How many people can actually play with their parrots?

[wrench13]

How many can rough house with their birds, you know have tehm on their backs, teasing their backs and feets?

 

[noodles123]

We have a foot game (like, I got your nose with toes lol) and she hangs upside down off of my arm--she also enjoys being bounced up and down pretty aggressively to a beat ha

 

[Betrisher]

Rosetta loves roughhouse play! Only thing is, I don't. She enjoys nothing more than hurling stuff right and left, rolling onto her back and giving whatever she has in her claws a good beaking (stiff cheddar if that happens to be my fingers)!

She hangs off of things (often my plait or my clothing, but usually her knotted rope or swing) and hurls herself around like a mad thing. I have to say, she's fun to play with, even though she often doesn't know her limits. No toy is ever too boring for 'Setta: if she can't chomp it into matchstix, the can hurl it around the floor or lie on her back and 'do weights' with it.

What's really nice is that 'Setta will only play like that if I'm present. I seem to bring out her inner toddler, I think. The down side of that is that she's begun screaming for me if I leave the room. Also, she's begun lunging at other members of the family when they pass by her cage. Sigh.

I've never had a bird as physically active and as mentally busy as Rosetta. She's full-on for most of the day and is a charming little thing, even though it's challenging trying to find ways to help her calm down. Playing is the best part of our relationship, though and I'm glad you started this thread, wrench13. It'll be fun reading peoples' responses.

 

[ParrotGenie]

i play with them all the time. My cockatoos love to bounce around and go upside down. I can even hold my cockatoo upside down and she play dead and then bounce right back up. My Cooper U2 male love it especially, he bounce himself to get me to bounce him in the air and love going upside down and back up and he do his playful playful squawk and then he will squeak and bounce his head up and down to get me to do it again. My female love to play fetch I throw the ball, or bottle and she bring it back and even love to chase and play pee-a-boo and hide. My male cockatiel does as well and love to be swing when he on me. It is not surprising with him, as he love the swing in his cage as well. He also love to chase my female cockatiel around and they play. She even climb his back, not to mate, but as he walking and then they chase each other and even throw the small ball at each other and etc. My female U2 play puzzles and color cup back in same color and also she throw the ring back in same row. I built a tower of cups and she knock them down and throw the cups around. It funny when she chase Cooper as they will have umbrella crest feathers up hopping around and go back and forth.

Now Frankie my little corella is the funnest as he actually play pee-a-boo and say it. He will fly somewhere and hide and when when I get close he pop out saying "pee-a-boo", or he go "hi my baby" obviously he had a female owner before. Then if I stop him from tearing something up. He go "Shame on You". He loves going upside down and he just hang on my arm like that for a few seconds like my Cooper they are my two most acrobatic birds I have. Frankie my little corella cockatoo loves to hang off of pretty much everything. He a very active bird and he fly everywhere. My Cooper male U2 can fly as well, but prefer to use me as his Uber and point and leans the direction he wants to go to, or he walk over to the area.

I remember when first meeting Frankie to train him at the time as he was know to be to aggressive and they didn't know how to deal with him. Turns out he only was aggresive when they had him in his enclosure, or cage. They when to go let him out of his cage and he flow out the front door and she didn't know he could fly and thought he was clipped. I felt sorry for him then as knew they didn't let him out as they would have known he could fly. Thankful he was flight train at some point, as whistle and he came off tree he was on and landed on my arm and bought him back inside, thankfully without biting me as first time meeting him. One of the reasons a year later I decided to adopt him off of them.

He would bite the last owners severely including one person lip and another one in the hand and arm and latch on and they claimed he wasn't active and liked being in the cage? Yhea right. Since I known him while working his behavior issues out. I only was bitten once, while the first time of me instead of owners getting him out of enclosure, then tried again to get him to step up, but with chopstick to let him go after stick instead of hand and never had a issue again with him. He is the quickest learning bird I trained in years and talks better then most African grey I dealt with. He knows a few full sentences and pretty much what they mean. At night bedtime he go "nighty night", when I put him in his cage for the night. He the most active bird I have beside my male Cockatiel and U2's next.

My female U2 named Baby is the most trouble marker of them all. She the one that has to figure everything out.

 

[texsize]

I can play with Bingo.
Roll him upside down and play tickle with him.
It does not last long, maybe 30 seconds max before he has had enough.

 

[chris-md]

Absolutely not. Parker is pretty hands off. Honestly, half the time I stare at him wondering what on earth I CAN do with him aside form hold him and talk to him.

 

[Ekkyparrotlet125]

�� sounds just like my Junior. These eckies lol ����*

 

[MMARC234]

I can totally do that with Leo! He actually hollers in my ear when he wants to play... ouch. Bluebell isn’t one for roughhousing usually, but she likes to play peekaboo and sing Adele with me as I do the dishes. Every once in a while I can gently poke her and say ‘boop’, which she views as a chance to run and perch on my hand while chattering away... silly birds.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Three of my 4 Conures go on their backs. North is still new and we're building trust still so I don't force it. Ollie goes on his back but won't play really...he would like to not go on his back but does it to humor mommy. But Finley and Paris will stay on their backs for a long time. Paris likes to get pets and scratches on her back but Finley let's me tickles his feet and plays with me and nibbles my hand. He also does this trick I thought him where I hold him in one hand on his back and then toss him in the air and he lands perched on my other hand. That reminds me I should film that sometime.

 

[Scott]

Most of my Goffins are playful and love to engage. Bouncing, rotating their heads in odd ways, loving to scrape their beaks on my fingers, twirling around on the floor, swaying back and forth left and right with their bodies, staring at and maneuvering for their shadows, etc. When sitting on my lap or shoulders, they love to play with my wiggling fingers, play biting (barely tapping the beak) and attacking. Some love to fly and often buzz my head, just scraping their feat on my hair.

 

[ChristaNL]

All 3 of them, but not for very long periods of time.


Rico- my first grey- would lie on his back as long as you'd give him scritches...needless to say it was the human that gave up first.

I sometimes would worry if his organs might shift or something from lying on his backside for so very long...

 

[LaManuka]

HRH Princess Lilly has had me pinned to the couch virtually all day today wanting skritches and playing and wrestling with her on her back with her little feet in the air. This is what my days off work are like ... I literally cannot get anything done around the house cos the wee girlie wants playtime ALL DAY, but that’s ok, I can’t resist those fuzzy green feathers and sweet little pink feet anyways ...

 

[clark_conure]

Both, and constantly.....

I mean it......constantly...I wonder how I get ANYTHING done.

+

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

I can have Amy lay on his back in my hand as he holds onto his perch stick with his feets and I move my hand in circles and go up and down with him. A couple times I was able to "toss" him from hand to hand while still on his back!
I have only done this a very few times and it is always over a bed! God forbid if something went wrong and I dropped him or whatever he'd have a soft landing area! He will also hang upside down from his perch stick and I can twirl him back and forth.

With BB we thumb wrestle. He loves it and gets down and dirty. Arms waving madly,hat high in the air,chirping/growling at the same time. Sometimes he gets so into it he actually BITES my thumb! He might not be as big as a 'zon...but dang that little beaky can hurt!!:52:


Jim

 

[Sandy19]

Peanut likes to pretend like shes a tiger. She flips herself over on her back hanging from my shirt and when I say "whose mama's tiger" she starts shaking her head and ruffling her feathers and makes kind of a roaring purring sound. Birds are strange characters lol.

 

[Allee]

Of my seven parrots only my cockatiel and one of my quakers will go on thier backs. My grey loves skritches, human interaction and conversation. My Amazon loves beak rubs, holding hands and singalongs. Two of my quakers developed a game I call bowling for quakers, they play this game when I clean cages, Sammy perches on top of my head, Harry does a screeching fly by to dethrone him, he flys away screeching and she takes his place, they do this until all the cages are clean then they each perch on my shoulders for a friendlier visit.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

All of my parrots hate being on their backs, which is especially unusual for a GCC like Kermit. Many conures love playing on their backs. I’ve never ever seen Kermit roll on his back. Even when he was a baby he’d never done it a single time. I see so many videos online of conures rolling around on their backs and wrestling, and I really wish I could do that with Kermit. I don’t force him to go on his back because I know he hates it and I don’t want him to lose trust in me.

Most cockatiels don’t play on their backs so I don’t expect anything like that from Ducky. My budgies don’t trust me enough to let me hold them on their backs. Both Ducky and Kermit are very cuddly and love scritches, and Kermit even crawls under my hand for cuddles. But no playing on their backs.

 

[clark_conure]

Flybirdiesfly just give it time and play with kermit in your hands more. flip them over bring them back, repeat, then don't for a few days then again....just make it something that happens, but isn't scary because it just happens....

Both zod and clark will play on their backs , not for a long while..but if they think they are getting the upper hand ......I can wrestle them for about a minute or so before they want to be on their feet and then go back. In anouther year they will probably just lay on their backs for fun if I do it right.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Clark conure my concern is that Kermit would find it scary and begin to lose trust in my hands. I just don’t want to risk it.

 

[clark_conure]

Clark conure my concern is that Kermit would find it scary and begin to lose trust in my hands. I just don’t want to risk it.

maybe put if you don't push a bird or test a bird (AFTER YOU GAIN ITS TRUST) then you won't be able to see how far they develop... They don't want to be afraid, if you show them nothing bad will happen they will bond further and trust more. Or.....have someone else do the exercise? so you are in no way to blame.