mating and nest hunting...

[JawzX]

OK, so Ms. Prissy Beak seems to be going into mating mode.

She's doing the head-forward-butt-high-tail-out posture for me and she's also poking her head into holes in pillow stacks, and today she actually crawled under the blanckets of the bed and walked around under them for a few minutes. It was adorable, but I fear she's doing the nest-hole hunting dance.

so my question is this: how strongly should I disencourage this behavior? I never pet her on the back or breast, and I've been cutting scritching sessions short when she goes into the posture. I was able to distract her from her nest hunting with some sunflower seeds and tricks, but she wanted to go back to it immediately after the trick session ended.

am I doing the right things here or is there more I should be doing. I don't want Ms. Beak going into egg-laying mode....

 

[Spiritbird]

Your sure are doing what is recommended for mating behavior. You might want to keep on the look out for any egg laying and study up on the best way to handle this. You could increase her sleeping time by 1 or 2 hrs. and see if the mating behavior stops.

 

[JawzX]

I'll cut down the timer on her light again another 2 hours. I work second shift, and leave for work at 4pm, so she gets pretty much a daylight dictated sleep schedule. I do have a light on a timer that goes on at 10am (helps me wake up too) and that's set to go off right around sunset, but I'll adjust it to go off earlier, see if that helps. I'll also see if I can find any good sources on egg laying and study up just in case.... Any suggested reading?

 

[Spiritbird]

You could try to google. It is not a topic that takes up much space in my books. I do know if you have egg laying you must watch for egg binding which is an emergency. One also needs to increase the birds calcium. You can let them lay on the egg for a while but not so long that it gets stinky. About 15 to 30 days or so. You can also snag the real egg away and put on a pig pong ball but I think our birds would be aware of the switch. I have not been through this yet but it will be here next year the vet said.

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww35eiv.htm

http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/birdinformation/egglaying.php