Parrot Footedness

[Michael]

I'm curious if right or left footedness is dominant amongst captive parrots so here's a poll. I know many of you have multiple birds so for the poll, put the most common for all your birds and then provide specifics in your posts. So if you have 3 lefties and 2 righties, vote lefties so we can see which is more common in general. The footedness of your parrot can be determined by which foot it holds food in or uses to hold its toys.

[Michael]

Kili is right footed.

[tacotaco]

i had to go back and look thru my pics to see lol - he is left footed in every single one

[MandyG]

Mojo will step up with either foot, although usually if he's playing his game where he pretends he's going to step up but he really just holds my finger to chew on me (playfully, not hard) he'll usually use his right foot. But he will actually step up with the right foot as well.

Usually when he's holding food or toys he uses his right foot, but I'm sure I've seen him use his left as well. For now I've put both but this is something I'm going to watch for tonight!

*Update*

I played with Mojo a bit last night to see which foot he really does use more. I handed him different objects multiple times, different types of food, moved him from different surfaces (perch, arm of couch, back of chair, etc.) and asked for a lot of step ups. My conclusion is that he uses both feet! I'd say he uses his right foot 60-70% of the time and his left 30-40% of the time!

[Natacha]

Haha..this is me voting before reading your post Micheal..I voted the last thing because of "both", referring to the fact that there is no general consensus between mine and that some of them actually seem to use both feet.

Piper - Lovebird - seems to be left footed. She doesn't really use her feet to hold things, but she steps up with her left foot first.
Shade - Senegal - uses both. She steps up with her left foot but eats normally with her right (but sometimes she does use the left one)
Joey - Red-bellied - is right footed.
Petey - Meyer's - is left footed.
Zuri - Meyer's - Also uses both feet freely, but seems to have a slight preference for the left.

[MissLady9902]

Both Marvin and Noodle are left footed. I never thought about it until you brought it up!

[tacotaco]

looks like they're the opposite of humans! seems that lefty is more dominant (so far!)

[Michael]

I have read that left foot is prevailingly dominant in wild parrots, however, I wanted to check with parrot owners to see. If I come across my source again, I'll be sure to share the findings.

I guess Kili is an extraordinary "lefty" then...

[windharper]

I've wondered about this as well as Tamber is very clearly a lefty.

Teyla doesn't really favor either one, except that she will put more weight on her right when she is moving around her cage. I don't consider this conclusive as this means she is grasping the next foothold with her left.

[pchela]

I've always read that most parrots are lefties with the Caique being an exception with more righties in the species. I haven't paid much attention so I'll have to get back to you after breakfast tomorrow.