Do cuddle huts encourage nesting?

[Pinetree]

First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Pine and I am a proud owner of a Sun Conure and Green Cheek Conure. Neither of which are DNA tested.

I bought the Sun Conure from a family on craigslist who no longer wanted the bird. I could tell he was abused, neglected, and malnourished, so I decided to take him home. The woman who owned him said he was about 5 years old, and that she was "pretty sure" he was a male.


The sun conure was very lonely, and I don't believe he has ever seen another parrot in his entire life. We decided to adopt a second conure to give him a friend.


The Green Cheek was sold to me by a breeder as a weened 3 month old chick. The breeder told me that it was a female, and that she was certain of it because she knows how to tell the difference between male or female birds by feeling the vent opening. Although she was very confident about this, I know that vent-sexing isn't always accurate.


Note that the two birds lived in individual cages for several months. They would commonly visit each other, and whenever I brought one out of its cage, I would always bring the other. However, after some time, they became hard to separate. Constantly preening each other, snuggling, taking naps together, talking to each other across their cages, and now, regurgitating.

I recently moved, and due to lack of space I was forced to move both of the birds into the same cage.

I know, bad idea.

They are now exhibiting mating behavior.

I have a large cuddle hut inside of the cage. The green cheek sleeps in it but not the sun conure. I was wondering if this would encourage nesting?

I don't want hybrid babies, as I am aware of the potential defects. I do not encourage mating. However, at the same time, if my conures lay fertile eggs, I do not feel comfortable boiling or killing them. They contain life and deserve a chance to live.

 

[Jen5200]

From my experience, the huts seemed to increase mating behavior for my sun and GCC. There could also safety concerns if they chew the hut at all. I got rid of the hut (being cautious) and noticed that the mating behavior slowed down a lot (they still have some, but none of the nesty-type behaviours that my sun was starting to show and they have never laid eggs). They both sleep quite happily on the perches now and only complained about it for a few days right after I took it away.

 

[Pinetree]

I've kept a close eye on the hut since I bought it. They've never chewed on it, and it has no chew marks on it whatsoever; so I don't think that would be an issue.

 

[Pinetree]

From my experience, the huts seemed to increase mating behavior for my sun and GCC. There could also safety concerns if they chew the hut at all. I got rid of the hut (being cautious) and noticed that the mating behavior slowed down a lot (they still have some, but none of the nesty-type behaviours that my sun was starting to show and they have never laid eggs). They both sleep quite happily on the perches now and only complained about it for a few days right after I took it away.

Do your sun and GCC live in the same cage?

 

[Jen5200]

From my experience, the huts seemed to increase mating behavior for my sun and GCC. There could also safety concerns if they chew the hut at all. I got rid of the hut (being cautious) and noticed that the mating behavior slowed down a lot (they still have some, but none of the nesty-type behaviours that my sun was starting to show and they have never laid eggs). They both sleep quite happily on the perches now and only complained about it for a few days right after I took it away.

Do your sun and GCC live in the same cage?

Baby and Tango share a cage, yes. They weren’t chewing on their hut either, but I noticed that Baby was spending time in it throughout the day and acting more hormonal. I got rid of the hut because of what I thought was looking like “nesty” behavior. I didn’t want any eggs happening either

 

[Scott]

I cannot address the nesting/mating aspects of huts, but specific types rank high on the list of deadly hazardous accessories. "Happy Huts" have killed many birds via thread ingestion. Reference: http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-toys/38678-list-hazardous-toys-here-please.html#post334004

If you can inspect once or twice daily and verify the absence of any bite/chew marks or missing strands, you might have a safe hut.... with the caveat of never missing a check!

 

[reeisconfused]

Welcome to the forum, Pine!

I agree with the answers above. The best solution is to remove the Happy Hut from the cage to discourage breeding behaviour. It is always best to remove hazardous toys from the environment, even if they don’t seem to be causing harm. Better be safe than sorry.

While I agree with you, I think its best to remove the eggs from the cage, if she lays any. Hybrid babies are born with lots of complications and you always need to be ready with backup in case the parents reject the baby. Even skilled breeders don’t take babies away from the parents because it’s a very difficult process and the chicks end up dying. Not to forget complications from breeding behaviour as such egg binding in your GCC etc. It’s better to take the eggs away then let them die as chicks bc of complications, don’t you think?

If you don’t have enough space for two seperate cages, you could sell them and get a double floor cage? I don’t know what its called but I’ve seen few threads on here where people purchased them and were happy with it. The size is suitable for conures and you could easily keep them seperated. Just a suggestion.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

To my knowledge, GCC and suns cannot have babies. I've never heard of that. That being said, nesting shouldn't be encouraged (unless you have a breeding pair)

Like others have mentioned, there are serious hazards involved with cuddle huts. IF neither of your birds are chewing on it whatsoever and you are inspecting it daily then you should probably be okay as long as you continue to inspect it daily. I got Skittles a cuddle hut and he loved it. Sadly though, he kept chewing on it and he would regurgitate in it. Given that birds eat their own vomit (gross, i know, lol) and he would regurgitate in the same places he chewed up, I got rid of his cuddle hut. I instead made little tunnels out of old tissue boxes (with plastic and glue parts removed) and layered the bottom with plain paper towels.

You may also want to check out MSBS (mysafebirdstore.com) They have some great safe products for birds.

Lastly, congrats and kudos for taking in the neglected sunnie. Feel free to post the personal details of his/her previous owner. I'd love to pay a special "visit" to the $*%*%& and share my POV with them. (btw, thats just a joke. I can't care for Skitty from prison, so I'll just leave it up to karma. They'll get whats coming to them eventually)

 

[EllenD]

First of all, welcome to our community! I'm glad you've found us...

Please take the time to click on the link I've copied-in below, and read only a tiny fraction of the bird owners who have lost their birds, mostly different Conure species,
to the Happy/Snuggle Huts. It's definitely eye-opening, and keep in-mind that this is only one webpage of hundreds where people post their mourning over the sudden loss of their birds due to Happy/Snuggle Huts:

Happy Hut Warning

Now onto the Happy/Snuggle Hut controversy...well, it's really not a controversy, as it has been well-proven that no one should EVER have them inside their bird's cage, and I will beg of you to remove it from your bird's cage immediately, as I do not want to see you posting in the "Bereavement" or the "Health" forums...Please, please, please, remove the "hut"...I actually call them "Death Huts", and it's not meant to be at all funny, but rather it's very true, unfortunately for thousands and thousands of bird owners...

****Realize that the question that you're asking about whether or not the "Huts" influence your birds to become hormonal is not even close to the largest problem that these things cause...The answer to your question btw is a resounding "yes"...ANY small, dark, warm places that your birds can get into/under are going to cause hormonal rushes, in both males and females. In female birds this is going to encourage chronic egg-laying, which can be detrimental to their health and obviously fatal if they become egg-bound...In male birds, these hormonal behaviors create very aggressive and violent behaviors in them, and the number one "hormonal behavior" that male birds display towards their human owners is biting, and biting hard, and often, along with chronic masturbation, and just the frustration that it brings them from not being able to mate with you, which is typically what leads to the violent behavior...

However, once again, the hormonal issue should be second in your mind and your heart when it comes to these "Huts", as your bird or birds, if they both have one, are in direct danger and risk for everything from Crop Obstructions, Stomach/Gizzard Blockages,
Bowel Obstructions, Bowel Perforations, GI Infections, Choking, Airway Obstruction, and even Poisoning and Toxicity. The most common reason that these "Huts" end-up killing birds is because they usually don't just tear them apart or sit and chew on them for long periods of time, but rather just chew on them a bit hear, a bit there, and this happens usually when they are inside the "Huts" and becoming hormonal, so they start to chew on the inside lining of the "Hut". Over-time, the tiny, sometimes microscopic pieces of material that they swallow while lightly chewing on the inside of these things usually goes through their Crop, passes through their stomach, and lands in their Upper/Superior Intestinal Tract. This continues to happen, and over-time the collection of tiny pieces of material builds-up enough that it finally causes a Bowel Obstruction/Blockage, which either blocks all food from passing into the intestinal tract and pushes it back up through their stomach and eventually back up into their crops, causing acute/very sudden and extreme pain and vomiting, followed by death, OR the Bowel Obstruction causes pressure to build-up inside the superior Intestinal-Tract, which causes a horribly painful and fatal Bowel Perforation. The second issue that most commonly result in the sudden and untimely death of birds from these "Huts" is when they suddenly chew/pick-open a long thread from the inside of the "Hut", that isn't visible until it falls out, and then the bird gets either his neck wrapped-up and caught in it and they hang themselves, or more often they get one of their legs wrapped-up in it and cannot free themselves, so they either just hang there, dangling, until someone finds them that way, OR they actually chew-off their own leg/foot to free themselves, which usually results in them bleeding to death in a matter of minutes. People find their birds hanging from these things all the time, dead.

*****Something that you really need to keep in-mind is that even though you stated that your bird/birds "Never chew on the Hut", or that "you don't see them chewing on the Hut", those are very often a bird owner's famous last words before finding their bird dead. If you clicked on the link I posted above and read any of the numerous posts made by owners who had their birds killed one way or another by one of these Huts, the one thing that most-all of them have in common is that they thought that their birds were fine and unlike all the other birds who had died due to these Huts because they had never once seen their birds chewing on the Huts, nor did they see any hanging threads or frayed-edges to the material. Why? Because the birds typically chew these Huts while they are inside of them, and they often simply chew the material itself instead of chewing any of the outside of the Huts, any of the edges, or anything visible to their owners...As I stated already, usually birds ingest tiny, tiny little pieces of the material and they die from a build-up of these tiny little pieces in their intestinal tracts over-time (All Confirmed Upon Necropsy).

If I seem passionate about getting you to remove the "Happy Hut" from your bird's cage, it's because I am...Why? Because it's a completely and totally preventable death of pet birds! With so many illnesses, diseases, common accidents that can't be stopped ahead of time, etc. that kill our birds, there is absolutely no reason for a single death of a bird to occur due to these "Huts" anymore, as we are all well aware of how dangerous they are to our birds, and preventing their death from them is as easy as removing the Hut from their cage. Period. Done.

So there is no reason for anyone to have one of these Huts inside their bird's cage at all anymore, not with all of the information about the literally thousands of pet bird deaths that they've directly caused out there online for every other bird owner to see! The manufacturer of these "Happy Huts" has taken all contact information for them off of their website, no phone number, no email address, nothing but a mailing address is listed; Their Facebook page is rarely updated, and is simply an active posting of thousands of devastated and furious bird owners who have either lost their birds as a direct result of their Huts, or who have been lucky and only had a badly injured bird due to them. There are currently several hundred class-action suits and private suits in small-claims court against the company that manufactures the Happy Huts, and this is exactly why they list no contact information for themselves anywhere. They actually had the nerve to start printing "Not safe for use with Conures" on the front of the Happy Hut packaging (don't know if you saw that when you purchased yours), thinking that this was all they needed to do to free themselves from any responsibility. The problem is #1) It's not just "Conures" who have died or who continue to die from Happy Huts, it's ALL Species of birds, and #2) How in the world can this company justify putting any product for birds like this, a general-purpose product, and then say it's "Not Safe For Conures" but it's safe for any other species of bird? It makes no sense, it was just a "CYA" tactic that obviously didn't work for them...

***Hopefully all of these Happy Huts/Snuggle Huts and any clones/copies will all be taken off the market in the United States in the next couple of months, it's been a work in-progress for the last 3-4 years, and it's finally almost there. The problem is that there is no governing body who sees over bird toys Federally. But we're getting there.

The bottom-line is that there is absolutely no reason at all to leave that Happy Hut inside of your bird's cage knowing the tremendous risk to his health and his life that it poses, especially since he's a Conure...And yes, it's going to make him hormonal and go into "hormonal episodes", which can not only become violent towards you and other people in the house, but that are causing tremendous frustration for him. So please, just remove the Happy Hut from his cage, and all of your bird's cages if they have one, as they are no only unsafe, they literally have a very high percentage chance of killing them...

 

[dhraiden]

I would posit that they definitely do - as well as anything is soft, and "burrow"-able which mimics the qualities of their natural nesting "cavities" (meaning holes or small, enclosed spaces as found in the trunks of trees and such) in the wild.


This generates automatic hormonal influxes which are not pleasant for birds to under-go continuously.

 

[LeslieA]

To my knowledge, GCC and suns cannot have babies.

Please know that GCCs and Suns can mate and have chicks. This is conure mating season. Even so, your GCC is too young. GCCs generally reach sexual maturity at 9- 12 mos. Any eggs should either be replaced with fake eggs or just removed. The chances of mating happening are minimal but can happen.

Sleep tents do encourage female nesting behavior so for that reason alone is discouraged. GCCs tend to be quite aggressive particularly now. They're known to attack larger conures and the Sun may accidentally maim or kill it with the larger beak.

Assumedly, you've ordered a second cage and are waiting on its arrival. Until then, go buy a quarantine cage! Speaking of which...Why are those birds even sharing a cage? Were they quarantined? I've heard too many horror stories so am a stickler for quarantine

 

[LeslieA]

Also know that your GCC is only displaying learned behavior. At this age the only way to tell gender is through DNA testing. If your breeder has some secret way to tell, I want to know that secret.

 

[ChristaNL]

Just boil the (eventual) eggs or throw them away.
(if you throw them out - replace with a fake egg)

An egg may of may not be fertilised: so not every egg = life
maybe that helps a bit.

I am very happy your birds really like each other.
(I wish mine did, though I do not want them to breed either so it would be difficult for me too to 'harm the eggs' but it has to be done.)

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

If GCCs and suns can mate, how come I've never seen or heard of a half-gcc/half-sun type conure? I'd be curious to know what they look like.

 

[Rozalka]

If GCCs and suns can mate, how come I've never seen or heard of a half-gcc/half-sun type conure? I'd be curious to know what they look like.

Here is this hybrid (from flickr.com)

 

[LordTriggs]

@Skitty they are possible but very very rare, It's similar to the Galatiel hybrid in many ways.

OP in simple summary yes they can and often do cause hormonal behavior through the nest simulation they form and also the rubbing of a soft fluffy thing on belly or wings or back is like doing the diddly and gets them all hot and bothered. Outside of that if there isn't already I would make sure there are 2 food bowls and 2 water bowls in the cage to avoid any bickering/fights over food or water

 

[noodles123]

Regardless of whether the 2 birds can mate, the prospect of mating alone (in the bird's mind) can cause them to lay infertile eggs. This can lead to many complications (some deadly---E.G., egg binding, prolapse etc). Then there are the hormones which (aside from egg-laying) often result in aggression, plucking and screaming in a bird who is looking to mate or feels jilted by a "mate" who spurns his/her advances. Finally, there are the dangers of the huts (aside from hormones). That's why I say to avoid them and anything else that may trigger hormonal behavior...whether or not everyone agrees on the hormones, there are the other risks addressed above.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Ah, well thats good to know! Guess you learn something knew every day!


On the subject of cuddle huts. They DEFINITELY promote mating behavior. Skittles used to regurgitate A LOT when he had his cuddle hut, even when he wasn't in it. Now, he hasn't done that in a LONG time. He gets his 'cuddle fix' by hiding inside my shirt. He loves to preen my facial and chest hair and sometimes he even tries to burrow but I've not noticed any hormonal behavior. If he started regurgitating when he was preening me, I'd have to put the kibosh on it, but so far, so good. I did get him a 'blankie' for this winter from the MSBS. Hopefully, that won't be an issue.

 

[LeslieA]

Unfortunately, another unfortunate side effect of missized conure breeding, as with many bird types, is that females are subject to cloacal protrusions and being eggbound by eggs she's unable to pass thus leading to high AV bills or "egg sickness." Often the females are put on meds before reaching sexual maturity to avoid this.

It can and rarely does happen that larger conures mate with smaller conures. This often caused mental deficiencies and emotional problems. Again, any eggs should be destroyed and, depending on the bird, replaced with fake eggs.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Sunnies are endangered in the wild so I don't see the point in mixed breeding.