How to reduce hormonal behavior?

[Eurycerus]

Hello!

So I have a six year old Senegal (female supposedly) that I got a week ago. She is exhibiting extremely hormonal behavior. She does little dances in her cage (that go beyond happy dances I believe) and has attempted courtship with my hand and my brother's hand (who she met that day).
For those curious this is an open winged little dance, with gentle nibbling/licking, and sweet, raspy noises. She does turn around in circles too, testing every angle I suppose

Sleep:
We go to bed around 9:30 to 10:30 each night. She gets up at 7:15 or so with me. I realize this is not the required 12 hours but I live in a one bedroom and she's in the room with me. I could cover her but she'd probably stay awake till I go to sleep. I cover her cage at night right when I go to bed and turn off the lights.

Food:
I feed her harrison's pellets and a mix of vegetables/fruit. I was feeding her figs and carrots (and she would range from eating most to just nibbling, depending on her mood). I just ran out of figs so I am trying to get her interested in snap peas again. I'm going to the store tomorrow so I'll get some other fruit. I tried to feed her snap peas when I first got her and she didn't seem interested. I definitely don't under feed her because there tends to be a bit of food left when I go to dump it out around the time it's the next feeding time. At the same time I don't over feed her (at least significantly) because the most I've seen is a few uneaten pellets when it's time to feed her again.

As for treats I have cut up almonds, banana chips, avi-cake chunks, and cut up nutri-berries, to keep things interesting. She loves them all.

Attention:
I get up early to target train her and say hello to her and feed her. I do not take her out of the cage in the morning because I would have to put her back in quickly and I think she might get upset. In the evening (5:45 or so) when I get back I do a little target training and then have her step up and come on my shoulder while I scurry around the house and then I set her on top of the cage. I do a little target training and then let her interact at will with me. I am working on getting her comfortable with me right now before I do a ton more with her. I feed her in her cage so when it's food time, I close her in but generally she's awake for another hour with me.

I am not at the point where I caress her or stroke her much if at all. She doesn't ask for it and I don't think she trusts me enough yet anyway.

I have read to reduce light so this evening I have already covered her (at 7:30 my time so she only gets 12 hours of light) but I have read ten hours is recommended to reduce hormonal behavior but that reduces our interaction time significantly. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Wayne361]

If there are any pellets left from one feeding to the next I would say you are overfeeding. Also pellets are mostly high energy foods, this I suspect is your problem. Ease up on the quantiy of the pellets being fed and increase vegtables, grains etc. Remember that birds in the wild are not privy to a constant food source. Also, if she is flighted, do recall training as a means of training/bonding. This also helps burn of energy in the form of exercise.

Wayne

[Michael]

So I have a six year old Senegal (female supposedly) that I got a week ago. She is exhibiting extremely hormonal behavior.

She is of age

We go to bed around 9:30 to 10:30 each night. She gets up at 7:15 or so with me.

That is definitely insufficient and can contribute to hormonal behavior. The bird has to be in another room or covered to get at least 12 hours of sleep.

Food:
I feed her harrison's pellets and a mix of vegetables/fruit. I was feeding her figs and carrots (and she would range from eating most to just nibbling, depending on her mood). I just ran out of figs so I am trying to get her interested in snap peas again. I'm going to the store tomorrow so I'll get some other fruit. I tried to feed her snap peas when I first got her and she didn't seem interested. I definitely don't under feed her because there tends to be a bit of food left when I go to dump it out around the time it's the next feeding time. At the same time I don't over feed her (at least significantly) because the most I've seen is a few uneaten pellets when it's time to feed her again.

You gotta reduce calories. Pellets and fruit are high in them. Fruit isn't too important. Go with more vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and peas to dilute nutrition a bit.

As for treats I have cut up almonds, banana chips, avi-cake chunks, and cut up nutri-berries, to keep things interesting. She loves them all.

These are ok but should never make up more than 10% of daily diet. Try to use the smallest possible treats possible.

Attention:
I get up early to target train her and say hello to her and feed her. I do not take her out of the cage in the morning because I would have to put her back in quickly and I think she might get upset.

http://TrainedParrot.com/Caging

then I set her on top of the cage.

Cage top can lead to aggression or hormonal territory related behavior. Best to avoid.

I do a little target training and then let her interact at will with me. I am working on getting her comfortable with me right now before I do a ton more with her. I feed her in her cage so when it's food time, I close her in but generally she's awake for another hour with me.

This seems ok.

I am not at the point where I caress her or stroke her much if at all. She doesn't ask for it and I don't think she trusts me enough yet anyway.

Typically this encourages reproductive behavior. Since it's not in your case, it must be stimulated by the environment (number of daylight hours, sleep, food, schedule, etc).

I have read to reduce light so this evening I have already covered her (at 7:30 my time so she only gets 12 hours of light) but I have read ten hours is recommended to reduce hormonal behavior but that reduces our interaction time significantly. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Yeah. Get used to it. Assume the parrot is gonna sleep from 8-8 and work your schedule to interact with the bird around that. Put off things you can do yourself after the bird goes to bed and spend more time with it while it is awake. Hormonal behavior can lead to problems that entirely make the bird unhandleable. So having less but more focused and non-reproductive-encouraging interaction is better than having more that is aggressive/hormonal/difficult.

[Eurycerus]

Thank you both. I put her to bed early 7:30 pm, the last two nights and scooched her cage closer to the window to get more direct, unfiltered light during the day, although today is super foggy.

I really worked on a lot of target training to get her moving around yesterday. She actually didn't eat much dinner which was concerning but I may have overfed her with treats, since I did so much training. I will make the treats smaller, because I think perhaps she's getting too many. Oops. I did get rid of almonds as a treat because I read too much protein is stimulating. She does a pretty good job of eating her carrots but I will reduce the fruit. I thought I was being good providing a mix! The things you learn.... Also she does exhibit slightly more aggressive behavior on the cage top, which I figured was because of the height. She's still trepidacious about her play gym so I will work on desensitizing her to that and move away from climbing on the cage.

She still does little happy/probably hormonal dances when she sees me and will try to court my hand. Granted I don't expect her behavior to change instanteously. In addition she apparently is doing quite a bit of screaming when I am not in the house (she only screams once or twice when I am in the vicinity or people are in the room, I guess she feels safe and happy). I will get a small radio with a timer which may help with the boredom and sad screaming.... She could be screaming excessively due to hormones too.

I leave at 8 every day and get back at five forty or six and immediately play with her and interact. However this is why it's difficult to have a ton of interaction before bed if she has to sleep at 7:30. I really want to make this work but I will likely have a nine to five job for the rest of my life... :/

[Michael]

I'd say get it working right first, then experiment and branch your way out to see if you can have a more convenient schedule. Start with getting it all to work by the book and then figure out how much of a difference it makes if you fudge it a little.

Fruit is a lot of sugar. If the bird is already getting too much energy that it wants to make another of itself, then obviously fruit isn't helping. You either gotta feed less or feed stuff that is less filling. Variety is good but again you gotta watch that it's not encouraging hormonal behavior.

[pollyparrot]

I have lived with parrots for over 25 years and I remember following all the "rules" and would have worried back then about not providing 12 hours of night sleep. Today I feel I'm more informed from experience. My birds nap ALOT during the day and I think if your bird is alone while you're at work, she can catch up on a couple of missed night hours of sleep. I would not personally rush to put her back in her cage to sleep if you feel you haven't had much time to interact with her. My birds get to sleep by 8 pm and awake on their own with the light every day, so around 6 am. That's 10 hours and my Timneh has been healthy for 15 years.

As for food, I try to feed a good quality pellets, birdy bread, and fruits & vegetables. I don't stress too much anymore about whether they have eaten the exact proportion of the food I want, as long as they get some pellets.

I also have a female Senegal (adopted over 2 years now) and she does the courtship stuff. But she hasn't become aggressive and I allow certain behaviors including tearing up paper. It may depend on the species or individual bird but I have not experienced increased aggression when they are on top of their cages. I have found that common sense goes a long way when making decisions. Just my own experience to share.

[Eurycerus]

An update.

I pull her right next to the window and she does not get and fruit and very few almonds as a treat. This must be working because she has not exhibited any courtship behavior since Friday. However on Saturday she did bite my boyfriend in the face. This may not have been hormonal behavior related but rather normal territorial parrot behavior. Still very unfortunate.....

[Grey_Moon]

Like polyparrot----Jacko doesn't get those mythical 10-12 hours. I've noticed however that after breakfast she returns to her cage and snoozes on and off most of the day until everyone comes home in the evening and then she is ready to party till bed time.

I only rarely (a few times a year) have any sort of noticeable change in her behaviour related to breeding and it doesn't last. African birds (like your senegal and my grey) actually breed with DECREASING daylight hours---so I would suspect that the whole make them sleep more trick isn't as helpful.

Ditto on the pellets and cutting back on the high-calorie high-energy things though, as an abundance of these will trigger things.
One HUGE thing I've found to reduce hormonal behaviour is travelling---both inside and out. The only time a parrot eats, sleeps and spends the day in one location is if they're inside a nest cavity. So, for example:

In the morning Jacko gets up from her roost tree and flies across the room to her day cage where she hangs out
We 'fly' up to the bathroom for a shower, she flies back to her cage to dry off
Then, at breakfast, she flies to the little table we set up for her meals and eats
When she's finished eating, she flies back to her day cage or the cage top tree and hangs out there
Sometime after that we sometimes go out for a walk or she rides in the car, 'flying' as it were with the flock wherever it is (sometimes its just down to the store to pick up some eggs or something)
We 'fly' back home and she flies to the table to eat dinner, then back to her cage or onto the bed for some cuddlies
Then she flies to her roost tree for the night and we all go to bed.

So even though she lives in one room with the exception of outdoors and the bathroom she does a lot of travelling. Its not just being fed, playing and sleeping in the majority of one spot.

That would be my biggest suggestion as to dealing with the hormones.

[Eurycerus]

Okay thanks! I will have to try that because I spoke too soon. She's definitely still having some problems.

[PollyWannaPepper]

Grey Moon wrote:

Then, at breakfast, she flies to the little table we set up for her meals and eats.... We 'fly' back home and she flies to the table to eat dinner....

This is the first I've come across a bird being feed scheduled meals rather than free-feeding. Would you mind expanding on that subject a bit?

Thanks.