Mating Gestures becoming too much?..

[momo]

Lately, elmo has become... extra randy...

I am a bit stuck on what to do. As I have posted before, she's begun scouting for "nesting" areas. So mum and I constantly need to shut the cupboards and draws ASAP, especially if she is in the region. Which is quite hard for me, being an only child, I am used to leaving cupboards open :whistle:

But I've noticed lately, she's gesturing her toys to mate with her :x she still constantly gestures me but I just try to ignore it. But now she throws her toys and opens her wings to it.

When this open wings first started, it was relatively small portion of her day but lately, it's just occurring all the time. I went out and bought her a whole pile of new toys, but she gestures them too!!

I've re-arranged her cage, limited the amount of access to paper she has, made her day light exposure limited to 10-12 hours only.

Will she grow out of this obsession of mating? Or will it just be constant until she lays some eggs, which I am trying to prevent with ALL of my might! I am just stuck on what I can distract her with any more. I thought that maybe getting a friend for her, that maybe she's lonely, but I know if I get one, she will want to mate with that one and I am no where near ready or qualified or wanting her to mate and have babies. But then I think, maybe it's what she wants to do because its natural. *sigh*

Any help?

[LovelySydney]

Oh poor little Elmo trying to find a mating partner in toys!!! I don't know as much about the mating process as say, Linda would, but I think you are right to think that getting her a friend would only encourage this behavior and may leave you with some eggs. Has her behavior changed for you at all? Is she more aggressive and less sociable with you?

I hope someone can offer you some more advice on the topic - I know it must be hard to be closing all those doors all the time, lol! One day you're going to come home and find Elmo in the silverware drawer, nest and all! Good luck.

[linda040899]

Putting a bottom line to this, Elmo's hormones are very much in control right now and there's very little you can do to deter a determined lovie hen!!

You can try giving her even fewer daylight hrs (8 hrs max) and letting her forage harder for food. Longer days and abundant food availability are the signals that it's time to produce offspring. In captivity, our lovie hens don't lack for either of these...... I think the harder foraging will have the biggest impact. Just make sure she's not lacking for food in her searching. You simply want to keep her busy.

[Pips mom]

And what about the boys? Pip has been horrible lately....bugging Ivy and all the humping....even wrecking his feathers from all the humping! Yesterday I saw him two times trying to step up on top of Ivy! He's had more cage time because of this and I hate seeing him spend more time in his cage. I have been thinking the same thing.....get him a friend, and eventually I will, but I'm wondering if he'll just harrass a new lovie too! I do think getting another lovie friend will at least give Ivy a break! She runs away from him all the time now!

[BarbieH]

Our birds are hard-wired for mating. Like Linda said, a determined hen will eventually lay eggs! We tried everything we could think of to discourage Gracie, but eventually she built a little nest out of seed hulls and laid eggs there.

Once the eggs are laid, we give in and try to help her by giving her paper and setting up the nest. It was comforting for all of us, and she was calmer once we all got on board. All we could try to do was prevent her from laying clutches back to back.

I think it passes more easily for the little boys, because there is no goal of laying eggs. Just make sure that their humpy toys won't irritate their skin.

[wilkiecoco]

i don't know about most boys, but Kiwi is in randy mode, overtime!!! He humps everything, and anything that is standing still, and even some that are moving!! :omg: I think his hormones are in serious overdrive, and maybe the plucking is due to that as well. Everything with him seems more intense this spring - more so than any other year. If only there was an on and off switch!!! :whistle::)

[momo]

Strangely enough she is ALOT nice to me now that she is... hormonal?
She is more willing to come and sit with me.. but I think that just may be the time we've spent together. She should be about a year old this month. And come July, we would have been together for a year.. (gosh time goes so quickly!) She started this behaviour, ever so lightly when she was about 6 months. Thank goodness no eggbottom has shown. But egg binding scares me so much.. so I am constantly check her butt every day.. I feel like a perve!!! But its for her greater good.

She doesn't actually hump things.. she just opens her wings to them. I'm kinda glad she doesn't know how to hump.. although my mum and I are close.. I don't wanna be the one to explain that one!!

Would it be ok, if I offered her foraging toys through the day and only offered her food bowl at night for a certain period of time? Or I think I might watch her first to see if she understand the foraging toy first.. I saw this great foraging toy where you put two paper plates together, cut some holes out of it and put treats inside, but I'm not too inclined to give her paper because it just encourages her paper chewing.

I left a travel agent book about China out and wasn't keeping my full eye on her... she demolished the first 5 pages! She tucks, but it always falls out. She just loves to shred paper. I am limiting her access to paper as much as I can. But she will grab anything.. first she only liked newspaper.. now she's on anything.. she chewed up a wedding invitation mum got!

Is it just me, or are they more randy in the morning than any other time. I have to leave her alone in the morning because she's just asking anything that moves to mate with her! Even if i just talk to her, she's soliciting me.

[thebubbleking]

Hey pass some of those hormones my way i want my sc's to breed so badly! lol

[momo]

haha I'll bring elmo over and she can teach them how to be so hormonal that no matter how hard you seem to try to make no paper available.. she finds it!

your SC are enjoying the good life too much.. who wants to be tied down with children!

[mangotiki]

My Mango (rip) used to hump his fluffy toy and regurgitate all over it. better that than in my mouth though. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Pips mom]

i don't know about most boys, but Kiwi is in randy mode, overtime!!! He humps everything, and anything that is standing still, and even some that are moving!! :omg: I think his hormones are in serious overdrive, and maybe the plucking is due to that as well. Everything with him seems more intense this spring - more so than any other year. If only there was an on and off switch!!! :whistle::)

I guess our similar looking boys are going through very similar things! Pip has one spot on his chest area, over to one side that is starting to look bare. I wonder if it's the humping or if he's picking at his feathers now. It doesn't appear that he's doing it, and it could very well be from all the humping....I'm keeping a close eye though.....so far it's looking like it's just from humping. All of my birds seemed very wound up in the mornings lately! and have been very noisey!

[Jally]

Can I join in this club? :rolleyes: Peanut is also in hormone overdrive. What is going on with these guys and gals here lately?

[momo]

I'm not sure!!.. I would suspect that in America/Canada/UK.. that side of the world.. it's spring.. but its autumn here!

Elmo fought my mum for a piece of paper that mum had yesterday, funniest thing, but so bad. Elmo flew over and grabbed on to mums piece of paper and when mum tried to shake her off and having her come back and biting mums fingers.. she proceeded to bite mums toes!

[wilkiecoco]

yup - its spring here - and the boys are looking for some loving, any way they can get it!!! :rofl::rofl:

pip's mom - kiwi also is very wound up, and noisy lately, much more than usual, also in the morning. today he flew around the house, screaming madly, looking for something. he found it..........one of my dogs stuffed animals that apparently was sending off amorous signals. :omg: