Foo and I are having a bit of a separation period

[Mimsy01]

Not sure what is up, but Foo has all of a sudden became super crazy hormonal with me. She just wants to be like glue with me and rape my hand continuously. My husband and daughter can still spend time with her and she's fine, unless she is actually on me, then she will bite the heck out of them if they try and remove her. She also will try and bite me if she thinks I'm removing her from my self.

I'm sad and miss my Foo. I'm not sure what to do right now though, except avoid her. If she can't see me she acts pretty normal. if she see's me she is velcro bird. We have a curtain that goes across the living room which separates it from the rest of the house. The birds live in the living room. Usually the curtain can be open and everyone has free range of the house. Currently I've been keeping it shut so Foo doesn't just fly to me continuously. There are two windows in there and my daughters computer desk is in there as well. Foo usually hangs out on her play stand at the desk or at the window watching the outside bird feeder since she's been banned from the whole house. It's been going on for about a week now.

I'm not sure what to do to get her stop thinking of me this way. Kinda creepy to be honest. I'm the primary care taker, so it's a pain right now. Just doing basic cleaning and feeding is a major chore since she won't stop harassing me.

Any ideas?

 

[plumsmum2005]

Hi sorry things bit rough for you with Foo right now. I'm sure others will join in with some good advice, but in the mean time:- I would have a look for any signs that would need to involve an AV. Also go back to basics with her. There are several influences inc, light, temperature, humidity, and food that promote breeding behavior. Be careful how she is petted, to avoid over stimulating her. Using positive reinforcement encourage family involvement by playing warm potato. Have you tried taking her to a neutral room away from her cage to spend time. Take her stand too and sit and read, hum, sing to her whilst she sits on it. Reward her for staying put and good behavior. Return her to cage and walk away for unwanted behavior. Does she need some new challenge in her cage to focus on? Hoping this gives you something to work on. Good luck

 

[Mimsy01]

Thank you. Well, she normally has the whole house with me and is content to stay on one of her play gyms in different rooms, visiting me and then going back to her own stuff. There really isn't any other rooms except for ones that are off limits, like the laundry room (too dangerous) and attic (used for storage)...neither which me or her are going to want to hang out in.

We've always all been careful on pets, we all only pet her head, except for opening her wings and such to do a mini health check for oddities.

We call it hot potato here. Since we all pass her on normally, now of course it's continuously if she is on me and getting to the point where she has to stay in the living room, since she is free flighted she just follows me otherwise. I've tried giving her favorite treats when she is on her own spaces, but she is choosing me over anything right now, even treats.

Diet is the same-free feed roudybush, which probably is about 20-30% of her diet and the rest is a mixture of raw veggies and fruits and cooked grains/veggies and the once a week or less of something animal-like a chicken bone or piece of fish and then nuts/seeds mostly used for training or rewards, unless it's hard to get into nuts in shells which i give for keeping her busy. (brazil and hazel type nuts) She was on a bit of an apple binge, begging for pieces from whoever would hand some over and not eating as much of her greens as usual.

The cage is fully cleaned weekly and I change out a bunch of the toys and make some new forging things for her to work on. She loves to tear apart boxes, but I have not been giving her them because I dont' want to encourage the hormonal behavior currently. I haven't taken her stuffed bear away, which lives on top of her cage that has a play area. She uses that sometimes as her uhm..mate. She likes to preen it and talk to it, taking that away I know would be a huge blow to her, so I haven't as of yet.

We have a sun up sun down schedule here. Sun up and we let the birds out and sun down it's into the cage with a half cover to block some of the room lighting. It's getting really cold here and we are on short days now, so perhaps that is having an effect. She's about 5-6 years old and we've had her for about 4 of those years.

her weight is 68 grams, which never fluctuates much at all. She's probably weighed a couple times a week, she likes it cause she gets a treat when she jumps on it.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Sounds all good to me - try the positive reinforcement for good behavior. would one of those rooms work as a neutral territory? Perhaps limit time + the bear for now?
Look out for head bobbing, eye pinning, panting, wing fluttering with wings low, beak nipping - less hard than biting, horizontal body position, feet waggling, like a little dance. These will give some idea that the rest is on its way and so allow you to head it off. Keep the foraging toys going more the merrier to occupy and distract? Again good luck

 

[Birdman666]

It's that time of year.

Give the bird some space. Don't overstimulate. Don't over react. In a few weeks it will be over for another year...

It's not creepy. It's nature, really. I love you. It's mating season. My instincts say I'm supposed to do this. Even though it would never work... "You're a bird. I'm a person. We can still be friends though... "

Once the bird "gets it" and it may take a few seasons, it will be less problematic... in the meantime, every living thing has a sex drive.

No worse than an "overly friendly dog" trying to hump your leg. Which is also annoying, but, you can't really blame the dog. You just discourage the behavior.

 

[Mimsy01]

thank you very much!! I kinda needed to hear this. I was starting to worry about some strange health concern I overlooked. Though still a little creepy, I don't hold it against her and love her dearly..but ya a little dog humping my leg is creepy too. I'd neuter it.

I thought spring was the time for love! She's always been a little too bonded to me, but this is the first year it's just way over the top. If I'm even in line of sight I see the head bobbing, seriously crazy dance, that I know means...come here baby looooove you!

I guess over the next few weeks she will just have to continue to spend more quality time with the rest of the family. Love my little stinker, but she is rather bitey during this spell when near me. She even bit me hard enough to draw blood when my husband was asking her to step up from my arm. So I think it's best that we split up until she's past this.

So i should relax right? It's probably not some strange disease that causes them to go all hormonal right?

 

[2BadBadger]

Aaaah the wonderful world of parrot keeping so full of joy and those special moments shared between human and bird!

Seriously though try not to worry about things,you are doing everything you possibly can and then more so.

In your situation I would do as you have and gone through your daily routines making sure your not missing anything.

You've had some good advice above and I suspect the same in that it's an age/maturity issue that has probably surprised your bird as much as you.

Take a step back make a coffee and work on an adjusted routine with reinforcement of correct behaviour as suggested but let's face it there are times when a cold shower dosn't put out the fire!

Enjoy your bird it'll calm down soon and your doing a good job.

 

[Birdman666]

thank you very much!! I kinda needed to hear this. I was starting to worry about some strange health concern I overlooked. Though still a little creepy, I don't hold it against her and love her dearly..but ya a little dog humping my leg is creepy too. I'd neuter it.

Yeah, well, you're young.

When you get to be my age, you're just grateful that another living thing still finds you attractive...

Then they get the "we can still be friends speech."

And even though you're giving it to a dog or a bird, YOU'RE ACTUALLY GIVING THE SPEECH, not having to listen to it!

(Admit it! Someone just got coke up their nose! SODA... I MEANT SODA! Not... okay... I'll shut up now.)

 

[Mimsy01]

LOL thank you, and thank you for calling me young, haha, cause ya not really, no.

it's probably that my right hand is super sexy though. The starling also tries to hump it when the opportunity arises. I'm getting the bunny spayed before it starts to notice that right hand, thats for sure.

 

[Birdman666]

Even though you set me up perfectly for them, I am not going to do any right hand jokes...

NOPE! Not touching that one.... errr... ummm...

 

[Tropical]

Are you 100% positive this is a female bird and not a male?

I didn't realize female's can be this "aggressive" or whatever you want to call it lol

 

[Birdman666]

Are you 100% positive this is a female bird and not a male?

I didn't realize female's can be this "aggressive" or whatever you want to call it lol

It's a pair bond bird thing... THAT'S MY PERSON!