IndianRingNeck.com

Well there is good news bad news more bad news and some good news

Billie did not lay an egg last night but she has bashed holes in her two good eggs, there is more bad news but l cannot remember what it is, and the last good news is that l think her bare patch on her lower tummy is healing feathers are appearing, she would not let me have a good look after all what spinster wants a bachaelor poking around in the nether region?

Oh yes the other bad news is that this morning l found her hunched up with a hormonal attack in a corner.

What does hunched over with a hormonal attack mean? Does that happen often? I think it's vet visit time? If she lays another one, just leave it in the box and don't disturb it.

Ellie.

When her hormones are bad Billie sits in the corner with her tail up against the cage bars and her beak on the deck motionless, sometime she sits all hunched up with her eyes closed but not in a corner. She was in the corner when l took the covers off, but she has only had one attack today, last week there were three or four a day. Yesterday she had none. And yes if she lays another egg if it is in the box l will leave it alone but if not, when she is not looking l will pop it into the box.

I forgot to mention after she bashed a hole in one egg l craftilty took it out then she was looking the other way and put in a dummy egg. Then l had a nap when l awoke she was chipping bits off the dummy egg and the other egg had a hole in it.
That is still on the cage flloor. So far she has destroyed two dummy eggs.

When she laid 7 eggs it was 2,2,2,2,2,3,3 day intervals now it has been 2,2, 3?

I keep spraying her with Aloe Vera and l think her bare patch was healing I thought her feathers were growing back.

The vet said he could give her something for these attacks but he prefered to let nature take its course.

Well no egg so lets keep our fingers crossed that there will be no more this year. Nesting box for sale, hire or rent!

Billie has a very strong personality and is determined to find a way she can rub herself on me, she starts off with flying to the back of my chair and sits there making very agravating noises until l put the back of hand up and lift her down she makes a bee line for my tummy where she gets a lot of neck rubs, then she creeps up to my shoulder and gripping my collar with one foot rocks herself back and forward all the while swing her tail from side to side, but l can see all this coming as soon as she edges up my pullover l lift my shoulder and push her back onto the chair!

So far today she has had only one hormone attack but l went out to the kitchen to make a coffee and when l got back she was over it, so l am wondering does she do this to get attention? But l was a bit concerned this morning when l called out "Good morning" she usually squeals with excitement but there was no answer this morning. I whipped the covers off smartly and she was sitting on her sleeping perch blinking her eyes with the sudden light.

The bare patch is mending she was sitting on a perch grooming herself and l got a worm's eye view, only last week it was the size of half crown, (2/6d in old money but 12.5p in new money).

I suppose ethe next problem will be moulting. Roll on the motley.

You should not count you chickens until they have all crossed the road!

Billie laid another egg last night! Woe (What on earth) is going on? Well drastic measure are called for l have moved her lock stock and cage into the bedrooml l have two heaters one a halogen under the desk use to keep my tootsies warm and the other a wall mounted boiler that churns out enormous heat.

So Billie gets the wall heater and l will have to sleep in the LR as it is cooler, but there is good news after all my copmputer is in the BR and now l can play Billile some viideo clips of fids singing their hearts out, and talking it mioght give Billies ome ideas.

She does not like it in here and just to be objectionable she has been eyeing up nesting places. One her all time favourite l have blocked off but there are dozens more/

The sofa bed in the LR is a beast the things we do for our fids

5 pages!!! I can't keep up with this thread! Hope Billie stops with all those eggs and gets back to normal. I don't know much about egg laying.

Ash

Thank you Ash, I have to be honest and say l have not tried laying eggs myself. Billie's tally 10 eggs so far this year!

I just cannot stop writing, how ever if people can find the time to read all this it would be nice to hear from them time to time.

Well the big experiment of making Billie sleep (in her cage) in my bedroom was okay l had a good night's sleep on the sofa bed and Billie enjoyed the quietness of going to bed early with no noise from the tv but oh dear, there is not enough space in my bedroom which measures 10 foot by 6 feet for a computer tower. desk, wardrobe, chest of drawers, Hi-fi, bed and an office swivel chair AND Billie cage.

The reason was to stop Billie laying any more eggs but oh dear l went to take the nesting box out and Billie set up a tug of war trying to stop me and l dropped the nesting box on her one and only egg so while she was celebrating a victory l quietly removed the smashed egg.

Now she can lay if she wants as there are no spares, she was quite pleased when l pushed her cage back into its normal spot in the LR she is slowly getting better, but when she sees me approach with the aloe very bottle she goes all defensive and hides her bare patch.

Knock Knock
"Yes?"
"Can l come in?"
"Are you mad?"
"You would be if you had a bird like mine!"

She does not look as if she has an egg and stands on top of the cage and drops an egg with a little shriek and it lands on the carpet plop! It is cracked by unbroken l carefully put it into her nesting box. And this after moving her cage into my BR saturday, she will have to go and see the vet l will phone on tuesday and make an appopintment. I stripped out a load of perches and moved her water bottle and moved the cage and when it came time to go to bed she would not go in her cage but kept looking at the spot where her cage was. In the end l had to put her in on my hand.

I have lost count of the number of eggs she has laid, if any one is following this thread perhaps they can let me know/

Ask your vet about limiting daylight hours. Ask him/her if they think it's a good idea and if so, the best way to go about it. This may be preferential to hormone injections?

Ellie.

Thanks Ellie l will ask the vet. Billie has been asking to be covered earlier and earlier a couple of days ago it was 6 pm until 9 am, last week l was hoping that she had come to the end laying every 4 days, but moving her cage is not working unless l have to perservere with this. Maybe it will sink in, Stop laying eggs!

There are liitle signs that she is improving today she just sat on my shoulder for 15 minutes but yesterday she was trying to rub herself on me, every two minutes. l do not allow this.

I sleep in the one piece pyjama God gave me when l was born and l had this terrible idea that Billie would whiile l was asleep have a pair of nail cutters and would make the snip!

Billie has been a joy today, a great compainion just like the old days, no rubbing herself on me and she just sat on my shoulder and cuddled up to my cheek, l thought she pen and inked so as she was standing in her swimming pool l gave a good misting she came out driipping, she sat for some time one the top of the cage, l thought about getting the hair drier which l know she loves but thought the better of it and left her to clean up by herself. I gave her a spay with some feather stuff. After a little while when it was obvious that l was not going to get the hair drier she started to preen.

Tonight l cooked her some vegs and she tucked in with relish, it must be a novel experience for her to go to bed on a hot meal, and for a treat some yogurt off a spoon. So she went to bed early at 6 pm. So what about the vet? Do l ring them tomorrow or not remember it is a £70 conulstancey fee and l am broke at the moment, well that was what l told her when I turned the gas fire off, after all it is quite mild here 6c. tonight.

I am a great procrastinator and l think l might wait until Thursday to see if she lays another egg.

Well Billie has not had a hormone attack for 3 days now and so l am waiting to see if she lays another egg. Her last one she dropped while standing on top of the cage on Sunday at 10 am, it fell 4 feet and landed on the carpet, it was cracked but l gingerly picked it up and put it in her nesting box inside the cage.

When l first got the nesting box which is actually a home for a chinchilla l packed it with wood chips and she spent days trying to get all those bits out, then l ripped up some newspapers and put them in but again she pulled them all out. So now l have put in a tea towel and a linen double damsak knapkin and she is really intrigued, l think she has visions of stomping at the Savoy. But l found the cracked egg on the cage floor outside her nesting box so l took it away.

In order to keep her guessing l have moved the cage back under the wall mirror and put back the large tree perch and will add all the other bits over the next couple of days. I think diet has a lot to do with her wanting to lay, so l am keeping her on a bland diet.

Can birds gargle?

I am trying to convince Billie that if she lays an egg under water it helps with her gesticualtion, but none of my arguments hold water.

Does anyone know of a convincing water tight argument?

I told Billie that she had to grin and bear it when a hormone attack struck but she said it did not help, so l suggested that she grit her teeth. But when she told me she did not have teeth this opened up a whole new business enterprise. Parrot dentures! First l will have to undertake some market research, how many people would consider buying parrot dentures?

On a serious note since l have reduced the tempeerature both a night and duirng the day Billie has not laid an egg since Sunday. Over Christmas and after, the day time temp was about 75 and at night 71 but now l have turned the gas fire down she has looked more comfortable.

Also her hormonal attacks have lessended. She is becoming more like her old self! I am hoping l can bring this thread to a decent close.

But before l do l think l will put down the lessons learnt, if she starts the breeding season in November then l must only pet her head, allow ten minutes shoulder ride, keep her off mushy food, reduce the temperature to not more than 71f and 64f at night. And try and lessen her hormonal attacks. Maybe other things.

Today has been a good day this week she has only had one or two hormal attacks, laid an egg on sunday and none since. She is beginning to sing again, she was never a talker, she enjoys a cooked meal at breakfast of oatmeal made with water and microwaved for 20 secs. A cooked meal for supper and a treat of the tip of a teaspoon of yoghurt. She eats seads although l put out pellets and grains, fruit in the morning and vegeatables in the afternoons. All in all she eats like a horse, and poops like one too!

Well any one who wades through this lot l hope you gain as much information as l have had, l would like to thank all the prople who contributed and helped Billie and I to get through a difficult time, her latest news is that she has returned to normal being very territorial about my putting my hand in her cage she gave me quite a nasty nip today. She is no longer keen on being petted, no longer rubs herself on me her bare patch is almost healed with under feathers completely covering it and uper feather s closing the gap quickly.

So many thanks.

Good bye

AJPeter

That IS good news!, I am very glad you both came through it in one piece!

It is happening all over again just like last year.

I don't know if you read the article by Pamela Clark throughly, you will perhaps remember there are a combination of factors that lead a parrot to think it is breeding season:
High energy food
Daylight hours
Presence of a mate
Potential nesting sites etc

That your bird is showing signs of getting ready to breed so early in the season, it would be a good idea to look over the way you keep her and make sure she is going to bed when it gets dark, you aren't feeding her lots of high energy food (potatoes, peas, beans, seeds etc), that you aren't patting her inappropriately etc.

Billie gets covered at 4 pm but l have just discovered that her play with the plastic triangles is a cover for masturbation so l have taken them away from her. My hope that leaving the nesting box on the floor would deter her looking for any new sites was wishful thinking. I tried to take it away from her and she gave me a nip on my arm, "Do that again and l will take the whole arm!" Sort of thing.

I printed out that article and refer to it to refesh my mind. I do not give her grapes or sweet foods l also avoid high energy foods and carbs. She is not allowed to masturbate on my shoulder. I do allow her to roam the floor in the afternoon while l can keep my eye on her.

She has been better behaved the last couple of days, but I will take out the nesting box when she is not looking. I have to keep her locked in her cage in the morning or if l go out of the room because l can no longer trust her to stay on the cage.

When she is not trying to mastubate on my shouklder l limit the time she sit on my shoulder, 2 or three times and not more than 5 mins each. But she has not wanted to just sit and look out of the window or preen.

She has ignnored the cuttle fish bone all year but now is biting chunks of it, could be a bad sign so will keep the temp down at night. It felt quite chilly in the LR this morning.

And no l am not patting her below the neck. Thanks Claire for your input.

Just has a thought, she is on a seed only diet but recently l have placed the seeds over some pellets, she eats the seeds and some of the pellets too.

This post has become very long so l think l will start another "A thread for Billie and AJPeter on hormonal behaviour Year 2"