My personal parrot philosophy

[RedDragon1288]

Grey_Moon, no offense taken. Ruby's situation is a long one and his behavior is that of a horny male trying to get brad to accept his advances.

Glass Onion, I'm still confused in what you define as pack dominance? The meaning and understanding that I'm tried to convey was dominance comes into role with reproduction among wolf packs and dogs.

[Michael]

Dominance in the parrot-human sense is unlikely. In the parrot-parrot sense it may be in certain species but not others. However, to say it doesn't exist in birds is fallacious. It is very evident in sparrows (to the point that their plumage/size determines hierarchy). The greatest reason people at first assumed that there is dominance in parrots is because it often is seen in other bird species.

Then again, what's to say parrots don't have dominance? I think the main area where we are disproving "dominance" is in the sense of training and that they are behaving certain ways to dominate us. Height dominance is an example where it probably is just that they like being higher and feel safer and don't want to step down because they prefer being there and not because they want to dominate over us. On the other hand, there can develop a "pecking order" between parrots in the same flock. I think this can be seen with budgies when there are many in one cage. Whoever is tougher gets the food first or picks the perches she goes on. Likewise with Kili and Truman, Kili clearly "dominates" Truman. If Truman is on a perch and Kili flies by (not even trying to land on it), he'll fly off yielding her the perch. Is this "dominance"? I don't know. What is dominance? However, Truman has clearly learned that if he stays, she will dive bomb him and possibly bite. He doesn't want to take the chance and yields things to her. In the aviary, he will get off her favorite perches before she even steals them from him if I add her to his presence. I think where dominance breaks down is case by case behavior analysis rather than just a global term.

[Rokisha]

I seen the video of kili on youtube rolling over and talking, she's adorable michael!