eyes

[slmclean]

has anyone ever noticed there birds eyes while they eat? i was giving chloe some cup of soup and i noticed her eyes pupil goes big then small i was wondering if anyone eles birds eyes do that.

[judygram]

Susan, greys can control the dilation of their eyes, thats why you see them go from small to big and vice versa and of course we all know that pinning is the sign of "watch out", a bite may be coming.:ohmy:

[slmclean]

ok thank you i never noticed it before.

[judygram]

Learn something new every day Susan:P

[slmclean]

yeah yeah i feel like a dummy now.

[judygram]

No you are no dummy, I learned that very fact here on this forum so don't feel stupid, you are learning new stuff all the time so that makes you smart, believe me.

[slmclean]

aww ok.

[darth_mint]

I've seen my birds' pupils expand and contract a lot, usually they do it when they're having a LOT of fun - chewing something or eating something tasty. Especially when they're taking something nice in their beak, their pupils will contract and become tiny as they clamp down, and stay tiny as they chew. At the same time their head feathers flatten while the body feathers may flatten or puff up.

 

To me, this looks like a sign of pleasure and not a warning of a bite coming. Their facial expressions tend to bear this out. I've never experienced a bird "pinning" in an aggressive manner, in fact when my budgies were attacking my hand aggressively they used to puff up as they charged and their pupils would dilate rather than contract.

 

Admittedly my experience is almost exclusively with budgies B) but Nicky behaves the same way. (He also contracts his pupils when he's about to use my hand as a chew toy!) At first it got me nervous because of all the stuff I read about "pinning" but he really is not doing it aggressively. He's just...excited? anticipatory?

[Mansley]

similar with mine, harry mainly pinnes his eyes when he is ready for a scratch as my hand gets close to the back of his neck and his feathers all go up

 

Just an add to this eyes question page;

 

what age do the greys eyes start to go yellow? mine has begun but his birth certificate says he is only 7 and half months old and i heard it was after a year.

 

This also raises the question of what a birth certificate should look like.

[tarnold]

I noticed Hershey doing that when I scratch her head. It kinda freaked me out the first time I saw it. Thought maybe I brought home a drug addict!