Leaderboard

Well I guess it's that time of year again. Alfie is starting to show some hormonal behaviours- he regurgitated for my big toe the other day and often starts drooping his wings and making his baby clucking noises which usually mean he's getting a little excitable. I've noticed a new behaviour though- he has a toy hanging in his cage at the bottom of his boing which he usually loves to beat the snot out of whilst hanging upside down and bouncing around on his boing. Recently he's decided that instead of trying to beat it up that it's now his best friend and keeps trying to feed it... I've caught him a few times hanging upside and regurgitating for it... I don't make a big deal of the behaviour and tend to just walk on by so I don't make things worse. Should I remove the toy from his cage for now so I don't encourage the behaviour? Or is that likely to upset him more than just leaving it there? Not sure what he sees in it really... it's just a plastic toy with a bell in it... but he sure does love that thing... uh, more so than usual now I guess! 😂

Keep the toy! The behavior comes and goes with the seasons. My little Timmy has a bell that he occasionally falls in love with. I never understood why people make a fuss out of this. I think it stems from stupid puritanical ideas that anything to do with love and sex is bad. It's like if one of your kids was dating, except that Alfie can't get the toy pregnant. And he won't get his heart broken, either! The world needs more love. Let Alfie love the toy.

Just agreeing with others: the injured feather preceded the feather removal. Chronic feather plucking is quite different and begins with your grey plucking healthy down, semiplume and contour feathers (on it's chest) -- generally not important feathers like wing feathers. Any time my grey gets an injured wing feather, I always just hope he will just remove it himself. The exception is a split/broken blood feather, spurting blood -- in which case I support the wing and pull the feather's base out completely with a pliers (pulling in the direction the feather is growing). Because such a broken blood feather can act as an open catheter causing major blood loss, it's urgent the entire feather base is pulled so coagulation can occur. Again, we're talking only about blood feathers, not mature feathers. Hope you never have this happen). My grey is smart, and if he can repair the damage himself (with feather removal), I just leave it alone for him to handle it. Sometimes they can't fix the problem, and then it's my responsibility to pull a damaged feather myself if I see it poses a risk to him. Usually it's just a twisted feather (no bleeding) and my guy knows to remove it.

I'd leave the toy. I don't think you can modify the behaviour with toy removal; you can only make it slightly more difficult for him to find a new toy/outlet to express himself. I'd argue he needs an outlet. Good luck with your fellow -- he sound very normal. Greys just do the best they can in their circumstances, yannoe?

Oh my! That reminds me of Timber's love affair with his bell a few years ago. Nothing this year so far. I just left the bell and it passed.