Beak Scraping

[knpjdad]

I have a male eclectus (14 months old) ... I have only had him home for 3 days, and was wondering about beak scraping... He does this ALOT, and a report that I just received via eMail from my wife was the following:

"He only seems to really do it when he is out of his cage. Also, I think he regurgitated (sp) some food & ate it today. He did like a chicken thing with his head and then his mouth acted like it was chewing. I don't know if that would mean anything or not"

Would this be normal? he did nothing of the sort the first couple of days, he is in the cage that he was in when we bought him! So it's not because of a new cage.

[jamieo]

It sounds pretty normal to me. Parrots will scrape their beaks on their perches or cage bars (or you) to clean them after they are eating or sometimes "just for fun". Young birds will sometimes bob their heads as a sign that they are ready to eat and expecting someone to feed them. Also older birds will bob their heads to regurgitate food.

Nothing your bird is doing sounds out of the ordinary. He's still getting used to his new home and as he gets more comfortable, you will see him start to do more and more things over the next several days/weeks.

[knpjdad]

Okay... He didn't do this "wiping" the first day or two, I mean, he did a little bit after he ate, but right now it's almost a constant... I'll keep an eye on him, and let everyone know how it's going.

Thanks for the reply

[jamieo]

You're welcome ... Does he have plenty of toys to keep him occupied? Ekkie's like to chew on wooden toys, like many parrots. They do better with softer woods than harder ones. You may consider adding a couple more to his cage if you only have one or two now.

[knpjdad]

Yes, a ton of toys!! LOL worse then my kids!! He seems to be back to "normal" today, or at least the way he acted the first few days.. I have 4 kids, and this is almost the same feeling as having your first child, full of questions, wanting to do everything right!!

[jamieo]

Originally Posted by knpjdad

Yes, a ton of toys!! LOL worse then my kids!! He seems to be back to "normal" today, or at least the way he acted the first few days.. I have 4 kids, and this is almost the same feeling as having your first child, full of questions, wanting to do everything right!!

haha! That's certainly the truth. I was telling a friend of mine about something my conure did recently. I had given him some strawberries and apparantly he did not think they were very good. He pulled each piece out, took a little bite then threw it onto the bottom of his cage. He did taste each piece until he had emptied the bowl, hahaha, so I guess he really wanted to make sure that the berries were not any good.

I envy your eclectus though ... they are quite charming. The vet I take my birds to has one named Harley in the lobby of his office. As you come in the door, you hear Harley say "Helloooo" and he then proceeds to have a conversation with himself.