Animals have body parts that humans don’t have, but don’t be alarmed, if an animal has a certain body part then this is likely for good reason and the animal will use that body part as it sees fit.
If your female budgie is rubbing its vent you’d be right to be confused, this article explores why your bird may be doing this.
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Female budgie rubbing vent:
Budgies can’t talk to us but this doesn’t mean that they can’t communicate or that we can’t tell how they are feeling or how they are doing, this is why your budgie may be rubbing its vent:
Irritation:
The bird may be rubbing its vent because the bird is itchy. Your budgie can, unfortunately, get sick and one of the side effects of the bird’s sickness may be an itchy vent.
The reason behind your bird rubbing its vent may be worms.
Another reason why your bird may be rubbing it’s vent may be that the vent is itchy because of poor hygiene.
What to do:
First check that your bird’s vent is actually clean, if not you can give the bird a bath to clean the vent. You’d need to maintain good hygiene in your bird by bathing it regularly and checking on its vent regularly.
If your bird’s vent is clean, and you’re thinking that the bird has worms, then you’d need to take the bird to the vet to be examined and treated.
Masturbation:
Birds will go through different phases in life, and these phases can be triggered by the bird’s hormones.
Male and female budgies will masturbate by rubbing their vents on different objects. While this is more common in male birds your female birds can start to do this too.
The bird may sit or squat and rub itself against cage bars, on perches, on their favorite toys, on your hand, on your shoulder, or even against mirrors
What to do:
If the bird is doing this against you this likely means that the bird sees you as a mate.
If this is the case then you can communicate that this behavior is not appropriate by shaking your hand gently when the bird does this to make the bird uncomfortable.
You can also discourage this behavior by putting the bird away in its cage and walking away to show that this is not ok.
If the bird stops this behavior after you’ve shaken your hand then you can start to praise the bird as a way of communicating that stopping this behavior is good.
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 Do Birds Chirp In The Afternoon, Why Does My Bird Put His Food In His Water?, Why Do Birds Chirp While Eating?, Female Budgie Sitting In Food Bowl, Why Does My Cockatiel Sit In His Water Dish?