Quaker trembling means "feed me!" | Chicken scratcher is typical young grey | Night frights may affect mutated cockatiels more | Clucking eclectus just wants to nest | Whimpering Amazon likes echoes or wants to breed |

My 9-week-old Quaker parakeet was handfed. When we talk to her or hold her she puffs up her feathers and bobs her head up and down.  This morning she added holding her wings out.  What is she trying to tell me?

-- Jennifer, Waco, Texas

YOUR BIRD IS asking you to feed her. This soliciting behavior is typical of baby and juvenile parrots and although you don't mention it, I suspect that in this case it is accompanied by a palsy-like shake for which Quakers are known. (Biologists, by the way, refer to Quakers as monk parakeets for their plain colors and cowl-like markings.) If you offer her warm oatmeal in the morning, your bird may take a few gulps while demonstrating her "quake". To make feeding easier, you can heat and bend a plastic spoon to give it a beaklike point or simply pinch a small paper cup to form a spout. Or, because she is weaned, your bird may prefer warm food offered in a more "grown-up" way - perhaps a dollop of warm oatmeal or grits on a small piece of warm toast.

While she may continue to beg for food for a very long time, your Quaker probably eventually will outgrow it. In the meantime, supplementing her regular diet with a bit of comforting handfeeding can give her the confidence to progress to the next phase of behavioral development: exploration. During this period it's fine to cuddle her some, but don't overdo it; encourage independence so that she will learn to keep herself entertained playing with toys and won't become demanding, as discussed here two issues ago.

We recently purchased a 4-month-old fully-weaned African grey.  We have another grey, two blue-and-gold macaws and a hyacinth macaw, so we are quite familiar with bird behavior, but this one has us stumped.  We have taken her to our avian vet and she checks out physically.  If this behavior is something we should be concerned about, I would like to start intervening now. Molly will lie on her side on the bottom of her cage and kick with her free foot.  When this leg tires, she switches sides.  She scratches like a chicken.  This behavior can go on for a few seconds or a few minutes.  I can interrupt her but as soon as I put her back in her cage, she resumes the behavior. She seems to do it when she is tired or a bit stressed.  All of our girls have a lot of out-of-cage time and toys, so I don't think it's a matter of boredom.

-- Michele Ensz, South Dakota

ALTHOUGH A FEW birds grow out of this phase early or skip it altogether, scratching is typical juvenile African grey behavior. No one knows whether they are actually "digging," but it certainly appears that way. Baby greys seem to enjoy this behavior so much, it's a good idea to provide them with some type of substrate: towels or a thick layer of newspapers for cages that have grates, and a thin layer of loose material such as sand, sawdust or cob bedding in cages without grates. (Just be sure to change the substrate every day to prevent disease.)

Substrate is a good idea for another reason: cushioning the grate - or better yet, removing it altogether - prevents your bird from hurting herself in a fall. Newly weaned grey parrots are famously clumsy and do best in small cages without grates or with towels or newspaper on top of grates. Falling onto a hard grate can hurt them physically and psychologically. In addition, perches should be small enough to be easily gripped so that the bird can hold on and flap. The best perch material is soft chewable wood, preferably branches with bark, rather than manzanita, which tends to be hard and slippery. (Especially avoid the large-diameter manzanita perches that often come with large cages.) I would also avoid cement perches right now. When your bird is older, you may provide one in front of the water bowl - watering holes are the only places wild greys are commonly seen on rock. As with any parrot, do not place the cement perch where your bird will sleep on it. Sleeping on one foot on cement contributes to uneven foot wear and other problems.

Like quaking in a baby monk parakeet, chicken scratching in African greys may or may not pass. However, once your bird is one to two years old and has grown out of the clumsy stage, you can put the grate back. After the clumsy stage comes the "play monster" stage. Until he's about two, don't expect your baby grey to have a great-looking tail. Baby greys are famous for wearing out their juvenile tail feathers with rough and rowdy play. (I call it "baby tail.") Sometime around the third full molt, those ragged looking tail feathers will be replaced with perfect ones.

I was reading your article on first-aid for birds, and I was wondering if you know how to prevent a bird from being startled so easily or having night terrors. I have a two-year-old white-faced cockatiel who has always had a problem with his right wing. He frequently will go crazy flapping around in his cage in the late evening to early morning time. He bleeds everywhere. I have tried a bigger cage, a partner for him, a blanket over the cage, a night lamp and feeding him an all-pellet and fruit and vegetable diet. I spend as much time as I can with him. Yet he did it again last night and three nights ago. He is now without feathers at the phalange area of his right wing. There's nothing there but a big scab. I am going to have him in his carrier with his wing wrapped in gauze tonight as I did last night and put him on my nightstand to better monitor him. I have now a total of four cockatiels, but Blankitos is the only one (thank God) who does this on a pretty regular basis. I don't think I have ever seen him without blood somewhere on his feathers. If this continues, I fear that he will eventually die. When I come home from work each day, I quickly do a bird check before anything. I am so sad and scared for Blankitos. Please tell me what you think!

-- Elizabeth Ameller

MY 26 YEARS of anecdotal experience suggests that hyper reactivity is more common in lutino and albino mutations such as white-faced cockatiels than in "normals" - birds with natural, unmutated coloration. This might be part of their survival mechanism. Few color mutations of this sort survive wild, and an enhanced fight-or-flight response might be an inherited genetic trait. However, in a companion setting, this kind of reaction can be very upsetting for the care provider, and you must make it a point not to reinforce it. Be sure not to look at the bird straight on with round-eyed concern, as the bird can read your emotions and this can reinforce, support, or stimulate further panic behavior. Remain calm, detached, and tell him that he's "okay."

Your bird will probably do best in a smallish cage (two to three feet square) with a birdy buddy (cuddly toy) and maybe a sleeping tent. Every night try providing a small night light and covering his cage with a sheet or other semi-transparent cover. Ensure that the room is free of mice, and that he is well away from car lights traveling across the ceiling or the nighttime traffic of other pets. Examine cage location; be sure that the cage is high, partially screened (perhaps by a fake plant) and in a corner so that he doesn't have to "watch his back." Manipulate these elements to suit his responses to them. Provide small, easy-to-grip perches so that when he's afraid, he can grip the perch and flap his wings. In the wild he would fly, of course, but in captivity, he can learn to hold the perch and flap, and this helps to work off the energy generated by his fear. To help further express nervous energy, provide lots of showers.

You mention that you tried feeding him an "all-pellet and fruit and vegetable diet." Cockatiels are generally grouped with the grass parakeets and are natural seed eaters in the wild. I'd put him back on a well-balanced seed diet with a slightly greater proportion of canary seed than millet and containing sunflower rather than safflower. Studies have shown that cockatiels survive better on seed including sunflower, rather than safflower, pellet, or fruit and vegetable-based diets. Monitor him carefully for adequate amounts of the vitamins A and D so that his skin heals properly. An hour or two of sunshine and fresh air a couple of times a week might help here. A good short wing feather trim will help to prevent him from bumping his wings inside the cage. This may even be one case where clipping the four longest outer feathers very closely, just underneath the coverts - rather than outside of them - is helpful. Consult with an experienced avian veterinarian about this, and ask him or her to show you how to check for feather cysts, swellings that can develop as a result of trauma. The veterinarian may want to pull a feather or two so cysts don't form. At any rate, consult your veterinarian frequently until all skin damage is completely healed.

My female eclectus has been sitting at the bottom of her cage clucking now for three weeks. She only does this when she is in her cage. Is this a sign of her being ill? She's eating fine, and when out of the cage she vocalizes and acts like she's fine.

-- Debbie Sapronetti.

AS LONG AS your bird seems healthy, including maintaining her weight, you probably should not be concerned about this change in behavior. You don't mention her age, but unless your bird is very young, she is probably exhibiting a pre-nesting behavior. This is typical of companion parrots, since our feathered friends are not spayed or neutered for behavioral reasons as our mammalian companions are. If you provide her with a good diet and the appropriate environment, she will cycle in - and more importantly, out - of breeding mode for quite a few years to come.

The key is helping her to cycle out of breeding mode. You don't want her to become stuck in something resembling PMS, which can happen during a larger hookbill's teen years. For an island bird like an eclectus, you control the breeding cycle by controlling the "season", including rainfall and nesting sites.

If you research the natural habitat of the eclectus, you will discover that there is more yearly rainfall in Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia's Cape York Peninsula than in most other places on the planet. Parrots time their nesting seasons to coincide with rainy seasons because that is when plants grow quickly and then produce fruit. I believe the companion descendants of these island species of parrots benefit from experiencing something resembling a rainy season in our homes. Don't worry - you don't have to install a sprinkler system. All you need is a good-quality hand mister. "Nests" are easy to provide, too.

Here's what I suggest. Once in full-swing nesting mode, parrots often are quite territorial of not only their cages, but the spaces under furniture, inside kitchen cabinets and other dark or enclosed places. For more control, disallow access to any confined space except ones that disappear when your bird chews them up. An example could be a clean brown paper grocery bag or cardboard box placed in her cage. During the same few weeks, shorten her days by keeping her in the dark slightly longer than usual - about 13 hours every night - and provide a "rainy season" by giving her lots of showers with the mister. After a few weeks, begin lengthening her days back to normal, providing about 13 hours of light and 11 hours of dark. At the same time discontinue the daily showers, eliminate the disposable "nest cavities", and provide bells or other noise-making toys to comfort her. She may choose to "feed" (regurgitate masticated food) on some of the toys for a while, but this, too, shall pass.

My 12-year-old double-yellow-headed Amazon has recently been making whimpering noises. I think he may be in pain because he just places his head by his bowl and stays there, crying for at least three to five minutes. Could it be arthritis, constipation or something else? He doesn't do it often.

-- Elizabeth Ramos, Carlstadt, N.J.

IF HE SEEMS HEALTHY otherwise, the whimpering is probably no cause for concern. Considering your bird's age, it could simply indicate the onset of strong sexual impulses or a pressure to breed. Many birds seem to enjoy vocalizing into corners, dishes, tubes, or other resonating objects because of the slight echo. In some cases, it seems to be a remnant behavior related to the search for or examination of nesting cavities. Here's how to confirm whether this is the case with your bird. When he starts whimpering into the bowl, look at his cloaca (the orifice where excrement leaves his body) and see if it is opening and closing rhythmically. This clenching and releasing is a sexual behavior common in Amazons called "winking."

If you see winking, you may be confident that the whimpering is sexual. Provide lots of wood for your bird to chew, watch out for territorial behaviors around favorite people, places, or things, and consider manipulating elements of the environment as suggested in the previous question.

Mattie Sue Athan is a companion parrot behavior consultant and best-selling author of numerous bird-care books, including Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot. Her latest book is Parrots in the City, an in-depth look at wild Quaker parakeets. She lives with six parrots, three wiener dogs, Larry the cat and, at any one time, two or three birds in rehabilitation and on their way to a new home.

Aggression "Attack flying" is territorial aggression Birds always bite for a reason Biting can be nipped in the bud with training Face-biting cockatoo can be retrained Height dominance does not exist "Hormonal" bird is territorial Love nibbles on chin can progress to bites Older biting birds can change their stripes Parrots can hold grudges Picked on bird may be ill Spouse-biting parrot, The When biting and screaming mean it's over Chewing Cage-top treats should stop destructive roaming Chewing the wrong objects Courtship Biting African grey might want to nest Clucking pionus probably in the mood Look of love, The Mirrors make good companions Nesting can be male behavior, too Regurgitation usually means "I love you" Romantic overtures signal sexual frustration Unchecked courting cute but risky What does digging in cage mean? Fear African greys that lose trust Changing appearance might calm terrified cockatoo Fear of strangers subsides with positive reinforcement Touch standoffish bird through blanket Why won't friendly Amazon leave cage? Miscellaneous Baby and bird can happily coexist Bath-time antics Beak banger may want attention Budgie can be trained to choose correct object Contortionist birds keep us amused Crouch with lifted wings is probably begging behavior "Dancing" is reaction to loud noises Door-clinger can be taught to perch Escape can change a bird's behavior Extreme heat or cold require owner's intervention Flight training is no guarantee of recovery Games parrots play, The Head-shaking and hissing Laps around the cage probably habit One-woman parrot can adjust to a new owner Parrots don't mourn Pinning and flashing explained Sleeping under the newspaper is normal behavior Tonguing objects is bird's method of investigation Truth about cats and parrots, The Water bottle conversion isn't difficult Welcome new bird with low-key reception Zoo bird can't play favorites Species specific Green-cheek conures aren't supposed to scream, are they? Different species may get along - or not Forced friendships between birds may not work Goffin's cockatoo got too much early attention Meyer's and Senegal may eventually become friends Senegal could be courting; pionus needs steadier perch Senegals, even wild adults, can be tamed Understanding Moluccan body language Understanding Moluccan body language, Part II Taming Downside of the "Up" command, The Forced "step-ups" can frighten birds Forced taming results in learned helplessness Separate training area for cage-clinging cockatoo Undoing shabby treatment will take time Wings help birds avoid owners Zero in on favorite food for training Vocalizations Parrots can be a real scream Older birds can learn the new trick of "talking" Vibrating device on cage might stop screaming

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