Pls Diagnose this behaviour

[0scar]

Hi, the last 2 days Oscar has been doing a strange action wich I'm going to try explain now. Ok he starts by looking at me when close and lunging his head and opening his mouth at me (not a threatening way) also as he does this he shakes his wings slightly ans sometimes makes a slight squeaky noise.It looks to me like he's a baby trying to feed from his mothers mouth, so I put my lips on his beak and he kind of sucks like trying to get food, he also does it to my fingers.
Is he telling me he's hungry? I dunno cos he still does it after feeding.
He never does it when I'm not close, nor when anyone else goes near him.so don't think it's a problem.
If he's on my shoulder and I whistle or sing he nibbles my ear and then does it lol??


Anyone else seen this behaviour?
Thx Oscar

 

[BirdyShanna]

Yup, he's indeed asking to be fed/ begging for food, and because he knows YOU give it he only does it near you. I wouldn't encourage it though, because he'll remember it and even might end up feeding you when he's adult...
How old is he and are you still feeding him? If you're still feeding him, check/see if you fed him enough; he probably does this because he thinks he's not been fed enough. But you have to be careful with giving too much feed: the food the parents give their young doesn't sour so they can keep on feeding (so they're programmed that way), but human made food does sour if it's left too long in the gizzard, so you have to let it empty between feedings (so they beg for food anyway).

Sorry if you already know this, but I thought it important to put it here just in case, baby birds are so sad if they're behaving hungry so it's good to have a reminder why you shouldn't feed them all the time.
I know this from all the baby cockatiels I raised, and I would say it works the same for baby Greys. Baby parrots are baby parrots...
Good luck with your sweety! Shanna

 

[0scar]

Hi thanks for that, I forgot to mention his age as its quite easy to think he's still a baby. He is actually 9 yrs old lol and hasn't done it to me in the last 6 months I've had him. I'll call previous owner and ask if he used to do it to him.

 

[lotosha]

My 8 month old CAG does that sometimes. Once "windows operating system" in her brain got stuck and she kept doing this behavior for 15 min or so, I even though that something wrong with her and almost took her to vets

 

[BirdyShanna]

Wow, in that case I would DEFINITELY ignore it, and give your bird the ignore-treatment when he's behaving like that!
It can be two things, one- he is courting you and expecting to be fed, or two- he's behaving like a baby because it gives him attention. Either way I can't see that it could be healthy... Especially not when it's mating behavior; you can't give him what he wants so it'll only make him sexually frustrated.

If you don't give the behavior attention he'll eventually stop it....

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Pritti does that sometimes (and he's 30 years old and been with our family for his wole life, and it's not a new thing, just one of his fid idiosyncracies). I don't react to it any differently than if he didn't do it. He seems to want to step-up when he does that and in a clingy mood. Feeding doesn't seem to have anything to do with it for Pritti. I would say it's cause Oscar wuvs you so much - go with that and smile.