Your bird uses its beak to rub on a lot of things, the bird may rub its beak on its cage bars, on you, on other birds and your bird may rub its beak on its perch, but why is this?
This article is an exploration of why your bird is rubbing its beak on its perch.
Table of Contents
Bird rubbing beak on perch:
There are a variety of reasons why your bird is rubbing its beak on its perch, none of these are harmful but it is beneficial to know why your bird may be doing this
Exploring:
If you’ve just brought the bird into your home then your new bird may rub its beak on its perch, or rub its beak on a variety of different things as a way of exploring its surroundings.
This is normal behavior and your bird is simply trying to figure out what is what. Because the beak has nerve endings the beak can actually feel the surfaces.
What to do:
Allow the bird to explore its environment and figure out what is in its environment, the bird will stop once it is satisfied with itself and understands what is in its environment.
Beak cleaning:
If your bird’s food bowl is near your bird’s perch and your bird eats while sitting on its food bowl then the bird may be using its perch as a napkin.
Birds in the wild and in domesticated settings like to keep clean and if they can’t take a dip in some water after eating then they will use whatever surface is available to clean themselves and their beaks after they’ve eaten.
This is more common if the bird has been eating foods that are juicy, these foods likely got stuck on the bird’s beak and need removing.
This beak wiping is also common if the bird eats foods that leave a lot of debris on the beak.
What to do:
The bird knows how to clean itself and you don’t have to do anything to help the bird clean itself. Let the bird be.
You may have to clean the bird’s perch more often if the bird wipes its beak on its perch often.
Beak grinding:
Bird beaks are made up of an inner bony structure and an outer keratin layer. This keratin layer is constantly growing and needs to be ground down.
In the wild, bird beaks are ground down by the bird and the shape and length are maintained by the bird grinding its beak on rough surfaces.
These rough surfaces can sometimes be the perch that the bird is standing on.
Your bird will simply continue this behavior in your home and will grind its beak on any rough surface that it can find, and this rough surface may be the bird’s perch.
What to do:
If your bird is doing this then this means that the bird hasn’t found any other hard surfaces that it can use to grind its beak down using.
If your bird has a natural wood perch, and is using this to grind its beak down with, then you don’t have to worry.
Giving your bird a cuttlebone, that it can use to grind its beak down, may also be helpful.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Does My Bird Sleep In His Food Bowl, How To Clean A Parrot Beak, Pigeon Diarrhea Home Remedy, Cockatiel Beak Fungus, Why Do Birds Rub Their Beaks On Each Other?, Why Is My Budgie’s Poop Green And Watery, Why Is My Cockatiels Beak Peeling