jasper tried to mate with me today??

hi

we have had jasper for almost a year now and he is about 3 years old. i did post in the beginning of last year to talk about is biting. but he has gotten over that now and is much better. though he does favor my boyfriend more than me. im just the one who feeds and cleans where as Chris is his best friend. i get to stroke him when he is in the mood, but usually he will growl at me to stay away, so i do.

today he decided that it was ok to sit on my knee while we watched tv. chris was a few feet away in a different chair. everything was fine and jasper started to chat and coo to us saying hello etc. he started to taste my fingers which was fine. he started to get a little hard so i pulled my sleeves down over my hand and he left them alone. then he mounted my fist a couple of minutes later and started to try mate with it.

jasper does have a rope toy in his cage that he is very fond of and will mate with quite regularly, every couple of days

we dont want to encourage him to mate with us and know it could become a problem.

But why did he decide that it was ok to mate with me when he doesnt particularly like me?? surely he should have gone for chris as he is much closer to him 'relationship' wise..

i was wearing a red jumper, would he associate that with a female? we dont have a female eclectus and he hasnt seen his own species since he was a baby..

any ideas or help welcome

mant thanks

This is a normal part of eclectus ownership & we should not encourage this behavior. I would recommend you take away anything in the cage he mates with. Have a heap of different toys & foraging toys to help direct his attention to other activities. As soon as he starts to show his affection simply put him on his playstand or cage. Never stroke him down the back as this stimulates sexual behavior.

Site Name - Articles - Behavioral - Sex And The Psittacine

An interesting read.

Puck tirelessly tried to mate with me AND my boyfriend while he was in season. Seriously, he would not give up, and nothing discouraged him. We tried to discourage it though. We would stop playing with him, sometimes put him back on his cage, try to distract him, etc. It helped momentarily, but not for very long. I really hope he takes a "special liking" to a toy next season... lol

jasper has started regurgitating to me to, but its only when im alone, my boyfriend is never around when he does it. as when he is there jasper would rather be with him, but he will try mate with my arm, and it has to be a jumper, he wont do it if my arms are bare. we are doing our best to discourage it. but hes a bugger and he knows now that if he shows signs of what hes about to do we put him somewhere else to change his mind, so now he just suddenly does it. hes a sneaky bugger.

thanks for your replies

LOL! Sneaky! I guess he likes you in a jumper...