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Sexual Behaviors and Coping

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Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Lenkin » Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:00 am

Hello! After much thought and consideration, I decided to take to the form for some advice. I have a male, Green cheek conure who is about a year and a half old. I had noticed he was attempting to mate with the bell on his boing toy. I told mom an der she said it was him sexually maturing, but this is only the start of this. After doing more research on this, I've soon discovered I was encouraging sexual behaviors on my bird. I don't want to do that for both of our sakes. I read up on different ways to discourage this type of behavior, so that's what I'm doing.

I removed the toys he would try to mate with and would regurgitate on, which were both the bell toys. (Apparently he has a thing for bells.) as well as distracting him with his ball tous. (He likes to attack those) and picked up the pillows we have set along the floor. I picked them up to discourage him from looking for a nesting spot in them. He is allowed free range of the house and goes where ever he wants for the most part. He would crawl off his cage, onto the couch, and onto the floor and across the living room to check out the pillows for hours. He was also shown a huge interest in crawling under blankets we use and trying to crawl into my shirt.

I particularly noticed that he has chosen me as his "mate". I don't want to lead him on, but I'm not sure how to tell him I'm not into birds. (Excuse me for my crude humor.) I didn't realize all of the cuddling, and preening he would do was rather obsessive and signs of sexual behavior. I'm trying to limit my time with him I'm and be careful of where I pet him.
He's began to attack my mom, my sister in some cases, every friend, and will go after the dog. (We have a cocker spaniel who is terrified of the bird.) dad is the only one who skittles has never bit it attacked in his life. However, I'm the one that spends most of the time with the bird.
I've noticed it also affects me, too. Since I didn't realize what was happening sooner, I continued to encourage his behavior because his attention and love for me made me feel wanted and special. I know that sounds weird, but I'm very attached to him now and it's very hard for me to try to break these behaviors and wean myself from him. I suffer from terrible anxiety and his love and attention for me has been helping me, but I fear it's becoming a problem where I'm getting anxious without him.

Another thing he does, is scream and scream and scream if he cannot see me. And once he does see me, he screams some more while bobbing his head up and down wanting me to come get him.
With him being a free range bird, he will often run up to me. Theres been a few times he's crawled up the stairs for me, and then crawl across the house and into the basement and began to make his way to my bedroom (I live in the basement) to get to me. Also, just about every time I use the bathroom in the main floor of the house, he slips under the door, crawls onto me to preen me and himself.

I feel so guilty when I try to leave him alone and ignore him crying for me every time I'm nbor with him. But I want to show him that the rest of the family are fun too all while trying to prevent him from being sexually frustrated as best as I can. It just breaks your heart and the separation from him hurts me as well. I'm not really sure how to handle this. If anyone had any sort of advice or experience with this situation, that would be wonderful! Thank you everyone for your time. :gcc:
Lenkin
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheek conure, sparrow, yellow canary, green singer finches, gold breasted finch, society finch, fire finch, zebra finches.
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby liz » Fri Jan 06, 2017 7:39 am

Welcome to the forum.

The little guy cannot help it. Give him his bell and look the other way. He is hormonal and it can take a couple months to go through it and be the parrot that you used to have. He has no control over his hormones.

You have many birds but he is your only parrot. How you care for them is a lot different than a finch. Most of the parrots like head scratches. In a flock in the wild he would always have a buddy to preen his head. Any time he comes to you, scratch his head. They really like it and it will change the mood. DON'T TOUCH ANY OTHER PLACE. It is hard to refrain from cuddles but that only aggravates the situation. He needs you. Do not ignore him. Just keep scratching his head.

Read up on diet and lighting. I don't know if it will help this time but could reduce next years hormonal pains. Quick info: increase fruit and vegetable and reduce proteins such as nuts and sunflower seeds. Follow the sun for lighting. My birds have a window to see dawn and dusk. I have a parrot light for when the sun is out. It is a supplement when the birds can't actually get sunshine. I turn the light on at 9 am when I feed them fruit, veggies and softened grain. (When the grain is softened always rinse in cold water to remove harmful parts.) There is much more to it so read up as soon as you get a chance. I don't remember why but iron in their diets are a no no.

I have been in this forum since 2011 and still learn something new every day. To me this forum feels like a neighborhood. We do everything possible for our babies. We also watch out for yours too. No question is stupid. We even talk about poop.

One thing that caught me in your post is that he does not fly. Flying burns off energy and increases muscles and general body needs. Myrtle like all the others was a rescue. Her wings were clipped and she was never allowed out of her cage. The first thing I did was set up a big cage for her with toys and food. She was so scared of being closed in again that she went hungry until I took the door off the cage. She was a mess so I just let her learn how to be a parrot. Rainbow helped a lot. She watched Rainbow to see what foods were good. You need to be a Rainbow and eat with your bird. In the wild they learn from each other. She now wants a taste of what ever someone is eating.

When Myrtles wings grew back her personality blossomed. She is no longer the bird I brought home. Flight is very important.

Well I let my post get awful big and have told you very little. I always try to respond to the morning posts to let new arrivals know that someone is here. Others with much more knowledge will come on soon with more info.

What else can you tell us about you and your parrot?
User avatar
liz
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 7234
Location: Hernando FL
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Pajarita » Fri Jan 06, 2017 1:22 pm

GCCs tend to be a species of bird that 'gives trouble' with hormones but, in every single case, it's because of light schedule and diet. Now, I don't know what you are feeding it or what is his light schedule but I will tell you what it should be and you can compare it to your husbandry.

GCCs are, mainly, fruit eaters in the wild so that means that free-feeding any sort of protein food (seeds, pellets, nutriberries, avicakes, nuts) will bring them into breeding condition (it will also destroy their liver eventually). They are from subtropical areas so you need to be very careful about their light schedule, too: they need to be kept at a strict solar schedule with full exposure to twilight or they will produce sexual hormones all year round (which NEVER happens in nature as all birds have a breeding and a resting season). If you combine a human light schedule (artificial lights on before dawn and after dusk) with a free-fed protein diet, you end up with a bird that is overly hormonal and sexually frustrated - this, usually, equals a bird that is constantly masturbating and regurgitating as well as a bird that screams and bites.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Lenkin » Sat Jan 07, 2017 6:26 pm

liz wrote:Welcome to the forum.

The little guy cannot help it. Give him his bell and look the other way. He is hormonal and it can take a couple months to go through it and be the parrot that you used to have. He has no control over his hormones.

You have many birds but he is your only parrot. How you care for them is a lot different than a finch. Most of the parrots like head scratches. In a flock in the wild he would always have a buddy to preen his head. Any time he comes to you, scratch his head. They really like it and it will change the mood. DON'T TOUCH ANY OTHER PLACE. It is hard to refrain from cuddles but that only aggravates the situation. He needs you. Do not ignore him. Just keep scratching his head.

Read up on diet and lighting. I don't know if it will help this time but could reduce next years hormonal pains. Quick info: increase fruit and vegetable and reduce proteins such as nuts and sunflower seeds. Follow the sun for lighting. My birds have a window to see dawn and dusk. I have a parrot light for when the sun is out. It is a supplement when the birds can't actually get sunshine. I turn the light on at 9 am when I feed them fruit, veggies and softened grain. (When the grain is softened always rinse in cold water to remove harmful parts.) There is much more to it so read up as soon as you get a chance. I don't remember why but iron in their diets are a no no.

I have been in this forum since 2011 and still learn something new every day. To me this forum feels like a neighborhood. We do everything possible for our babies. We also watch out for yours too. No question is stupid. We even talk about poop.

One thing that caught me in your post is that he does not fly. Flying burns off energy and increases muscles and general body needs. Myrtle like all the others was a rescue. Her wings were clipped and she was never allowed out of her cage. The first thing I did was set up a big cage for her with toys and food. She was so scared of being closed in again that she went hungry until I took the door off the cage. She was a mess so I just let her learn how to be a parrot. Rainbow helped a lot. She watched Rainbow to see what foods were good. You need to be a Rainbow and eat with your bird. In the wild they learn from each other. She now wants a taste of what ever someone is eating.

When Myrtles wings grew back her personality blossomed. She is no longer the bird I brought home. Flight is very important.

Well I let my post get awful big and have told you very little. I always try to respond to the morning posts to let new arrivals know that someone is here. Others with much more knowledge will come on soon with more info.

What else can you tell us about you and your parrot?



Okay! Thank you! I don't ignore him but I do try to get him to be with the other family members. I'm not sure what his diet is exactly. I know he eats lots of seeds and pellets and straw pereira an der peaches. My mother is the general care taker of the birds, mainly the finches. I will definitely look into other good stuff he can eat! He lives by a window in the living room where he can be with everyone. With school, this generally means he can be up from 6-9. I know he takes periodic naps during the day, generally while perched on mom's hand. I'm not sure how well he sleeps at night either. He is covered at night, but we generally don't follow our sunlight as it's light from 7:30am-5 pm during the winter months.

As for the flying-- he flies very little. Only when he is scared is when he will fly. His wings are not clipped. They were clipped when we got him but we let them grew out. He is a terrible flyer. Some how as a baby, he either broke or fractured his wing. It's located in a rather odd way and I have a feeling it's why he doesn't fly. He never received any medical attention for it which is heart breaking. It's how we had gotten him, and when asked about it, the breeders weren't sure. The bones had healed and fused back together already, but they're not the same. I don't know if it hurts him to fly or if it's just because his muscles are weak. Could be both. He does a lot of running and climbing, I've tried to get him to fly, but he doesn't want to. By this, I would have him jump from his perch to me, slowly increasing the distance, but once it was too far for him to jump, he found another way around it.
Lenkin
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheek conure, sparrow, yellow canary, green singer finches, gold breasted finch, society finch, fire finch, zebra finches.
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Lenkin » Sat Jan 07, 2017 6:30 pm

Pajarita wrote:GCCs tend to be a species of bird that 'gives trouble' with hormones but, in every single case, it's because of light schedule and diet. Now, I don't know what you are feeding it or what is his light schedule but I will tell you what it should be and you can compare it to your husbandry.

GCCs are, mainly, fruit eaters in the wild so that means that free-feeding any sort of protein food (seeds, pellets, nutriberries, avicakes, nuts) will bring them into breeding condition (it will also destroy their liver eventually). They are from subtropical areas so you need to be very careful about their light schedule, too: they need to be kept at a strict solar schedule with full exposure to twilight or they will produce sexual hormones all year round (which NEVER happens in nature as all birds have a breeding and a resting season). If you combine a human light schedule (artificial lights on before dawn and after dusk) with a free-fed protein diet, you end up with a bird that is overly hormonal and sexually frustrated - this, usually, equals a bird that is constantly masturbating and regurgitating as well as a bird that screams and bites.


I will totally look into adding more fruits to his diet. I know he gets seeds and pellets, straw berries and peaches, and if we have other fruits we will give him some of those as well. He is on an artificial light schedule with me being in school. He generally gets up when I do, covered or not. I will have to me tion the lighting to mom as well as the diet. He's never acted this was before until recently.
Lenkin
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheek conure, sparrow, yellow canary, green singer finches, gold breasted finch, society finch, fire finch, zebra finches.
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Lenkin » Sat Jan 07, 2017 6:52 pm

Skittles does get little bites once in a while of foods we eat. We will share veggies and fruits with him when we have them. Our own diets aren't that great. I know he loves potatoes, especially when they're mashed. He really likes strawberries. I'm not sure what other fruits he likes or can eat. We have grapes but I haven't thought of checking if he can eat them for some reason. Occasionally he may get a little piece of a noodle if we make some. There's been times he's ambushed us for our food. He generally closes this when he knows he can't get what he wants.

Unlike our first green cheek, Homer, skittles is more of a "monkey see, money do."
He does trie to eat whatever we eat a lot of times. There's been times when he's successful. So he's had a taste of lactose-free milk before, so any time I have some in my cereal, or he sees mom with some regular milk, he does just about anything he can to get to it. I've been encouraging this to eat his own food while we eat ours. This is proving to be successful. It will just take time. I got him into licking ice cubes, since I eat them almost constantly and he likes to dip all of his food into water before eating it.

What kind of fruits would be best to try?
Lenkin
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheek conure, sparrow, yellow canary, green singer finches, gold breasted finch, society finch, fire finch, zebra finches.
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby liz » Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:27 am

The first time I saw Rainbow dip his cracker in water before eating I was really shocked. I guess he is not the only one.

Oatmeal is good for them if you separate a portion before adding milk and sugar. They all like pasta. I give them some before adding sauce. They eat theirs but when they see mine they come after me. I usually put a safe portion on the edge of my plate so they will see it coming from my plate. Rainbow does not like her food mixed. She will eat almost anything that is not mixed together.

When I am eating something they don't want they will go to their food and eat while I am eating.
User avatar
liz
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 7234
Location: Hernando FL
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jan 08, 2017 12:29 pm

My GCC eats all kinds of fruits and many veggies: apples, pears, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, mangoes, papayas, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, cherries, oranges, mandarins, ruby red grapefruit, kiwis, etc. (not that many strawberries because they need to be organic and I have so many birds that they become extremely expensive) plus, corn, peas, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, all kinds of squashes and/or pumpkins, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, yucca, hominy, etc. They are great eaters so it's not that difficult to get them to eat a good diet.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Lenkin » Mon Jan 09, 2017 3:56 pm

Thank you for for the lost of vegan goes!!! I will put this to good use!!
And skittles does love his noodles and oatmeal. We use water instead of milk for his oatmeal :) Mom generally gives him some in the morning.
Lenkin
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheek conure, sparrow, yellow canary, green singer finches, gold breasted finch, society finch, fire finch, zebra finches.
Flight: Yes

Re: Sexual Behaviors and Coping

Postby Wolf » Tue Jan 10, 2017 10:43 pm

I don't know how much you do or don't know about parrots, but I see that you have several other birds so you may know more than I think that you know. Still I see that you are asking for a lot of information pertaining to your parrots diet and so I think that the following link will be useful to you, I know it has helped me a lot and I still refer to it quite a bit. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521 The list of toxic and non toxic foods and other things begins on the second page of the topic and includes such things as foods, trees, houseplants, woods and household items that are either toxic or safe for them.

I hope that this will help you as much as it has helped me.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

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