Galah body lanuage

[davewa]

Had a nice day with Bob today while he was in the big house out side, but as I now know that January is grumpy time for Bob I was watching him a little closer.
When he first went in to the outside cage I talked to him and gave him a pat on the back which is normal for us and he is use to it. He made his head only fluff out a bit which I noticed he started to do when his moods changed mid December. He then went to bite my hand which I made into a fist so he could not break the skin and said NO, he kept trying and I kept saying no. After that it was step up without biting and cuddles and all nice.
When it came time to go inside, again with the fluffy head and the biting and running away until I gave up after 20 min and put my hands around him a put him in his house.
So now I know when the head is big expect a nip or take precautions, previously I thought that meant he liked someone.

[vankarhi]

I can remember with my galah girl Bo, that she would fluff up when she wanted a scratch. But you can observe your bird and get to know his moods better than me from here lol I also have some welding gloves when handling my adult ekkies and gardening gloves for my younger ekkies and other birds if I think they are going to bite me and I need them to be going somewhere.....like back into their cage. This way they can bite me till the cows come home......but I don't react and they do learn that biting gets no reaction.

There are some who don't agree with gloves........but it works for me and my birds are used to them.....well not initially but they do get used to them.

[davewa]

Yes I tried gloves a few times but he freaked every time he saw them so I just took the hit a few more times. Bob fluffs up all over when he is loving and bows his head for a scratch but this head only fluff seems new to me or I just did not notice for the past 6 yrs

[davewa]

Oh I nearly forgot pls excuse the spelling typo