A thread for Billie and AJPeter about hormonal behaviour 2

[AJPeter]

This time last year Billie was rubbing her self on me. And l was petting her under the wings and on her chest, she had lots of fatty foods, bread anything. She slept about 12 hours. She became very possessive and would bite a lot and then in the end of December she sarted to lay eggs 10 in all.
It was hell.

This year l have followed the advice people gave me about diet, sleep times, petting, but she is sitill trying to mastubate on me and her toys l stop it as quickly as possible. She is covered for 16 hours and is alone for at least 14 hours. I have made the mistake of providing a nesting box on the floor in the hope she will not look for any more nesting sites but she is looking some places she has looked at scare me. Now she stays locked in her cage if l cannot supervise her sorties.

She eats a seed only diet but recently l have placed the seeds over pellets, gradually she might eat more pellets. No carbs, or fatty foods, plenty of veg but no sweet veg. Billie no longer has a water bowl in her cage, one of her seed bowls has water in it for preening.

So we shall have to wait and see

[AJPeter]

Billie has been a lot better today, she spent all morning in her cage as when l play the organ l can see out of the window and wave to the neighbours and can not supervize her, but after a my midday meal l let her out. She checked that her box was still there and went off to explore, she found an interesting place where l store the paper flowers but she is too fat to squeeze in the gap.
I had to intervene several times when she wanted to go to banned areas. She likes to be covered about an hour before sunset l think the setting sunlight bothers her.

She is not getting any table food, nor fruit apart from the pomegranite.

[MissK]

AJ, congratulations on your Forum anniversary.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi AJPeter

Good work on the diet

Females with strong breeding desires can be difficult to work with.

You probably already know this now, but this year if she does lay eggs I would advise not removing them, or at least if you do, replace them with a fake egg - which I guess could be useful because I think you said she has a tendency to destroy them herself???

We had an avian vet speak at our bird club meeting last week and she suggested one way to get a bird that is human-oriented to eat pellets is for you to eat them in front of her and offer her some. If your bird is more bird-oriented, she suggested putting the pellets on a mirrored surface so that as your bird goes to check the pellets out it would see another bird in the mirror doing it too.

Most people will advise not to give a nestbox at all... but it's really hard to know the best thing to do. The ideal thing would be to only let them out into an environment that is free of all place that could be construed as a cavity... but that's really difficult to do in a house unless you can lock of a small segment of it for your bird - I guess that's where a "bird room" could be useful. As you know we gave Janey a nestbox this year but didn't last year. Janey is currently sitting on 5 eggs but they are (thankfully) infertile.

Best wishes.

Ellie.

[AJPeter]

Thank you MissK and Ellie, a year already, well as you have found out l'm pig headed. And do it my way sometimes with fatal consequences. I bought a nesting box but the opening is too big how ever it now resides on a ledge under the coffee table hard against the sofa, it is almost pitch black inside. Billie has been inside a couple of times but mostly sits on the carpet outside the box. Today she has lost interest in the box and is exploring the floor, l watch her and place obstacles where l do not want her to go.

She has stopped wanting to masturbate on me all the time. I would think she is not exhibiting hormonal urges but just being a parrot. It is a lot better this year. But she wants to be covered up very early 3.30 -4 pm. I get the impression she is bothered by the setting sun. Very strict with her diet should be with mine but that pays dividends in her behaviour.

The temperature was quite low this morning, 62f l shall continue to let it fall so she knows it is winter but l do not know how low l can let it go, But IRN and Alex live wild in this country they must be able to cope with low temps.

I only put the grid in at night, l can hear her pacing up and down. "Keep going Missy the walking is good exercise."

That is a good idea about putting the pellets on a mirror but not keen one eating them in front of her knowing Billie she would say "Show me again" until they were all gone!

Is Janey's egg laying the same time a previously?

Thank you Ellie for the clean up of the forum.

[ellieelectrons]

Is Janey's egg laying the same time a previously?

Yes, it's the normal nesting season here in Australia.

not keen one eating them in front of her

I have it from an avian vet that pellets are fine for humans to eat but they're not that tasty. My guys don't mind eating pellets so I haven't eaten them myself.

Ellie.

[AJPeter]

Pellet cop out?

[AJPeter]

I have just re-read all my posts from last year, very depressing. So what is different this year, well Billie goes to bed about an hour before sunset, last year it was as late as 9 pm. She is not having any fruit or sweets, she spends a lot more time on the floor last year none at all. she is not allowed to masturbate on me last year she got away with it too often!

This year she has a nesting box away from the cage but l think it might be too dark for her however she is still trying to find new sites. The days leading up to the egg laying were uneventual, this year she has her cage in a new position and she will stay there until after the fireworks have ended/.

If she lays this year l shall try and get her to stop more quickly than last year when she laid 10 eggs the first 6 one every other day and then 10 days later four more followed.

Last year there was a lot of hormonal behaviour, panting squatting, wing spreading, crouching in the bottom of the cage although she still crouches mostly in the mornings, l keep the grid in during the day but take it out at night.

[AJPeter]

I thought l would add some variety to her food bowl, normally l put the pellets in first and seed on top but if l remember tomorrow ls shall give it a stir so she has to forage for the seeds.

[AJPeter]

OMG!! Who left this egg here?

Not mine said the death watch beetle nor ours said the bed bugs and when l looked at the green parrot she said do you think l lay egs in October? Well you laid ten in January! Toucheee.

I phoned the vets, But the Avian vet was not available but she would ring back.

I picked up the nesting box from under the coffee table and waited for Billie to be on top of her cage and then put the box inside her cage and moved the egg with a stick to the corner out of harms way, the egg felt heavy. Billie was none too pleased to see the nesting box back in her cage.

Then she wanted to go down and inspect the space where the nesting box had been while l cleaned her cage. I aslo picked up the egg and carefully put it inside the nesting box at the back. She would not come back on my hand so l used a perch to pick her up. As soon as she saw what l had done she dived into the box and moved the egg to the front of the box but it was too heavy to lift out l thought the better part of valour would be to leave well alone.

Then the avian vet phoned. "Do not panic, let Billie have a laying period if she does not stop after a clutch 3 - 5 eggs then panic, and bring her down, and yes it is unusual to lay on October keep her quiet and warm let her have plenty of calcium." I explained what l had done and got a nod of approval. The bed bugs were relieved and the death watch beetle could not care less.

But l evicted a wasp looking for a warm place in the kitchen l have enough on my plate without wasps!

Billie is a darling but the next pet l have will be a male death watch beetle. The bed bugs were relieved!

[AJPeter]

Billie is not showing any hormonal behaviour. She still wants to mastubate on me but l think that is normal after saying no a couple of times she gives up. Her diets is veg mostly roots and various seeds and pellets, pomegranite.