sexually frustrated bird needs help

[CompassionAk]

All Pele thinks about is humping,I took away all his soft toys and rope perches and now he has found that he can hump my chair and immediately heads for the chair when I let him out.He has started regurgitating on his foot when I move him away from my chair and will spend most the day doing this.I limit daylight and have made him forage for food,I'll let him have his hump toy occasionally,but if I let him have the toy all the time he would spend ALL day humping and regurgitating on it. His feathers are thinned out from humping things so much and I just don't know what else to do.I know there is a product for birds that pluck and I am wondering if you think this might work to calm him down. http://www.trueloveaviary.com/kiplnomo6oz.html or http://www.trueloveaviary.com/kingsnostress.html Help please,I can't stand to see him so frustrated =(

[Loulie]

i cant offer any help but im interested in what people say to you, i have a male lovie thats just turned one and he has started humping his soft rope toy, he only does it in the morning for a little while then carries on with the rest of his day though so.......its not a problem, i hope someone has some answers for you. i wish i could help

[CompassionAk]

Sure the humping is annoying and he's losing feathers because of it,but I'm mostly worried about the amount of time he spends regurgitating.I'm afraid he's robbing his body of nutrients by doing it so much and I don't want him to make himself ill.

[Kris142]

Maybe you should get someone that he is able to make babies with, it might not be the best idea, but it could work?

[HaleBoppPeachyluv]

goodness, you have my sympathies! my lovies have all been boys but thankfully none have been humpy obsessive. Here's a question that i never thought to ask, but when he has been offered access to a humpy toy... does he "finish"? I'm just wondering if part of his frustration & continuous humping is because he never quite gets done?

How long has Pele been obsessed? Sunnybird was going thru a spate recently, but it seems to have slackened off.

[michael]

All Pele thinks about is humping,I took away all his soft toys and rope perches and now he has found that he can hump my chair and immediately heads for the chair when I let him out.He has started regurgitating on his foot when I move him away from my chair and will spend most the day doing this...........


..........but I'm mostly worried about the amount of time he spends regurgitating.I'm afraid he's robbing his body of nutrients by doing it so much and I don't want him to make himself ill.

We must first understand that the urge to mate is absolutely normal. Whether this behavior appears excessive, or at times out of the ordinary, its all linked one way or another towards his "natural" instinct to reproduce. ... Obviously, if Pele were in the wild, this would be no problem what so ever. Pele finds mate..lovebirds do whats natural..life is goooood. .... Placed him in a companion setting, and what would have otherwise occured naturally could become either complex, obsessive, or both. Often times, with frustration soon to follow.

The only way to "possibly" curb this behavior, is through trial and error. And that usually takes plenty of time and patience.

List of helpful ingredients; (you've probably already heard)... Remove (if at all possible) all objects of affection. Even if from time to time it means removing him from YOU. In case you feel guilty, cozies/happy huts/etc can always be placed back in his cage for "sleeping purposes only".

Restrict daylight hours to no more than 12 a day. ... Yup...While this is in all probabilty the least effective, every little bit may help.

Learn how to handle your fiesty parrot in such a way as to limit sexual stimulation. That means, nothing gets petted below the shoulders.....Except maybe the toes. You be the judge.

Frequent bathing. .. Might be the equivalent of a cold shower? ... Uh, well, it certainly doesn't hurt. Besides, when was the last time you witnessed lovebirds having sex during a bath? ... Don't answer that!

Foraging toys with a little less food in them?.. Or, maybe a little less on the treats? ... Sure, we love when our birds gorge themselves on all the goodies we provide, but, too much of a good thing may influence too much of another good thing. ... Basically here. Try not to overindulge your birds dietary intake to the point where there's enough to feed a family of seven. ... A couple hours here and there without food is not going to kill him...or her.

Foraging toys that offer too much paper. ... I don't know. Aren't there some male lovebirds that like to build nests?..........:whistle:

Wing clip. .. I've been told, to some extent, there may be a direct correlation between flight and breeding behavior. ... Problem is, birds need exercise, especially those who may feel confined and/or frustrated. .. This should be a careful judgement call done by the owner, and/or his/her vet.

Hormone therapy. .. Thought to be mainly used towards treating female parrots for egg binding, some males are found to benefit as well. ... This takes careful consideration by both the owner and their vet. The drawbacks are whether any obsessive breeding behavior may have either subsided over time on its own, or by utilizing the more menial methods as stated above. The health risks are an overweight lethargic parrot who carries along the usual associated health concerns.

Pluck no more. ... This product used to refered to by the company as 911. Same stuff, even though its claimed to be new, contains a myriad of questionable ingredients. ... If I were ever offered proof that this product was effective in 25% of all cases, I probably still wouldn't recommend it. .. So far though, that margin appears to be around 2%. .... You know, I still don't know what these type products have to do with hormones......:confused:.....:)

Regurgitating to the point of starvation is extremely rare. You could get a scale though...just in case.

[Pips mom]

I'm pretty lucky.....Pip is a big time humper as well, and has even had times when I notice thin spots in his feathers on the lower chest area from all the humping! The thing with Pip though is that most of the time he's not bad with the humping. He still does it every morning! and sometimes during the day, he'll go in Ivy's cage and hump her swing, but he's never regurgitated so I just pretty much let him hump and it seems to make him happy and satisfy him! Rudy....when I got him his cozy hut, started humping it quite a bit, then I noticed he was gacking all over it....yuck! Ever try to clean that off of a soft fuzzy thing like this? Not easy! and gross! so out the happy hut went and that took care of that! Neither of them seem the least bit frustrated to me at all.....both seem happy and content. Poor little Pele! I hope he is able to get over this obsession!

[CompassionAk]

LOL ya he finishes every time so it's not that.He looks dopey when he does it too,like he's dazed heh.He's been doing this for about a month and a half now.He doesn't have any fuzzy things in his cage,his wings are clipped,his daylight is restricted,He forages,he bathes at least once a day,he has limited daylight/artificial light etc.I've done everything I can but nothing works.I wouldn't put any of my birds on Lupron here because we don't have an actual avian vet and it scares the beejees out of me to have an untrained hand poking needles in my bird!

If it doesn't hurt him then that's fine, I don't mind cleaning up his little messes I just want him to be happy and healthy.I was hoping he would find a friend in Zeus but they don't seem to like one another and the only bird he is interested in is Boo,of course Boo is taken and wants nothing to do with him. =( I just feel bad for him.

[michael]

.......If it doesn't hurt him then that's fine, I don't mind cleaning up his little messes I just want him to be happy and healthy.I was hoping he would find a friend in Zeus but they don't seem to like one another and the only bird he is interested in is Boo,of course Boo is taken and wants nothing to do with him. =( I just feel bad for him.

Often, the biggest obstacle to get over is the myth that there's something wrong with parrots who behave this way. Or that they are in some way left frustrated ... In fact, it would not be surprising to find more owners themselves were suffering frustration than the actual parrot. ... Obstinate as this natural mating response is, accepting and understanding what we cannot change about it is probably the best treatment course there will ever be. ...Certainly, this would be nothing worth feeling bad about...........:)

[Pips mom]

Often, the biggest obstacle to get over is the myth that there's something wrong with parrots who behave this way. Or that they are in some way left frustrated

See, this is the thing.....Pip humps all the time, but in no way does he appear to be frustrated.....actually just the opposite....he seems perfectly conntent and happy with his humping! :rofl:

[Enko_chan]

I understand why you're concerned...

Odinn used to hump so much that his crotch went bald! I feel that masturbation is a completely normal urge for any sexual being, but when its ALL they do, like Odinn only took a few second break in-between hump sessions from the moment he was awake until he went to bed, it was negatively affecting his relationship with Freyja...

He seems to have mellowed out as he's gotten older. It was at the same age as your little humper that Odinn got started. Fortunately, with Odinn, he had only one object that he humped incessantly. When I finally took it away from him, he stopped and his feathers grew back. He still humped Freyja, and continues to do so, but he can only do so when Freyja allows it and that seems to have tempered his yearnings somewhat.

[CompassionAk]

Maybe when Zeus is more mature Pele will take an interest in him,I'll keep my fingers crossed lol.It is rather funny to watch these guys and I wonder what makes them decide who they like.Boo has never cared for Pele and yet Pele loves Boo so much,I wonder what it is that makes them tick like that.