Regurgitating and whimpering

[birdboy]

Whenever I come home or late at night my bird puts his wings out to his side and starts making a whimpering noise.. almost like a little dog thats excited to see his owner.. but he's not super affectionate, he becomes very intent on sticking his beak between my two fingers where he regurgitates peices of peanuts and stuff and then re-eats them. Anyone know whats going on here?

 

Thanks for any ideas.

[judygram]

I have an idea but give me some more information please. How old is your bird? How long have you had him? Is he bonded to you?

[birdboy]

He's 7 years old. I've had him for a month. When I got him he was very friendly but he is becoming more agressive and distant. I work 8 hours a day so I'm gone during that time, but he has lots of toys and I leave him out in the room and he wanders around. He's liked sitting on my neck at the beggining but now he flys to his cage most of the time.

 

I've started to play rough with him a little, and it seems like after I do that he is friendlier.

[judygram]

Kind of sounds like he is in love with you, and he does like you a lot since he is regurgitating for you, he may see you as a mate, I know this is funny but it happens. Of course regurgitating for you is a sign of affection and that is good, but he is lowering his wings and whimpering so that is a bird looking to you as its mate. I would not make a big deal of it but at least you can feel lucky your bird likes you a lot.

I hope I have helped you and maybe others here will chime in with some other suggestions I didn't think about.

Welcome to the forum and our family of grey owners. Look forward to hearing more about your bird and get us a picture if you can.

[birdboy]

Is my bird gay? Well he does that, but it's almost like more of an anxious thing than an affection thing. He also has been biting me more lately and hard.

[Tari]

When he bites are there other people or birds near you? Sounds like he is very much in love with you.

My amazon well give me nips if someone gets to close when he is on me. He is tring to protect me by telling me to move away from the strangers.

[Guest Lidia]

It sounds like he is trying to bond with you and is mixing feeding and mating behaviour together (that's the beak between the two fingers and regurgitation and the lowered wings). It's quite a good sign, if you've only had him for a month.

As to his independence, that's also quite normal. Now that he is more sure of you and is beginning to bond with you, he can exert more independence within his own environment. This extends also to the nipping and biting, he is probably trying to tell you something about invading his personal space when he doesn't want you to. But over time he will become more used to you touching and handling him, just take it slow and don't push him further than he seems comfortable going.

So long as you keep him in a regular routine all will be well, and it certainly sounds like he is adjusting properly, so you are obviously doing the right things already.

Keep up the good work!

B)<br><br>Post edited by: Lidia, at: 2007/07/19 11:51

[birdboy]

I had a bunch of free time last night so I decided to try some new things with my bird Puppy. He would insist on flying to his cage whenever I was holding him, so I took him to a diff room and it made a big difference. He became very cuddly. I let him sit on my knee for about 15 minutes until he started cleaning himself, then I started petting him and he fell asleep with his beak on my chest... I have wondered how gentle I need to be when petting because I don't want to pull feathers out... but I started rubbing him less gentle and closer to his skin almost like scratching and rubbing his muscles and he loved this.. especially where his jaw muscle is by his ears. After he fell asleep I fell asleep and then woke up with him nudging my hand. So I don't know if this was just random or if taking him out of hte room his cage is in made him more affectionate and calm.

[Guest Lidia]

birdboy wrote:

I took him to a diff room and it made a big difference. He became very cuddly.

 

That's quite a clever experiment, I think! It's not random behaviour, it's because the room is new and the bird is less sure of itself.

As to the stroking and rubbing, you can tickle quite hard. Joshua likes me to use my nails to tickle the skin on his head, around his ears, his jaw line and beside his beak. He also likes to have his armpits tickled and blown on. Tell your bird puppy hello from my bird gorilla.

[Richardsmommy]

Tari wrote:

When he bites are there other people or birds near you? Sounds like he is very much in love with you.

My amazon well give me nips if someone gets to close when he is on me. He is tring to protect me by telling me to move away from the strangers.

 

Hmmm...I've never interpreted Richard's behavior in that way. When hubby or the kids come near me while he's on my shoulder, he'll nip my ear. I just thought he was ticked at me for allowing these people to come close, or that it was displaced anger...biting me because he couldn't reach them, or got confused about who he was angry with.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Richardsmommy]

Oh!...and about the regurgitation thing, Richard does that with me. He looks like he's choking at first, then up comes seeds. I knew it wasn't bulemia 'cause he didn't stick his foot down his throat.

 

When I took him back to the pet store one day, I took him over to the other CAGs and he immediately did the choking thing. He didn't actually vomit, but he was trying to. I'm thinking that even though we have difficulty telling them apart, they know immediately when there's a girl CAG present, even at a distant (we weren't very close to the CAGs when he started). My mother owns a boy CAG and he didn't do that with him.