Male Lovebird Aggression Issues

Recently I bought a second tent for my bird to sleep in and hung it from a rafter on the ceiling, he enjoys going there often times through the day and has gotten busy with it (if you know what I mean) several times. When it first started occurring I did some research and found it was 'completely normal' for lovebirds to express this kind of behavior and to let him go about his business. Well about 3 weeks later (now) he's started showing some serious signs of aggression if you try and pick him up while he's in the hut. He's never done this before in the 3 years I've been with him.

I guess the question is, should I stop him from doing this kind of stuff? I don't really want to as I understand it's completely natural and a part of nature, but if he's going to attempt to bite me when I try and hold him, that's bad. He's small and it really doesn't hurt me as I'm a man that's worked with my hands most of my life, however it could probably draw blood on my wife.

FWIW he's a peach face with a slate mutation. Hand fed from birth and is almost always out of his cage.

yea, i get what you mean, i would probably take it out more for some things i've heard about dangers of the tent and risks of strangulation and getting feet stuck, i know some birds don't chew them, but i wouldn't take the risk

Personally, I would ditch the hut, as much as he likes it, they can be very dangerous and several birds have become ensnared in them and some have even died. On top of that, they can cause nesting behavior which is exactly what is happening with your little guy. When birds are nesting they naturally become more aggressive and it's really not something you want to encourage in a pet bird. Birds can live perfectly happy lives without breeding and I think that encouraging nesting behavior in a bird that doesn't have a mate is just going to frustrate him even more. I would take out the hut and replace it with a really cool toy to distract him, I'm sure he'll forget all about nesting and be back to normal in no time.

ikylejm said:

yea, i get what you mean, i would probably take it out more for some things i've heard about dangers of the tent and risks of strangulation and getting feet stuck, i know some birds don't chew them, but i wouldn't take the risk

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He does chew on the edges of his tent in his cage that is shaped with cardboard inserts, however I just replace that with a new one very frequently (probably once a month) as they're only like 5 dollars. This one he doesn't chew on at all though, he just humps it.

Excuse me for being kind of a newbie when it comes to this, but if I remove the hut what would you recommend for him to sleep in? For reference this is what I consider a 'hut'

Ditching it like Icy suggested is actually a good idea. However, sometimes they will turn to their toys so watch what he does.

MikeyTN said:

Ditching it like Icy suggested is actually a good idea. However, sometimes they will turn to their toys so watch what he does.

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He actually did start doing this with one of his trinkets in his cage called a "cozy corner" which is basically just a little cloth thing that he can cuddle up next to, we removed it from his cage. This then lead to him humping my head, which ended VERY quickly as I do not want him humping my head.

Birds don't really need anything to sleep in, they are more than capable of sleeping on their perches, all of our birds do it unless they are on babies/eggs. If he is that far into breeding mode I would rearrange his entire cage, make sure you're only petting him on his head(no back or belly rubs) and start putting him to bed earlier if possible. Long days mimic the spring time and summer months and que birds to start breeding.

IcyWolf said:

Birds don't really need anything to sleep in, they are more than capable of sleeping on their perches, all of our birds do it unless they are on babies/eggs. If he is that far into breeding mode I would rearrange his entire cage, make sure you're only petting him on his head(no back or belly rubs) and start putting him to bed earlier if possible. Long days mimic the spring time and summer months and que birds to start breeding.

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Thanks for the awesome responses.

He's slept in his hut since he was a baby (3 years ago) he likes the warmth and having the walls close to him, I've never seen him sleep on his perch before in the entire time I've owned him. I was actually recommended this hut by another very well known lovebird aviary (not trying to discredit you, simply explaining why I do it). Whenever petting him I usually put him on his back and scratch his neck, around his neck, and the top of his head and lastly, he is on a 12 hour sleep schedule, I almost always wake him up and put him to sleep every 12 hours.

There are some people that swear by the happy huts and I used to like them as well but I've just known too many birds that have gotten caught in them and it scares me. We use acrylic hanging boxes with holes and dried, hollowed out coconuts for babies but I don't give them to any of our adult pets, it just makes them too nesty. Our alex always has phonebooks because she barbers her feathers without them and lately she has been trying to nest on the bottom of her cage with the shredded phonebook paper. We try and remove the excess paper as soon as it starts to accumulate but she is still being a cranky little you know what about it. You can't even walk past her cage without her lunging at you and our poor dog has taken a few nips just for walking by her cage. If you really want him to have his hut you could always just rearrange his cage and reduce the daytime hours and see if that is enough to bring him out of it. 12-14 hours is what we put our birds on when we want them to breed, I would knock him down to 8-10 for a few weeks if possible.

IcyWolf said:

There are some people that swear by the happy huts and I used to like them as well but I've just known too many birds that have gotten caught in them and it scares me. We use acrylic hanging boxes with holes and dried, hollowed out coconuts for babies but I don't give them to any of our adult pets, it just makes them too nesty. Our alex always has phonebooks because she barbers her feathers without them and lately she has been trying to nest on the bottom of her cage with the shredded phonebook paper. We try and remove the excess paper as soon as it starts to accumulate but she is still being a cranky little you know what about it. You can't even walk past her cage without her lunging at you and our poor dog has taken a few nips just for walking by her cage. If you really want him to have his hut you could always just rearrange his cage and reduce the daytime hours and see if that is enough to bring him out of it. 12-14 hours is what we put our birds on when we want them to breed, I would knock him down to 8-10 for a few weeks if possible.

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He just adores that hut, he knows instantly when it's time to go to bed and he climbs up in it like a little kid jumping in their bed. He's almost never inside of it if he's not resting which is good, I really just think the problem is the hut OUTSIDE of his cage, it was maybe a little excessive and I for sure should just replace it with a new toy or something.

Replaced the happy hut with a coconut toy that he can land on, and added another perch toy for him to play with. He is massively afraid of both, wonderful.