my husband wants a Quaker parrot, but we have three young kids and i heard Quakers are aggressive...?

Question

is there any way to have a friendly quaker? of course the kids will be supervised, but just in case they sneak up,how hard do they bite? we have budgies that have bit them(one drew blood) and although they werent afraid, they gave them their space but im sure a quakers bite will be worse. i also heard they are good talkers, is it true? how about parrotlets? what are they like? thank you all very much. have a good day!!! :O)

do parrotlets talk? they are so little!!!

Answer 1

We have a quaker that I finished handfeeding myself and the thing hates me! It is in love with my husband and him only. It will chase my son around the room trying to bite him. He has broken the skin biting me. The thing is also loud as all get out!!! We also have a Parrotlet. She is very sweet and loving.....anyone can handle her. They do have the ability to talk.....but ours hasn't. She does sing a nice little song though. She is nice and quiet too! As an owner of both, I would definately recommend the Parrotlet! Good luck!

www.parrotletranch.com has some good info.

Answer 2

Personally, I would worry about the safety of the bird, than the kids. Yes, Quakers do bite very hard. They can and often do draw blood. But any animal that is afraid for its life will drawn blood! There are some very nice Quakers out there. Quakers are good talkers. Most are really good around kids if treated with respect!!!

Parrottlets are very nice tiny birds, if you like the personiality of a amazon parrot. But they also are very good biters. Worst than a quaker. I personally wouldn't have a parrotlet with kids. They are way to small. They get lost to easily. They are very fast flyers, even with they're wings trimmed. Hope this helps you. If you have further questions I will be glad to try and help you out.

Answer 3

Try a cockatiel- they usually do very well with children.

If your husband is determined to have a small parrot, consider a Senegal- they are much more friendly, and about the same size as Quakers. They can also learn to talk. I wouldn't risk getting a Quaker unless your husband keeps him in a room away from the children and you explain that daddy's bird doesn't want to be poked at- Quakers bite harder than budgies and can do much more damage.

Answer 4

In training anything, you get what you reinforce. If you use positive reinforcement training, you won't have a mean bird.
An example:
My Quaker was a relinquishment due to an allergy in her former family. There were kids in the family and she did just fine with them as well as a cat and 2 little dogs.
But I think she was forced out of her cage a lot by the kids, and didn't like it. When I ended up with her, she was a raving "you-know-what", and getting her out of her cage was next to impossible.
I immediately put her into training using level 2 food control. If she wanted to eat, "Come on out...your food is out here!"
It worked. She is now delightful, friendly with people she knows and absolutely adores me. She knows a few tricks, but she isn't much of a talker. Some are and some aren't. Oh, she can talk, but she whispers. She still isn't that friendly with people she doesn't know, but it's not nearly as horrifying as it used to be. Quakers can bite hard, and most of my friends have said they'd rather take nip from one of my Greys than from my Quaker.
So it's all about the training, and that includes training your kids how to work with her. Kids are great trainers when they know how. If everybody knows how things go and you have done your homework on positive reinforcement training, you won't have a problem in the world.
It's just that with mine, I had a lot of history I had to undo.
Parrotlets are wonderful little birds and very popular. They are a little parrot that have absolutely no idea they are tiny. They thnk they are big guys and they have a personality to match.
Do you homework in deciding which species would best fit into your family and then follow up on familiarizing yourself with learning how to train.
Best of luck and let us know how it goes!

Answer 5

First thing you have to do is research Quakers in your state, they have been banned in a number of states in the US. Second, get a young hand-fed bird, AND teach the children to leave it alone while it is in it's cage.
I will tell you from my experience from hand-feeding and owning a Quaker... They can be noisy, they can become a 'one person bird' which can cause aggression toward other people, mine had a vocabulary of over 75 words and phrases...
I am now breeding Pacific Parrotlets, when in pairs, they don't want much to do with people, but I have seen a few raised alone & handled daily, they are wonderful little birds. Both of these birds have beaks larger than a parrakeet and are capable of inflicting a painful bite.
Good luck on your search of a new bird!!!

Answer 6

parrotlets do talk in cute little voices. i would suggest a parrotlet over a quaker especially that you have small kids and other birds. quakers are known for being single person birds and very aggressive toward other birds.

of course there are always exceptions to the rule but i wouldn't risk it with my kids.

Answer 7

well my aunt has a quaker parrot and he is VERY aggressive. you can walk toward his cage and he will try to kill you. but he wasnt always mean. it all started when my aunt took him to get his wings clipped. ever since then he has been a very aggressive little bird. the good thing about these types of birds is that if you get one that is nice then it will live a LONG time. my aunts is like 10 years old. and yes. quaker parrots are VERY good talkers. my aunts wont shut up. lol.

Answer 8

Quakers can be tamed easily, buy a young handfed one and work with it every day, BUT make sure you are prepared for the noise, quakers are sooooo vocal to the point that they will drive you nuts.
Parrotlets are nice and easy to tame also,but they do better in pairs, just research the kind of bird that would suit your families needs and buy young.

Answer 9

When I was a kid, my mother put us to bed at 7:30 until we were about 10 years old. We didn't necessarily have to go to sleep, per se, but we were in bed at 7:30. This was largely due to the fact that mom didn't have much help from my father and she needed a break in the evenings. We'd read quietly, hang out and talk quietly (those who shared a room, at any rate) and eventually we'd fall asleep... when it got dark. My five year old goes to bed at 8/8:30, but doesn't have to get up until 8 am. If you don't need the time to yourself in the evening, then 7:30 is too early. If you do, then it's not. In other words, if it's about what's best for you/him - 7:30 might be fine. If it's about what's best for the kids... it's too early.

Answer 10

My mother has one; and I have childern yes you are right but it is really how you train it and pluss you need to teach your childern as well. It would be kinda the same thing as you would teach them with any other animal. Her parrot get's along with my childern oh treat's are good to have for training as well; and my mother also has a cage as well it's a cage he goes in if she's not around but if she is at home she lets him out around the sounding cage. She has it set up like a play area out side of the cage and if he wants to go back in he can.