Budgie Possibly Regurgitating to Toy

[nikku]

TLDR: Recently, my budgie seems to be regurgitating (or at least making the motions?) to his toy. Is this a bad thing? If so, should I get rid of the toy to discourage this behavior?

Recently, I've noticed that my budgie (Beau) has been possibly regurgitating to one of his favorite toys. However, I am not 100% sure. It is just because of the motions he makes that I believe he is regurgitating. When I check the toy though, there is no sign of food or liquid and this is what makes me doubt the possibility of him regurgitating. However, I have never seen him act this way to the toy before until about a few days ago. I haven't been able to successfully capture a video of him doing this yet nor have I seen any bird regurgitation videos that look similar to what he is doing, so I will try my best to describe what I see:

The toy consists of a big wooden apple, a big plastic-like leaf, and also has smaller wooden rectangles. Beau mostly interacts with the wooden rectangles by tugging at them and speaking to them. When Beau is doing his "regurgitating," he still tugs at the rectangles, but he lays himself down flatter, tilts his head slightly, and basically looks like he's trying to feed it. I've checked the toy twice now (immediately after I see him do this) to see nothing but scratch/bite marks. They don't even feel wet.

I once read somewhere that if your bird is regurgitating to their toy(s), it is a "bad thing" because they may see it as their potential mate and it can affect them psychologically(?) if their "mate" doesn't regurgitate back. Beau did this again today and when I looked up more answers, people also said that apparently this is normal behavior? What do you all think?

[Marianne Marlow]

He's probably feeding it but then bringing the seeds back in when the toy doesn't "accept" them.

It is normal, but if he gets obsessed with the toy you may want to limit activity with it or take it away.

Does he have other toys that you could rotate?

[nikku]

Aug 16, 2022 7:44:47 GMT Marianne Marlow said:

He's probably feeding it but then bringing the seeds back in when the toy doesn't "accept" them.

It is normal, but if he gets obsessed with the toy you may want to limit activity with it or take it away.

Does he have other toys that you could rotate?

Yes, he has other toys and they are in the cage (and also outside), but he does not play with them much. This wooden apple toy is 1 of 2 that has been with him since I got him, so maybe that's why?

Would "obsessive behavior" just equal him doing this all the time?

[nikku]

I forgot to mention that Beau is also very territorial over this toy. Some months ago, I tried playing with him using that toy, but he began biting me really hard every time I touched it. He never used to do that before. Since he continued this behavior, I just stopped trying to touch it. I may have overlooked this fact because I thought he was territorial over everything in his cage, but after seeing him do the "feeding" behavior again just now, I took the toy away. While I was doing so, Beau was aggressively biting me the entire time. Not hard enough to bleed, but it felt like he was telling me to let it go. Does this mean he really does see it as his mate?

[Hezz]

Any territorial behaviour should be discouraged, especially towards toys as they do need to be washed regularly, break or become unsafe. The last thing you want is a bird getting depressed because a favourite toys has broken. Before I read the territorial bit I was going to write “leave him be unless he becomes possessive of his toy”. He already is, so remove the toy, put something different in its place and don’t give them back to him for a few weeks, and then somewhere he rarely goes to, leave it only for a day or two and remove again. Once he shifts his focus onto something else the toy should just joint the others in the regular toy rotation. If you do a toy rotate on a regular basis this fixation on a particular item does occur.

[nikku]

Aug 17, 2022 1:08:44 GMT Hezz said:

Any territorial behaviour should be discouraged, especially towards toys as they do need to be washed regularly, break or become unsafe. The last thing you want is a bird getting depressed because a favourite toys has broken. Before I read the territorial bit I was going to write “leave him be unless he becomes possessive of his toy”. He already is, so remove the toy, put something different in its place and don’t give them back to him for a few weeks, and then somewhere he rarely goes to, leave it only for a day or two and remove again. Once he shifts his focus onto something else the toy should just joint the others in the regular toy rotation. If you do a toy rotate on a regular basis this fixation on a particular item does occur.

Thanks for the advice! I will make sure to follow this and see if it works. It's a good thing I didn't decide to completely throw it away. 😅

[Hezz]

Throwing it away would just be a waste, and I hate waste. If it is a toy that can come back in another form, all the better, but usually a break from the love interest is all that is required.