Raging Hormones!!

[Pigeonspartying]

I don't know if it's because Spring is in the air or Zim is just settling in to our new home and dynamic but his hormonal behaviours have been steadily increasing in intensity.

He has chosen my partner as his mate, with all the joys of following him everywhere, regurgitating food on him and biting me if I were to get in the way of his romance, ie if I remove him from my partner, remove him from the room he wants to be in or make him do anything he doesn't want to do (like move out of the way when I'm refreshing his water or food dish). He also does some more tolerable wooing behaviours such as strutting, waving and shaking his head, dancing and knocking his beak. He also humps the couch, any blanket he can get a hold of, towels and any particularly attractive looking shoes.

We've been trying to get ahead of this behaviour, no longer allowing him in the bedroom (blankets and dark nooks galore, also a place I get bitten a lot when he does manage to slip in, as he is doggedly determined to do.) No mushy foods, not leaving out blankets or shoes, firmly saying "no, naughty" and putting him in a 10 minute time-out when he bites me. My partner shoos him away when he notices he's been regurgitated on or if he sees the warning behaviours.

Zim is 8-10 years old. We don't touch him anywhere besides the head unless we are briefly stretching out his wings for harness/handling training. He has a diet of vetafarm paradise pellets with access to fruits and veggies to chomp on throughout the day. He's not overly interested in toys and I'm training him to use foraging toys. He previously belonged to a family where he received an inadequate diet of mostly sunflower seeds and whatever people food was left out, very little socialization, no training, no routine (his family operated all 24 hours of the day and did not put him in his cage to sleep at night). He was handled roughly all over the body by the family member who he chose as his mate (and seemed to love it).

I would imagine his history and upbringing has impacted his long term sexual behaviour, I'm curious as to whether the intensity of his hormonal behaviour can be decreased overall with training and time, or just something we'll have to learn to work around. In any case -

Is there anything more we can/should do? Should we stop him or allow him to hump the couch to "get it out of his system"? If we should stop him, is there a way we can make the couch less sexy to him to avoid it in the first place? How do we make areas like under furniture, or gaps between furniture (aka the dark hollows of every day life) less triggering for him? Are there any other triggers I am missing in this post? May I also hear about your experiences and how you have worked through them?

In any case, no matter what, he is my small green son and I won't take his natural behaviours personally and I am learning ways of minimizing the damage of his bites (If he's in that mood and obviously doesn't want to step up onto my arm, I won't make him unless I have to - and then he definitely doesn't get range of my hand or fingers. I may even cover my arm with something protective.)

I just want to give him the best life possible and meet his needs as well as I can.

 

[chris-md]

Hello and welcome!

So sry you’re dealing with this. Many of us Ekkie owners are all to familiar.

Where in this wide world are you? That’s going to be a critical component here.

You DO have something you can do: get rid of those pellets...right now. Those pellets are loaded with food items that are known triggers to
cause/induce hormonal behavior: fructose, soy, corn. Those may be marketed as Ekkie friendly but they are nothing but garbage. Loaded with the. As stuff and supplemented like crazy (ekkies should not have foods containing supplemental vistámonos and minerals - they have a specialized diet, after all!)

In addition, you aren’t terribly specific about what and how you are feeding but you want to limit sources of Sugar/carbs and starch. This includes things like fruit and rice. Once the hormones settle down you can reintroduce some of these back, to lower levels so as not to refrigerate hormones.

 

[Pigeonspartying]

Hi Chris, thanks for your response! I live in NSW Australia.
At this stage I am very hesitant to take Zim off those pellets, when we got him and had him assessed by our avian vet, we found he was quite malnourished. This specific brand was recommended to us by her and I trust it as a high quality Australian product. Absolutely by all other means I would love to switch Zim to a natural diet, but I am not confident that would be what's best for him at this stage - he's an extremely picky eater. Before I bought the pellets I'd make him chop every day and he'd barely touch anything in it - no matter how I cooked it or diced it. I was so relieved when he dug into those pellets with gusto. Currently the fruits and veggies I make available to him are a test really, every day I go to the shops and pick up something new for him to try. First I'll present it to him raw for a day, then if he doesn't touch it that way, I present it to him cooked.

It has not been encouraging so far. He will take one bite of capsicum and chillis and spit it out. He'll nibble on cooked broccoli if I put it in his face, otherwise again, not interested, he is coming around on cooked carrot (which he previously hated vehemently so there's hope there), but again must be hand fed it. He'll wreak a bit of havoc on a choko, but I'm not sure whether that's something he's actually eating or just enjoying the texture of. Same with cucumber. Not interested in kale, lettuce or dandelion greens, nor native flowers. Have had /some/ luck with chickpeas but no other legumes.

The only fruits and veggies he's shown consistent interest in are strawberries (whole and whole only), tomatoes (a rare treat), peas and corn. So at this stage, until I've worked on him with veggies a bit longer and know I can provide the diet he needs, I'm going to keep him on the pellets the vet suggested to bring him back to a healthy state. However, if you're right and they are the exacerbating element of his hormones I'll see if she doesn't have any other suggestions.

At the end of the day I understand his hormones are perfectly natural and healthy for a bird to have - parrots are not domestic animals and shouldn't be expected to be easy companions. I knew this when I adopted him from his last household, I wish they had known too so that they never got him themselves and put him in such a state...

 

[chris-md]

Hello Pigeonpartying,

Yeah - spring time hormones. Yikes! We've had a HORRIBLE hormonal season across the US, many people seeing it worse than ever, LONGER than ever (my boy was a solid 7 months straight, and hes usually pretty under control).

You've got to do what you think is best for your bird. But don't let fear get in your way of making good changes that benefit everyone; which is what this sounds like. "Because he's a picky eater" has no bearing on his best interest. The onus is on you to introduce him to new stuff, do it often and don't give up just because he's rejected it many times.

You took on a bird with specialized dietary requirements, it really is your obligation to meet those needs. Doesn't have to be immediate, a slow transition often works well. But transition you really should.

Vetafarm is actually NOT a good quality brand, its known to be fairly low quality actually. I wouldn't feed it to a conure, let alone a diet-sensitive species like Eclectus.

Look - you've got the prescription here, hes not on the diet hes supposed to be on, and its making things worse. You can either learn from experience and make your life easy by taking the advice given, or make your life more difficult and learn the hard way over years that certain environmental factors tend to make your birds hormones much worse than they have to be.

Choice is yours. Hormones are natural, but to a HUGE extent, they are within YOUR control, especially for a bird of your age (my boy is 11, so not far off from you).

FYI I don't know if you have them available but for a dry blend I use GoldenFeast products, especially the hookbill legume blend. Whole ingredients without added supplements. My boy does well with it when hes not getting his fresh chop.

 

[Pigeonspartying]

Thanks for the info. As it stands I believe I'm doing the best thing for Zim holistically at present, but as I get better at determining his likes and dislikes (and convincing him he actually likes the things he dislikes - I'm looking at you carrots) I'll make that slow transition to veggies.

I respectfully disagree that "because he's a picky eater" has no bearing on his best interest. I have adopted a malnourished and poorly brought up bird. He doesn't know better than to turn up his beak at good food at the moment and it's my responsibility not only to make changes to that, but also to maintain a base level of well-being in the meantime. Unlike children you can't sternly say "no dessert until you eat your vegetables" because parrots can and will starve themselves if not given food they deem edible. Please understand that I am presently doing my best to ensure he lives long enough now to develop better health and habits for the future.

Besides diet, do you have any other tips for dealing with the hormonal season? Is there any bearing on whether I stop him humping my couch or not?

 

[SailBoat]

Over all the times I have been in discussions (threads) that involve diet with Chris, I have found his advise solid and Parrot directed.

Working with a Parrot with a 'known' history of being malnourished, the approach to changing to a healthier diet is of course altered. But the end goal never changes and that is moving to a diet that meets the health needs of that specific species.

The knowledge base in the Parrot World continues to be enhanced with time and ever better understanding of the 'Food Sources in a Parrots Natural Range.' What continues to unfold is that there are major differences between the Parrots of this World and their dietary needs. Avian Medical Professionals are faced with changes as the body of understanding continues to expand. It is for this very reason that the Certified Avian Vets have semi-annual meetings to keep their fellow Avian Professionals up-to-date.

As Chris stated, the Northern Hemisphere has for whatever reason started early, continued much longer and far more intense that normal. The why's are yet to be understood, but at least its seems to be diminishing. We are seeing that as Spring begins in the Southern Hemisphere like occurrences are being seen.

If I picked-up correctly you have moved to a new home, which is difficult for near all Parrots.

 

[SailBoat]

Other methods of living with Hormonal Parrots;

- A solid understanding that they have zero control over the onset or its intensity.
- A solid sleep schedule that either follows the natural Sunlight day -or- that defines a controlled day that targets 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.
- A diet that does not enhance the hormonal chemical load. As Chris defined so very well in his Post. To that I would add, limiting salt contain as very early information is finding it effects the bodies chemical balance.
- NOTE: Time-out is loss on Parrots when it extends over five minutes, as they are already on to other actives as soon as a couple, three minutes.

Yes, there is more, but my time is limited at the moment...

 

[chris-md]

Unfortunately it sounds like you're not willing to take the advise given, which basically ends the conversation; theres not really much more we can do for you other than what my good friend mentioned above, which is make sure hes getting solid sleep.

This is spring hormones, which themselves can't fully be avoided, in addition to being in a new home. But your husbandry is clearly exacerbating, probably increasing the behavior by 50% at least. If you aren't willing to make any changes, then you're going to just have to ride them out, but also accept that moving forward hormones are going to be a significant challenge for you and your family.