Hormonal

[kimberly78]

Hello all, this is my 1st post here so please bear with me while I give you a senerio of what I have been going through so hopefully you can give me some suggestions. Ouranos my lovie who is just about three years old and whom Ive had the pleasure of sharing my life with for 2 is driving me crazy. I have not had him dna'd to be a male but there are things about the way he is that leads me to think he is a he. None the less here is my problem. Ouranos gets tons of out of cage time, tons and tons of toys etc. Last year and up to when I left this morning I have had this issue. Ouranos becomes obsessed with certain objects in his cage, from feeding it to making sweet love to it 24-7 >o He feeds it so much that mounds bulild up and he looks thin so I have to remove the object (I might add he is not happy with his momma when I do this and trys to bite me). After I remove it he is fine until he decides he loves something else. I have rearranged the cage several times changing out perches, toys etc. Its to the point now where he "loves" on his perches and is now feeding them too :eek: It has been discussed on another board I post on that he needs a friend. While that is ok with me I am worried in doing that for the fact of what if he doesnt get along with the new bird then I am stuck with 2 that may be the same way. I have also tried changing where his cage is and tried to increase and decrease the daylight hours as well. My other birds like my parrot just have certain times a year when they are sexually active, but the lovebird.....well I guess they dont call them lovebirds for nuttin :p If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Also has anyone had a single lovie that has successfully added another later on, or in the same token tried to bond two and it didnt work. Any sharing of stories is much appericated.

[mjm8321]

Hello!

You are not alone in having a hormonal lovie and chances are, he is male since the behavior you are describing is generally that of a male lovie. I know the behavior can be a bit much at times, but I'd discourage you from trying to make him stop. If he's "feeding" toys and, for lack of a better word, humping everything, he's getting out that sexual frustration. Clean the toys off that he feeds and give them back to him. Let him hump the soft items he's in love with. Trying to stop this behavior can lead to behavior issues such as plucking. Make sure he's not losing weight or irritating his feathers and skin by humping.
I can offer this advice from experience. We had a chronic, sexually frustrated male who developed some plucking issues because we did try to stop him. Then, which this should address your question about adding another lovie, we got him a mate and he stopped plucking immediately. Mind you, this worked well for us, but it's not always the case and there should always be a good quarantine time, and slow introduction process, when adding another bird.
For reference, our chronic humper, still humps the soft perch in his cage, but has also fathered and fostered chicks with his mate. Let's just say he's got a lot of energy. :lol

[kimberly78]

Thank you so much for telling me im not alone, that is such a relief!!! I will tell you what he is a humping fool!!! 24-7 and he doesnt care who is watching him :whistle: :rofl: He is very tame so I am able to hold him and get a good look at him, so far his feathers are perfect and skin seems just like it should be. I have a scale (its packed up since i am moving in a few weeks) but once settled I will have to start weighing him again. I am a little supirsed to give him back the itmes he becomes inlove with but that works for me. I feel bad that I removed all the soft toys but he was worse with those and now he is reduced to the wood perch which has to hurt :roll: Looks like I will be getting him some softer toys and ones I can wash this weekend. Thanks for your input. Its a shame in one token cause I am sure he would be an excellent breeder and daddy, but I really dont want to rehome him and I dont think I can handle breeding.

[mjm8321]

He sounds very much like my beloved George, the humper. George is a fantastic lovie and a great father to his chicks. If Ouranos is humping his perches, you might try a soft perch for him...much easier on the skin and feathers than wood and can be thrown in the dishwasher to clean! George has one and it certainly gets used. :lol
These little guys have no shame....we used to have them in our living room and they'd be mating right there in front of company. I actually found it kind of funny how embarrased people would get.

[bellarains]

Kimberly,

The phrase, "And this too shall pass" comes to mind ;)

I know it seems like they would "just wear out already", but they have alot of stamina. The hormonal phase will pass, but of course it's nature, and as MJ said, something soft to hump is much better than the perches, he could irritate his vent on the perches, so give a nice soft companion, and just keep it clean. If you can have two of whatever his favorite companion of choice is, then you can rotate them out.

Oh, No, you are not alone. I have a happy humper too, and he has a companion, a real one :roll:

[beansbirds]

I have a happy humper too... :D . He uses his birdie "buddy" (those things they sell for birds to cozy up to) and has a good ole time :rofl: .

[Z28Taxman]

I have a happy humper too

I have a happy hut humper! :rofl:

[butterfly1061]

Yep, I've got two! My youngest humps his birdie buddy every morning. My oldest humps only if I'm hold a paper towel or kleenex. Does it right on my hand :omg: The things we do for the ones we love, huh? :D

[linda040899]

Perfectly normal behavior for a mature birdie! I even have a few females that do this! Take away one thing they like to hump and they will simply find another favorite object..... :)

[LauraO]

I have more than one happy humber. One likes his mate and my husband's head. The other two are bonded males who like to hump their stuffed bear together while facing each other :rolleyes:

[kimberly78]

LOL well thanks for letting me know I dont have a weirdo nutcase lovie. Over the weekend I got him some soft toys and a nice comfy rope perch which he took to right away :rofl:

[LoveBugs]

hahhaha.

I have two female...who humps each other! lol. They're still young and are hilarious to watch, as one minute they'll be playing, then TRY to hump each other, and then start fighting I guess out of sexual frustration!

lol

[Janie]

I know this thread was started a while back but for some reason, I missed it till now. What a great read from all of you.....cracked me up and made me laugh out loud! :lol You all have some very funny "humping" stories! :D I've never seen Oliver hump, probably cause his humping days are long gone but I'll bet ya I'll see Big Boi and Shy do it when they start to mature. :omg: Then I'll have my own stories to share! :whistle:

[DANA]

Thank goodness our lovebird "Kiwi" is normal! I was so worried, it was sick. I've tried finding informtion about our birds "actions" and had no luck until I joined here! I was ready to take him into the vet! We knew it was humping it's tent, but didn't put two and two together that it was trying to feed it. Is it normal for them to pick at/ eat their regurgitated mound as well?

[Janie]

Hi Dana! I see you're new here and wanted to suggest that you check out the "Your Attention Please" section of the forum. Some great advice and information and lot's of info. on behavior, too. With all the members here and all of our birds combined, we're probably experienced every possible thing by now! :D Glad you found this forum....it's great! :)

[LauraO]

Is it normal for them to pick at/ eat their regurgitated mound as well?


YEP! I've had several birds that regurgitate and eat their own food. It's really no different than being fed by another lovie.

Oh! And welcome to the board. Hope to see you around :D

[DANA]

Hi Janie! Thank you very much for the suggestion! I will defintely check it out! I'm feeling a bit lost at the moment.... Give me a few days and I'll have the site all figured out!

[Z28Taxman]

YEP! I've had several birds that regurgitate and eat their own food. It's really no different than being fed by another lovie.

Oh! And welcome to the board. Hope to see you around :D

Ditto does that too.

Just have to make sure you clean what he's "feeding" daily.

[Janie]

Dana, :lol! It took me two days of reading here (actually on the old forum) before I even knew what to ask! When you have the time and get to the "Your Att". thread, check each sub category of the thread. There are listings of poisonous (toxic) things, good foods, bad foods, what to expect from an avian vet check, etc. Also, something that helped me a lot (I had ZERO pet bird experience when I adopted my older lovie 2 years ago) was reading old threads in every section, especially "behavior" and "care." All that I learned here speeded up the bonding process with Oliver tremendously! My boy is not a typical lovebird and I learned that by reading about all of the others here. He doesn't play with toys, won't eat much except seed wouldn't bite me for anything and would probably give up food and water if he could stay on me all the time. :D I just added two more precious lovies and they ARE typical lovebirds so I'm learning everything new through them. It's really like having lovebirds for the very first time, all over again! :D I could (and do!) watch them for hours at a time. They play like there is no tomorrow and are eating some very healthy foods. :)

Tell us about Kiwi when you have time and of course, we'll want photos! :D