patagonian conure resting leg on toy

[conureguy]

ive walked by my patagonian conures cage sometimes and i have seen that his leg is resting on one of his toys

i dont know what it is and i was hoping if i can have some info on that

thank you

[Jenny]

What type of a toy is it? Could you give a description?

[conureguy]

well it is on a chain thingy and its like a ball and then a wooden beam kind of round and about 3 -4 inches long(what he rests his leg on) so on and so on

[Amanda]

Patrick, maybe your bird is playing with the hanging toy. Sometimes, my bird uses her hanging toys as foot toys ... so maybe whenever you've walked by your bird's cage and seen his foot resting on the toy, he was actually using the toy as a foot toy.

[birdygirl]

Sometimes birds freeze what they are doing when you walk by their cage. Sophie will freeze if she is playing with a toy, She stops and holds on to the toy. so she hangs off of it. This could be what your bird is doing.

[dlaura]

Yes, I agree with birdygirl. My goffin will stop what she is doing and return to front of the cage - whenever we pass by. She is hoping we are coming to let her out - half of the time she is right!

[conureguy]

that sounds reasonable but he rubs his vent on the toy
what could this mean?

[birdygirl]

It is a sexual behavior. Since I have two females I don't hav any that o that.(I think it is just males.)

[Mrs.Birdy]

My sister's male cockatiel rubs his vent all along his perch. I guess it's that time of year.:)

[Amanda]

It is definitely a sexual behavior ... but it isn't just males that do that, some females exhibit this behavior as well. For example, my lovebird (Bijou) was doing this particular behavior for a few months. I posted a question about it on the lovebird chat and was told that it is a sexual behavior that most males do during this time of the year. So, I thought my Bijou must be a male. Wrong! Because two weeks ago, she laid 2 eggs.

The chances of your bird being a male of course is higher because not a lot of females do this, but some do. When I asked if I should take the toy out of the cage, most lovebird owners adviced me to leave the toy in because it doesn't hurt the bird to exhibit this behavior ... actually, it's normal. Also, they told me that if I take the toy away and replace it with another toy, the bird will continue to do it to the new toy. So, I guess the bottom line is that we just have to live with it because it is part of "nature". :D

[JSimko]

Some are the flirty type and some take action. My female parakeet has always persued our green cheek conure. The green cheek wants nothing to do with her though.

[Jenny]

It must be a "green-cheek" thing! My male budgie, Blue, at first flirted with every single other bird I had when I brought him home. He'd fly to each and fluff up his head feathers, pin his eyes, and make little chirpy noses with his beak right in his face! If they tried to bite him, he'd quickly fly away, then a second later fly back and do it again! He also would follow them all around everywhere. My green-cheek thinks it's annoying as does my other conure, so now he's learned to just stick with trying to impress the other two budgies. I think he's in love with each of them because he's always regurgitating for them! Sorry this is sort of off topic...