Just Checking - what's he doing?

[T00tsyd]

This last couple of weeks Syd (sex unknown) has started going under the paper at the bottom of his cage, trying to go inside my clothes, getting into small spaces, being very sweet to me and generally being quite cuddly. This is new for him over the last few months he has been tough work.
He is now about 16 months old, so is this a new set of hormones? Has he suddenly decided I'm not so bad after all? Is he lulling me into a false sense of security before taking the biggest bite out of me ever?

Otherwise he is very playful, making good use of toys etc. When out he likes to be near me but is also showing much more independence by playing by himself on the play stations he has.

Perhaps he's a replacement for the guy I used to have or am I just easily fooled?

 

[GaleriaGila]

Sounds like good stuff to me, as far as the play and independence. That hide 'n'seek stuff is nesting behavior. Hormones may not be heavy yet... it may be practice. GCCs hit maturity at 1-2 years, most will say. So be ready to address more aggressive or intrusive behavior if it occurs. I would personally suggest avoiding the hiding, even though it is as cute as it can be, isn't it? The Rb loses his MIND over hidey-places.

 

[T00tsyd]

Sounds like good stuff to me, as far as the play and independence. That hide 'n'seek stuff is nesting behavior. Hormones may not be heavy yet... it may be practice. GCCs hit maturity at 1-2 years, most will say. So be ready to address more aggressive or intrusive behavior if it occurs. I would personally suggest avoiding the hiding, even though it is as cute as it can be, isn't it? The Rb loses his MIND over hidey-places.

I had a sneaky feeling someone would say that. To be honest Syd inside my clothes is a BIG turn off - those claws are too sharp - and anyway that's one place where a bite would be one too many! So softly softly spurn advances is the way to go which is kind of what I thought. Shame really I quite like this new friendly little feather duster.

 

[lplummer52]

Birdie snuggles in our t-shirts all the time. Sounds like Syd needs a nail trim. She falls asleep in there mostly. We live in central Florida, so the air conditioning is always on. I figure she's trying to get warm.

 

[EllenD]

My Bowie (DNA male) just turned 2 years old, and a couple of months ago he started wanting under the covers of my bed, under my shirt, under everything...Yeah, it was cute...Word of warning, lol...

Last month I couldn't find Bowie (he's fully-flighted), he just disappeared, and he wasn't returning my calls to him. Scared me to death, and he suddenly appeared. Okay, whatever...yeah. Then he disappeared again, same thing, couldn't find him, and he wasn't returning my calls. And this time I couldn't find him. I was totally freaking-out, looking everywhere in the house, and I finally said to myself "He's either dead somewhere, or he got outside somehow". I was actually in tears looking for him with a flashlight. I got Lita, my Quaker parrot who is pretty bonded to Bowie, and put her on their T-Stand in my dining room and kept asking her "Where's Bowie Lita, where's Bowie?", and I swear I'm not making this up, she flew to the top of the couch and started doing the "Quaker March" back and forth on top of the couch. So I looked behind the couch, nothing...then I shined the flashlight under the couch, and there was Bowie...He was fluffier than I've ever seen him, I mean he was so fluffed-up he looked like a Puffin', and he must have been collecting stuff and piling it up under the couch, as he had made a little "nesting" area for himself...and he was continuously talking to himself in this half-English, half-Birdie speak, while looking right at me. And even though he was looking right at me as I was shining the flashlight in his face and saying "Bowie, come out of there. Come on Bowie, come. Bowie, come on out, time to come out Bowie", etc., he just totally ignored me and kept talking to himself. He was NOT coming out. It was freaking me out...So I got a yard-stick and used it to sweep him forward...And as he was almost out from under the couch and I'm still shining the flashlight at him and telling him to come out, he suddenly CHARGED AT ME, and bit me so hard that he attached himself to my hand. When I pulled my hand out from under the couch, Bowie was hanging off of it. It hurt so badly that I had to consciously tell myself to not swat him off or grab him...So I used my left hand to pry his beak off of my hand, and the little jerk ran back under the damn couch...So after I cleaned my hand up and put a bandaid on it, I went back to the couch, looked under it again with the flashlight, and there he was again, mumbling to himself, occasionally I'd here a "Baby Cheeky Cheeky Bird" or "Gimme Kisses Baby", but he was not listening to anything that I was saying, it was like i wasn't even there...Before I could even think of another way to get him out, he suddenly came charging out from under the couch on his own, this time attaching himself to the skin on the top of my bare foot...

Now I love Bowie very, very much, he's my little baby Boy and he and I are probably bonded more closely than I am with any of my other birds (Kane is close, though this hasn't happened with him yet, he's younger than Bowie and recently he just wants to mate with my hand, I can handle that..and he's a Senegal with a MUCH BIGGER BEAK, so we'll see how things go, lol)...However, at that moment, the pain searing through my foot was enough for me to not care about Bowie's feelings at that point in time...I reached down and just grabbed the little jerk this time, and immediately and suddenly he just "snapped out of it", like he was himself again, and he knew he was in trouble too...He went in his cage while I cleaned and bandaged my foot...We had a long evening that night...

Sooooo...since that happened I have "Hormone-Proofed" my house, there's nothing that Mr. Bowie can get underneath anymore, and honestly I think that was actually "puberty" for Bowie, as it had never happened before, he was the right age, and since then his hormones have calmed down significantly...He has his moments, usually when he manages to sneak under the comforter on my bed, but since then he now seems to come to me when I tell him to come out from under the covers.

So just a Red-Flag kind of warning to you, if your little guy is 15 months old now, it's sounds just about right for puberty, and his behavior right now matches how Bowie was acting pre-couch incident...I cannot imagine having what happened to my hand or my foot happen to body-parts under my shirt...so...HEED MY WARNING...

 

[T00tsyd]

My Bowie (DNA male) just turned 2 years old, and a couple of months ago he started wanting under the covers of my bed, under my shirt, under everything...Yeah, it was cute...Word of warning, lol...

Last month I couldn't find Bowie (he's fully-flighted), he just disappeared, and he wasn't returning my calls to him. Scared me to death, and he suddenly appeared. Okay, whatever...yeah. Then he disappeared again, same thing, couldn't find him, and he wasn't returning my calls. And this time I couldn't find him. I was totally freaking-out, looking everywhere in the house, and I finally said to myself "He's either dead somewhere, or he got outside somehow". I was actually in tears looking for him with a flashlight. I got Lita, my Quaker parrot who is pretty bonded to Bowie, and put her on their T-Stand in my dining room and kept asking her "Where's Bowie Lita, where's Bowie?", and I swear I'm not making this up, she flew to the top of the couch and started doing the "Quaker March" back and forth on top of the couch. So I looked behind the couch, nothing...then I shined the flashlight under the couch, and there was Bowie...He was fluffier than I've ever seen him, I mean he was so fluffed-up he looked like a Puffin', and he must have been collecting stuff and piling it up under the couch, as he had made a little "nesting" area for himself...and he was continuously talking to himself in this half-English, half-Birdie speak, while looking right at me. And even though he was looking right at me as I was shining the flashlight in his face and saying "Bowie, come out of there. Come on Bowie, come. Bowie, come on out, time to come out Bowie", etc., he just totally ignored me and kept talking to himself. He was NOT coming out. It was freaking me out...So I got a yard-stick and used it to sweep him forward...And as he was almost out from under the couch and I'm still shining the flashlight at him and telling him to come out, he suddenly CHARGED AT ME, and bit me so hard that he attached himself to my hand. When I pulled my hand out from under the couch, Bowie was hanging off of it. It hurt so badly that I had to consciously tell myself to not swat him off or grab him...So I used my left hand to pry his beak off of my hand, and the little jerk ran back under the damn couch...So after I cleaned my hand up and put a bandaid on it, I went back to the couch, looked under it again with the flashlight, and there he was again, mumbling to himself, occasionally I'd here a "Baby Cheeky Cheeky Bird" or "Gimme Kisses Baby", but he was not listening to anything that I was saying, it was like i wasn't even there...Before I could even think of another way to get him out, he suddenly came charging out from under the couch on his own, this time attaching himself to the skin on the top of my bare foot...

Now I love Bowie very, very much, he's my little baby Boy and he and I are probably bonded more closely than I am with any of my other birds (Kane is close, though this hasn't happened with him yet, he's younger than Bowie and recently he just wants to mate with my hand, I can handle that..and he's a Senegal with a MUCH BIGGER BEAK, so we'll see how things go, lol)...However, at that moment, the pain searing through my foot was enough for me to not care about Bowie's feelings at that point in time...I reached down and just grabbed the little jerk this time, and immediately and suddenly he just "snapped out of it", like he was himself again, and he knew he was in trouble too...He went in his cage while I cleaned and bandaged my foot...We had a long evening that night...

Sooooo...since that happened I have "Hormone-Proofed" my house, there's nothing that Mr. Bowie can get underneath anymore, and honestly I think that was actually "puberty" for Bowie, as it had never happened before, he was the right age, and since then his hormones have calmed down significantly...He has his moments, usually when he manages to sneak under the comforter on my bed, but since then he now seems to come to me when I tell him to come out from under the covers.

So just a Red-Flag kind of warning to you, if your little guy is 15 months old now, it's sounds just about right for puberty, and his behavior right now matches how Bowie was acting pre-couch incident...I cannot imagine having what happened to my hand or my foot happen to body-parts under my shirt...so...HEED MY WARNING...

Oh yes I am all ears! Warning heeded and already I am giving him more sleep time and more cage time, although I am moving and changing his cage around much more so he might be less bored. Your story really rings with me because the changes in Syd seem almost exactly the same although he's not collecting stuff yet. Today he once again spent ages under the paper on the floor of the cage and like Bowie was chuntering to himself. He is coming out with much more language over the last few days so I am on red alert in readiness. He is moulting like crazy and is constantly asking to be preened but seems on a short fuse. Thank you so much for your story it's a tremendous help.

 

[Sunnyclover]

My Finley (9 month old nanday conure) seems to have hit some kind of freshman puberty and he too likes to burrow in tight places and blankets and go in my shirt. It's normal nesting behavior but don't encourage it. Ollie, my sun conure (nearly 2) is welcome to burrow in my shirts because he doesn't display any signs of mating behavior but Finley does (biting, regurgitating, hand humping, sudden aggressive behavior seemingly out of frustration...i.e. the usual). Also, as some have said, your babies nails shouldn't be poking you, that means they are too long and need a trim. I file my babies nails about every 2 weeks, they don't love it but the tolerate it.

@EllenD That story is an inspiring tale or your courage and 1 birds fight to love himself under a couch. Let the tale spread throughout the land...