An Embarrassing Question...

[MiaCarter]

Okay, I'm embarrassed for my poor birdie, putting his business out there, but here goes....

Louise really loves his new rope toy.
Really loves it.
I mean reeeeeeaaaaalllly loves it.
So much so that he's taken to.....errr.....loving on the rope toy.

Now, in my years of bird ownership I've only had 2 birds who did this. And it was rare to ever observe it.
Louise has had this rope toy for a couple weeks, but only just "discovered" it yesterday.
It's a 8-inch length of yellow and white rope (which kind of makes me wonder if he views it as another bird? Louise himself is a lutino budgie.) It has a knot on each end and little strings sticking out of the top and bottom (unraveled rope). I've got it hanging vertically in the corner of the cage (it used to have a cardboard pinata around it.)

Louise spends a lot of time "preening" his rope buddy. And then, he stands on top of it and....well, you know.
This is becoming a bit crazy. He's "interacting" with this rope toy for 5-10 minutes at a time, several times an hour, all day long.

So I've gotta ask....
Has anyone seen this happen so often?
I'm thinking perhaps it's like a bit of a novelty at the moment?

But it's happening so often I'm starting to wonder if he's got a problem?
I was thinking like an itchy vent from a yeast infection or something like that? All seems okay, but I don't know. It's just a bit obsessive.

What's more, his mate, Chester, gets screeched and nipped at if he tries to approach Louise when he's loving on his rope.
This is a pair who's never, ever fought. Ever. This is the first time I've seen any sort of displeasure expressed between the pair.
So it's just really odd.

Thoughts?

Wow, that was an uncomfortable post. LOL

[Arama]

Well you did a very good job of describing the issue in a censored way. Boys and their toys lol. I personally have never seen it but my suggestion would be to remove his love toy. Perhaps after a couple of days of mourning he will go back to poor Chester. Although I'd be worried about poor Chester. I would be pretty upset and confused if I was replaced by a bit of fancy yellow string. Flashy new toys can be hard on relationships avian or human apparently.

Thanks for the morning chuckle
Trisha

[Atbird]

yes, it's quite common with hookbills, especially males
My linnie does it occasionally, even though he has a mate. He did it more when he was younger. If it gets excessive, they can irritate the area, but this hasn't happened to my bird. I don't think you need to remove the toy unless it gets bad, he just might find something else....my linnie has several spots (he's very loving )

Funny post.

[lovezebs]

Haahaahaaa !!!

Get him another rope.... I wonder what he will do (?)

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

lovezebs - Oh, you're bad! LOL
I think he'd go into lovey overload!

Goodness....maybe I do need a second one for Chester.

Okay, this is getting to be nuts.
I just caught him singing and skatting to the rope, as he would to another bird. Then, he'll start lovingly preening his rope buddy.

He just loves that rope.
Apparently in a bird's eyes, it's a pretty sexy rope.

He's going to be bald on his underside with a few more days of this!

Though fortunately, it looks like Chester has learned to leave Louise alone when he's loving on his rope buddy. I haven't seen/heard any snipping at him since this morning.

And it seems like maybe it's starting to lose it's novelty as his interactions with it are getting shorter in length. I haven't seen a 5-10 minute "interaction" since last night.
Though it's rather funny, as he'll be bopping around the cage and he'll slide down the bars, then love on the rope buddy for a couple seconds, then returns to playing.

I don't mind letting him keep his rope buddy, as long as he doesn't ignore/snip at Chet and as long as he doesn't end up featherless due to too many "interactions" with his rope buddy.

Ah goodness.

Birds.



Seems Louise is in an odd exploratory phase.
He also just discovered the joy of sliding down the bars. He's in a tall cage - about 3 feet tall. And the front and back walls are all vertical bars, so he'll walk up to the tippy top of the cage, then slides down the bars at top budgie speed. (It's a controlled fall, like going down a fireman's pole.)
It actually looks quite fun!
....then he stops and visits rope buddy.

Goodness.

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter
Tell him he'll go blind, and end up with a bald butt....

~Elana~

[Jen]

Who ever said birds and finch people were boring...
60 shades of birds?!?!

[lovezebs]

Jen


~Elana~

[Jen]

lovezebs

Elana...

[MiaCarter]

Jen - 50 shades of birds is right!

Well, for what it's worth, it seems he's calming down a bit.

He's still visiting his rope buddy frequently, but it's for short "interactions". Not seeing the long 5-10 minute visits.
And Chester has just learned to let him be, so he's not getting snipped at.

So I think we're going to be okay.

I saw this toy and I think we need it.


I suspect he may lose his little birdie mind.

Hey, at least it's an actual bird toy that he's all lovey with.
I had one parrot get all lovey with my childhood teddy bear, which was just plain wrong.
That same guy also had a passion for one of my fleece jackets. I'd hang it on the back of the chair and he'd help himself to it. (Thankfully, he didn't do that while I was wearing it!)

[Hilary]

Love this thread! My linnie Chuckles has his cage to himself, and he loves his hanging toy all the time. It's just some wood chunks on a wire hanger - nothing I would have thought would be that attractive. He even has a special sound he makes, so I know without looking around what he's up to.

[lovezebs]

Hilary

Wood and a hanger Good grief, wouldn't that be terribly uncomfortable?

~Elana~

[Colt]

People are looking at me at work as a laugh away reading this post. The looks are even stranger when I try to explain what it's about...lol

[Hilary]

Here's a story for you all. I was out of town and got a text from my petsitter - she was really worried about Chuckles. She said that he was humped over on his favorite perch, feathers all fluffed and making strange noises, and when she put her face up to the cage to see if he was all right he refused to move away and just looked at her (not his normal behavior). When I asked if he was on his boing with his wooden toy under him she said well, yes he is. I had to explain that she had interrupted him……

[Colt]

lol That's too funny. Yes I've had moments like that with anxious customers when I worked at the pet store. lol