Female IRN is SUPER affectionate and hormonal, any advice?

[jmlw7]

Hi all,

It's been a couple of months since Ive been on here, its been busy!

For those who are new to our world of Remy , she is about 15 months old now and last I wrote we were having screaming problems due to hormones. Well... we have come to actually understand her screaming. Actually, the screaming and calling sounds very similar and both extremely loud and happens when one of us disappears from the room, if she is bored, if she is thirsty, if she is tired, and if she just wants to. There is always a reason for her screaming, although sometimes we arent quite sure WHY she is screaming. For example, she forages for a pistachio and then flies onto the kitchen counter and screams her head off. We know she's thirsty but ignore her. Then she takes a sip of water and she's quiet. Goofball. So in a nutshell (get it haha), the screaming continues... we ignore it, but it continues. And she still wont put herself to bed anymore. I still dont know why she stopped putting herself to bed, but every single night we have to get her on our finger and then turn ALL lights off just so we can put her in her cage without her seeing where she is going and flying away. Its ridiculous. Some things just wont change although we are waiting for it to.

ANYWAY, she is SUPER affectionate now. I cannot even begin to explain how she is affectionate towards EVERYONE. And this I mean every time we pass by or talk to her quietly or slowly lift a hand, she gets in her female mating position and clucks and wont stop until you pet her head or cheeks or neck for a good few seconds at least. Twice now - once on our honeymoon and another this past Thanksgiving, we left her with the birdiesitter and she got in the mating position with her too (just her because she thinks she is a person and didnt care about the other birds isnt that weird?). Guests who come over, she assumes the position... she has literally allowed any human being to pet her. As a matter of fact, I am able to squish her against my belly and hug/pet her. I can even cuddle with her while Im petting her head. Its bizarre.

So, the concern is obviously, that because of all this affection, she is now very interested in the floor, likes to go under our bedsheets, under our pillows.. and we know she is looking for nesting spots. But as she is an infertile birdie, we distract her and move her to another location and make her play with toys, etc, etc. but she always wants birdie sex.

The question is, as she will be very unhappy if we dont pet her, how do we better handle this mating season so our bird doesnt start thinking she is pregnant and lays infertile eggs? During the day she is alone all day long and she SHREDS everything in her cage. We still (yes, still, and are very broke because of it), have to put in a new toy (pinata, yucca wood, balsa, magazines, anything) in her cage every day and we come home and its completely gone and in shreds. So we know she is occupied in her cage during the day and arent too concerned she will lay eggs in there. But its obvious to us that she is interested in finding a place to nest outside of it and we wont let her.

Any advice to calm her down?

Sorry for the novel, there was lots to update!

[ellieelectrons]

This is a hard question. When I went to Pam Clark's session on this she said that the following cause increased hormone production:
- presence of a perceived mate (which can be human)
- too much cuddling time or on the shoulder time
- access to small, dark places suitable for nesting
- a diet high in carbs and/or fats
- increased/decreased day length
- a degree of sameness to the environment.

So then looking at that list, the things you can do are:
- reducing cuddly time until the behaviours subside and if she has a particular person she is bonded too, severely reducing the time they spend together
- trying to eliminate access to small, dark places (which is hard in a home)
- change of diet
- you could do something about trying to manipulate the day length with UV lights, but I'm not 100% certain on how to achieve this
- change up her environment quite significantly.

So, that's the theory, although I can't say I've been all that successful myself. We had 3 months of nesting behaviour this year and my bird turned into an attack bird - I guess at least yours is cuddly... however you may find next breeding season she may becomes more aggressive. My bird is 5 and I've only had nesting aggression the last two years. My situation is also slightly different because we've provided her with a mate.

If you have a good avian vet, it would also be worth a consultation... or you could consider doing the skype consultation with Pamela Clark. (see http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com/)

Best wishes.

Ellie.

[ellieelectrons]

You've seen my Janey thread right?

http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=14905

Ellie.

[jmlw7]

Hi Ellie - yes, I've seen your Janey thread (amazingly helpful - you are very patient!) and its not that bad yet (knock on wood), but you are right that her cuddly nature could turn more aggressive next season.. she is still so young so we are hoping we can change things up soon.

Basically, in answer to your findings:

- reducing cuddly time until the behaviours subside and if she has a particular person she is bonded too, severely reducing the time they spend together

We dont cuddle with her much, but we do scratch her on the head and cheeks a couple of times in the morning before we head to work, and then late in the evening when we let her out. We dont spend much time with her during the weekdays, so in the mornings and at night when we let her out, she is super sleepy and we give in to her asking to be touched. We limit the time we touch her on the weekends when we are home more often. She is equally affectionate with me, husband, friends, family, everyone. EVERYONE.. so although I think she is more bonded to me, she isnt picky!

- trying to eliminate access to small, dark places (which is hard in a home)

Definitely

- change of diet

She is getting really picky with her diet lately. As a matter of fact, the only fresh veggies she is eating nowadays is bell pepper seeds, sugar snap peas, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. She barely eats greens anymore, only nibbles on carrots and spinach sometimes, and ignores and tosses everything else. To make sure she gets more veggies, we've been making her a cooked meal of frozen veggies every day and in that case she gobbles up the carrots and corn and only sometimes eats other things. We give her a piece of an apple a day, but have tried to avoid most fruit because of the sugar. Any suggestions on diet when a female bird wants to mate? We still give her nuts to forage, but she is also ignoring her nutriberries and millet spray, very weird.

- you could do something about trying to manipulate the day length with UV lights, but I'm not 100% certain on how to achieve this

me neither

- change up her environment quite significantly.

I will most likely change up her cage this weekend, but hopefully in the next two months things will be very different for her as we will be moving to a new home. Hopefully it will take her a good long while to get used to the change.

[ellieelectrons]

You could also consider moving your house furniture. I didn't do this but will consider it next year. If she considers your house her environment too, this could help.

When Janey was nesting all she would eat were frozen peas that I cooked for her. I didn't know that peas were also quite high in sugar at the time.

Ellie.