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 Post subject: Amusing mutual preening attempts
PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:16 am 
Lovebird
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Name: Jessi
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So for a while, Lucy has tried to get Alex to preen her. Alex is never really interested in trying to preen someone else, as opposed to being preened. I'm not sure if she even knows how to preen another bird.

Today I noticed that while Lucy had her head lowered for scritches, Alex also lowered her head. Alex doesn't exactly know how to lower her head in the way most cockatiels do when asking for scritches though. She stretches her neck outward and just kinda lowers her whole body (I'll try to get a picture so you know what I'm talking about).

The thing is with Alex is that she is VERY pushy when it comes to scritches. If I stop petting her and my hand is still within reach, she'll start to lightly peck at it. She started doing this to Lucy when Lucy didn't preen her, and it turned into a short dispute where Lucy pecked back, and they'd spend a couple seconds just kinda hissing at each other. Then they'll both ask to be preened again, rinse and repeat.

This went on for a minute before they both gave up and went their separate ways.

Watching these two interact sometimes is hilarious. :lol:
But hey, it appears Alex is starting to learn that she's a bird, given she's understanding that birds are supposed to preen each other.
Now if Lucy would start by preening Alex, maybe Alex will learn how to preen another bird, since I'm not sure she knows how to do that yet.

Is it normal for two cockatiels of the same sex wanting to preen or be preened by each other, or is this some kind of budding romance? Do I have two lesbian cockatiels now? :lol:



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 Post subject: Re: Amusing mutual preening attempts
PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 5:14 pm 
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Name: Carolyn
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Mutual preening is usually more of a romance thing so it might not happen. But there's always a chance. Head-butting and light pecking and complaining are all things that cockatiels do to each other when they want to be preened but the other bird isn't cooperating.

I frequently see Elvis and Priscilla with their heads pressed together making squeaking noises at each other. The funniest part is that lately I can say something like "come on guys, somebody start doing some preening so you can have babies" and one of them will actually preen the other for about a second and a half. It's not long enough to turn into serious romance, but there's hope for them yet.



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 Post subject: Re: Amusing mutual preening attempts
PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 3:16 pm 
Lovebird
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Name: Jessi
Posts: 1230
Joined: Jul 2015
Location: Tucson
Gave happy chirps: 83 times
Got happy chirps: 92 times
Well a quick update on this: It looked like Lucy tried to preen Alex while she was preening herself. However Alex didn't quite understand what she was doing at the time (either that or she just didn't want to be preened by another bird at the moment) and told her to back off.

I noticed that that as soon as Lucy asks for scritches, Alex will immediately preening herself. Specifically, she will scratch her own head and neck with her foot (slowly too, as opposed to how cockatiels usually do it). I wonder if she's trying to taunt Lucy by doing this? :lol:



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