Left or Right Handed "Footed"

Observing Zazo and Mishka tonight, Steven and myself were discussing just how identical they are. They were enjoying eating a piece of apple.


Then to my amazement I realized that Mishka uses her right claw, to hold the apple, and Zazo his left claw.

I had no idea that parrots were either left or right footed.

Below is a link explaining it all.

Your Parrot’s Feet

hmmm didnt know that.
Makes me wonder what foot is dominant in Dusty. I'm gunna have to pay more attention to find out. I think he is right foot dominant. If memory serves me right he eats with his right foot, but i'm not sure... gunna have to watch him!

Did you know that studies have shown that greys that are left footed are actually more talented when it comes to talking? I will try and find the article.

greycloud said:

Did you know that studies have shown that greys that are left footed are actually more talented when it comes to talking? I will try and find the article.

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Thank God Mishka is right footed then... could you imagine the talking if she was left LOL - actually I think she must be an exception to the rule

That's really interesting I hadn't noticed before but Chicka seems to use both!! Shadow rarely holds things in her claw so I'll have to wait for her

We really should pay more attention to our birds !!!! LoL
With my "human" flock, it was one of the first things I noticed.

Oh yeah, and last night when training Mishka, I noticed she uses her left claw when waving and showing high five.
Now I am really confused, is she left or right footed

I had heard that most parrots favour the left foot - my ekkie definitely does. However i think my tiel favours the right

Now I am really confused, is she left or right footed

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Just talented I think

"Handedness" can be found in almost all vertebrates though in many the side preference is around 50/50 so no one pays much attention. This does not mean there is no preference, it means each individual may have a strong preference for one side or the other, but there is no species wide trend.

In a vast majority of cases where there are species wide trends the left side is dominant - this is the case in most species of parrots. While not as uncommon as a left handed person a right handed parrot is in the minority.

Given the fact that in almost every species that has a trend toward one side being dominant more often than the other that side is the left, it has lead people to question why right handedness is more common in humans.

There are some speculative suggestions, but they are just speculation. One is that we ARE left handed, but in our distant past we spent much time carrying around our highly dependent children. If you use your left to carry a baby or hold something close to you then you only have your right hand for "ballistic" motions of throwing rocks/spears/punches. This seems a bit of a 'just so story' to me, but there are consistent trends that so called 'right handers' use their right hand for ballistic motions but also favor their left hand for fine manipulations and other tasks.

Look at right handed guitar players: all the complex work is done with their left hand. I've tried to play 'left handed' guitars where my right hand does all the complex work - I can't do it.

I guess I will never really know, if Mishka is right or left "handed"

IF Mishka could write ??????????
I guess I would certainly know LoL

Below is a pic of Zazo at the top, using his left claw, and Misha using her right claw.

Hey Sis are you going to teach her to write? I bet she could if you taught her. I was just saying to my kitty last night I wish you could talk to me!!

http://www.realmacaw.com/pages/footpref.html This study stated that AG that talk more are Rt. footed.

Aussie Ben said:

I had heard that most parrots favour the left foot - my ekkie definitely does. However i think my tiel favours the right

Now I am really confused, is she left or right footed

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Just talented I think

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Personally, I think more of a "show off"

Our birds are both left "footed". Not sure if Ruby is or not.

About right and left footed parrots: There is a study which shows that parrots are proportionately left-footed to right-people--ie. about 90% of people are right-handed and therefore left-brain-hemisphere dominant; for parrots they say that 90% of them are left-footed and they are the only animal that has this heavy distribution of "left-footed=right-brained dominant"
THEY ARE WRONG!
As you have shown in your notes, most so called left-footed parrots step with their right foot first; left-brain-dominant/right-handed people prefer to stand on their right foot when standing on one leg, and will lead with their right foot when stepping (especially when stepping to a risky position) but they will reach to grab something with their left-foot.
The reason is because a left-brain-dominant person AND PARROT will feel more secure standing on their right leg since awareness and agility is far better adapted and developed there for them.

That's right folks, left reaching parrots are actually right-footed and left-brain dominant, and active brain scans will show this (IF anyone throws the money at it to find out). The study is faulty due to them assuming they were dealing with arms instead of legs--very faulty. Both parrots and humans, and most other animals all the way to bacteria are about 90/10 left-brain/right-brain (there are exceptions in some bacteria and plants, but perhaps that too is due to a misunderstanding of anatomy).

Try it.:21:
Correction: Most other animals are not 90/10 distribution (I mussed my numbers) they are usually 70/30 to 60/40. The belief is that the left-brainded activity of language is what contributes to the heavy right handedness in humans, because, the left-brain develops for language. So, they checked parrots (since they have language skills) and they found that they are opposite distributions, but as mentioned--they're not correct.

Larry is a lefty.
Hey, does this mean that only left footed birds are in their right minds? hehe

neat! I just realized mine steps up with her left foot first. I will have to watch and see how she eats.

My conure is a righty.....and I had no idea that bacteria and plants had brains lol! That's a new one! Or right and left hands/feet! Brainy left handed bacteria....they're gonna getcha! LMAO!

Kalidasa said:

My conure is a righty.....and I had no idea that bacteria and plants had brains lol! That's a new one! Or right and left hands/feet! Brainy left handed bacteria....they're gonna getcha! LMAO!

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LMAO too Chris! Or perhaps we're just not understanding our bacteria anatomy? :52:

Oh wow! I wish I found this thread sooner, in 8th grade my science project fair project was "Righ vs Left" to see if animals favored one leg rather than the other and was tested on domesticated animals and wild animals. But it is more interesting finding out more about it now,
NOW I really know which leg my parakeets use (thank you Kweden).

I'm pretty sure Mango's ambidextrous. He uses both to hold stuff. And switches back and forth between them.