Is playful wrestling good?

[Boki]

I decided that I should check this activity before continuing with it. When I have played with dogs and cats, I have found that "playing" with the animal was sort of like a wrestling match. You know, tug of war with a rope, wrestling, etc. The animal seems to have fun doing this.

So I have been sort of doing this with my 1 and half year old conure. We sort of tangle when she gets to nipping on my finger. Unlike the dogs and cats who are clearly enjoying the activity, I am not about the conure's response.

So the question is whether or not other parronts sort of tangle with their conures as a means of play?

 

[Laurasea]

I play fetch, and have them pick up objects and out them in a cup. No I don't wrestle.......
Unsure if advice to give. But if it leads to bites, I do not think that's good.
Salty does lots of tricks with his Amazon. Maybe you could train those, like jump through hoops, roll over ECT..

 

[wrench13]

Salty, my yellow shouldr amazon will play rough sometimes, but with any parrot, they have a thresh hold where rough play can deteriorate into biting, so you need to read your parrots body language well. He will play with my fingers while lying on his back, as I try to tickle his belly, that kind of stuff. Parrots do play in the wild, and I believe its important in captivity too. Just know when to stop before the YEOWCH takes place.

 

[ParrotGenie]

My birds love to play and will hang off towel love to get drag and hang upside down and hide in it to pop out and play peekaboo, Frankie learn to say peekaboo when he pops out and hides again and play fetch and etc. They do get rough at times. They can get to excited and that course can lead to a quick bite. A smaller bird bite not so bad, but my large U2's they can bite hard. It is funny when they throw the ball at each other and run around chasing each other. They do love to help each other get into to trouble as well. Like my female U2 is bigger, so she can't reach for wire that I hide, so instead of giving up, she realized Cooper could reach it, so she gets Cooper my male U2 to drag it out for her, since he can fit in spot and they use to unlock each other cage, one would escape and unlocks the other cage when I had them separate back in the day. They even let the cockatiels out one time while at work. You can imagine the cleanup of the bird room I had to do the next day. Thankfully I bird proof the room. The curtain didn't survive thanks to Cooper that tore it to pieces. Randy the Macaw was the only one that didn't destroy anything that day. She normally behaved and only one I can trust to leave out. Even my cockatiels are as bad as my U2's, they destroyed a fair share of stuff and wood, I repaired. They are smaller versions of cockatoos pretty much.

Since then modified locks on cages, install IP cameras and have neighbor checkup and play with them, since the macaw is hers and she has experience with birds , plus she had a cockatiel for 20 years and she take them and let them out in house and outside if gone for a while to play. Only ones not allow to free roam outside is my cockatiels as don't want hawks to get them, so they have to stay in a cage outside, they are flight trained and do listen, sometimes selective listening. Yes birds love to play and get into trouble. I considered turning one of the sheds, since cleaned out and ran pipe with power to it recently into a nice large outdoor aviary. Another project for different day, plus want to get water ran as well.

 

[fiddlejen]

... .... We sort of tangle when she gets to nipping on my finger. Unlike the dogs and cats who are clearly enjoying the activity, I am not about the conure's response.

So the question is whether or not other parronts sort of tangle with their conures as a means of play?

I think if she was enjoying it you would know.

I seem to recall a similar post from someone else while Had Been engaging in similar activity for some time, leading to hand-aggression on the part of the bird.

I will gently rub my Sun Conure's beak, or various other overtures (such as scritches) to which she may respond by chewing on my fingers. I use this as a daily opportunity for bite pressure-training,. She very clearly loves it and seeks it out.

If you want to continue your hand-interactions with your birdie, try looking up pressure-training. Maybe transform your wrestling nto pressure training?

Also maybe try some target training. Birds are unbelievably smart and would usually love to learn something, or do something complex.

Thought to keep in mind about the wrestling. IF she likes it, she will seek it. What will that look like? A happy bird Bopping you with her beak for scritches? Or will Birdie seeking wrestling match Look like an aggressive bird seeking a fight?