Courting and Mating

Question
My quaker rubs me, nips at me when I talk to my husband, or anyone else.   He also regurgitates his food on me.  How do I get him to stop, and why is he doing this?

Answer
Hi, Sherry.  Thanks for posting your question.

Parrots usually bond to a single person in the home.  Some bond very closely to a person and won't have anything to do with anyone else, and others bond to one person, but can also be friendly toward other people.  In your case, your quaker has bonded to you.  He rubs on you and regurgitates his food on/to you as an indication of his affection for you (he's trying to feed you when he regurgitates like he would to a female mate).  In other words, this is his way of showing you that he loves you!  He nips at you when you talk to your husband/other people because he's jealous of him/others...he wants all your attention and when you're attentive to others, his nipping is his way of saying "Hey, remember me, I'm your mate!"

There really isn't any way to get him to stop this behavior short of ruining the relationship between the 2 of you (the quaker and you that is).  Basically, you'd have to end your relationship with him.  You can try to get your quaker to become more ameanable/sociable with others by allowing him to interact more and more with others, while at the same time reducing the amount of time you spend together.  However, if your quaker shows signs that he does not want this, you could end up with behavior problems with the quaker because he won't understand what is going on.  He will most likely think he has done something wrong and you no longer care about him/want to spend time with him and react badly accordingly by misbehaving.  Another thing some parrots do in situations like this is pluck themselves, i.e., develop psychological problems and start plucking out their feathers (chest, back, etc.).  Some even go so far as to mutilate themselves.  Depends on the individual bird.

You could also try to control some of this by making him get down when he starts rubbing on you, don't speak with your hubby/others while you are holding your quaker (put him down when carrying on conversations), and when he starts bobbing his head to regurgitate, put him down.  In other words, try teaching him that you don't appreciate it when he does these things.  Just remember though that he's just showing affection toward you.

Chrys