Hello everyone! I'm fairly new here and still very much a novice, so maybe this behavior is perfectly normal... but I can't seem to find any information on it.
I have had my CAG Henry for almost a month now. This little man is 10 years old and was never held by anyone but his former owners before. It took him a little while, but he now steps up for me (when he feels like it) and lets me give him head skritches a little bit. Our bonding seems to be coming along very nicely.
His whole life he's been on a diet of harrison's pellets and a couple zupreem primate biscuits (heated with water, served by hand mushy) in the morning and at night.. Part of me attributes his quick bonding with me to the fact that I hand feed him these biscuits every day. I know some people think they are bad but he's had them his whole life so if I ever choose to change his diet it will be a long time from now once he's completely settled in (besides, I like the bonding experience of hand feeding him every day and he loves it). Ok, so onto the question.
This morning while I was hand feeding Henry, he did the absolute strangest thing! He'd eaten 2 biscuits from my hand and we were moving on to the third. Instead of nibbling the biscuit, he took his beak and put my finger in his mouth. I thought that his aim was just off and that he'd meant to get the biscuit, but I quickly realized he was doing it on purpose! He used his tongue and sort of licked my finger and bobbed his body up and down a tiny bit. For lack of better words, he "deep-throated" my finger and slobbered all over it while he was doing this. I took my finger away and he lifted his little foot like he wanted me to pick him up. So i put my fingers up to him to let him come up and he did it again! He was nibbling very lightly on my finger the whole while and was very gentle. Every time I'd take my hand away he'd lift his foot and ask me to come back. I wasn't sure whether to feel slightly violated or concerned...
I tried giving him more biscuits a little later and he didn't want them.
I have several books on African Grey behavior and just parrot behavior in general but I can't seem to find the proper way to describe this and haven't found any explanations. Does anyone know what this behavior means? I hope he's not sick or something!! I was wondering also if maybe this was a strange sort of mating behavior that I should be wary of? Thanks for reading!
I have had my CAG Henry for almost a month now. This little man is 10 years old and was never held by anyone but his former owners before. It took him a little while, but he now steps up for me (when he feels like it) and lets me give him head skritches a little bit. Our bonding seems to be coming along very nicely.
His whole life he's been on a diet of harrison's pellets and a couple zupreem primate biscuits (heated with water, served by hand mushy) in the morning and at night.. Part of me attributes his quick bonding with me to the fact that I hand feed him these biscuits every day. I know some people think they are bad but he's had them his whole life so if I ever choose to change his diet it will be a long time from now once he's completely settled in (besides, I like the bonding experience of hand feeding him every day and he loves it). Ok, so onto the question.
This morning while I was hand feeding Henry, he did the absolute strangest thing! He'd eaten 2 biscuits from my hand and we were moving on to the third. Instead of nibbling the biscuit, he took his beak and put my finger in his mouth. I thought that his aim was just off and that he'd meant to get the biscuit, but I quickly realized he was doing it on purpose! He used his tongue and sort of licked my finger and bobbed his body up and down a tiny bit. For lack of better words, he "deep-throated" my finger and slobbered all over it while he was doing this. I took my finger away and he lifted his little foot like he wanted me to pick him up. So i put my fingers up to him to let him come up and he did it again! He was nibbling very lightly on my finger the whole while and was very gentle. Every time I'd take my hand away he'd lift his foot and ask me to come back. I wasn't sure whether to feel slightly violated or concerned...
I tried giving him more biscuits a little later and he didn't want them.
I have several books on African Grey behavior and just parrot behavior in general but I can't seem to find the proper way to describe this and haven't found any explanations. Does anyone know what this behavior means? I hope he's not sick or something!! I was wondering also if maybe this was a strange sort of mating behavior that I should be wary of? Thanks for reading!
