Nesty in her sleepcage

[diljaa]

Dreki is being a psycho nesty hen right now. She asks Pixel to feed her all the time, no strike that, she doesn't ASK, she tries to force him to feed her. He just likes to feed his perches and my toes though :P
But her sleepcage is becoming a problem, she gets vicious if I stick my hand in there, she fluffs up and growls at me and if I don't back away quickly she strikes to kill. She is not like this at all in her day-time cage, I have her step up on my hand every time I take her out and I've never had a problem with her out there.
Their sleepcages are small but not tiny (SEE THEM HERE) (http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4783835483_b21c5691cb_z.jpg) and they are covered with dark blankets with one perch in each and a bowl of water. Oh and Pixel has 1 toy in his.

I like keeping them in sleepcages as we sometimes stay up really late and when I have company over at night it's so easy to just put them to sleep and don't have to worry about people having a tad too much to drink around them or something like that.

So any ideas other than eliminating her sleepcage? She's been in one all her life!

[michael]

Sounds like there's something very important about her sleep cage whereas she feel an intense need to protect it, or its contents. .. Could it simply be the smaller size instigates her into becoming nesty? .. While i'm not sure there's any particular solution here, have you tried switching the position of her cage? .. Does she have any toys or other objects you could remove? .. Will she step onto a wooden dowel as opposed to your hand?

[diljaa]

I've switched their cages around a couple of times, Pixel gets Dreki's and Dreki gets Pixel's so things don't come to settled for them. The only things in the cage is a comfy perch and I put a fleece sheet on the bottom to catch their poops. She has been running around the bottom in the morning, I can just hear her while the cage is still covered. Hmm... This is interesting.
I'm gonna take out the fleece sheet in the morning, she might be trying to nest underneath it. I remember Pixel doing this thing when I used to put newspapers in the bottom of his old cage (ironically that's Dreki's sleepcage right now) where he went underneath the newspaper and got crazy about me coming close.

Thanks Michael!!

[diljaa]

Okey, I think the fleece sheet was the problem here. When I took Dreki to bed earlier tonight I was going to take the fleece sheet out before I put her inside. She's on my shoulder and I reach inside to get it out and she freaks! She climbed down my hand so fast and goes inside so there I am, stuck with my hand inside the cage, holding the sheet, with a vicious lovebird sitting on my sleeve (I'm so glad I was wearing long sleeves!) fluffing up and hissing at my hand like crazy. Her beak is extra sharp (she drew blood on me 2 times today and she didn't even give me proper chomps) so I'm scared, I don't handle pain all to well!!
So my hand is stuck in there, the opening is too small for me to get my arm out with Dreki sitting on it and she was ready to strike at any moment, any sudden movement would have made her shoot! I drop the cloth and try to coach her on to her perch, no luck. Still hissing at me and making some weird sounds I've never heard before. I'm afraid for my hand! So with my free hand I undo the clamps that fasten the cage to the plastic bottom and lift the cage with my hand and Dreki inside. I then managed to turn the cage around so it's upside down with no bottom, Dreki gets distracted by this sudden opening above her and climbs up the bars to freedom.
Phew! My hand is safe and out went the sheet.
I also put her is Pixels cage and Pixel in hers to mix things up a bit.

I seriously got an adrenaline kick out of this! never say it's dull to own lovebirds ;)

[michael]

.........I seriously got an adrenaline kick out of this! never say it's dull to own lovebirds ;)

Uh..yeah. After reading your post, I did too!....:rotfl... You know, I never did care for fleece. .. Even though I have no hen, something about it just doesn't fly well around birds. .. Especially when it starts to disappear (and may end up in a crop). ... At any rate, it sounds like you may have found the problem. ...Hope so!.......:)