Swanson34 wrote:I'm kindve clueless as to get her to stop regurgitating food for me. It's a non stop battle. The humping isn't any better either. I'm confused as to why she thinks SHE HAS to do this.
OK, let's see if we can clarify this a bit for you. She doesn't 'think' she 'has' to do this, she has no choice about it and I'll explain why. Altricial (this means that the animal is born helpless and needs its parents to take care of it - parrots are highly altricial) birds have a time 'window' when they imprint both filially (love for its parents) and sexually (when they learn what the 'spouse' needs to look like). In the wild, because it's always the parents that take care of it, the babies imprint to their own species BUT because we steal the babies from their parents and handfeed them, pet parrots imprint to humans. This creates all kinds of problems for them because some of them end up been really confused as to what species they should have sex with -yours think that she should have sex with humans and that's why she regurgitates for you.
A normal bird (one that has been following a solar light schedule) will only get hormonal during breeding season but, although they all get the 'itch' during this time, it's not something that completely overwhelms them because before things get really bad, the season ends and they stop making sexual hormones, making the urge disappear. BUT, when you keep a bird under a human light schedule and feed it too much protein (rich and abundant food is another trigger for reproduction as animals can only raise their babies when there is more than enough of it to go around), the bird's body goes out of whack because it produces sexual hormones non-stop which creates a completely overwhelming sexual arousal with no relief (it also causes them acute physical discomfort and even pain as their sexual organs continue to grow past the point that nature meant) and that is why yours masturbates with you.
Now, putting her to a strict solar schedule and reducing protein will, in time, bring her endocrine system back on track and in tune with the seasons so, when the breeding season ends, she will stop producing sexual hormones and her gonads will shrink and become dormant which, in turn, will make the 'itch' disappear. The thing is that it takes time for this to happen because nothing happens overnight and the longer an endocrine system has been out of whack, the longer it will take to go back on track (I once had a female lovebird that had been used as a breeder for 9 years take four entire seasons for this to happen). And there is nothing you can do to either 'convince' or 'teach' her not to do this or speed up the process. As a matter of fact, if this was my bird, I would not scold her or even try to dissuade her from doing these things that do, in a way, make her fell a little better in her time of need. We have just gone through the winter solstice which marked the longest night and the shortest day of the year and the days will be getting longer and longer - this is not going to help your bird because, in essence, this time of the year, the birds bodies 'notice' the difference in daylight hours increase and will start to 'prepare' for the breeding season (I will post something about that in the Health section) so your bird will take longer now than it would have taken if her schedule and diet had been changed, say, during the summer months. But don't let this deter you in any way because the sooner you start, the sooner she will feel better.
As to your question of whether she could eat just produce for now... Well, yes, she could (for a short time, mind you!) BUT she is not going to feel full and satisfied so, if I were you, I would switch her to the diet that is going to work out for her for the duration because you will have to do it sooner or later and, in my personal opinion, it's always better to do these things sooner when the bird is so hormonal.
Parrots are very difficult pets to keep healthy and happy. Everything is hard... you need to learn so much about so many difficult subjects (anatomy, physiology, pathogens, treatments, ewtand keep in mind so many things that the often brandished 'low maintenance' that petstores and breeders use to describe them is absolutely risible for anybody who has had one for years. Everything takes A LOT of work: feeding, cleaning, spending time with them, etc. And everything is super protracted with them: getting them on a good diet, bonding, training, etc. so getting impatient is something we all understand because we all went through it. And we all get exasperated, too, so don't feel bad about it, it's a common 'ailment' among parrot keepers
The thing is that we are all used to keeping animals that have been domesticated for thousands of years as companions to humans and for which we can buy great food already prepared; they are mammals like us and they all belong to hierarchical societies of one sort or another so we can easily identify with them as well as their problems and behaviors but parrots are on a level reserved just to themselves as pets and, regardless of how much experience we had with other species, we all have to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch so, like Rick said, take a deep breath and don't get all bent out of shape by this problem. It's solvable - you just have to re-evaluate things, make a plan and stick to it.