Gettin' my piggies!

[PapillonDeNuit]

Sometimes when Timmy's climbing in his cage, I'll tell him "I'm gonna get your piggies!" And I grab his toes. So the other day my mom and I were playing with Timmy, and he's on the floor chasing me, saying "Gonna getcha!"

I jumped on my bed, because while Timmy's good at a lot of things, one thing that he's really good at is gettin' piggies! My mom picked him up and tossed him on my bed, but by that point Timmy just wanted his head scratched.

Oh yeah! I meant to ask this - is the back of the neck an erogenous zone? Should I not be scratching my buddy there?

[LNCAG]

In every parrot's defense: human toes can resemble peanuts to them.  lol

I always figured neck/throat/upper chest scritches were non-sexual.  I suppose there is a parrot out there somewhere with some neck fetish, but I just avoid too many lower belly, leg and 'butt/bum' touches to avoid sexually stimulating them (which may exacerbate/encourage their hormonal responses/behaviours).  Just me, and I've been wrong before.  Neck and throat/upper chest scritches usually imply a certain level of trust more than an hormonal 'touch', ime.

Who knows with these guys -- they could have fetishes we're unaware of.  Mine seems balanced and normal when I remember the season and avoid over-stimulating him.  I consider (perhaps wrongly) that any scritches near his head are not read incorrectly.  Good luck!!!

[neoow]

I'm fairly sure head and neck scritches are fine- but anywhere else could lead to some mixed signals. Like most things, it probably depends on the individual bird.

[LNCAG]

I forgot to mention under the wings -- mine seems to consider that more sexual -- esp during hormonal seasons.  Which is a shame, since he'll raise his wings a bit hoping I'll rub there too.  If I go under the wings, it's for 5 seconds max.  But in all honesty, it's probably a no-go zone. 

Mine feeds me (love that regurgitated food... not) so that also helps me back-track of where I touched him that brought the feeding routine on.  I don't want to be a tease, yannoe.    I probably am his girlfriend in his eyes, but I want to be respectful and maintain a few boundaries with him.  A confused parrot isn't going to be a happy parrot, ime.

[PapillonDeNuit]

Oh yeah! Timmy has totally looked up at me with such love in his eyes, and then thrown up! Then again, I've been known to get nauseous around my crushes...

"Love you so much it makes me sick"

[LNCAG]

I had a macaw that would also romance me with regurgitated food.  She'd gag/bring it up (I could see the food in her mouth) and then she'd re-swallow it like "nevermind, you're not worth this delicious crop full'.   Um, thanks -- really, but I didn't want it anyway.  

But my male CAG Snickers is quite the lover and is very generous with regurgitated food sharing.  (Is there a gag emoticon in these boards?) 

I think the problem/joy of greys is how intensely they feel things.  I admit, he does often think I am his girlfriend.   As long as he isn't actually suffering/pining/sad with his delusion that I am his his mate -- it's fine.  I provide lots of platonic love, good eats, adequate out-of-cage-time and toys.  I just have to be careful where I touch him so I don't send a mixed message (which would be unfair to my Snickers -- I want him happy, not pining).  I do think it's best to stay close to head/neck/throat to be safe and keep my parrot happy and within normal cross-species relationship boundaries.

[neoow]

Alfie seems to have been hard hard by his hormones this year. I only had to walk into the room and say hello and he would start regurgitating. Only thing is he will then immediately eat it afterwards. Gross!

I also had to be really careful what foot toys I gave him. Anything round was out of the question as he would treat it like an egg rather than flinging it at my head like he usually does.

After that he went through a spell of being quite distant from me and then he would fly to the back of my head and bite it. That was after some upheaval when I was decorating the rest of the house though... and I also decided to cut my hair really short so I think it was just too much change in a short time.

At the moment we are in some kind of middle ground. He will let me scritch him out of the cage on occassion but he will not put his head down for scritches whilst he is in his cage. He reserves that for my housemate instead these days. He follows me round the room to see what I'm up to and will fly to me as well (without attacking the back of my head).

[Inara]

HRH Inara is just not one for scritches and much touching to begin with. She is way too much of a busy body (we call her Gladys Kravitz). She loves perching on my upper arm so that she can look into my eyes while we chat. She does love to have her toes massaged (who doesn't?!!) and she loves beak rubs and preening my hair. She also shows 'gurge love to both myself and my Joe without any touching, just when she is feeling very content and happy to see one of us. 

Loved reading about your Timmy playing and saying, "Gonna Getcha!" adorable!

[Timbersmom]

That's funny! I remember Gladys...