budgie chattering beak?

[anneekins]

one of our budgies, who we have had for only a few weeks, has been doing a strange beak clacking movement whenever we're near. he will step up most of the time, stay on our finger or shoulder while sitting or walking around the room, and he doesn't generally seem scared or overly nervous when interacting with us. this is not the kind of soft chewing motion sleepy budgies make, nor does it seem like he is sick, panting or trying to bite. he is active, normally vocal, and his poop looks just fine. i have never seen a budgie do anything similar. can anyone clue us in??? :S

and yes, he has been quarantined from the rest of the birds, so no worries there. :)

[Pippin's mom]

I'm not sure wha you mean by a beak clacking movement? Do you mean he's making a movement like opening and closing his beak several times in a row or is he actually making a sound? If he's openng and closing his beak like in a yawn several times in a row he is adjusting his crop and its normal.:)

[anneekins]

it's really hard to explain...
sometimes he will make a sound, but most of the time it's just like...opening the beak a little bit then closing it, pretty fast, rinse, repeat. i'll try to take a video of it later on tonight and maybe that'll help.

[Pippin's mom]

That really does sound like he's just adjusting his crop.:)

[anneekins]

even if he does it for like minutes at a time? it does not look like yawning btw, more of a rapid opening/closing, but if that's what the crop thing can look like then that's a huge relief. :)

[atvchick95]

when they adjust their crop it looks like they're gagging

do you talk to him alot?, I noticed when I had just tweety (way back in the day oh wait that was only a year ago lol) that the more I talked to him the more i saw him opening/closing his mouth - even if i wasn't talking to him

I chalked it up to him trying to talk, but then I got another bird, and that all changed. he's never done it again - hes to occupied with his girlfriend (jasmine) and all the other birds to care about me any more lol

[anneekins]

he does do it mostly when talked to or when perched on our finger. i did take a short video clip of it, but not sure how well you'll be able to tell from it. figured i'd give it a shot regardless. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm-431hm9_c

edit: ignore the guinea pig squeaks in the background. that's just lentil wanting us to leave the budgie alone and give him attention. :D

[atvchick95]

He is panting , -he's nervous/ scared

how long have you had him?

[aka.pody]

That does look more like he's scared. Are his wings clipped?

[Pippin's mom]

He does look nervous or scared even minus the panting. You can see it in his body language. Is he fairly new to your flock?

[Anfiska]

So, someone mentioned a budgie doing something that looks like gagging. Mine has began to do that almost all the time. I'm not sure why. She (I figured it's a girl cause the cere isn't so bright blue..not sure if I'm right or wrong) isn't as loud and vocal as she used to be, but just chatters quetly..squeeks and stuff. Anyway, I'm not sure if she's sick or maybe it's just a weird thing that she does...

http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff114/AllaVthemoon/?action=view&current=MOV01657.flv

[mike_art03a]

So, someone mentioned a budgie doing something that looks like gagging. Mine has began to do that almost all the time. I'm not sure why. She (I figured it's a girl cause the cere isn't so bright blue..not sure if I'm right or wrong) isn't as loud and vocal as she used to be, but just chatters quetly..squeeks and stuff. Anyway, I'm not sure if she's sick or maybe it's just a weird thing that she does...

http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff114/AllaVthemoon/?action=view&current=MOV01657.flvShe's still a young one, so I wouldn't worry too much. My female, Tikki, who's about a year old has her moments where she's really chirpy and then she's quiet. In general, females tend to be the quieter ones of the two. As for her beak thing, mine 2 do it too. Looks like they're yawning/stretching their muscles.

Though I wonder about that sometimes... Tikki's more boisterous than Sparky at times.

[anneekins]

he's somewhat new, yeah. we've had him for about a month now. he has been stepping up without much of a problem since we got him, and has been getting out of cage socializing time with us at least twice daily, while being talked and sung to.

i'm not really sure what is scaring him, or how to make him less scared other than what we've been doing, but i don't wanna stress him out too much either...:S if anyone has ideas, please feel free to throw them our way...

or hey, maybe he just doesn't like my boyfriend's singing!:D

[Anfiska]

Hahaha, I'm the last person who should be singing, but Pickles doesn't seem to mind it terribly. She chimes in sometimes to help me out..or drown me out.

Anyway, I think he's just scared cause he's pretty new to all that. I mean I have heard of birdies no liking someone's tone of voice or the sound of some words, but they showed it by getting angry and snapping. *shrug*

[anneekins]

lol, i am not sure if the bf could handle being snapped at for his singing. i think it would break his little heart. :p

by the way, yes, he is wing-clipped (the bird, not the bf ;)). he rarely will flutter off our finger outside the cage, but when he does, we let him explore a bit before asking him to step up again, which he willingly does. he doesn't nip or squawk at us, ever, or try to flee. it's just the panting that has us puzzled...is he just too scared to bite or run away, even after a month of daily repetition???

[SpickyDavies]

they grind their beak when their happy