Growling Senegal

[Michael]

Here's my purring parrot thoroughly enjoying scratches.

[Kim S]

She is such a cutie. Funny how you scratch her the same way I do. Thumb on her beak and fingers in her neck.

Btw, I loved your cartoonlike "Purrr!" attentionsigns.

[Michael]

Were you able to hear the purring? It's very quiet compared to the ambient noise so I put the signs up so you'd at least know when to listen for it. It's a bit more obvious in person when she does it and as I said it's half hearing it and half feeling the sound.

[Kim S]

Yes I was able to hear it, thanks to the signs. It sounds exactly like the sound I heard from Peewee. And I agree, is more of a vibration in the air then a sound. But this really clarified it for me, thanks!

[Michael]

To me it sounds more like purring than growling. It is the sign of an excited parrot. For me, it is typically the sign of a happy parrot. However, it can lead to aggression. Extreme excitement in Senegal Parrots often leads to aggression. So be careful to make your parrot happy but not to overdo it cause next thing you know they snap at you. I think it's not because they are mad at you but cause they get so excited they just feel like they have to pulverize something!

[Kim S]

Haha, thank you. I will definately keep that in mind!

[HyperD]

Wow I was so concentrated on Kili that I missed the purring signs, then I played it with speakers on full and noticed it.. I was expecting a continuous purr rather than a brief one

Either way it definitely sounds like it is a sign of content rather than discontent...

[lzver]

Michael, I couldn't help but notice at the end that Kili drops her wings and makes little noises. How often does Kili do that? Lucy does it quite often right now ... although never seen Jessie do it. When Lucy first did it I took her to the vet because wing drooping can be a sign of illness and the vet told me it was hormonal and it was nothing to worry about. It would make sense because she does it for a month or two around this time of year.

[Michael]

Kili does that primarily if she is over excited like when I was petting her extensively and made her really happy. Generally I avoid letting things get to that stage but since I was trying hard to show on video how petting goes, it went far and she got over excited.

[MyDestiny]

Love the video!! Cleared up what that weird noise was that Thor was making, but I'm still unsure if it was a happy noise or an angry noise. Sometimes when he's sitting on me and I talk to him he stretching his neck WAAAAAY out and its almost like he's trying to either bite me (its not agressive at all, very slow and relaxed like, with tilting head, no puffiness, and sometimes opening and closing of mouth and tongue like he's eating somethin) or trying to rub beaks with me! lol I won't let him get close enough to do either since I have NO idea what his intention really is.

Today he was sitting on me and chewing my shirt, I was trying to give him a cap to chew on (he doesnt really do anything outside the cage other than sit on me) and he started making that noise. So I took the cap away thinking it was scaring him. (he didn't actually chew it, just looked at it and ignored it) So then he was just sitting on my lap and I was petting him and he started making the noises again. At this point I put him back in his cage, gave him a peanut and jumped on here to find out if he's angry, or sick, or if thats a regular parrot noise.

Any ideas on those two "body language" signs from him?

~MD