need to curb my male from trying to mate with everything

[dave1979]

Can someone please let me know how to stop my 3.5 year old lovebird from masturbating he does it to everything he can mount it has gotten to the point his feathers are being worn down and almost gone in the area

[Birkah]

Wow. That's one seriously determined lovie. I think I read some posts recently about a lovie humping his feathers off, so someone's sure to have some good advice soon!

[linda040899]

Unfortunately, there are some behaviors that cannot be changed or even modified with much degree of success. This happens to be one of them. About the best you can hope to do is distract him with something he really enjoys doing instead of humping his favorite object of his affections. Chances are that even getting him a female would have little effect on what he likes to do so very much. If you remove his favorite item, he will only find something else.

Birds are sexual creatures just like all other living animals but we don't see this when we get our pets, especially if we get very young animals. Cats and dogs can be spayed/altered but that can't be done with birds so distraction is about the best course of action.

[Buy A Paper Doll]

Can someone please let me know how to stop my 3.5 year old lovebird from masturbating he does it to everything he can mount it has gotten to the point his feathers are being worn down and almost gone in the area
Ah, it's spring. Love is in the air. Birdy hormones are raging. My Milo will soon be re-kindling his on-again, off-again romance with the computer mouse, the remote control, my toes, and anything else that will hold still.

And Linda's right, sometimes even getting them a mate doesn't do any good. Milo will hump the mouse while his mate stands inches away, staring at him, wondering what in God's name he's doing.

Sadly, you can't stop them. Give him some, uh, soft alternatives that perhaps won't be as hard on his feathers. For example, a small stuffed animal, a cozy cave or birdy buddy, something like that.

[Enko_chan]

I'm hoping, that with some luck, this will be a passing phase.

My lovebird Odinn was a chronic humper, and though he does still enjoy getting his hump on, he has calmed down and his crotch is no longer bald and bare. His feathers have grown back, and he only does the dance once or twice a day and often its even with his mate.

I have had many birds over the years and all of them are sexual beings in one way or another, many of them masturbate, especially the males. This behavior was something else, though. Odinn would hump from the time he woke up until he went to sleep, stopping only, I believe, when there was a physiological imperative. I am talking about momentary breaks and then back to the Lil' Green Penguin Bop. When the crotch feathers began to wear off, I worried that this was pathological, something more than just a healthy apatite and took away his favorite things to hump. He found others, but for the most part this did calm him down a great deal. After time passed, he calmed down the rest of the way on his own. He remains, to this day, a sexually precocious little fellow, and I hope he never changes, so long as he is happy, but I am glad that he does other things.

Some people say that their birds will hump even with a bare cage. Thus far, I have not ever heard of any health problems related to excessive masturbation in lovebirds, or even persistent crotch baldness. I know it can be a bit strange to have a bird that does this constantly, but it is likely that the fellow will get it out of his system.

Does he live alone, or does he have a mate? Does he have a lot of soft toys? Are the things he humps usually soft? Odinn preferred to hump soft things, and he humped so much he still lost his feathers. When I took them away one of the things he moved onto was blocks of hard wood. His mate Freyja likes to hump those too. At least they share similar interests, right? Odinn seems to spend less time doing the bop when he's getting more out of the cage time.

At the very least, the urge to hump very frequently will likely come in cycles, somewhat like nestiness does to a hen and will not be constant. Like with a nesty hen, there are certain things you can do to curb the urge, but its natural, healthy, it generally means your bird is happy and comfortable and there isn't much you can do to change their nature.

[Pips mom]

This kind of thing happens with Pip at times too, but he seems happy with his humping and the worst is a few worn feathers on his lower chest area and once he molts they grow right back and all is well so I never really worry too much about it.....sometimes his feathers don't look their best is all, and he's still cute as can be, healthy and happy, so what's a few messed up feathers? I'm just happy that he's not regurgitating when he does it like Rudy does.....I have to keep humpy soft toys away from Rudy or he gacks all over them!