How to pet your parrot

[Gohan]

I was thinking how should I pet my parrot in which direction I mean like I saw Michael petting Truman the opposite site of the way his feathers are, but some say it makes them mad please help.

[marie83]

Ollie (GCC)likes it both ways, harlie (tiel) doesn't like touch at all, neither did George (peach front conure) or my other tiels, budgie and rosella. tico (tiel) used to prefer having a finger run along the top of her head in the direction of the feather growth although she didn't mind going against the feather as such. All birds are different, its just a matter of observing their reactions and learning what they mean.

[laducockatiel]

Ladu always liked it the opposite direction to the way the feathers grow. Especially on the top of his head.

[Dave & Karen]

It really depends on the individual bird... Most of them will really appriciate you gently back stroking their nape feathers or gently working past the nape feathers and softly rubbing the back of their neck. You'll know when your bird is enjoying it or if he doesn't like this because they will usually flinch as a warning to you to not do this, but when your bird does things like roll his head to hint to you to pet or rub a certain area (they all tend to love that spot nder their beak where the skin meets the beak, but don't try to go there til they roll their head and let you), rubbing or petting the lower jaw and underside of the jawbone is almost always appriciated.

When you see your bird rolling his head to let you get to these areas and/ or stretching his neck out and opening his beak wide, you'll know he's totally enjoying it, they'll usually give you a quick nudge to move your fingers away from where they don't want to be pet at the time.

Also, don't mistake affection for biting, they will grab a finger from time to time or want to do a little grooming on you to return the favor, they have 2 feet and a beak so they'll rarely come and pet you with a foot, but they sure will with their beaks. Our amazon likes to grab my finger with his beak and put it where she wants me to pet, but she will also use her foot and grab my hand to tell me "pet me here"

We have 11 birds so far ranging from a small parrotlet to a 10 year old amazon and all in between sizes, they all have their own likes and dislikes, as well as clear ways to tell us what they want from us, they all have their own ways of showing us affection as well, either in the form of grooming our faces, rubbing their heads against us, grabbing a finger and playing with it etc...

One thing I must mention tho is to never touch or pet them in the rump area or the groin area as this will exite them in another way, but they all like a good neck rub, scratches to the back of the head and their jawbone areas, beak scratches are very well appriciated as well as foot rubs (if they trust you well enough), and under their wings, they love being pet there too.

You'll know when you're doing it right and they'll usually be happy to return the favor in their own way...