Please help me with sexual behavior

[Lynn57]

Hi, As most of you know I took on a green wing Macaw in April of this year. She has progressed well and now really loves me! maybe a little too much lol
For at least the two months or more she is trying to either feed me or rub on me. I feel bad for you but at the same time I don't want to encourage this. When she starts to regurgitate I merely walk away or if I'm holding her just put my hand up to her face and try to block her. If she persists I put her back on her gym or the T stand. She tries to do this from a distance of over 20 feet at times! She needs to have some one on one time with me, but literally every time she is on me she starts to rub on my arm or lap. So I am left with only holding her on my hand up in the air. When she is on her gym (all day) she rubs a lot up against her toys etc. I just ignore her when this is going on. Am I treating this action correctly? If so, is there any thing else I can do? Is there any herbal remedies that can help her out?
thank so much in advance!
Lynn

 

[EnglishMuffin]

I'm sure macaw owners will pipe up with some good macaw advice, but for birds generally that are in 'that frame of mind', there are a few tricks that can help break them out of the 'in heat' behavior:

1) enforce strict sleep times that copy winder daylight hours. Get her up and 9am and put her to sleep at 7.30. Make sure the room her cage is in is quiet and DARK for these hours

2) take away any soft foods for a few days. Keep her off sweet, juicy fruits and keep her off any mash mixes. Ripe fruits and an abundance of soft foods indicate summertime and affluence in the wild which is a perfect time for making babies. Try keeping her on pellets, nuts and cereals for a week with minimal fruits and some veggies- perhaps invest in a good vitamin supplement for her water to make sure she's getting all she needs.

As far as the vent rubbing and regurgitation goes, you're doing the right thing by putting her away from you when she does it. Make sure it doesn't feel like a punishment but let her calm down. Maybe give her something to occupy herself- even a cold shower, haha. It works for humans! But will also keep her busy and distracted preening so she might forget she was feeling amorous

 

[Timothy]

In my exprience, regurgitating is a really common thing with Macaws. My Maya does it quite a bit but she never dribbles food on me or anything. I usually just set her down for 5 minutes when she starts to do it. The vent rubbing is bad though, You have a female and you dont want her to start lying eggs. I suggest following EnglishMuffin's advice, its very good advice.

 

[MacawLoverOf3]

If you can, rearrange the room she is in, take her for car rides as that too might shake up her world a little and this is what she needs.

Additional vitamins should never be added if already feeding pellets as they are already loaded with that stuff and you don't want to be giving an overdose which can cause other health issues.

 

[Lynn57]

Thanks, I do have a spare room with black out blinds. I put her to bed at the very latest 8 pm and don't open the door till 8 am (Most nights it's more like 730pm) I also do not feed her any high protein foods like egg, soft mushy foods, warm mushy foods, just the harder type of fruit/veggie's (apple, corn, peas etc) And I wouldn't ever punish her for it, she has no idea that it's bad...I do a lot of times give her other toys and stuff to grab and chew on to distract her, but she usually grabs it and throws it and goes back to her actions. I can't give her more then a shower a day! lol

 

[Lynn57]

Thanks MacawLover, I can't rearrange her area much, she has no daytime cage and one large play gym. I do change up the toys and things like that, but that's pretty much as changed as it can get. I do take her once a week or so for a car ride and some times it works while I'm driving and some times she tries to regurgitate while riding.

 

[Timothy]

I would remove any kind of toy that she might preen or snuggle with, remove happy huts, remove any kind of rope or feather toy, anything cloth that she will "love"

also remove any mirrors in or round her cage, anything she can see her reflection in

 

[Lynn57]

Anything else? Are there not any herbal remedies out there ?
thanks!

 

[EnglishMuffin]

The only other thing I know of is hormone injections at the vet, but those can be costly and stressful