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View Full Version : Nesty Behaviour.. again



momo
09-06-2009, 06:37 AM
Hey all.

In June, Elmo laid two eggs and she seems to be going through the motions again.

She's into paper shredding to the extreme. And she's fussy with her shredding because she only wants cardboard thickness, newspaper is no longer sufficient. Which means, She has tried to rip the covers off all of my uni books. :very_sad:

I (tried my hardest) have barred her from paper. We had been good for the months after she laid her egg. I was able to have her forget about eggs by giving her other things to do. More tree branches, hiding millet with in the tree branches, different toys, rotating toys. Moving her food bowl around her giant mansion, which gives her about 10 minutes of trying to find where mummy hide it. She used to love throwing her cat balls around and chasing them. She could have done that for hours.

I am at my wits end. She is willing to kill me for cardboard. I can see it in her eyes.. :x

I want to be give her time out of her cage, but she's on constant look out for paper or nesting areas. She will dive in our shirts and jumpers and when we don't allow her too she will bite us until we bleed.

I'm at my wits ends on what to do about her nesting behaviour. I felt like I have tried and tried to discourage it. Though I do admit, I do give her a tiny piece of cardboard to have some peace. Which probably isn't helping but its the only thing that stops her from ruining my homework.

She's began doing the swishy dance on her toys too. I've taken away the toy she swishies on the most. She stopped it for a few days but has turned her attention to other toys.

I feel like no matter what I do, I just can't win??

Is there anything else I can do to discourage her? Do I just let her chew it and ride the wave of the egg? I want to have out of cage time, for as long as she wants but I don't have the time to watch her every move. Before I didn't have too, she is (I know the Elmo is still inside) a good girl.


What do I do? :very_sad:
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edit - I just re-read it there's no way I'd rehome her, she's mine for the good and the bad, I meant what do I do in terms of the paper chewing/possible egg?

HaleBoppPeachyluv
09-06-2009, 02:51 PM
my sympathies!

when my mom's Hina came to live with me for a bit, i did all i coudl to discourage nesty behavior.. gave her lots of out of cage time, put her to bed earlier...took away her shreddables.... and then noticed she started plucking her bum.

(sigh) So i did give in to egg wave.... gave her her paper.... like Elmo, it seemed to need to be a certain thickness to shred, so would fold it over several times before giving it to her. she laid 3 eggies and sat and sat and sat... then my mom came hoem & i think might've taken them away too early bc i just went over for a visit & she looked heavy bottomed again!

momo
09-07-2009, 08:37 AM
Elmo laid some last time and ignored them. I had to take them off her because she began to play with them like her toys. It was such a stressful time I felt so lost. For days, I hoped and prayed that she wouldn't get egg bound.

But she is so determine to get to any bit of paper, and being a uni student, I constantly have paper. I am constantly fighting her for it and the only time I get peace is if she's in her cage or she's chewing paper and I don't want either outcome.

It's been three months since she laid her last one. I was reading that heavy rain signals to birds that it's a good time to breed. And we've been having buckets of it. Because throughout the whole of winter, it has rained but not like it has been, alas Elmo hasn't felt the urge for paper.