GCC Behaviour

[Lwalker]

My GCC, Cricket keeps repeating a behaviour that my vet says is found in babies but he is now 9 months old and I am wondering how or if to try to extinguish it. Whenever he wants attention he flattens his body and lowers his head and quivers his wings. It's like he flaps them but does not extend them. He keeps the folded. Often he chirps while doing this but sometimes is quiet. He also does the wing quiver hanging upside down. The vet says he is fine and that this left over baby behaviour to get attention or food. I don't want to reinforce it but at the same time I want to pick him up when he wants attention. Should I responded or am I making it worse. Or is it common behaviour. I should say it is not wing flipping and he is definitely in control of it. I know I am overthinking but I am so attached to the little guy.

[Wolf]

This sounds to me like normal begging behavior. The best way to deal with it is to discover what he is begging for and to provide it. Many times when this behavior is continued past the baby stage it is because the birds wings have been clipped and if it is attention that he wants he has no other way to get it other than to ask for it or to beg for it if you have missed his simple asking for it. If he could fly he would go to you when he wanted attention if he were free to do so. It is not the behavior that is the real issue it is that he has to beg for the attention, in my opinion that is needing to be addressed.

[Lwalker]

Thanks, Wolf. That really makes sense. Cricket was clipped when I got him but they did not do the outside primaries because they were just coming in. Since then they have come in and he has discovered he can fly but it seems to take a lot of effort to move forward (rather than hover). The last couple of weeks, he will fly short distances back to his cage but will not fly off of his cage to me. He just begs for me to get him. Sometimes he sends mixed signals and begs and then runs down the back of the cage when I get there. I think he is just testing me LOL. Hopefully as his confidence grows he will make the trip and fly both ways instead of just one.

[Wolf]

May I ask what foods he eats? This begging, appears to be related to needing more attention but it may also be related to food, so I should ask about it to be sure.

[Lwalker]

He gets a small portion of Tropican Lifetime pellets always available and then has two meals a day. One meal is a coked wild rice and ancient grain mix with lentils that I add fresh vegetables to and occasionally a little walnut or almond ( usually carrot, bell pepper, something dark green, cauliflower etc and sweet potato a couple of times a week). The other meal is fruit and I change it up (apples, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, mango, blueberry, melon). Treats are pumpkin seeds and nutriberries, red pepper or blueberry or a some thing special, a pice of cooked spaghetti. He has a good appetite. Watching his flying, it seems he does not know how to take off from atop his cage as he won't let go of the bars but he will take off from my hand or flat or larger surfaces.

[Wolf]

I would not think that his begging behavior would be food related from the food information that you have given.

I do not feed my birds pellets but I do have a couple of comments that might prove helpful to you. First is that if I were going to feed my birds pellets then at this point these are the only pellets that I have found that I would feed to my birds. http://www.windycityparrot.com/Totally- ... _2963.html I think that if you will read the information on the page that you will understand why and if not let me know. Secondly despite the manufacturers claims about pellets they should make up no more than 30% of your birds daily diet and I would only give them for the birds dinner and then remove any uneaten pellets once the bird goes to sleep for the night.

First thing in the mornings is when I give my birds their fresh raw produce especially since this is also when I introduce them to new foods. I do provide enough of the fresh raw produce to last through the day until dinner time. About 1/2 hour to 1 hour after giving my birds their fresh produce I feed them the home cooked food that we refer to as gloop and again I supply enough for them to eat all day long. Your cooked food would fit right in where I feed my gloop as it appears to be a very similar food.

I hope that this is useful to you and your bird.

[Pajarita]

The behavior is, indeed, begging. They do use it when they want attention or food but, normally, adult birds stop it once they can fly and get all the attention and food they want whenever they want it. The other possibility is that this is a leftover behavior from a bad weaning. People often don't realize that when they buy a 'weaned' baby, it doesn't really mean that they can feed the bird the same as an adult so they don't provide enough soft food for the bird to be satisfied (pellets been the exact opposite of soft food). This makes them grow up with either an eating disorder (they will eat way too much and become fat) or constantly beg for attention (when a parent bird feeds a baby, it's providing more than just food, it's also providing a feeling of love and security to the baby).

Personally, I don't believe in depriving them of attention when they ask for it even if it's abnormally excessive. I believe that, if you do provide it at the time they ask for it, they have a much better chance of outgrowing the feeling of insecurity that prompted it in the first place. So my advice to you is provide the bird with soft food (BTW, I would not feed pellets to a GCC, they are mainly fruit eaters in the wild and that means low protein, high moisture, high fiber and low fat so pellets are not even remotely similar to their natural diet) at all times and pick him up every time he begs you for it (GCCs are VERY needy).

[Lwalker]

Thanks. I am a softy and do respond when he flaps. Everyone says I will spoil him but he is my baby LOL. He seems to like being hand fed too and it is a nice bonding time so I comply.

[Pajarita]

ALL good parrot keepers are softies, my dear. It's a pre-requisite

[IndyColtsFan]

We recently rescued a GCC that had spent a lot of time caged in a garage and he exhibits this very same behavior constantly. He's definitely a mixed bag, and its hard to tell how long it will take to break through his shell. He's very cage protective, ruffled up and neck swaying when we get close or open the doors, but ignore him for even a few seconds and he squats down, tilts his head up, and starts mini-flapping his wings at us and chirping. Whip out a sunflower seed and present it to him and instantly he changes to happy bird, coming to the cage door or even out of the cage on top of the door when it is open.

He's on a diet of Harrison's and Rowdybush mix, with some Zupreem uncolored mixed in, as he likes the big pieces now and then. He also gets a bowl of fresh food each evening, but he tends to ignore anything other than apple pieces. I've tried a chop mix, but he's definitely got a sweet tooth and only picks out the apples.

I don't think his behavior is hunger related, so I'm inclined to believe he wants attention. I think deep down he really wants to be with us, and he displays the desire to be close to me when I'm near the cage and he's outside on the top of the door, but he just can't break the touch barrier. Since I have no real information about his previous home(s) I don't know if he experienced anything that might cause distrust, but I can only hope that the slow approach will eventually win his love. He's started accepting seed treats from the back of my fist, so I think that is a step at least. Last night he went nuts licking at my extended arm, but he wouldn't step forward. Baby steps for now, but we hold out hope.

Just something I wanted to add, since the behavior in the original post matched exactly what we are seeing, and had no idea what to make of it.