Pack-rat Parrots?

cnyguy · May 20, 2010

My little Quaker parrot, Ralph, recently started hiding some of his toys and other things behind a sofa pillow. He'll carry any loose items over to the arm of the sofa and stuff them behind a throw pillow. He's got quite a collection of small parrot toys, pieces of string, discarded envelopes and one molted tail feather. If I move anything from his hiding place, he'll simply take it back, and sometimes he pulls everything out to take inventory, then carefully puts it all back.

I wondered if anyone else has a parrot that does that. I'm not worried about it-- just curious. It might be some sort of nesting-related behavior, or it might be that Ralph thinks he's a chipmunk or squirrel, storing things away for next winter.

It's quite funny, watching the little guy hauling things over to the hiding place. Any other pack-rat parrots around?

parrotqueen · May 20, 2010

That's hilarious! How cute, you should get that on video.

No, my little boys don't do that. But like you said, it sounds almost like nesting behavior. Who knows, you could just have a very silly bird.

Mel · May 20, 2010

That's so cute. Cooper just liked to pick things up that he shouldn't have and throw them on the floor before running back to the play gym, Shadow started to throw things as well.

HRH Di · May 21, 2010

That's funny, especially the inventory part.

Spiritbird · May 21, 2010

Unique behavior. Love to see it on video. Mabye he has some doggie genes.

antoinette · May 21, 2010

I think that is so cool, you must video him.

Perhaps it's his own business, and he is changing and checking stock LoL
Just don't remove any items !!!!!!!!!!!!!

parrotqueen · May 21, 2010

The closest thing that my birdies (my finches, not my cockatiels) do that I can think of is, they will grab as much nest material they can find and stuf it in their nest. It's so fun to watch, they put so much nest material in it; even to the point where it is falling out. Sometimes I have to change the old nest material out, just so that they can fit in their nest!

cnyguy · May 21, 2010

Ralph keeps adding more stuff to his collection. Pretty soon there'll be so much there that no one will be able to sit on the sofa.

It doesn't bother him if I move any of it; he simply gets whatever I moved and puts it back in the pile.

Unfortunately, the only camera I have that shoots video is broken, and until I can either borrow a working camera, or replace the broken one, I'll have no video to post. Not that it matters; Ralph's not a very cooperative subject. As soon as he sees a camera, he stops whatever he's doing and races around like a madman-- so most of the pictures I take of him show up as only a streaky green blur.

"Silly little bird" is sometimes a perfect description of a 7-month-old Quaker parrot, but I think Ralph has some definite purpose in mind for his hoarding. I just wish I knew what it was!

Oogies Mom · May 21, 2010

OMG I can't stop laughing!!!! That is sooooo cute!!!

Auggie's Dad · May 22, 2010

I WISH Auggie would do that.

It'd be nice to have a bird that cleans up after himself. In our house I'm the one who gathers the toys up, then Auggie throws them around the room... occasionally we end up playing fetch - except I'm doing the fetching.

cnyguy · May 22, 2010

Ralph and I play fetch like that too-- though I'm running out of things to fetch, since they're all behind the sofa pillow. Maybe I should try to teach Ralph to run the vacuum cleaner next.

Pack-rat Parrots?

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