Consistent Regurgitation/Mating Behavior

[kmatuska98]

Hi All,

I have an 11 year old green cheek conure. Last November he started regurgitating on some of his toys (soft ones) and humping a perch. I removed the perch from his cage immediately but the behavior got worse, he will do it to any toy now, and he started to regurgitate on me as well. I started removing toys he regurgitates on from his cage and replaced them with new ones. Pretty quickly though he just starts using the new toys for the same purpose, and I can't afford to replace all of his toys every week. For a while I ended up removing all toys from his cage and the behavior did get better, he stopped doing it on me. I also started putting him to bed around 5/6. However he would still occasionally regurgitate on his own even without toys in the cage. Eventually though I put toys back in because he needs stimulation when he's in his cage. The behavior is getting worse and worse again and I am really out of ideas (luckily he hasn't started doing it on me again). I know its bad for them to be stuck in mating mode but I can't seem to snap him out of this one. I am really at the end of my rope, any advice would be super helpful.

 

[kme3388]

Hi there, hopefully someone chimes in below. I too have this issue with 2 of my birds. No I don’t pet their backs, or under their feathers. I just take them out of their cage for spray baths, they hang out on my shoulder, trick training, and such. Nothing that would in my opinion bring out mating behaviors. I’ve changed the cage around, and the things you’ve described. Nothing seems to work. I’m not sure if it’s just natural behavior, and if there’s anything that helps it decrease. I’m open for suggestions too.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Hi All,

I have an 11 year old green cheek conure. Last November he started regurgitating on some of his toys (soft ones) and humping a perch. I removed the perch from his cage immediately but the behavior got worse, he will do it to any toy now, and he started to regurgitate on me as well. I started removing toys he regurgitates on from his cage and replaced them with new ones. Pretty quickly though he just starts using the new toys for the same purpose, and I can't afford to replace all of his toys every week. For a while I ended up removing all toys from his cage and the behavior did get better, he stopped doing it on me. I also started putting him to bed around 5/6. However he would still occasionally regurgitate on his own even without toys in the cage. Eventually though I put toys back in because he needs stimulation when he's in his cage. The behavior is getting worse and worse again and I am really out of ideas (luckily he hasn't started doing it on me again). I know its bad for them to be stuck in mating mode but I can't seem to snap him out of this one. I am really at the end of my rope, any advice would be super helpful.

It's not dangerous for a male bird to behave like this. He can't lay eggs (egg laying can be hazardous to females). That said, plus the fact that all your efforts to control it have failed, why not just ignore it and let him "go at it" until he tires himself out? Birds and other non-human animals are so innocent and shameless. It would be sad to try to force your bird to stop this harmless behsvio

 

[zERo]

I think we need more information here.

I’d ask a few questions first, what’s the diet like?

How much sleep is he getting?

When’s the last time his blood was checked?

It's not dangerous for a male bird to behave like this. He can't lay eggs (egg laying can be hazardous to females). That said, plus the fact that all your efforts to control it have failed, why not just ignore it and let him "go at it" until he tires himself out? Birds and other non-human animals are so innocent and shameless. It would be sad to try to force your bird to stop this harmless behsvio

While I agree that it’s not harmful, it’s very frustrating for any bird. Something is setting it off as constant sexual mode isn’t normal.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I think we need more information here.

I’d ask a few questions first, what’s the diet like?

How much sleep is he getting?

When’s the last time his blood was checked?


While I agree that it’s not harmful, it’s very frustrating for any bird. Something is setting it off as constant sexual mode isn’t normal.

I have a male budgie that did this with one of his toys many times a day for years. If I tried to stop him I think he would have been even more frustrated. Not interrupting him appeared to allow him to satisfy his urges.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

Hi there, hopefully someone chimes in below. I too have this issue with 2 of my birds. No I don’t pet their backs, or under their feathers. I just take them out of their cage for spray baths, they hang out on my shoulder, trick training, and such. Nothing that would in my opinion bring out mating behaviors. I’ve changed the cage around, and the things you’ve described. Nothing seems to work. I’m not sure if it’s just natural behavior, and if there’s anything that helps it decrease. I’m open for suggestions too.

My male conure also acts like this a lot, as well as trying to attack me a lot. I've had the best results with changing his diet and introducing a lot more vegetables and reducing the amount of seed he was eating. I tried so much, including cage changes, sleep changes, more quality time, more toys, different toys and probably much more but it all either didn't do anything or made him worse.

He's still hormonal now, but the diet change has really helped a lot.

 

[kme3388]

I am guessing there is no magic trick to just make the behavior stop.

I know negative things do come from hormones (parrots trying to mate with people, or objects). Nico ended up in multiple shelters. I’m sure his hormones really played a factor. He does bite hard, and doesn’t hide the fact that he has a favorite person (mate). He makes it well known that he doesn’t wish to interact with anyone else. I try not to trigger his hormones if I can avoid it.

My newest sun conure Charlie recently started trying to mate with me. He can get nippy. Luckily he doesn’t feather pluck like Nico does. It’s suspected that hormones can be the cause to feather plucking. He’s still friendly towards others as well.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I am guessing there is no magic trick to just make the behavior stop.

I know negative things do come from hormones (parrots trying to mate with people, or objects). Nico ended up in multiple shelters. I’m sure his hormones really played a factor. He does bite hard, and doesn’t hide the fact that he has a favorite person (mate). He makes it well known that he doesn’t wish to interact with anyone else. I try not to trigger his hormones if I can avoid it.

My newest sun conure Charlie recently started trying to mate with me. He can get nippy. Luckily he doesn’t feather pluck like Nico does. It’s suspected that hormones can be the cause to feather plucking. He’s still friendly towards others as well.

It would be nice if there was an easy solution to parrots doing what nature intended, wouldn't it? They would be happier if free of all this sexual frustration. People can get their dogs, cats, and horses neutered to make them better, happier human companion animals but most parrots are too small to survive such invasive surgery. Could you imagine the chaos if dogs, cats and horses couldn't be "fixed"? I wish hormone implants were a more viable option for pet birds. I wish all of us hoomans and our parrots only the best, happiest lives as we navigate the very real world of avian sexual frustration.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

I am guessing there is no magic trick to just make the behavior stop.

I know negative things do come from hormones (parrots trying to mate with people, or objects). Nico ended up in multiple shelters. I’m sure his hormones really played a factor. He does bite hard, and doesn’t hide the fact that he has a favorite person (mate). He makes it well known that he doesn’t wish to interact with anyone else. I try not to trigger his hormones if I can avoid it.

My newest sun conure Charlie recently started trying to mate with me. He can get nippy. Luckily he doesn’t feather pluck like Nico does. It’s suspected that hormones can be the cause to feather plucking. He’s still friendly towards others as well.

I don't believe there's a magic trick unfortunately, otherwise I would use it on mine! I don't think we can ever stop the behaviour completely (and it wouldn't be a good thing if we could tbh) but we can reduce it and control it so it doesn't become a huge problem for us or the parrots. It must be frustrating for them to be going through it, and not in their best interests either. I wish it was easier to help them as even with everything I've done, my conure is still unhappy and hormonal, though much better than he was.