Too Much Bird Love!

[VolcanoBakemeat]

Hi guys, I'm having a weird, kinda gross problem with my best pal. My conure regurgitates a LOT for me; whenever I enter the room, whenever I open his cage, whenever he's done eating his food, etc! He's good at not actually spewing it everywhere, (he just kind of swallows it back down) but I'm sure it's sexual in nature. He's been humping his bird bed a lot lately, too, fortunately not me! I'm not too troubled about the rate of barf he gives me, because I can stop that, but the dry humping is not ok. I've tried ignoring it, does NOT work. He still goes at it when I leave and when I come back. I've tried scolding him, either swaddling him in a "calm down" blanket (works for a tantrum) or giving him a spritz and a stern "NO" but he still goes at it. I know he thinks we're mates, an idea I've been trying to get him to dismiss with methods other bird owners have offered, but nothing sticks. My bird thinks we're married!! Help!!!

oh well, at least he's handsome

 

[GaleriaGila]

Precious brd!

Here's the best I have been able to manage...

Ever since the Rickeybird hit sexual maturity at about 3-4 years of age, I've had to manage his hormones! If kept on too steady a long day, and too much light, he stayed "in the mood" (aggressive, even louder than usual, pleasuring himself on my neck ) year round. If I keep him on a natural light schedule... up with dawn, down with dusk, year around... THEN he's only a little monster rooster from July to September). He has his own room, so I can do that easily.

 

[EllenD]

Well said, getting him on a solar schedule where his cage is located in a place that he can see the sunrise and sunset, getting him up at sunrise and putting him to bed as the sunset starts, will help to control his hormones. His days will be shorter and his nights longer, he should get 12-14 hours of sleep. This is the best way to knock him out of breeding mode and to keep him out.

Another point of view here though is that apparently he is not being aggressive or nasty, he's not attacking you or anyone else or being violent, and he's not humping you or anyone else. So you're in much better shape than a lot of people, often birds become very aggressive, violent, and cause much injury to their owners during hormonal phases. So quite honestly I personally have no problem at all with my male Quaker parrot, who is basically much like your conure even though he's on a solar schedule. He humps his perch and his hammock quite often, but that's really his only expression of hormones, so I don't make a big deal about it. I've heard many people on here say that they just allow their birds to hump toys, perches, etc. as long as they aren't trying to hump them, that's crossing the line. But if humping his toys or his bed inside his cage is the worst that he does, then letting him do it until he comes out of breeding mode (usually twice a year for a month or so) isn't a big deal.

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