Young caiques - play a lot with fingers: normal behavior?

[JeanLoup]

Hi all,

I am a new owner of 2 young WBC caiques. They are 6 ½ months-old, hand-reared, and I got them 3 months ago, a little bit after weaning from private breeders. Here it is for the short description of their background. I had various species of parrots/parakeets for 10 years but only cockatiels as pets (others were breeding pairs). Therefore, that’s my first time with those lovely birds that are caiques, and I am wondering myself some questions:

-I know that birds naturally need to taste everything with their beaks, and especially young birds that “discover” their world. However, I was wondering if caiques do that more than other parrot species? When I take them in hands, they spend their time kind of preening my skin and gently taking fingers in their beak. It seems like they could go on for hours doing that behavior. When I just got them, they would sometimes bite, not knowing, but now they became pretty good at just putting a little bit of pressure without biting or hurting you. I was just wondering if they will go over this stage, or if it’s something that caiques commonly do? (It’s pretty uncommon to me as my cockatiels would stay on your hands/arms without “tasting” you all the time)

All right, I am sure that I will come with more questions later. Thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

Jean-Loup

P.S. Sorry if there is some English mistake, I am from France and recently got to the US

[sweetpeaches]

Hi and welcome to the wonderful world of caiques! Yes, they love to play with your fingers! and one of the favorite places for them to put their beak is between your thumb and pointer finger. They are beaky birds. The important thing is to make sure they don't beak too hard. . They are smart enough to know the difference.

[DoodleBird]

I agree, they love to play with (and preen) hands and fingers. They will also rub their beak back and forth on your finger they was some birds do on a perch. Nani does it every time I take her out of her cage.

[NJaney]

Yep, they're big lovers...

[My2babies]

Caiques are known for being "beaky" they also like to body surf in your hair and on damp towels! They are very unique birds for sure :-)

[Jun]

I agree........theyre very comical too.