molting & sex mad

[roy]

I've got a b & g macaw 7yrs old his name is biggles. Will biggles molt if he does when will he start and finish is there a season for molting. Is there a breeding season as well as he humps his toys like he is sex mad is there anything I can do to get this to stop as I feel bad when visitors come round as he will make a lot of noise when humping he's toy's

[marie83]

There will be a breeding season but I'm not sure when that is for your species. there are things you can do to help reduce hormonal behaviours and there are multiple posts on this site regarding the matter including light manipulation, food management etc. You should be able to find these posts using the search bar at the top of the page.
As for the moulting each moult is different, sometimes they will be heavier, lighter, longer periods or shorter periods of time. You can help your bird through it by offering lots of baths, helping to remove the sheaths by pinching them between your fingers gently and ensuring your bird has a bit extra protien, sprouted seeds are excellent to offer a bit more of when they are moulting and others swear by offering a little eggfood a couple of times a week during a moult.

[roy]

Light manipulation im not that sort of bloke lol what do u mean by that Marie

[marie83]

Hahaa, well you need to look into your particular species, when do they breed in the wild? Is it when the days are longer? or when the days are shorter?
If it is when the days are longer you can follow the standard advice to reduce the amount of daylight your bird gets, the usual advice is keep your bird in the dark for 12 hours but this does not help with species that actually breed in shorter daylight hours like my green cheek, keeping him in the dark longer would just make him want to breed more and encourage the undesired behaviours.

Same with food, parrots breed when food is abundant so by making sure you dont feed more than your parrot needs will help reduce the sex hormones responsible for breeding.

There are other things you can do to but I cant go into them now as I have to go to work.