Is albie hitting puberty?

Stitchthestitch · Jun 18, 2020

He's nearly 7 months old and he's started displaying sexual behaviors towards my hubby. Hes strutting, attempting to regurgitate, wing flicking whilst crouching with his tail up. He's also become super loud when hubby leaves the room and he's been more nippy,nothing too hard, but certainly more than usual.

He doesnt want to be with me at all unless I have sun flower seed for his training. He isnt aggressive towards me, not In the slightest, but he's definitely living hubby more.

So beyond very regular 7-7 bed time wake time, no soft, warm, sugary foods and lots of mental distractions is there anything else we can do?

wrench13 · Jun 18, 2020

Very doubtful he is going into puberty at 7 months old - if he really is that.
Are you 100% sure?

Stitchthestitch · Jun 18, 2020

No clue that's why I was asking, but he's never displayed any of this before

wrench13 · Jun 18, 2020

OK so another thing is make sure 12 hours of quiet uninteruppted sleep daily. Also, no dark hidey holes or corners - too much like nesting areas. You already know no touching on anywhere but head and neck. Low or no fruits or high sugar foods , like corn. Keep him as active as you can, run those hormones out of him. This 2019/2020 has been a real killer year for hormones for some reason, in the Northern Hemisphere. The good thing - this too will pass. The hard part is not letting new behavior on their part change your behavior to and with your bird.

noodles123 · Jun 19, 2020

Wait...he's a sun conure right?
There is a vet that says that some reach sexual maturity as early as 10 months, although they are the minority compared to most.
IF he is one, then it could be hormones.
1 to 3 years is the average range cited for "sexual maturity" but hormones DO kick in before that.

Like Wrench said, no shadowy spaces (no huts, tents, boxes, drawers, under clothing, paper piles, bedding etc)...
10-12 hours sleep on a schedule
Lots of enrichment
Do not attend to sexual behaviors or encourage them
Pet ONLY on the head and neck
avoid high-sugar/conditions of abundance

^you should start all of this now if you aren't already, whether or not this is actually hormonal.

Stitchthestitch · Jun 19, 2020

Noodles, he's a green cheek

We already pet his head and neck only, we have strict beds time wake time for him, he doesn't like being u der clothes and it isn't something I've encouraged either because I don't want him to get squished, he has no dark spaces huts, boxes or otherwise because well huts scare me and I didnt t want to start giving a box only to take it away.

The only thing I am doing is giving him a raspberry and grape or 2 a day along with baby corn... So I will be cutting these out to once a week.

noodles123 · Jun 19, 2020

Stitchthestitch said:
Noodles, he's a green cheek

We already pet his head and neck only, we have strict beds time wake time for him, he doesn't like being u der clothes and it isn't something I've encouraged either because I don't want him to get squished, he has no dark spaces huts, boxes or otherwise because well huts scare me and I didnt t want to start giving a box only to take it away.

The only thing I am doing is giving him a raspberry and grape or 2 a day along with baby corn... So I will be cutting these out to once a week.

As birds mature, they do sometimes shift preferences (even in a non-sexual way) so it is possible that he is just basically a pre-teen trying to assert himself in the world. You know how young kids love their moms/dads and then all of the sudden think they suck around 6th-7th grade ? Similar to birds in a lot of ways lol.

Is albie hitting puberty?

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