What does this behavior mean?

[jelandusn]

I thought I'd do my first training session with my little Grey and about 2 minutes into it, he started doing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE7VrBzZLZo

Here's a little background on him. I bought him from a pet store about 3 months ago. Before he was in the pet store, he was someone's pet. They supposedly gave him up because they had too many birds. The pet store is not a very good one but the pet stores here in Korea usually aren't. It is one of the cleaner ones that I've seen so we would buy our crickets there. For about 6-7 months I would go every week to buy crickets and when I went I would go over to say hello to my cool bird. He was in a tiny cage with no toys and was never allowed out. When we bought him one of the guys couldn't touch him because for some odd reason he hit him and now my bird would bite him. The other guy had to get him out of the cage. He was a little scared but didn't bite. They told us that he was 15 months old so that would make him 18 months now. In the three months that I've had him, I've spent my time bonding with him and converting him from an all sunflower seed diet to a diet of fresh foods and pellets. Just last week I took away his seeds and introduced him to pellets. Before he was getting fresh foods and seeds. I wanted to wait until he was eating the fresh foods really well before taking away his seeds. Anyway, he protested a little but is now begrudgingly eating the pellets. So, today, I thought I would try to train him to turn around and used sunflower seeds as a treat. He was doing pretty well but got distracted doing the weird behavior. What does it mean? Was he just excited about getting sunflower seeds after not having them for a week?

[Chrissy and Flock]

It looked to me like he was watching the dog, he could have been nervous of it. When my birds are out of the cage my dogs a locked (deadbolt and all) outside...

[birdie]

I too would say he was nervous about the dog. If he would have fallen from the chair that would have been dangerous to him with the dog being that close.
He's a pretty bird! Also, I wouldn't totally take away the seeds, find a good fresh seed mix to offer.

[too&me]

To me he looks more distracted from the task and just a tad nervous or excited. I too would not remove seed from his diet but I understand how you wish to use them for training. Perhaps you could find a happy medium on that issue.

[Julie]

Beautiful bird!!!!

He seemed a little nervous. Was that his first time on the back of the chair? The first time with training? The first time with the dog around? I have so many questions!

You have a very calm smooth voice which will go a long way with CAG's. They respond the best to a calm relaxed tone, and once you have gotten to know each other you can "let loose" and excited yahoo every once in a while to show enthusiasm.

He seems like everything around him is new, especially the dog. My first concern would be the dog, and secondly just let him get used to being on the back of the chair in that, or in all of the rooms of the house. If he has been "locked" up in a toy-less cage for as long as you say, the world is a huge scary place to him.

Once you start to see a more relaxed stance then training can move forward. You can tell he is nervous by the way he slightly squats down and always has his wings lifted away from his body slightly, as if ready to leap and take flight. Birds operate on the fight or flight response, so you can watch for that.

My CAG’s favorite thing to do is watch me cook and do dishes in the kitchen. From a safe distance, and well ventilated, but she just adores watching me do different things. Some day I’m sure she is going to tell me I’m doing dinner wrong. I also name off the different activities like chopping, stirring, etc.

You have come along way, and your bird has a very soft way that he interacts back to you! Good luck and keep spending time with him!

[birdscomefirst]

What I saw was all perfectly normal and nice behavior:-) The way he was delicately playing with your finger and the fact that he showed no aggression toward you even when distracted by the dog shows a trusting bond developing between the two of you.

It has already been said and I agree, the dog made the bird nervous. The dog as comfortable as you think you are with him is perceived as a danger by the bird and in fact can be. There are posts on many other forums where things like, "My dog never acted that way before" and "I never thought that would happen." have been said after a dog has hurt , maimed or even killed a bird. It is a danger that must be taken seriously.

That being said. The bird leaning forward toward you when he was nervous is saying that the bird was looking to you for protection and wanted you to pick him up. When he was rubbing your hand and fingers with his beak and head, he was letting you know that he was comforted by your presence. These are signs of a good bond.

Please just be aware that the dog can be a danger and that you can't move fast enough to get between a dog and a bird if something happens.

"Nothing like that ever happened before" , whena dog and a bird tangle , unfortunately is said or written about much too often.

Thanks,
Bill

[FoxersArtist]

I could be off base here but i'm going to give it a shot anyway. I agree with the others here that your bird seemed very excited, but nervous was not the impression I got after watching for more than a moment. Sometimes african greys will "stand tall" when they are excited even though they aren't always scared. Furthermore the noise you are hearing is a noise your bird is making by kind of coughing up some food that is in the back of his throat. This belief was reinforced when I saw your baby "beaking" your fingers and wiping his beak on the chair. I think I also saw a piece of food actually drop out of his mouth and onto the floor.

To make it short, he looked like he was trying to tell you that he would make a good mate by yacking up a little treat for you. I have seen younger (immature) parrots do this when they get excited. Many mature parrots will bob their heads up and down to "pump" the crop (a holding tank for food) to bring food back up for their mates or for their young. Immature parrots or those just starting to regurgitate will sometimes bring food up without the dramatic bobbing movements. My experience has been that the sound that your grey was making is usually more noticable when they are not pumping their crop.

Congrats, your bird is in love.
-Anna

[FoxersArtist]

PS: you can see the food drop almost exactly half way into the video. You can see the bird actually head bobbing a little bit in the very end of the video. the fact that he was latching onto your finger with such force but not biting tells me that he was trying to keep hold of your fingers to deliver his goodies before you pulled away - and that's why he was repeatedly leaning toward you.

In the future, it might be best to avoid this behavior as it will only get him worked up and he may become sexually frustrated. Try to distract the behavior with something else or do not let him make contact with your fingers. After he gets more practiced at regurgitating, he will likely start showing more dramatic head bobbing movements so it will be easier to notice...but since you know what sound to listen for, you will know what he is doing even while not doing the bobbing motions. You'll also notice that he opens and closes his beak a lot as if he is tasting. Good luck.
-Anna

[jelandusn]

Thanks everyone for the replies.
I don't think it was the dogs. I had the dogs in their room during the training session, so they wouldn't distract him, and he started doing it after about 2 minutes into the session. He was doing it more but the dog distracted him. I had to go into the dogs' room to get the camera and one followed me out. But the bird is not in any way nervous around the dogs and the dogs, (2 of them), are not in any way aggressive. I'm the alpha of the house and they know that the bird is part of the family. At first they were very interested in him but after the newness wore off they don't pay any attention to him. They DO NOT have a strong prey drive. Nor do they have a strong desire to protect me. They'd rather run away when confronted and if cornered they submit. In fact, once, while we were outside, a hurt pigeon scurried right in front of one of my dog's nose and instead of trying to catch it, he just watched it. Actually, they like the bird a lot because he drops lots of yummy food for them to eat. :) I agree that there is a chance that birds and dogs don't mix and when I first brought him home, before I know for sure how everyone would react, I always had my dogs on a leash just to be sure. If they were aggressive in any way I would not have them together but since they ignore him, even when he flutters to the floor, I'm not worried. I don't try to push them to interact with each other, (that's where I think problems come from), but I am really grateful they can coexist peacefully. My bird spends the whole day out of his cage so I'm very glad that everyone can be out and about without having to limit anyone's space. Of course when I'm not home he goes in his cage with the door closed. The dog was a distraction but not something he fears. He does fear the fish, though... And the food fell out of his mouth halfway through because I gave him a seed. Oh, and I'm not going to take away the seeds completely. I just did it this week so that I could get him to eat the pellets. When he starts eating the pellets better, I'll add a little seeds in the evening. That way I'll still be able to use the sunflower seeds for training. Also, it wasn't his first time on that chair. He also loves to squawk along while I do the dishes so I put him on that chair so he can join in. Our house is kind of small so he's been to every room except the dogs' room. His cage is his space and the dogs' room is their space so neither one visits personal spaces. I hope that answers all of the questions. I do have one question, does anyone have any ideas on what to use as treats if I decide not to use his sunflower seed? He doesn't like any nuts at all. At least not the once I've tried which are, pine nuts, almonds, peanuts,chestnuts, ginkgo nuts, cashews, walnuts and pistachios.

[jelandusn]

Silly me!! I answered my own question! It's the fish! He doesn't like turning his back on the fish. I don't blame him. He is kind of scary looking... Thanks everyone for your help. I've moved his training spot farther from the fish so hopefully soon I'll be able to show all the cool tricks he's learned. We're still working on turn, though...