Mating Season has begun

[shiraartain]

So today, I let the pair out as soon as I got home, and then sat down on the floor to look out at the weather (nice and rainy today). For the past few days, I've noticed Lemon trying to get at Clover's head to preen her, but didn't think it was anything major. Clover flew down to wander around my knee and began preening. Lemon followed suit, and began preening her. Clover didn't seem to mind, and I just kept watching them. Then, things started getting strange. Clover was licking the blackberry juice off of her feet, and Lemon stepped on her tail. Clover didn't care and rolled over and continued working on the blackberry juice, then moved to her leg band. Lemon then started putting his beak around her foot? Clover didn't show any signs of annoyance or pain, so I didn't interfere. After a minute, Clover moved to stand up, and Lemon nipped her wing and Clover yelled and flew off. She then flew back down and was annoyed with ME, tried to gnaw the seams of my jeans until I moved away.

As I was eating lunch, Clover kept flying to my head and Lemon following, and it was after I turned on my cell camera to see what they were doing that I realized that it is, in fact, Spring and Lemon has been trying to mate with Clover. And so, a few questions which I thought of once I overcame my horror and tossed both of them off my head:

I have only had to deal with hormonal behaviour with a pair when I had budgie pairs. Never between species. I know the likelihood of any fertilized eggs is extremely low (thankfully), aside from making sure their nails are clipped, anything I can/should do? Don't even know that Clover is a female, could just be that Lemon is very frustrated. At least now I have a clue as to why Clover is now landing on our heads and aggressively tapping/pecking them with her beak.

Aside from waiting it out, do I have any other options?

Since we didn't have to deal with this last spring season, I'm certain now that they're about as old as Fajr. Who, it so happens, has not shown any signs of being excessively hormonal aside from deciding the older twin is his favorite right now.

[Wolf]

Aside from watching to make sure that there is no fighting or that the one begins to abuse the other one, I don't know of anything but to wait it out. This is a natural cycle and I don't know of anything that will actually prevent it.

[Pajarita]

They can't procreate so there is nothing to worry about. But you might want to give the quaker something she can use as a nest because she might lay a few eggs.

[shiraartain]

An update: I'm on the lookout for an appropriately sized cardboard box to put in the cage for Clover, no luck as of yet. Mom threw them all out recently.

Lemon is still trying to be affectionate with Clover but she will just go ahead and go for his foot. He will back off and then try again a bit later. Clover is trying to mate with toys and branches, and Fajr has tried to show his affection to procreate with older twin's hand...

We gave him a small cardboard box and he's almost completely shredded it to bits. So need to get him another box as well. He's also burrowing into blankets more often these days, idk if that has to do with anything.

It's going to be a long spring.

[Wolf]

Well he is either running and trying to hide from all the girl energy or perhaps he is just trying to find them all a nice comfy nest.

[AprilAngel]

I just witnessed my two Pineapple Green Cheeks mating. We have had them since they were about 3 week old and still being hand-fed. They are about 8 months old now. They are two young to parent and I don't want to breed them anyway! I'm afraid of complications of egg binding or other issues. Should I take out their Happy Hut tent? It's open at both ends so it's not completely dark and they LOVE it for sleep at night but I need help on what to do to discourage them. I did read no soft foods and cover their cage earlier in the evening. The only soft food they get are their morning fruits and vegs. and we cover them around 9pm. Thank you for your help!

[liz]

Most of my cockatiels are in hormonal confusion. My two bonded pairs know what is happening. The others must be younger than I thought. They are a little confused. Two new bonded pair are now in the flock. Lola and flutter getting together was a big surprise because of their personalities. I have found a few eggs and there are a few in there right now being sat on by Tweet who I was told was male and not mated. Nothing will come of it so I am just leaving them.

I removed everything in the room that they could make a nest of but Tweet just claimed a corner.
Without nest material the pairs have not produced eggs even though they are mating.

[Wolf]

Hi AprilAngel

I am not sure that anyone truly has the correct answer for you in this area of parrot husbandry. The reason that I am saying this is that the information available currently seems to be divided primarily between what is better for the human and what may be better for the bird.

Mating is a natural act that most mated pairs are going to engage in and there is actually very little that can be done to prevent this from occurring. As long as the bird is fed a good diet and has sufficient levels of calcium and exercise through flying there are very rarely any problems. This would also be in addition to the bird living on a birds natural light schedule so that they cycle through the reproductive cycles as is natural for them. This would seem to me to be the best way to approach this situation. To make it positive that there are no babies from this mating you can order dummy eggs to replace the real eggs so as to not encourage the female to lay more than its normal one clutch of eggs while in breeding condition.

The other ways that are given to try to control the birds natural behaviors are more difficult it seems to me as they involve removing anything that the bird might perceive as a nest. This sometimes works for a while until the bird just lays the eggs on the bottom of the cage , at best, or lays them from a perch and they fall to the bottom and break and the bird just keeps on laying eggs to replace them. They often require the constant manipulation of the birds artificial lighting sources, which again does not take into account the birds natural light schedule which if followed does not require all these changes which still do not cause the bird to leave its breeding cycle. In other words, in my opinion it is far more beneficial for the bird to follow the natural ways that it evolved to follow than to try to manipulate the light, nesting and diet to try to keep the bird from laying an egg, since in most cases these methods work at best only sometimes and not for long. And since they do not allow the bird to complete its breeding cycle is not healthy for the bird.

I just go with the flow of their natural rhythms and keep them to a natural bird friendly solar light cycle just the same as the birds outside and replace the real eggs with fake ones that I have marked for easy identification and when breeding season is over I have a sweet well adjusted bird for the remainder of the year.

[shiraartain]

Fajr's new life goal is suddenly to go outside and he flew into the glass door at full speed while I wasn't home earlier this week. My mom and sister babied him and offered him a walnut, but he was in shock, napped in his cage, then returned to normal after waking up. Watching his behaviour closely, but the only difference seems to be that he likes me again and doesn't ignore me? He still wants to go outside- open a door and he's there.

I was texted that he "flew into the screen" and didn't find out until two days later that my sister thinks of the patio door as a glass screen. So was not concerned until I got the full details two days later.

Gave the pair a USPS box only to realize it's probably too small for them, but they're having a ball chewing it up anyways, so I'm leaving it. Lemon's attempts to mate are still greeted with a firm chomp on his leg.

[Wolf]

If Fajr flew into the glass as hard as it sounds like, then he may very well have sustained a concussion, and going by the description of how he acted afterwards, I am betting that he did. So that is the reason for this reply. When someone sustains a concussive type of injury, it is not advisable to let them go to sleep for a while, and their behaviors need to be monitored for at least a couple of hours. The reason that it is recommended that they not be allowed to sleep during that time is the concussion may cause the brain to swell and that will affect behavior and it will take at least a couple of hours to see if the brain swelled enough to be a danger for the bird. This is taken from human recommendations but his wanting to sleep shortly after hitting the door was not a good sign.

Still he seems to have recovered and I am very happy about that. Please consider a way to make the glass more visible for your birds.