Anyone else's bird appear to NOT have a person preference

[patdbunny]

So, my family and I were discussing that my daughter's sun conure does not appear to have a favorite person. Ducky spends the most time with my daughter since he's her bird. But when we're all together he really doesn't seem to prefer anyone in particular. He goes to each of us easily. He jumps from person to person and does his rounds, again not seeming like he prefers anyone in particular-more like who's more entertaining to him at the moment or has something he wants.

I've never had any other bird that didn't show a preference for someone in the family. Anyone else have a bird that has no person preference?

[Michael]

Truman is like that but then again he is pretty young for his species (13 months) so I'm not sure if this will change. But he doesn't seem to give a damn if it's me or anyone else. He'll step up for anyone, doesn't bite, and just likes people. This was the case from the moment I took him out of his carrier when he arrived.

This would seem to be a good thing but it also poses challenges for training. Kili is very bonded to me which makes it easy for me to have her around strangers cause she will ultimately fly back to me and not to someone else. For instance I was showing the two birds off at an indoor event and both had a fly off at one point. Kili flew off, around the room, turned around and came straight back to me. When Truman flew off, he landed on the guitar of one of the band members playing at the far end of the room. He also lands on people's heads and stuff like that. On the other hand, people bites people she doesn't like so I think most people like Truman's bubbly attitude better. It's just much harder to focus him on training than Kili for these reasons. Truman gets bored of being with me and flies off to see someone else.

[kaylayuh]

My budgies hate all people equally and will avoid them like the plague.

Cheney Bird hasn't been around anyone but me since I got him from the rescue, but the rescue did say that he prefers females to males. I guess that will be tested when my boyfriend comes out here and interacts with him.

[Chris&Akilah]

Akilah isn't aggressive to other people, and will step-up for others but goes into what I call "zombie mode" where he just sits there stock-still and silent looking like "ok how long do I have to sit on this person?" He only 'comes alive' with me. Some people, like my dad, scare the crap out of him and get a flight reaction everytime. I think it may be my dad's bald shiny scalp. He will take treats from him through the cage bars sometimes but will again go into that weird trance state, and just kinda sit there holding the treat until my dad goes out of sight. Then he'll eat it. I think he's scared of other people and just freezes up until they go away. It's hard because no one else is interested in having a relationship with him, they just let him sit on their finger as a favour to me but neither party enjoys it . I fear Akilah will be very "one-person" when mature.

[patdbunny]

Ducky's only 7 months old. I don't know about the capes, but in the sun conures 7 months is plenty old enough to see any people preferences. Sucks for you, Michael, but for our purposes as Ducky's just a pet we're very happy that he's so chill.

Chris - I notice keeping them super socialized helps with the one-personedness. (is that even a word?) I take my birds everywhere. Ducky and the current clutch of babies went fishing with us yesterday. It was a nice day out so lots of people passing by and ogling at the birds.

My budgies hate all people equally and will avoid them like the plague.

[kaylayuh]

My budgies hate all people equally and will avoid them like the plague.

Totally serious. Now that both of them have their flights and can fly, I can't get either to be within two feet of me. I can change food and water and toys just fine, but as soon as I go to have them step up, they fly away. The only time they come close to me is when they're "dive bombing" my head.

Cheney Bird, on the other hand, does all he can to be near me. He's clipped, but he has been managing to make the flight from his cage to me whenever he really, really, really can't bare to be on the cage for a second longer.

Part of me hopes that once my boyfriend gets here, all three birds hate him and want to be near me so they won't have to be with him.

[Chris&Akilah]

Well I guess part of Akilah's socialization problem is my social problem...I'm not a social person, at all, I avoid busy social scenes if I can. I wouldn't enjoy the attention Akilah would attract if I took her out. I leared that when I had ferrets. When I took my first ferret for a walk on her harness we were swarmed by curious people asking all sorts of questions and if they could pet her...we never went out again . Can't people just mind their own business when they see a weird animal on a leash? Honestly in my current situation it doesn't matter either way if Akilah likes other people or not. But that might (hopefully) change in the future.

[patdbunny]

Chris - I actually don't have a problem w/ one-peopledness so long as the owner understands it and is ok with it, and the bird doesn't go attacking other people. And if you are/were in a relationship and the significant other was understanding of it. The problem I primarily see is when the bird's stuck on one person and then is allowed to go about attacking all the other human family members. More often than not the bird ends up loosing its home instead of the human relationship ending. Some of our birds prefer me and my husband's ok with never interacting with those birds. He would definitely NOT be ok with those birds attacking him, though.