Why does my Finley shake is tail?

[Sunnyclover]

Finley shakes his tail quite often and not just when he's preening or doing something with his feathers. He shakes it sometimes during our interactions or afterwards. I kinda read up on it a bit but then I got confused. Do any of your birds shake their tails? If so what do they mean by it?

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

My birds shake their tails quite often while preening, especially Ducky. Not sure what to think of it... I’m sure it’s completely normal. My birds also fluff up their feathers and shake their whole bodies sometimes.

 

[Sunnyclover]

I'm not talking about while preening, that happens too. This is a tail shake for no reason other than it means something I'm not understanding. Ollie never shakes his tail unless he's preening and even then it's rare.

 

[Kiwibird]

I've always taken it as a happy gesture, or at least the Kiwi shakes his when happy/excited. Kind of like a dog, only with feathers and not constant.

 

[itzjbean]

I have witnessed my female cockatiel doing this before and it confused me so much! I mean she literally moved her tail side to side like she was wagging it like a dog. The only thing I could find online about this strange behavior is that she may be adjusting her tail feathers. Who knows... lol

 

[Sunnyclover]

I've seen a video of a cockatiel do what you're describing and it looks different, that's more of a tail wagging this is more of a fast shaking. My only conclusion is that he's really really happy? He does it right after I set him down a lot or whilst we're playing but never when he's busy alone playing. Hmmm.

 

[YUMgrinder]

My nanday does it a LOT. It might be a quirk of nandays? I've read it means they are happy. Cheddar does it just about everytime I set him down as if he's saying "hey, having outside time was great! now I can take a nap!" and he will do it when I set him on my belly when relaxing on the couch. Then he gets comfortable, scratches his head for awhile then takes a nap. If I let him cuddle in my neck he wags his tail while getting comfortable.

He sleeps a lot more than my other birds too.

 

[LordTriggs]

the one I remember Rio doing was in the video I had of him playing with his hammock and it definitely looks to be a happy/excited behavior

 

[Sunnyclover]

My nanday does it a LOT. It might be a quirk of nandays? I've read it means they are happy. Cheddar does it just about everytime I set him down as if he's saying "hey, having outside time was great! now I can take a nap!" and he will do it when I set him on my belly when relaxing on the couch. Then he gets comfortable, scratches his head for awhile then takes a nap. If I let him cuddle in my neck he wags his tail while getting comfortable.

He sleeps a lot more than my other birds too.

Ty LT!

But yeah you're describing Finn to a T munis the napping. He'd soon rather die than nap and miss out on something fun!

 

[YUMgrinder]

My nanday does it a LOT. It might be a quirk of nandays? I've read it means they are happy. Cheddar does it just about everytime I set him down as if he's saying "hey, having outside time was great! now I can take a nap!" and he will do it when I set him on my belly when relaxing on the couch. Then he gets comfortable, scratches his head for awhile then takes a nap. If I let him cuddle in my neck he wags his tail while getting comfortable.

He sleeps a lot more than my other birds too.

Ty LT!

But yeah you're describing Finn to a T munis the napping. He'd soon rather die than nap and miss out on something fun!

Cheddar naps constantly. Always tucked into his back. I've had him about 4 months now, he weighed under 80 grams when I got him. He's a healthy weight now. Its amazing the difference in his demeanor than my other conures, so I'm glad to hear fin shows some of the same characteristics. Does fin dunk his food in water before eating it? I haven't ever seen my other birds do it, but cheddar will pick up a pellet, waddle over to the water, dunk it, shake his head, dunk it some more, shake his head, go back to the food bowl and eat it. repeat. I actually moved his water away from the food bowl so he has to go to the other side lol, I figure, if he's gonna make me change his water 18 times a day cause of the mess he makes in his water bowl, I mind as well make him work for it lol.

 

[GaleriaGila]

The Rb shakes his tail when he's settling in on a perch, or on my shoulder, or getting ready to stop doing one thing and start doing another... it seems to be a sort of punctuation. I'm also pretty sure that sometimes he shakes it when he sees the dog shake, which she does for no apparent reason.

 

[Sunnyclover]

My nanday does it a LOT. It might be a quirk of nandays? I've read it means they are happy. Cheddar does it just about everytime I set him down as if he's saying "hey, having outside time was great! now I can take a nap!" and he will do it when I set him on my belly when relaxing on the couch. Then he gets comfortable, scratches his head for awhile then takes a nap. If I let him cuddle in my neck he wags his tail while getting comfortable.

He sleeps a lot more than my other birds too.

Ty LT!

But yeah you're describing Finn to a T munis the napping. He'd soon rather die than nap and miss out on something fun!

Cheddar naps constantly. Always tucked into his back. I've had him about 4 months now, he weighed under 80 grams when I got him. He's a healthy weight now. Its amazing the difference in his demeanor than my other conures, so I'm glad to hear fin shows some of the same characteristics. Does fin dunk his food in water before eating it? I haven't ever seen my other birds do it, but cheddar will pick up a pellet, waddle over to the water, dunk it, shake his head, dunk it some more, shake his head, go back to the food bowl and eat it. repeat. I actually moved his water away from the food bowl so he has to go to the other side lol, I figure, if he's gonna make me change his water 18 times a day cause of the mess he makes in his water bowl, I mind as well make him work for it lol.

Fin is big for his age at 140 grams and waddles around like the giant doofus he is. My husband and I think he might be a bit "special" because he seems like he doesn't understand things like my Sun Conure Ollie does. He also dips his food in his water but instead of dropping it in and eating it if he drops it he thinks it's gone forever. His water is a total tragedy like 5 mins and I'm the slave who gets him new water. I have never seen him take a nap ever since he stopped needing to be hand fed. Smartest conure species my butt.

 

[Carl_Power]

I have to put water in Xanders pellets so they are soggy or he wont touch them. Give it a try . I think he might be smarter than you think lol. X

 

[YUMgrinder]

Ty LT!

But yeah you're describing Finn to a T munis the napping. He'd soon rather die than nap and miss out on something fun!

Cheddar naps constantly. Always tucked into his back. I've had him about 4 months now, he weighed under 80 grams when I got him. He's a healthy weight now. Its amazing the difference in his demeanor than my other conures, so I'm glad to hear fin shows some of the same characteristics. Does fin dunk his food in water before eating it? I haven't ever seen my other birds do it, but cheddar will pick up a pellet, waddle over to the water, dunk it, shake his head, dunk it some more, shake his head, go back to the food bowl and eat it. repeat. I actually moved his water away from the food bowl so he has to go to the other side lol, I figure, if he's gonna make me change his water 18 times a day cause of the mess he makes in his water bowl, I mind as well make him work for it lol.

Fin is big for his age at 140 grams and waddles around like the giant doofus he is. My husband and I think he might be a bit "special" because he seems like he doesn't understand things like my Sun Conure Ollie does. He also dips his food in his water but instead of dropping it in and eating it if he drops it he thinks it's gone forever. His water is a total tragedy like 5 mins and I'm the slave who gets him new water. I have never seen him take a nap ever since he stopped needing to be hand fed. Smartest conure species my butt.

No way Me and my gf joke that cheddar isn't "all there" we call him our special bird! HAHA that's hilarious. Yea cheddar loses a lot of food in the water bowl too, and just goes and gets another one lol. Cheddar is a clumsy mess. How old is fin? They said cheddar was born in april, so he's a year old or almost a year old but he still acts like a baby.

cheddar also does this wing flip thing he hasn't grown out of, he bobs his head a little and flips his wings and does a little sqwuak. Does fin do this also?

 

[Sunnyclover]

Finn is also a clumsy mess! He also goes to the bottom of his cage or play stand and walks all over his poopy...doesn't care. Fin is 6 months old now and does the baby flapping thing sometimes too and makes the baby cry noise too every now and then. Sometimes he's about as smart as a bag of broken hammers...err well most of the time. We did manage to potty train him quite easily and so we thought he was really really smart but ummmm...must have been a fluke. But yay...at least he doesn't poop on me!

 

[YUMgrinder]

Finn is also a clumsy mess! He also goes to the bottom of his cage or play stand and walks all over his poopy...doesn't care. Fin is 6 months old now and does the baby flapping thing sometimes too and makes the baby cry noise too every now and then. Sometimes he's about as smart as a back of broken hammers...err well most of the time. We did manage to potty train him quite easily and so we thought he was really really smart but ummmm...must have been a fluke. But yay...at least he doesn't poop on me!

Cheddar does that too actually. They are quite similar except for the napping lol. He always goes to the bottom of their perch, it goes all the way to the ceiling so all their food scraps and poopies fall to the pan at the bottom, he goes down there and forages for dropped pellets (even though theres some in the food bowl) and gets pooped on by the birds above him. waddles right through all the poop. gross. Yesterday I was impressed that he consciously moved from his cuddle spot on my belly to my leg and then leaned over and poo'd NOT on me so I thanked him for not pooping on me lol.

 

[Taprock]

Wow do your stories sound familiar! Ziggy is only part Nanday but you have totally described him. He leaves safflower seeds husks in his water dish along with scraps of everything, because everything MUST be dipped! We call it his Parrot Soup, always gross within minutes. And foraging on the bottom of the cage! Throws everything but then has to go reevaluate what’s down there. One time I found him playing with a toy he had thrown down earlier, it wasn’t worth his time then but now that it had poop on it it was suddenly entertaining! And yes he wags his tail.

 

[Sunnyclover]

This is absolutely hilarious! I feel like Finley's half Oscar the grouch and would live in a trash can if he could lol. It's like he just goes about his day like derp derp derp...and is always wondering why his favorite toys are thrown off the edge of his cage...oh yeah derp he did that 5 seconds ago. Today was really special...it was close to bedtime and he hadn't gotten as much attention as he'd like (I was cooking at home for an event later in the week) so we was throwing his toys having a tantrum and he started yelling for me to pick them up and when I didn't he tried to get them and so I went to get him and he very well knew it and bit me! I'm like "I'm helping you! Why?" Then he looks at me like with his derpy look like "hi mommy I wuv you" and flops on to his back in my hand. Ugggg lol

 

[YUMgrinder]

This is absolutely hilarious! I feel like Finley's half Oscar the grouch and would live in a trash can if he could lol. It's like he just goes about his day like derp derp derp...and is always wondering why his favorite toys are thrown off the edge of his cage...oh yeah derp he did that 5 seconds ago. Today was really special...it was close to bedtime and he hadn't gotten as much attention as he'd like (I was cooking at home for an event later in the week) so we was throwing his toys having a tantrum and he started yelling for me to pick them up and when I didn't he tried to get them and so I went to get him and his you and he cery well knew it and bit me! I'm like "I'm helping you! Why?" Then he looks at me like with his derpy look like "hi mommy I wuv you" and flops on to his back in my hand. Ugggg lol

haha that's so funny! Cheddar doesn't go on his back. But he scratches his head real slow an abnormal amount. He lays down on my belly and scratches away but super slow. Must be itchy

 

[YUMgrinder]

Thought I'd share since we were talking about nandays and dunkers in general. This is cheddar tonight eating a snack

[ame="https://youtu.be/1DYVGZjoxHo"]https://youtu.be/1DYVGZjoxHo[/ame]