So it begins...

I think I'm calling it. Kermit is hitting puberty. She'll be 2 sometime in May.

This last week, she's been a proper teenager. I've been not coming home a few nights because of finals week at school, but my parents have been taking care of her for me. Still, this evidently upset her, and she's been refusing to be taken to her sleeping cage at night. She refuses to set-up for anybody, even her favorite (my dad... he's very pretty to birds I guess). She's been getting more bitey and lunging to anyone that tries.

I'm off on break, so I'm hoping to improve this naughty girl behavior around bed. Once I can get her off she's fine, but oof. I'm trying not to put her to bed immediately, in case she feels robbed of cuddles. I've also tried luring her in by promising all the fun games we'll have. We've tried counting to 3, and that worked for a while, but then she became content to watch us come back 5 minutes later to try again. She's manipulative. I know she's drawing it out for max attention. I'm debating going back to pure bribery with a low-reward treat, because I don't want to keep encouraging these shenanigans.

The other thing I'm noticing is how CHEWY she's gotten lately. I always have lots of toys for her. I recently bought another round of toys to rotate in. Kermit chews a little bit, but normally a toy has some life in it for at least a few months. At the beginning of the week I put in this new toy, a giant palm leaf sunflower sort of thing. I finally look proper at her cage, and she's chewed off most of the petals. That thing will be lucky to last another week! I'm happy she's taking out some of that aggression on non-human-flesh materials, but wow that was surprising.

Kermit, may your journey to henhood be swift and painless for all D: !

Good news re the toy chewing, just as an aside is everything else OK? Checking that guessing hormones when it maybe something else.

I have found that my parrot and the ones I look after now and again love a bedtime routine, you know daftness, a song or two, a cuddle and a chat and then beddybyes! This will usually work with the words bedtime, bubbyes, beddybows or whatever else LOL. This provides structure and a prize, you can also give a favoured treat when she reaches her roosting perch. Once you set a routine everyone needs to be on board to follow it. It is amasing how easily these birds feel robbed if it isnt done right. Bedtime should mean bedtime though and no returning or disturbance once the routine has been set.

As far as I know, everything else is normal. I weighed her this morning, and her droppings are normal. I haven't observed any other abnormal behaviors. If I look in her cage, none of her other toys are chewed up like this one. I think she just got really excited by it for some reason. I'll have to buy another when she chews this one up.

We usually play at least 30 minutes before bedtime, but I'll try some more set routines to see if she'll come more cooperatively. She usually misbehaves when we're late taking her out of the cage, and assumes we're putting her straight to bed. So I can certainly see where routine makes everyone happy.

Hey they all hit puberty at some point, right? Even Salty, who rarely bits anyone, bit my son Erik AND me yesterday, quite badly too. 10 min later he was on my shoulder, getting scratched - who can predict?? He is 2-1/2 come the end of this year. No dry humping yet, but i'm sure thats coming.