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Having only owned a budgie before (purely by accident, she fell out the sky one day totally exhausted)

‘Duster’ my baby budgie girl

I swore I would never own another animal ever again as the pain of them dying is too much for me to bare, however my ex-husband and I often frequented this garden centre near our home and I would always go over and see the birds they had in the animal section and there he was the cutest (cheekiest) little green Quaker I had ever seen,

Look at that little mischievous face, who could resist that?

We went back and forth to this garden centre over a period of about 3 or so months and he was still there, no-one wanted him… why? I have no idea, so that was it….. on Jan 1^st 2009 my ex and I took on the responsibility of owning this little creature that the shop had named Luigi, (He has since become Wiji…short for Luigi I guess) and has learned so much in the short space of time I have owned him, apart from the general step up, wave, shake hands, turning around, lifting his wings and giving me kisses, he will come to the arm when called (or most of the time… except when it is bed time and he does not want to go to bed, it can be quite an ordeal trying to get him to come to me at all and he makes these little whining sounds like a child when they don’t want to go to bed) he loves my company and being with me, he loves doing things with me and absolutely hates going to sleep at night which makes it very hard to give him his 12 hours, so he generally only gets 10 hours between the hours of 10pm and 8am. It took me only 5 minutes of training him before he was playing Basket ball

and another 2 sessions of 5 minutes each for him to learn to Ten pin bowl, (to be honest it took me longer to make the basketball court and tenpin bowling alley than it did to teach him how to play)

He is so intelligent, it is a huge difference to owning a budgie, (as clever as my budgie girl ‘Duster’ was, there is something about this little Quakers intelligence that sometimes quite frankly scares me). I decided in these hard times that everyone in the world seems to be going through to teach him how to save money, it took 2 tries (about 1 minute) before he was placing money (buttons) in a money box, is there no end to his talents? I have seen a little Ring Neck called AJ on the internet who plays golf… well maybe that little challenge should be next… knowing Wiji he will probably eat the golf club though or try and build a nest with it.

He certainly knows what he wants, instead of shrieking for me when I am upstairs getting ready in the mornings he simply calls out peek-a-boo and blows kisses continuously until I appear from around the door to greet him. I will go into the lounge and open up his cage to let him out, and the 1^st thing he does is snuggle up to my chin, he then immediately asks me for his ‘Pasta’ and won’t stop asking until he gets some pasta, then while I am making his daily foraging packages he will sit on my shoulder watching me and wanting some nut pieces to munch on, I used to ask him to wave to get these little treats, now he tells me when he is waving by saying ‘Wave’, then waves to me and waits for his little treat…. (OH HOW CUTE IS THAT? I COULD JUST DIE…)

Peek-a-boo from behind the bathroom door

When he wants a tickle on his head or tummy he will ask for it by saying ‘tickle tickle’ and then laugh at me in the same manner and sound as my laughter. Then there are the times he will sit on my shoulder and for no reason suddenly turn to me, place his beak against my lips and make a kissing sound. OMG I just sink...

‘Tickle Tickle’ gets him what he wants every time

He is not keen on baths unless he is actually in the bath itself standing under the tap with water spraying over him like a waterfall or rainfall, however if it is not hot enough for him he will stand to one side and give me a dirty look until I get the temperature nice and hot, or he will join me in the bath at full temperature, I am not sure if this is good for him, but he will not have it any other way. Then he has his own orange towel (well it is a towel to him being as small as he is but it is really just a face cloth) in which he gets wrapped up and cuddled and he will have his cheeks stroked for at least 30 minutes to the point where he purrs and then nods off. I have never seen anything like this in my life before, my heart just melts when I hold him in my hands all wrapped up in his little towel, with just his little head peeking out.

Mom it’s not hot enough

Ooohh that’s better

Now give me that little snuggle and cuddle and I will nod off while you pamper me!!

He has started making a nest inside his cage, and he is now up to around 800 sticks at 45cm long each and hoping to buy a few more. It was after I placed a green fluffy tent in his cage for him, I had a bundle of bamboo plant sticks lying around 45cm long and 4mm in diameter (not the green ones, but the un-dyed/untreated ones) I originally gave him small blunt skewer sticks, but he is not in the slightest bit interested in them, he actually picks them up and throws them to one side, then waltzes off to get a long stick… and continues building. I have found this has helped a HUGE amount with regards to stopping him seeking my attention especially when he has to go back into his cage for any reason (guests, dinner, me having to go out the house etc...)

Wijis’ cage before he started building his nest (rather plain and boring)

Wijis’ cage when the building began

And here is the final thing so far, there are 800 sticks here, and I am hoping to get him another 300, I seem to be struggling to find these sticks as no one seems to sell them any more unfortunately.

I realise he needs a good fruit diet along with his normal pellet type food, I don’t give him seeds apart from millet spray and this diet doesn’t seem to present a problem at all, with fruit though, he prefers homemade dried fruits not too dry but a little tacky and sticky and mashed up fruit frozen or thawed out, and also eats full bits of fruit (apple or grapes) as long as I am eating fruit with him.

Homemade dried fruit and grapes just what the bird ordered

I have made him a concoction of mashed potato mixed with vegetables, rice and pasta which I freeze and thaw out daily and give him a heaped teaspoon at night when I am having a meal and he feels like he is joining in with my activity. He much prefers this and has become very close to me doing activities with me (like diners, going outside in his pak-o-bird, going on holidays with me etc...)

A bit if fresh air never did a bird any harm.

He took to me more than my ex-husband, I think it may be that my ex-husband worked longer hours so I got to spend more time with Wiji and I do his training with him. I cannot imagine what I would have done if he had of hated a partner of mine, although we almost had that problem, but after getting some good info off some internet sites (in particular http://www.quakerparrots.com/forum/ ) I figured out how to nip it in the bud before it went any further and got out of hand, now when he does try it once in a blue moon he gets put back in his place and everything is fine again, and to be honest he seems so much happier knowing where he stands in the ‘flock’ not that there is a problem there any more as we are no longer together... but for anyone in the future, the lesson has been learned and it seems to work, thank you Quaker parrot forum

Go on Mom... give me a kiss then... you know how much I love them

I refuse to wing clip my baby boy… my philosophy is IF YOU WANT A PET THAT DOESN’T FLY GET A DOG OR A CAT OR FOR SMALLER CAGED ANIMALS GET A HAMSTER. A bird was given wings for a reason and it is up to us as ‘parronts’ and owners to train them and make sure they are in safe enough environments not to injure themselves. Wiji flies around the lounge and it is the best thing in the world for him, he burns off extra energy, and it is lovely to watch him take to flight, he has been trained what a window is and where they are, he has free reign of the house but does not abuse this, he prefers to go around the house with us travelling on my shoulder. He is learning to say upstairs and downstairs (well not anymore as I have moved into a flat), he knows the different rooms when I mention them, except the main bedroom where he seldom goes as this is where all the deodorants, perfumes and hair sprays are used, so this is sort of a no no zone for him until it has had a good airing then I will take him in there sometimes when he needs a hair dryer session… (DON’T ASK) he laughs at the hairdryer; he thinks it is really funny.

Anyway my worries came when my ex and I decided to go to Cornwall (a good 5 hour trip for us) in August 2009, well I started looking at trying to get Wiji into a flight Harness so he would be able to sit on a shoulder for the trip down. Unfortunately he was having none of it (£26 down the drain) panic set in a little more now as I really didn’t want to have to do all that travel with him stuck in a small cage all the way down there, so I did some more research and came across a flight suit (or bird nappy) reluctantly I thought I would give this a go and again he was having none of it (another £26 down the drain) oh well I guess it was a small cage in the car for 5 hours, I came across the pak-o-bird travel carrier, it is brilliant, it looks silly when wearing it, but to just carry it around is fine and easy enough, really easy to get Wiji into and carry around and for placing on my lap in the car it is fabulous and very soft and light (Best £120 spent). Although I was still not happy with him having to be stuck in the pak-o-bird this was the best option I had. So off we went on our trip I unzipped it a little and placed my hand inside to tickle him and keep him preoccupied a little, but he was getting restless 30 minutes into the journey, the zip opened a little more, then when we were going down a quiet little road with no cars my ex-husband said to me to let him out for a bit until we get to a busier part of the road, so I did, he climbed right out of the pak-o-bird and went straight to my ex-husbands' shoulder, and for the next 5 hours wondered from his shoulder to mine and in and out of the pak-o-bird for food and water and a few toys to play with, he did not try to fly around or anything like that, he was fantastic, I was shocked, I was so lucky he is very well behaved. When we got stuck in traffic on the way down he would walk down my ex-husbands' arm and sit on the steering wheel and entertain all the other people who were stuck in traffic too, we could see them giggling and pointing. And the minute we started moving again he would head right backup to the shoulder and stay there. (OK I had one or 2 poo issues, but basically I was there with the wipes to mop them up if I didn’t get him into the carrier in time for his poop) this is going to make travel in the future so much easier. I look back at all the worry I had about how he was going to handle this 5 and a half hour journey and think to myself…’YET AGAIN HE HAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED ME’ he is a little hero to me and I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to him.

Well, I must say I would rather be on a shoulder than in a pak-o-bird for 5 hours, But I will nip back in for some food and water.... J

I have since parted from my ex-husband and moved into my flat at the end of January 2010, I was very worried at first about Luigi adjusting to his new surroundings and environment, and how the move would affect him, so yet again I got in touch with the parrot forum (http://www.quakerparrots.com/forum/ ) for some advice and again they were fantastic and put my mind at ease. The move went well and yet again my little hero has amazed me, he has settled in brilliantly. He has started his building again and he has become very familiar with his new home, he will find me when I say which room I am in and come flying to me in that particular room, he has totally familiarised himself with all the rooms in the flat (OK it is not a mansion, but still). He still wants the bath water just right though and has a new play area which is now separate from his training area that he seems to love and talking of training he has learned to post letters in a letter box now and also learned to place hoops over a pole (large hoops and tight fitting hoops, and he will not stop until the tight hoop is over the pole. No if only he would take them all off the pole...giggle) He is starting to learn some new words, or should I say trying to say some different things now that I can’t quite understand, sounds like ‘water’ or something like that... and other jumbled up words, and he is also trying to hello and Hi ya and his laugh is outrageous, he has learned both my laughs now, the squeaky one which he has always copied and now the giggle full belly laugh which he does everytime I laugh at absolutely anything. He has become very trusting and walks on the floor a lot, we do races(me on all fours and him running) along the hallway from the lounge to the main bedroom, it is the funniest thing, I just fall on the floor laughing at the end of the race.. and off course he will then copy my laugh... oh it is the funniest thing. He is a little trooper he really keeps me going through good times and bad and puts a smile on my face when I feel down and makes me feel even better when I feel good...

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