Bird Crazies: this is what beak performance looks like.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Bird Crazies: this is what beak performance looks like.

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

A question, bird crazies.

Frankie was a Very Good Bird on Saturday afternoon and permitted :siren:

ACTUAL PETTINGS :siren:

. We're talking full-out head scritches and running hands all over her with no biting or threats of biting or anything.

Then she started doing this thing where she bent forward on her perch and stuck her butt in the air and wiggled her butt.

Is my girlfriend's bird coming on to me? Because, I'm sorry Frankie, but Daisy the Siamese scarf-kitty already has a claim on me.

Edit: Bonus pictures:

Lookit that sexay leeeeeeg

Why yes as a matter of fact I am a crazy dancing burd, why do you ask?

Not a bird, but perhaps some serious competition? Frankie does not seem to be the shoulder-sitting kind of bird. Daisy, however...

Edit: WTF imgur why are my pictures all sideways?

Mad Hamish fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Oct 30, 2012

# ¿ Oct 30, 2012 13:59

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:23

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

alucinor posted:

Yep.

Poor little naked goffin. If she still picks at all, give her lots of things to shred, that seems to help a lot. My goffin loves phone books.

She gets things to shred and I'm not seeing feathers on the bottom of the cage.

I really don't want her coming onto me, though.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2012 17:30

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

alucinor posted:

Petting below the neck is foreplay to a bird, so really you started it. Confine your scritches to her head and face, that's pretty much the only way to stop encouraging sexy behavior.

Well dang. The head and face scritches are also the ones that can lead to horiffic mutilation-by-bird. But I certainly don't want to encourage weird.....um....bird lust? That would probably be a terrible idea.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2012 01:34

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

alucinor posted:

Does she use sticks and stick-like toys to scratch herself with? If so, work on clicker training* to get her to allow you to scratch her with a stick, then work up to a head scritch with a finger. Make sure she knows that the head scritch will ONLY come with treats, never with any other unwanted touching (nail trimming, picking up, going back to cage, whatever). Keeping your hand curled into a specific position with only one or two fingers being used to scritch may help with that.

*I don't bother with actual clickers, my goffin is afraid of them, I just say GOO'BOOY in a particular tone that I don't use any other time.

Goffins are insanely smart. He's learned everything I've tried to teach him within a few repetitions. However, it HAS to be something he WANTS to do. No amount of sunflower seeds or mashed yams will get him to do something he doesn't want to do. If it's not, he'll make his whiney "nuh-uh" noise and sit there begging for the reward. But he learned to step up to go to "floor" and "window" and "back on house" in literally one repetition each.

When he's feeling particularly bitey I offer him his reward off a wooden spoon so that he can't use the reward as an excuse to bite. He has a history of saying "gimmie kiss" and then biting people's noses.

Generally speaking I can only touch her if her front end is busy with something enjoyable like millet or some red pepper or melon or something. "Oh hey, there's this human and I could rip his fingers off, but he's also holding this sweet sweet red pepper and NOM NOM NOM"

She doesn't seem to scratch herself on anything else in the cage. Unwanted touching is something that pretty much never happens as she really is a bitey little monster. I would like to trim her little Howard Hughes toenails but someone would be horribly scarred by it and I don't think it would be her.

Frankie is pretty drat smart. I've watched her deliberately drop things onto her canine nemesis, and I've also seen her turn around on her perch and poo poo on the dog, presumably on purpose. We can't have toys hanging in her cage because she undoes the little screw-on carabiners holding them up. She figured out how to do it after watching me put in some shreddy newspaper toys for her. She's a clever little bitch.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2012 13:20

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

uglynoodles posted:

Oh my. I think Iroh is a girl, and I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm her birdie boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure she wants to do with me what boyfriends and girlfriends do.

Last night Iroh squatted down low, started doing weird poo poo with (her?) head, tossing it around in patterns, and flicking her wings whilst whining softly. I put Iroh home onto the open top perch, and a few minutes later the action was repeated. Iroh's head tucked under the shoulder and fluffed up, looking back at me shuddering wings and whining.

Pretty sure Iroh's in love.

Welcome to the uncomfortable world of being the object of bird-lust.

Do cockatoos do that heart-wings thing cockatiels do? Because Frankie was totally doing that the other day, while presenting herself to me again.

Dammit bird, you are a bald shrieking monster and I am not having sex with you! STOP ASKING

# ¿ Dec 13, 2012 04:29

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

That is an awesome idea! I know we have some of Frankie's feathers floating around somewhere and I think this would be an awesome thing to do with them.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2012 17:38

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

WYA posted:

Can anyone dig up that old youtube of the parrot saying racial slurs like friend of the family for me?

This racist parrot?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrRVe4oG4Wg

Youtube has.........an awful lot of racist parrots.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2013 14:16

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

CrazyLittle posted:

My brother's goffin's cockatoo knows how to undo the screw-lock chain links that attach his toys to the top of his cage. I wonder if the spring loaded carabiner would present more of a challenge or not.

Frankie figured out how to do this after watching me rearrange toys in her cage for a while. Now there are no toys in her cage at all because five seconds after you hang it up she's got it on the floor and then poops on it.

I need to get her a new calcium perch. She's managed to eat her current one. But what colour / flavour? She's had the pink one and the purple one so I'm thinking we should go with the green one this time. She gets the dust from the perch all over herself so she's not just a cream-coloured goffin but has AWESOME PUNK COLOURS. Lime-green would go with her little orange cheek and nose feathers, yes?

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 15:12

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

Frankie is crazy into Abba. Put on 'Dancing Queen' and you'll get a little tiny dancing dinosaur-bird.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 00:35

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:23

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

FreyaXI posted:

Now that being said does anyone know a good breeder in the Toronto area? I don't have a car so as of right now getting to Hamilton is out of the picture.

Wait, there's a breeder in Hamilton? Hammer good here very interested in non-farmed budgies, again because of the cuteness.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2013 21:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Bird Crazies: this is what beak performance looks like.