Lovebirds may be small but they are quite curious, inquisitive, bold, and always on the go. Some curious behavior that your lovebird may exhibit includes rubbing its beak against its cage.
This article will explore why your lovebird may be doing that.
Table of Contents
Lovebird rubbing beak on cage:
Birds may have different personalities but there are some things that all birds do as a way of communicating with us and with other birds.
Your bird rubbing its beak against its cage is one way of communicating.
Here are reasons why your lovebird may be doing this:
The cage is a napkin:
Lovebirds have had to find ways to keep themselves clean regardless of where they live. They keep clean whether they live in the wild or in your home.
These birds don’t have access to napkins like humans do but they do have access to their cage bars.
If your lovebird recently ate something juicy, like some juicy insects, some juicy fruit, or some suet, and the food left some debris on the bird’s beak, then your bird will wipe its beak off by rubbing its beak against the cage bars.
What to do:
This is quite normal behavior in lovebirds, and in all birds for that matter, and is nothing to worry about, let the bird be and allow it to keep itself clean in the way that it knows how.
It wants out of the cage:
If your lovebird isn’t allowed to come out of its cage as often as it wants then the bird will try to communicate to you that it wants out of the cage by rubbing its beak against its cage.
The bird will rub its beak on its cage and concentrate on the cage door when doing this as a way of letting you know that it wants to explore outside.
Because these birds are always on the go you may see this behavior very often in your lovebirds.
What to do:
You can grant your bird’s wish and let it out of the cage when it does this.
When you let the bird out remember to only do this in a bird-safe environment when your other pets (your dogs or cats) aren’t around.
Also, when doing this, make sure that your doors and windows are closed and your ceiling fans are turned off when letting the bird out.
Beak grinding:
Beak grinding looks like the bird is rubbing its beak against the cage bars but doing this very roughly.
Lovebirds are cute birds, they preen themselves to maintain their health and appearance and they will grind their beaks against their cage bars to keep up their appearance as well.
The outer layer of your lovebird’s beak, just as with any other bird’s beak, is made up of keratin. This keratin on your lovebird’s beak never stops growing, it is the same material that our hair and nails are made up of.
In order for the bird’s beak to keep from becoming misshapen and disfigured the bird will grind its beak against hard objects, like its cage bars, to maintain its shape. This may be what you are seeing
What to do:
You don’t have to do anything if this is what is going on with your bird.
The bird knows how much to grind its beak and knows when to stop so you don’t have to worry about the bird injuring itself as it does this.
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 Is My Bird Rubbing Its Face On Everything, Why Does My Conure Rub His Beak On The Cage?, Do Female Budgies Hump Things?, Female Budgie Not Allowing Male To Mate, Why Do Conures Rub Their Beaks On Things?, Parakeets Mating But No Eggs, Do Budgies Like Blankets?, Why Do Parakeets Rub Their Beaks Together?, Budgie Vomiting Undigested Seeds