Video of the Budgies, Cheney Bird Fetch.

Cool videos Kaela! Nice to see you interacting with your fids!

LOVE it! Cheney is awesome. Love the drive by budgies.

CB is so much like JJ!
OK, not QUITE like JJ! LOL! But I thought I heard you sweetly saying, "No nipping.." Our interactions aren't quite like that, our are more like this:

Me: "Wanna neck rub?"
JJ: Stares at me
Me: "Yeah? Want scritches? Want me to rub your head?"
JJ: Stares at me
Me: "OK sweet baby bird, I'll rub your head!" I reach out to rub her head...
JJ: Unemotionally follows my hand to her head, then chomps my finger.
Me: (in my "shame on you" tone) "Hey Missy, now none of that. I cant rub your head if you're biting. Beaks are for singing, not biting." (I continue trying to hold my finger still, while also trying to unemotionally maneuver the tender skin over my knuckle OUT of her mouth.)
JJ: Meanwhile, (now CLEARLY showing the emotion of GREAT JOY) she has figured out how to get up onto my hand to make her "knuckle gnaw" game more fun.
Me: (Still calm, but anxiety is rising with the pain level...) "JJ! You really should let go of Mommy's finger if you want scritches. It's hard to scratch when you've got ahold of my finger."
JJ: Determined to add to the excitement pulls out the old "Conure Beak-Grind" move (that I guess is secretly passed on when they hatch) to get MORE knuckle skin in her mouth.
Me: (Calm is fading... quickly.) "JJ, You KNOW how hard it is to preen those ugly blood stains out of your feathers ..."

... And so it goes! LOL

Those are great vids, thanks for sharing!

Hahaha, Vicki I LOVE the narrative!!!!!!

I keep hearing GCCs are nippy, is this something that comes with matuirty? Sparrow "beak" plays much like a puppy when we are wrestling but he has never bitten me. Or nipped me. Should I expect this to come as he ages?

Cheney Bird has stopped biting for the most part, and now when he does, he doesn't draw blood. If he does go to bite, I ask him if I can have his beak and he lets me pet away while holding it.

Scooter loves the "I throw it, you pick it up" game too. I have a "toy box" on my computer desk, and when he gets bored, he starts pulling things out one by one and throwing them on the floor. Sometimes when I pick them up he says, "Thank you, Scoo!" Gotta get that on tape!

Julsiebean wrote:

I keep hearing GCCs are nippy, is this something that comes with matuirty? Sparrow "beak" plays much like a puppy when we are wrestling but he has never bitten me. Or nipped me. Should I expect this to come as he ages?

Scooter uses his beak a lot, and sometimes he uses it on me more vigorously than I'd like, but I'm not sure if I'd characterize it as nippy. I'm fond of telling him he lacks impulse control... I have to be careful if I'm making his breakfast with him because sometimes he'll get so excited about the approaching food that I get pinched out of pure misdirected enthusiasm.

When we first got him, he went through a phase of being overly beaky, and we were able to teach him to interact more gently. This spring I've found I have to go through that re-training every so often or he gets too beaky while being handled, but it usually only takes reminding him what the limits are.

He does actually bite at times -- when he's "mad at me" after I've been traveling he'll be really quite aggressive, and he's often that way to my husband since this spring (it is on an improving trend now) and I've gotten a number of displacement bites that way.

My husband tells me that a number of years ago, when GCCs were fairly new in aviculture, they had the reputation of being "the perfect bird". Now one hears they are nippy. My hunch is that as they've gotten into more and more less bird-savvy hands that reputation has emerged. Based on my experience with Scooter and from what I've read and observed at the bird store, I'd say they are excitable and quick and very active and they use their beaks for everything, so I think without learning limits they can seem nippy. Certainly if Scooter has an opinion about something, the beak is likely to be used to express that opinion. But I also find it relatively easy to shape that behavior, with the exception of his "being mad"/travel thing. When he's interacting with me normally, I can fairly readily establish limits, although I do need to re-establish them every so often.

Scotty is very different somehow. He uses his beak as a tool all the time, and he can play quite vigorously with it, but it's not as much a factor in his interactions, he doesn't use it to test every time he steps up, he isn't as excitable in general.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Scooter loves the "I throw it, you pick it up" game too. I have a "toy box" on my computer desk, and when he gets bored, he starts pulling things out one by one and throwing them on the floor. Sometimes when I pick them up he says, "Thank you, Scoo!" Gotta get that on tape!

Chico too! She throws things and then Wee! at me like it's my duty to pick up her toys The best time she has when I vaccum. Then it's normal I pick them up. Before I reach the carpet area with play gym and my desk, toys are on the floor already. They train us pretty good

Einstein is too much of a gentlemen to have me go fetch for things.

The budgies on the other hand...they like to keep me on my toes.