Gross bird “cleaning” habits!

HeatherG

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My Quaker Willow has a perching basket that I used a lot when he’s out of his cage with me. The handle is wrapped in twine and the basket is lined with papers. He stands on the handle while I carry the basket or it is set on my lap or a table. There are little toys hung from the handle and a ball in the basket.

Lately I notice Willow has been climbing down from the handle into the actual basket. He will forage and peck up dropped avicake. But he has also started to pick up dried poops and crumble them in his beak. So I’ve started to change the paper every use because I don’t want him grooming or kissing me with a poopy beak. Yuck!

My guess is that Willow is treating his basket like a nest. We know Quaker parakeets are the only parrots to use their nest all year, while some other parrots return to the same nest in subsequent seasons. Maybe this is an explanation for why Quakers are so possessive of their cages, too.

What do you think? I’m glad Willow feels safe with his basket but I don’t like the idea of him mouthing his dried poops even if he might do that to clean his nest if he were a wild bird. Maybe he should try beak wash? Just kidding.

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HeatherG

HeatherG

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Willow was on his basket again today and I saw him pecking through his avicake scraps and then going for his fresh poops. I told him “no” but all I can think is that he doesn’t want his nest to be dirty. Yet I don’t want him picking up his poops!

I wonder if I need to let Willow “go” in the garbage can? In that case there’s not much use HAVING a perching basket. Maybe I should try a T-stand. He couldn’t get down as easily. This is rather compulsive. I wonder if they do this in their nests and we just don’t see it?
 

BirdyMom

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It makes sense to me to just keep changing the paper. He looks very comfortable on his basket!
 

BirdyMom

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On another quaker forum, I found a some posts from 2016 from several people saying that their quaker does this. The people in that chat thought this was part of a quaker's normal cleaning behavior.
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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It’s gotten to the point that if Willow’s out for an hour and there are four poops on the paper, he goes to pick them up. Not even dried! Ick! I told him “no!” last time but I don’t want to be scolding him for doing something he apparently feels strongly about. So that’s why I’m asking about it; maybe I should make sure there’s a thick stack of paper in there and change every hour or so, not every few days as previous.

Seems kind of obsessive…My Lucy was a Virgo and was also very PARTICULAR about the arrangement of her cage, her poops, and pooping out of her cage. Maybe Willow is a Virgo too. (Not sure if I’m kidding as my sister is also a Virgo and the most rigid little priss ever.)

I do think Willow’s comfortable on his basket, and it’s often sitting on my lap or near my face. I hear him crunch-crunch-crunching away at his beak, often even with his eyes closed. Sometimes I can feel his hot little beak breath on my cheek. Aww! That’s why I’d rather he not do that cleaning thing. He likes to drink my water or tea and I don’t want to share with a dirty beak!
 

Rozalka

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I don’t want him grooming or kissing me with a poopy beak. Yuck!
I have to worry you - he has to clean his butt somehow and then he kisses you 😝 /hj

We know Quaker parakeets are the only parrots to use their nest all year
Conures, caiques and some lorikeets do it too.
 

Cindylynn

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I don't know about the rest of it...but I'm totally stealing your idea of a perching basket!! Now I'm off to find a big enough basket... 😂
 

LeeC

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Willow was on his basket again today and I saw him pecking through his avicake scraps and then going for his fresh poops. I told him “no” but all I can think is that he doesn’t want his nest to be dirty. Yet I don’t want him picking up his poops!

I wonder if I need to let Willow “go” in the garbage can? In that case there’s not much use HAVING a perching basket. Maybe I should try a T-stand. He couldn’t get down as easily. This is rather compulsive. I wonder if they do this in their nests and we just don’t see it?
What about putting a makeshift "grate" in the basket?
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Important edit: Willow is a cool-looking Quaker. :]
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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I have to worry you - he has to clean his butt somehow and then he kisses you 😝 /hj


Conures, caiques and some lorikeets do it too.
What about putting a makeshift "grate" in the basket?
View attachment 44370


Important edit: Willow is a cool-looking Quaker. :]
Thanks for the suggestion and compliment to Willow.

It’s possible to try a grate made of hardware cloth but I think he would still pick the poops off of it.

I think he’s just treating the basket as a nest and i should just change the paper a lot.
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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Conures, caiques and some lorikeets do it too.
Can you give me more information about how conures, caiques, and some lorikeets use a nest chamber outside of the breeding season? Those are three vastly different groups of parrots.
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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I prefer to think that Willow does not clean his behind with his beak much. I think if there’s debris left behind there, that may be a problem.

Just like I would not feed Lucy dried mealworms while Oscar enjoyed their crunchy goodness so much.

Yuck! I’m not kissing a wormy beak.

Willow tried to go after my used facial tissue last week when I was in bed with a cold. I felt concerned for him and threw it out. Then we had a tug of war battle with a clean napkin.
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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Due to my great familiarity with tissues in the past two weeks, I have started nabbing Willow’s droppings with a tissue when he’s out on his basket. Especially since I’ve been drinking tea and he wants to share. Only clean beaks may share my tea!

I did find the “cleaning” thread in the Quaker Parakeet forum. Thanks for the pointer.
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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Today Willow is foraging among a big pile of discarded seed husks and pellets. He seems to be leaving the old poops alone but maybe it’s because there’s several avicakes worth of litter in the basket.

I keep touching Willow’s beak and he gets mad and redirects his mad onto the paper basket liner. He has pinched and crimped it into laciness. Willow isn’t normally a very shreddy bird but he will fuss with this basket.

Well, I was touching Willow’s newspaper and now I got bit. Serves me right, I guess.
 

LeeC

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Timneh: Grady;
Senegal: Charlie;
Sun Conure: Peaches (deceased)
Senegal: Georgia
Peach-fronted Conure: Milton (foster)
Brown-throated Conure: Pumpkin (foster)
Senegal: Fletcher
Senegal: Ivy
I apologize if this is blatantly obvious, but have you tried the trick of applying several layers of paper, so you can quickly "swipe" out the soiled one, leaving a clean one exposed? I do this with white butcher paper, but I have a grate above, so the parrot is never in direct contact with the paper.
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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It just seemed silly for me to need to switch paper when he’s on the basket for an hour or two. And also strange that he’s so worried about the basket being ‘clean’ of poops. This does make Quakers easy to potty train. They can understand that you don’t want your clothes or area pooped, I think because of living in nests year round.

Yes, I generally have a stack of grocery fliers in his basket. I do that in the cages, too, and by the time I get to bottom of the stack, the whole tray needs cleaning anyhow.
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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I have to worry you - he has to clean his butt somehow and then he kisses you 😝 /hj


Conures, caiques and some lorikeets do it too.
No, I don’t believe this is true. In general, parrots do not generally roost at night in the nest cavities they use during breeding season. It is the exception rather than ther rule.

From “the science of parrot sleep” at chewy.com: . “Kyle says the parrots’ nighttime routines vary from species to species. Some parrots roost in large groups, others in pairs, and some, like golden conures, sleep in tree cavities even out of breeding season.”

Most parrots only utilize nest cavities or nest sites during the breeding season. From slate.com: “biggest misconceptions about birds” “What is this avian misconception? I hope you’re sitting down because here it is: Birds don’t sleep in their nests.”

I also checked some caique references and determined that, according to 1995 AFA watch bird article “the care and breeding of caiques”, caiques do not sleep in nest cavities year round: “Caiques sleep in their nest box, [during breeding periods] and this is an indicator of their readiness or willingness to begin egg laying. If the birds are not sleeping in their box, odds are that they will not commence egg laying. “

I checked lorikeet references too, at least those I could find generally available on the internet. I found that lories and lorikeets generally roost together in groups in trees. It appears that some captive lories may sleep in nest boxes, as may some captive caiques, but they don’t generally return to nest cavities at night.

Hence my restatement of the belief that Quaker parakeets are unique among parrots to sleep year round in their nests. Perhaps golden conures do, but the remaining parrot species and bird species in general do not roost at night in nest cavities.
 
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Cottonoid

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Opie sleeps on a platform and every day he wants to clean it himself. So far it's the only thing where he gets territorial - he does NOT want me to wipe it down. He is easily distracted by food still though so for now his breakfast isn't following a cleaning snack 🤞🏻
 
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HeatherG

HeatherG

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Opie sleeps on a platform and every day he wants to clean it himself. So far it's the only thing where he gets territorial - he does NOT want me to wipe it down. He is easily distracted by food still though so for now his breakfast isn't following a cleaning snack 🤞🏻
Sneaky you are. Better hope Opie doesn’t figure out that you’re touching his platform while he eats breakfast.

If Willow isn’t on me or his basket he’s on or in his cage. I should get him used to being without Mom on his tree in my bedroom, but he’s still distressed when I leave his sight. He watches me clean his cage but I am not allowed to touch his sleeping area and his favorite toys.
 

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