of those things these little guys are extremely intelligent indeed they do know exactly what's being said to them and they react to it all becuase of their intelligence Mine are KIWI, QUAKEY and TIKI and Quakey can get a little jealious of Tiki at times an try to get at Tiki and stuff like that and he immediately will listen and will stop when I tell him to and I tell him NO don't do that, these little guys are just way to intelligent to be able to put into words just how smart and intelligent they really truly are it's all communication with them and they do understand at least my 3 little wonders(quakers) do, I always ask my 3 if they want this if they want that and they truly do let me know what it is exactly that they do want and I always give it to them and they are the greatest of the little parrots that are truly feathered children indeed.

wow i been amaze with this stories! Great article! Love Amanda M.

Our oldest quaker (Critter) is like a dog. He follows us around, will travel from his cage into another room to crawl up our leg, calls my kids, takes showers with kids, bites the mean kids that my kids hang out with (but my kids are not allowed to hang out with them now…Critter is an incredible judge of character!) and above all, Critter is affectionate towards our other animals and family.
Critter also knows the words "Time Out!" extremely well. If he acts badly…screetching, biting "nice people", being rude…Critter gets 5 minutes time-out in the bathroom. This rule has been enforced since Critter was 3 months old. If you say "Time-Out!" now, Critter gets an attitude adjustment immediately!
I have a hard time saying all of the
wonderful qualities and surprises that Critter gives to our family because there are so many.
Critter recently lost his best-friend "Sweetheart", a peach-faced lovebird. It was heartbreaking the toll that it had on Critter; he was mourning, he was biting my daughter (whom he absolutely adores), and he was squawking constantly…We
could not give him enough attention.
It was very apparent that Critter needed avian attention, as well as ours.
Long story short, ended up getting two baby quakers. Critter is loving them being here, but not ready to be alone with them…you can see a wonderful change in Critter's morale though!
Quakers are incredible and intelligent…Please understand that when you bring a quaker home, it's for life…40 years plus…they look to you for a forever love and home. A quaker will give it's heart to you, please do not abuse that gift.
They require and deserve time (for hours, every day), love, attention, respect, flock-like devotion and discipline. Please make sure that you are willing to give that for the next 40 years.

Please note:
If you are pondering breeding of quakers, it is your moral responsibility to make sure that the people adopting are aware of how to hand-feed, all parties of the family are met and made aware of the responsibilities of what owning a bird requires. People (over-all) are unaware. Please make sure to educate and follow your gut instinct of the right thing to do.

Awwwwww! So cute! My bird Scooter began talking at 4 months old, almost as soon as i started talking to him! It has already been almost one year since i got him, and here is a list of things he says:

PRETTY BIRD!
AM I A GOOD BOY?
YEAH I AM A GOOD BOY!
he whistles
SINGS 2 1/2 SONGS
GIMME A KISS…..*makes kissie noises*
I *kiss* LOVE *kiss* YOU!!*kiss* Iloveyouiloveyou i loooove yoouuuu!*tons of kissie noises*
KISSES?!
KISS.KISS.KISS.KISS

It is soo cute! he even combines words.. like "Scooter is a pretty bird!"

i have just gotten a quaker parrot in september when she decided to stay at my house one day. i don't kno wether its a boy or a girl but its so pretty it has to me female so me n my girlfriend named her Eva. i didn't kno it was a quaker till i got to this website.all i knew was it was blue with a grey chest and had these amazing mettalic blue tail and wing tip feathers.she was flying in my backyard one day and then was sittin on the gutter below my bedroom window i gave her berries and she left me grab her with a towel. i didn't understand why the towel but after a few weeks indoors i realized that she will sit on ur head or shoulders leg face whatever but not near ur hands she gets scared when she sees fingers for some reason even if ur holding a nut or berry she is afraid of hands which made me beleive she escaped from who may have been abusive she answers to eva and stares eye to eye when u talk to her looks down when u yell at her she hates her cage and only goes in to get food or early in the morning when i tell her im going to work she doesnt talk but she understands she is so smart its amazing she even knows that her bathroom is in there and uses it when she needs to she loves to nibble on ears and lips she likes when u kiss her beek or close her beek with ur lips she doesnt like being alone for a long time either and follows me wherever we go she like to steal food from ur plate when ur not looking and if ur smoking eva feels the need to steal it from you and smoke herself which looks so funny. im trying to break that habbit with her but eva refuses to go on the patch lol. she loves just about anyone thats around except for my father who tried to catch her while he was drunk and she was in the living room ever since then when he goes around her she puffs up her feathers and squaks while spanning her wing out like a proud eagle.i have been noticing that she mimicks peoples laughs and sometimes make noises which sound like words but not the words that are being said. one day i kept repeating the word hello and going eva say hello she then started making noises that first sounded very close to my girlfriends laugh and it sounded like she tried to say shut up moron. but that again could be her trying to mimick my girlfriend from a past day.i am just completly amazed at how smart she is and when she flies she looks incredible but im afraid she is turning into a thief stealing things such as dimes pens keys lighters ciggarettes and small jewlery which i find hidden in either the food or water dishes if anyone has care and training tips please e-mail me at phantm75@aol.com

hi my name is Maili I am 13 years old and today I got my first Quaker I walked in to a pet store no intending on buying a bird but the owner of the store was hold the bird and saw me looking at the it and asked me would I like to hold it well I said why not it either will bit me or it won't so I held it and it didn't bit me it talked o me and loved all on me and withen about 25 minutes I was his new owner I recomend him to people about 13 and over only cause they need lots of love from some one that can handle then properly!!!!!!!!!

My boyfriend bought me a quacker parrot about a year and a half ago… he defies eveything i've ever read about them…he doesn't talk he won't play with toys he hates me if i go near his cage he bites at me or flies away he will step up onto my boyfriend but soon gets off of him i desparatly want him to like me not sure what to do…any suggestions please email me :>{

My quaker parrot - Rosito - came into my life just over a year ago. A friend of my father's was going out of town for three months and needed someone to watch the bird. At that guy's house, Rosito (then "Rosita" :P) was very rarely out of the cage, seed-fed (all parakeet bagged food) and was attended to but not as often as he deserved to be. I got very attached to him and told the man all the amazing things he had been doing out our house. The guy saw that the bird was much happier with me, so he is now mine, flying unrestrained in my bedroom. ANYWHO, they are such smart creatures! Rosito (I believe he's a male because of how colorful and full of pomp he is) came with a whole slough of vocabulary that I didn't teach him. Some good, some bad. Some Spanish (he apparently had several previous owners), some English. I am still amazed by his contextual ability. As soon as you walk in: "What's up? What's up?" If you say hello and are talking to him: "Rosito! Rositooo!" Greeting/he wants something: -kissy noises- + foot up (high five) He has been bad/is getting caged/does not like somebody: "mother#####. mother#####…hahaha." (hahaha. he came with this one. It's so funny because he says it in such a hushed, low tone, and then giggles like mad!) he coughs and laughs with you. I have heard him say "hello!!" along with another few phrases three or so times, but he does not say these regularly. I'm almost sure it's because I don't say them to him regularly - I think he must have a whole other small lexicon that I don't even know about. I believe he is an older bird because of his extensive coloring/many past owners, but he is still very sharp. With enough repition/treat reinforcement he can pick up most any word or 2-3 word phrase. :) The stories about 'Beeper' literally made me laugh out loud. What a clever little guy!

Amanda, Hang in there! it could be any number of things that is leading to the stress and anxiety in your parrots (and you and your boyfriends also it seems) behavior. The bird may very well detect your fears and disappointment in general. They (in my opinion) are really quite similar to young children when it comes to emotional issues, it may very well be the reason for the biting and flying away. Your bird will most likely not be interested in toys unless it feels comfortable (emotionally) possibly for the same reasons. Please feel free to e-mail me, we "found" a quaker parrot in our backyard last December and are now the proud owners of the sweetest little guy you could ever imagine, but he started out very much as you've described your parrot. I hope things improve soon for you, I'd be happy to share my experiences with you if you wish.

I am trying to choose between a Parrolet and a Quaker.
Does anyone have any opinion to help sway me!

My husband & I were given a Quaker Parrot 5 or 6 years ago by friends who were moving out of state. We discovered that "Samson" had obviously had a couple of previous owners as his language can become extreme when he is upset - he will walk around on the bottom of his cage saying "F-it", "F-it", F-it" and doing his "Stevie Wonder imitation" (rotating his head left to right & up and down) - he did not learn that from my husband or I, or from the couple from whom we adopted him.

Samson had amazed us on several occasions because of his ability to seem as if he undersands what you we are saying to him and his ability to respond appropriately. He was able to say several different sentences when he came to live with us, "Hello", "I love you", "What are you doing", "Give me a kiss", "Pretty Bird", "Good Bird", "Whatchadoin?", "Come here"), etc., but since then he has picked up on things that we weren't trying to teach him!

For example, one day he was in his cage in the living room while I was in the den when he made his kissing noise, saying "Gimme a kiss". I responded from the den with the same noise and "Gimmie a kiss". He did it again and I repeated it. We did that a couple of more times when I finally said "Samson, I'm busy, that's enough". He paused for a couple of seconds and said - "I love you" (plaintively). Well, will that not melt your heart? It made me go take him out of his cage for a little one on one time : )

I never tried to teach him my name, but several years ago after I had cleaned his cage and had taken his toys in to the other room to clean them he suddenly yelled "Hey Robin, come here!" I was startled and looked at my husband and said "Did he say what I thought he said?" He laughed and said "yeah!".

Then, one of the funniest things he did was when he showed me that he was paying very close attention to - and putting what was being said into context. I had made breakfast one morning and since I was told that it was very important to give him "human food" in addition to his "bird food" I had given him his regular supplimental dish of scrambled eggs, biscuits and fruit. I laid the dish on the bottom of his cage and he perched on the side of it, looked down, looked at me and said "Is it good?" Not thinking, I said "of course it is". And he chowed down while repeating "Yum". It was then that I realized that when I had been giving him his "human food treats" I had been asking him "is it good?" - knowing that if he said "Yum" he liked it and if he gave no response and stopped eating that he didn't like it.

Are these birds amazing, or what?

The only question that I have is to the the fact that "Samson" layed three eggs a couple of years ago. I was so shocked - even knowing that is it almost impossible to determine the sex of a quaker parrot with out a DNA profile - that I called the couple who gave "him" to us. I was assured that quaker parrots can "change their sex" accoring to what they said that their avian veterinarian stated. I am not buying that. From what I understand, we are all born with our sex organs and they do not change.

So, can someone give me emperical evidence that male quaker parrots cannot possibly lay eggs? I understand hermaphroditism, but I have never been able to find anything stating anything other than it is impossible to determine their sex without a DNA test.

So, as far as I'm concerned "Samson" who had heretofore been known as "Sammy" is now known as "Samantha" - because males of most species do not lay eggs!