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Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

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Re: Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

Postby Pajarita » Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:32 pm

Ah, yes, that's what it is then! When gray hens are broody, they are completely different than from when they are not. Mine is a love sponge when she is in season but, when she is not, she is never, ever, ever aggressive and, actually, quite affectionate in that she kisses me frequently but it's always on her terms and when and how she wants it whereas, when she is in season, no amount of love is ever enough! I do the 'whispering' thing with her all the time though... I turn my head toward her when she is perching on my shoulder and whisper "Shall we tell each other a secret?" and go on from there saying nonsensical things like praises or as if I was having a conversation with her always in whispers - she enjoys it very much... she rubs her beak on me and kisses my cheek or makes a soft raspberry sound against it...
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: Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

Postby Cog117 » Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:20 pm

Hopefully her behavior does not take a turn for the worse when she comes out of season. In the mean time, I’m interacting with her as much as I can and as much as she will allow. Hopefully this can discourage any behavioral issues once she settles down.

Any tips on how to interact with her during her Broody periods?

Interesting fact about her is that she is very independent during the mid day hours. Doesn’t want to be handled, but still wants my company. Just wants to sit on her perch in the sunlight. Evenings however she wants everything to do with me.
Cog117
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 16
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Re: Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

Postby Pajarita » Wed Nov 29, 2017 10:57 am

Well, nobody can really predict how a bird will behave after the honeymoon is over BUT what I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt is that even super aggressive birds mellow out and learn to trust and like people again if given the right care and time and are treated with patience and love.

Her mid-day behavior is typical of grays. As I said before, they are not touchy-feely birds at all when they are not in breeding condition and the 'I want to be near you but I don't want to be touching you or you touching me right now'' is exactly how they behave (I don't usually assert anything when it comes to species characteristic behaviors because you need to be able to observe a number of animals of the same species during a long period of time to be able to ascertain anything with any accuracy but I've had a grand total of six grays and everybody else that keeps them right says the same thing about them so I feel fairly certain this is correct].

One word of caution though - I don't know what you call 'evening' but, this time of the year, I turn off the overhead lights at 3:00 pm and give them their dinner and, after they eat it, they go to roost for the night so, if you are interacting with her after 3:00 pm, you are not going to make her stop producing sexual hormones. Old-fashioned parrot keepers talk about 12 hours of sleep but we now have a good understanding of avian photoperiodism and have learned this schedule is not any good. And, taking into consideration that grays are short-day breeders, anything short of a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk screws up their endocrine system and stresses them out [this is one the reasons why grays and cockatoos -which are also short-day breeders- are so very prone to feather destructive behavior, it's the physical discomfort and even pain from overgrown gonads added to the sexual frustration of living always in breeding condition that does it].
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: Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

Postby Cog117 » Wed Nov 29, 2017 2:37 pm

3 pm? It’s must get darker sooner where you live, over in Ohio it’s still pretty light outside.

Sun sets at 5:30 here, practically dark by 6. At that time like I said she mellows out and wants some love, and she is in bed between 9 and 10, but absolutely no later than 10. She gets up at 8. Since she has visible access to the sun, she has mellowed out now that she can see the days are getting shorter.

I’m a college student in the Air Force reserve, so my schedule in the future is uncertain. But if I can get her trained up and used to me, she can join me in the science lab where I’ll be working. That way she won’t be too lonely should I need to switch things up.
Cog117
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 16
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Congo African grey
Flight: No

Re: Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

Postby Pajarita » Thu Nov 30, 2017 4:38 pm

You are keeping her up after sundown and that will not correct her screwed up endocrine system. I checked Columbus, Ohio and sunset is at 5 pm this time of the year, which is actually sooner than it is where I am [Northeast NJ]. But one can't really go by the actual sunrise or sunset times because those are outdoor ones while our birds live in a house and that means that it gets darker earlier than outside. You need to go by the amount of light that comes into the room - for example, I do the birds in the livingroom and the diningroom before I do the ones in the birdroom because it gets darker on the first floor than it does on the second floor, especially in the birdroom that has windows facing west. The artificial lights need to be off by the time the sun is halfway down the horizon because that is when the light spectrum changes [it has to do with the different refraction of the sunrays hitting the atmosphere at a steep angle versus a more open one or straight down as it is at noon] and this different light is what turns off the internal clock. After that, the cage should be covered with a blackout material once it's night and the bird is asleep, making sure no light filters inside the cage because there are studies that tell us that the merest light affects their glands. Please do research on avian photoperiodism and you'll see what I mean.

Parrots are not easy pets. They are extremely hard to keep healthy and happy because they are undomesticated species that require very strict conditions to keep healthy - one of them being a solar schedule, just like nature meant for them to follow out in the wild. People don't usually realize that birds are not like mammals but think of chickens and the birds out in the trees...
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: Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

Postby Cog117 » Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:59 pm

I was hoping natural light exposure would halt it, looks like I was wrong.

Not that I mind, if it’s part of the package deal I’m more than willing to do it to keep my bird happy and healthy.
Cog117
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 16
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Congo African grey
Flight: No

Re: Parrot suddenly gives me the cold shoulder

Postby Pajarita » Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:17 pm

Natural light exposure is actually critical to it because the bird needs the different light that happens at dawn and dusk in order to turn on and off their internal clock - this is what regulates their circadian cycles which, in turn, regulate their circannual cycle. Circadian is one day cycle and there are natural biorhythms that happen within it: vocalizations at dawn, foraging, interacting, etc. Circannual is the one that tells them when they are supposed to start courtship, nesting, breeding, molt, migrate, etc.

The mechanics are: at dawn, the internal 'stop watch' starts and, at dusk, it stops and the number of hours in between these two events is what tells their bodies what season it is. Each species has what is called a point of photorefractoriness which actually means the exact number of hours in a day that would start or stop the production of sexual hormones, which would be the ideal number of hours to breed, etc. This number is specific to each species as evolution already determined which time of the year is the ideal one for that species to reproduce and so you have birds that breed at shorter days and some that breed at longer days because, although one would think that all birds should reproduce when the days are long [summer], nature also takes into consideration food availability and weather so, for example, IRNs don't breed when the days are long because that's when the monsoon happens and, if they did, the nest would be destroyed by the strong winds and the babies killed, plus they would not be able to fly about and collect enough food for the babies to thrive. We know the exact points for a few avian species -like canaries, for example, which start producing sexual hormones at 12 hours of light but breed best at 13.5 to 14 hours but would go into molt at 15 hours of light. But we don't know any exact points with parrots although we do know which are short and which are long day breeders -the short day breeders being the most difficult to keep in captivity because they go into breeding twice a year instead of just once.

The thing with birds is that they don't produce sexual hormones all the time and, when they don't, their gonads [sexual organs] are tiny and dormant but, as soon as they hit their own point of refractoriness, they start producing them, their gonads start growing and their bodies start getting ready for breeding. When we keep a bird in breeding condition all year long, year after year, their gonads get huge which causes physical discomfort and even pain as they displace internal organs. And, of course, they are terribly sexually frustrated... that's what makes them regurgitate to their humans, masturbate on them, pluck and even self-mutilate or become chronic layers or aggressive.
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

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