Obsessive preening

[sundae]

My quaker parrot which I have had for about 3 weeks now, is obsessed with preening me. I'm not even joking.
Once he got comfortable with me, it started with hands- he plucked out dead skin and sometimes even hair. Sometime later he moved to my face and today he insisted on licking my teeth (which I don't make him do).
Every time after training or playing, that's all he wants to do. If I go near his cage (he likes to sit on top of it) or pass near it doing my things, he would follow me on top of it just to do that. This applies to any surface he's currently on, all of the time. Sometimes he would even come to me to do it.
It surely becomes annoying because if I want to pet him or need to move him, he will disobey any command and proceed to preen me. Sometimes, when he performs tricks he doesn't want his treats, but me to give him my face or fingers.
I know that preening is normal and it shows trust, but if it's all he wants to do it's just obsessive. He doesn't even preen himself that good!
Is there something I can do to make him stop even a little? I'm okay with it, but it's too much now.
And before someone suggests it- he's surely not biting. He still does bite if angry and he does it really hard (since he's not trained to not do so).

 

[Laurasea]

quakers are highly social, mine seem to require 1-2 hours of petting and cuddling hands on time. Plus a few hours hanging out. Mine love attention as well sbd often will do things fir a kiss or scrstcgin stead of treats. Pheobe now returns to cage when asked just fir a kiss on the head

So its hard to know?

The only time I personally delt with obsessed was one that had been isolated for years.... He couldn't be distracted or do anything else , it was devastating and clearly obvious even to non animals or bird people

 

[HeatherG]

Parrots and particularly Quakers normally do preen a lot. I am wondering if you could distract him with a preening toy, so maybe he can cuddle with you and preen the toy but not you?

My Quaker will start to preen my eyebrows and eyelashes. But when he preens my lashes he will eventually pull them out, which is painful. Or he ends up nipping my eyelid. So if he is getting too busy around my eye, I will just move him so he can preen my hand, or put him on his basket so he grooms himself and not me.

Your bird is doing this because he loves you and this is how he shows it. He doesn’t have anyone else to preen. And maybe there’s a bit of anxiety or excess in there. If you get mad at him he might be upset and try to smooth things over with MORE preening. So I would just move him away or give him something else. And have shredder or preening toys in his cage, too so he can get some of that directed energy out.

My rule is : no nose picking and no teeth preening. Noses and teeth have germs that birds don’t need, even though they are wonderful mysterious unexplored places that your bird MUST groom for you RIGHT NOW.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Hi there... is your bird a baby" Maybe you put that info somewhere and I missed it...
Anywayyyyyy... when I got the Rickeybird, he was about three months old and he was a preening maniac... sounds a lot like yours... I had no idea what was normal, so I was a very confused observer back then. I will definitely second the ban on mouth/nose.
The preening eased off a lot when he hit sexual maturity at about 3-4 years, and has held pretty steady up until about five years ago when he just kinda started showing his age, taking more naps, a little bit less active over all.
Good luck with your new companion. I'm glad you're here.

 

[sundae]

Hi there... is your bird a baby" Maybe you put that info somewhere and I missed it...
Anywayyyyyy... when I got the Rickeybird, he was about three months old and he was a preening maniac... sounds a lot like yours... I had no idea what was normal, so I was a very confused observer back then. I will definitely second the ban on mouth/nose.
The preening eased off a lot when he hit sexual maturity at about 3-4 years, and has held pretty steady up until about five years ago when he just kinda started showing his age, taking more naps, a little bit less active over all.
Good luck with your new companion. I'm glad you're here.

No, he's not, unfortunately. He is a 2 year old male quaker who didn't get adopted because of his anger issues.
Someone said that it could be because he was isolated for a long time... And it could be true! 2 years is a lot of time.

 

[sundae]

quakers are highly social, mine seem to require 1-2 hours of petting and cuddling hands on time. Plus a few hours hanging out. Mine love attention as well sbd often will do things fir a kiss or scrstcgin stead of treats. Pheobe now returns to cage when asked just fir a kiss on the head

So its hard to know?

The only time I personally delt with obsessed was one that had been isolated for years.... He couldn't be distracted or do anything else , it was devastating and clearly obvious even to non animals or bird people

It could really be the isolation thing. He is a 2 year old who has been in a cage alone all of the time... With birds in OTHER cages surrounding him- he comes from a breeder. He didn't get adopted because of his anger issues, which caused families to return him. Thanks a lot!
By the way, did you manage to stop that behavior? I tried distracting him, but nothing works. Sometimes when training, he will refuse treats and as a reward, he expects preening time... But only he can preen me, he will bite if I try to touch him.

 

[Laurasea]

I think your guy will settle with attention. Its great he has chosen to bond with you like this. You are his person. Give him some more time. I wouldn't make a big deal about it yet. He us still so new with you. Finally getting some love!
I'm sorry he has a rough start. I'm so very glad he is with you now!

 

[HeatherG]

I have noticed that when a rescued or adopted bird first comes to me, they are often darn near exploding with love and gratitude (and sexiness, too). You need to deal with this in a nice way because your Quaker is very appreciative of being in your home and loves you.

I would distract and redirect that preening urge and give him lots of stuff to fuss with in his cage and get that out without grooming you.

My bird gets into grooming and focuses on my fingernails. Starts removing cuticles and rough skin and then graduates to snapping my nails backwards. I have no idea why and I’m sure he’s not TRYING to hurt or irritate me but it’s not my favorite thing. When he starts to do any of those things I distract him. Sometimes I do a wobble correction. ( I’m not sure by if that’s ok in current bird trainer thinking but I can do it quick and it stops the painful behavior.)

You always hurt the ones you love. Especially if you have a big sharp beak and start removing extra pieces of the one you love. (But you didn’t NEED that skin, did You?)