Wood from a lilac bushes are safe for quakers. Just make sure the branch is sanitized, and the stand is sturdy.

Here’s a good guide:
http://www.mdvaden.com/bird_page.shtml

Watch your little quaker for a while and make sure he does well on the homemade stand. Good luck with your new little fid!

Teaching a Parrot to Talk – the Simple Way

Different species of parrot have many different talking abilities. Large parrots, especially African Greys and Amazons can talk much more easily than small parrots like budgies or lovebirds. Some larger parrots very well may learn to talk without any talking training at all, but for most birds training session will be very important to get the parrot to talk.

• It is probably best to start with single syllable words such as “hi” as these are easier for the parrot to say. Make sure you say the word regularly so that the bird can copy you very easily. Be a good companion for the bird and he will want to be around you and copy what you do and say.
• Parrots are very vocal animals and therefore will squawk when they feel emotions such as being excited, angry, frustrated or sad.  Because of this it will be better to let the parrot associate words with feelings to encourage the parrot to talk. Try walking in to the room with saying hi. This works because parrot will get excited that you are there and will want to talk to you.
• Shape the behaviour of your parrot using treats. Encourage your parrot to talk by showing that he is doing well and gets rewarded by grunting or making noises that resemble words.
• It is often better to say things from his point of view like “I want a tickle” or “Hi, [your name]” because this will sound better when he starts talking.

Good luck on training him. Remember when training to only give his positive reinforcement and never punish him. Encourage him when his does things well and ignore it when he does things wrong or is being bad. Because of this, it is a good idea to get some tasty treats before training him to talk.

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Article courtesy of Names for Pets
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