Nanday Conure - Rubbing Beak on me

SarinaMM

New member
Apr 24, 2017
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Hi,
We just got a Nanday Conure. It's about 17 months old I think. We are unsure of the sex. I am wondering if anyone knows much about their body language. The conure is very friendly. It bobs it's head a lot and likes to rub it's beak on you. Does anyone know what these mean? Thank!:06:
 

SailBoat

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Jul 10, 2015
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DYH Amazon
Hi,
We just got a Nanday Conure. It's about 17 months old I think. We are unsure of the sex. I am wondering if anyone knows much about their body language. The conure is very friendly. It bobs it's head a lot and likes to rub it's beak on you. Does anyone know what these mean? Thank!:06:


Just wanted to bounce your Thread back-up on the board so that Conure Member will get another look at it.

I'm an Amazon Snob and there are several possibilities. None indicating a dislike.

Hope a Conure expert pops up soon!
 

Jen5200

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Mar 27, 2017
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With my two conures, head bobbing usually seems to mean they are happy to see me or excited about whatever is going on. When mine rub their beak on me it is usually when they are preening each other on my shoulder and feeling cuddly, so I've assumed it's probably an affectionate gesture to include me in their cuddles. I've only had mine since December and they are 18mths and 6 years old. Hopefully someone with more experience chimes in - I'd love to know more about this myself :)
 

IndySE

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May 5, 2016
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Kermit, ♀ GCC (Green Demon)
What do you mean "rubs" their beak.

A few possibilities I've observed with my GCC
- She's eaten and got some stuff on her beak she wants to rub off on me.
Orrr
-it's more of a dragging motion, and that's called "snow-plowing" (that's the term I came across when I researched it). Normally they drag their beak on a surface to check out an exciting new texture, but she does it on my skin, so I take it as her way of greeting me and saying she's excited I'm here.

Hopefully someone will have some better ideas, but I think these are all positive behaviors you're observing :)

edit; be careful that what you're observing is a head bob and not a regurgitation motion. The differences between the two can be subtle. regurgitation is a little TOO much excitement and should be discouraged. It's more of a "pulling" motion if that makes sense.
 

Sfsal

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Feb 20, 2017
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Hello! My Jenday usually rubs his beak when he is trying to get food off of it or checking out a new texture as stated previously. When Buddy bobs his head up-and-down it means that he wants me to pick him up or he wants to get on my shoulder, it's a positive gesture that your bird wants you to spend time with you . I have also noticed that my JC will make a head bobbing gesture when he is regurgitating as well, the difference between the two I have noticed is that he makes a tiny little chirping noise when he's regurgitating. Hope that helps, I love my little Buddy he is so precious, enjoy!


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EllenD

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Aug 20, 2016
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As already stated, a Green Cheek rubbing their beak on you can mean several different things, it's what else they are doing at the same time as they are rubbing their beak on you that will tell you exactly what he is doing (sounds like a male from your description of your bird's behavior).

Obviously if he has just eaten something and he rubs his beak on you this is just him cleaning his beak off. No big deal. Sometimes if they are given a new perch, blanket, hammock or hut, toy, etc. they will rub their beak on the new surface (this is more of a dragging motion, they drag their beak back towards themselves). This is just them checking out the texture of the new surface, they are very inquisitive birds. Again, no big deal.

Now, what you describe with your bird head bobbing combined with rubbing his beak on you is most likely a hormonal behavior. He may also soon try to regurgitate for you after rubbing his beak on you and head bobbing. He's displaying his desire to mate with you. Birds (particularly male birds) that are trying to mate with a female bird inside a cage on a perch, or out in the wild on a tree branch, will continuously tap and rub their beaks back and forth on the perch or branch in front of the female bird. They combine this with head bobbing, dancing, singing/chirping/talking, preening the female, and finally regurgitating and feeding the female. This is typically the final step before they mate, if the female is willing. If she is not then she will not preen him back, nor will she accept his feeding. He'll continue to try to sway her until she either gives in (usually doesn't happen if the female isn't interested), disappears, or another female ones along that shows interest in him and that he is also interested in.

Birds are very much like humans in their courting and mating behaviors, they aren't like most other wild animals that you can just put a male and female of breeding age that are in season together and they'll mate, like dogs or cats. Birds court, try to impress their desired mates, reject mates they don't like or want, have mates that become just friends but not sexual mates that breed, etc.

It's important that you don't encourage this behavior in your Nanday, as it will not only make the behavior continue, but he will try to escalate the behavior and then when you don't mate with him in the end he can become physically and mentally frustrated, feel rejected by you, his chosen mate, and unfortunately he can also become very aggressive.

You need to show him that you love him and that he's a part of your family, and show him that you want to bond with him, but in a strictly platonic way. You need to try to knock him out of "breeding season" or "breeding mode", and once that happens and his hormones stop raging, this behavior will slow and stop as long as you continue to not encourage it. You can do this by getting him on a "SOLAR SCHEDULE" immediately!!! Please search the forum for "Solar Schedule", there are several detailed explanations of what this means and how to do it. Once you get him on a Solar Schedule he will be getting between 12-14 hours of uninterrupted sleep per day, he will have longer nights and shorter days, and his entire schedule every day will be dictated by the sun rising and the sun setting, just the way he would live in the wild. He should come out of breeding mode after 2-3 weeks of being on a Solar Schedule.

Also, do not pet your Nanday anywhere but on his head, face, and neck. That's it. No touching on his back, wings, under his wings, chest, belly, legs, or in the vent area. Even just petting him down his back once can get him very excited when he's in breeding mode, and he'll start to do the courting motions like head bobbing, beak tapping and rubbing, and eventually regurgitating.

It's also very important that when he starts any of these behaviors that you let him know that you're not into it. So when he starts head bobbing, tapping or rubbing his beak on you, or the head bobbing turns into him moving his neck/throat up and down and him looking like he's gagging himself, which is how they bring food particles up in order to feed their mates, you need to immediately put him down if he's anywhere on you. My Senegal parrot is just starting his puberty, and even though I have him on a strict Solar Schedule he still occasionally will start regurgitating for me, usually this happens first thing in the morning when I have him step-up onto my finger to say good morning. As soon as I see him start head bobbing I put him right back on his cage and walk away for a few minutes to let him calm down. DO NOT EVER YELL AT HIM OR PUNISH HIM FOR DOING THESE THINGS, IT'S NATURAL BEHAVIOR AND HE CAN'T HELP IT!! No need for punishment at all, you just have to immediately separate yourself from him as soon as you see him start doing anything at all like this, put him down and walk away for 5-10 minutes so he'll calm down. If you come back, have him step-up onto your finger or shoulder again, and again he starts rubbing his beak on you or head bobbing, then again just put him down, say nothing, and walk away for a little longer. The Solar Schedule really will stop this behavior before it escalates, right now your bird doesn't sound like he's very bad at all or being at all aggressive, but that's exactly what you don't want to have happen and it's what the Solar Schedule will prevent.

And one more thing, obviously if he starts humping you or any other PERSON you need to take him and put him down immediately onto/into his cage, on the floor, etc. and walk away. However, if you see him humping a perch, a toy, part of his cage, a stuffed animal, etc. I'm from the school of let him do it because it will help his frustration and keep him from humping people. I had a male English Budgie that lived to be 18 years old, and once I had him on a Solar Schedule I never had an issue with him being sexual with me at all, though we were very closely bonded. However, he had one of those plastic birds on a spring that you clip onto a perch and they bounce all around while the bird plays with them...He humped that plastic bird 10+ times a day at least! He would first sweet-talk the plastic bird, then tap and rub his beak all over it, talking non-stop to it the entire time while head bobbing like crazy, eyes pinning...He looked like a crazy, maniacal serial killer or something. Then he'd hump the daylights out of that plastic bird, lol. After that he'd hang out with me all day, watch TV, I'd give him head scratches and he'd talk to me, we'd eat dinner together, then I'd put him back in his cage for Night-Night, kiss him, tell him I loved him, covered his cage, and again he'd hump his plastic bird, then he'd get on his swing and go to sleep...

"Dance like nobody's watching..."
 
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SarinaMM

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Apr 24, 2017
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Also, do not pet your Nanday anywhere but on his head, face, and neck. That's it. No touching on his back, wings, under his wings, chest, belly, legs, or in the vent area. Even just petting him down his back once can get him very excited when he's in breeding mode, and he'll start to do the courting motions like head bobbing, beak tapping and rubbing, and eventually regurgitating.
to sleep...

Thanks! for all the great info! One question, you mentioned "the vent area", where is that located? I know this is probably a silly question but I just want to make sure we aren't sending him(?) the wrong signals. We typically only rub his neck, head and checks because I had read anything else was not good.
 

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