Dramatic increase in female display? Nesting?

[Lilu86]

Well long story short - in the last few days Lily has increased her flirting display rather dramatically. Previously it was only when coming out of her cage and for the first 5 odd minutes of head scratches and out of cage time (she came like that and I have other birds so am aware of the courtship process.) So far I've been working on only encouraging scratches and out of cage time when she does not display at me.

Over the last few days though, this courting display has begun to show around and hour or so before bed time and is happening on the floor of the cage in one corner. I've delt with laying birds in the past so am not overly concerned about the appearance of eggs. I am however concerned that if I dont get a handle on our 'relationship' now it will only transgress further.

Lily is one of my two first IRNs so I have little experiance with them as a species. I have bred and raised Cockatiels for many years now and not once was any laying routined to a particular time of the day/night. So my questions are:)

Has she begun to cycle?
Do I act on this display increase or ignore it?
Am I being pedantic?

Obviously any advice would be fantastic.

[ringneck]

Hello Lilu86,

I think you’re doing everything just fine. I don’t know exactly what region you live in but it might be breeding season in your area. As long as there is not a nesting box around she is fine and she should not lay any eggs. Is she does lay eggs you have the choice to remove them or let her incubate them. I let my females just incubate even though they are not fertile .

Also, you don’t have to do anything different then you have been doing. This cycle will pass. Sounds like you’re one wonderful bird owner who cares about their pet parrots and not pedantic. If only we had more parrot owners like you .

Hope this helps.

Best Wishes ,

IMRAN-C

[Lilu86]

Thank you Imran. Glad to know I'm not adding to the issue. I'm situated in Brisbane Australia and it's the middle of winter at the moment. She has no boxes or huts so nothing specific to bring on the laying. Hopefully it's just a passing craze.