Odin the pretty bird

[Cliffordsmom]

I recently seperated my two budgies to try and get them hand tamed. I think I may put them back together because the male (Odin) does absolutley nothing except sit in front of the mirror and talk to himself. he will go to the food bowl, get a mouth full and sit back in front of the mirror. I actually had to clean it because he tried to feed himself :-/. He thinks he is sooooo beautiful. He loves himself. He even sleeps in front of it. And he yells at me when I have to take it away to clean his regurgatation off of it.
You know he's got good taste. He is rather handsome, for a parakeet

 

[roxynoodle]

My male budgies did that, too. I think they think it's their mate in the reflection. I also had one that had this plastic bird that sat on a perch that he also tried to feed. Every day there was regurgitation all over it's fake, plastic beak.

They say you shouldn't give birds mirrors these days, but I don't know. They did like theirs a lot.

They also say parrots don't have recognition of self, but I think Alex, Irene Pepperberg's Grey disproved that. They say cats don't either, but I think mine does.

 

[Cliffordsmom]

I think I'm going to take out the mirrors. I know that he likes them but I guess it defeats the purpose of seperating them to tame them. Im still worried though without a play mate that they will be sad. The female seems to be ok, she sure has been singing a lot the past couple of days, and not shying away as much when I talk to her. She pays no attention to her mirrors.

 

[DannyA93]

They say not to put mirrors especially if ur trying to bond with them cuz they'll bond with the mirror bird and not with you so ya it does defeat the purpose of separating them in the first place.

 

[stephend]

I read that mirrors which distort the image can be acceptable.

 

[xiaomaizi85]

I agree with your thought.Thank you for your sharing.

 

[BillsBirds]

We often discuss mirrors here. I recently lost a budgie who loved her reflection. We took away the mirrors. She found her reflection in a bell, in the metal band on our furniture, anywhere she could. It stimulated her to lay infertile eggs (she lived by herself), and eventually it killed her due to a prolapsed cloaca. Males seem to love their reflection even more than females. I'm not sure that they see the reflection as a mate, because they can see their own blue cere. So, they know the reflection is a male. I do believe that many birds DO realize that the reflection is themselves. As proven by Alex & Dr. Pepperburg. For a good insight into parrot thinking, read "Alex & Me". A great book!