Hormones, aggressiveness & now fear

[Kare]

I'm pretty upset and frustrated with what has been going on lately with my beautiful bird. :very_sad:

My peach-faced love bird, Belle, was born on February 4, 2011, so now she's just over a year old (I bought her from a breeder at about 4-5 months old). We had a great relationship; she'd sleep on me for hours at a time while I was on my computer, etc. She was always that kind of bird that would have jealous aggression, maybe a little cage territorial aggression, but not much else.

A few months ago she laid her first set of 3 eggs, and instantly had no interest in them. She would still pace at the bottom of her cage and follow me in the corners of her cage wherever I walked, and showed no aggressiveness when I was in her cage or went to get them. She really didn't care for this first set of eggs.

On Monday she laid an egg, and we took her to the vet for her first time ever (slightly paranoid that a second one might have been egg bound), but she turned out to be fine. She wasn't too interested in the egg, so we removed it and took out her Tiki hut that she was using to nest, which is of course pretty much a happy hut. I also took out her solid plastic hamster wheel (which she loved to run in), because she would hide behind it and have aggressive body language (this is just recently).

I'm really heart broken because if I go in her cage now she'll run away from my hand. She use to step up on my hand all the time in the cage. She also never begs me to take her out, which she also used to do a lot. And she's gotten extremely aggressive in her cage. She laid a second egg on Tuesday, which I've left in her cage in a tupper wear container with kleenex to see if she'll get over it and maybe revert back to normal...but I can't get past my pessimistic views. :\ I don't know if I should be trying to take her out or not, and if I should be trying to grab her because she's running away from my hand, or what I should do. :cry:

I was bad yesterday, too, because I caved in and got another tiki hut for fear of her "hating" me just because I got rid of it, since of course I knew she loved it a lot.

Could anyone give me ideas about why she might hate me/be running from me/more aggressive? I miss my baby bird. Is it just hormones? :confused:

Thanks...sorry it's so long.

[kikibird]

Hi Kerry, I'm so sorry you're going through this. It's something we read commonly on here when our little girls become nesty. :(

While I'm not one of the best and most experienced voices here, I can tell you I've been through it with both of my girls. And yes - things change! And our babies don't want to play with us. They are concerned with guarding those eggs to their very life. You're baby may not totally understand yet what her role should be, I'd guess that her hormones are still telling her she needs to be acting different. I just reclaimed my second baby girl after laying 2 clutches in 3 months. Infertile eggs, but same behavior. My first girl I reclaimed a month ago when i broke her cycle.

I can tell you that she should become your same baby again when it's all over with. You may need to take more drastic measures to break her cycle after she's done with this clutch she's currently laying. I think these great folks on this site may tell you to let her lay and incubate her eggs (if she chooses) the full term of 23 -25 days. Then start your cage changing, maybe move cage to a different location, reduce daylight hours, change out toys and perches. I even changed my girls' cage, but that's not always an option if you only have one.

[Kare]

Yeah I've heard of some of the tricks to try to break their habits...I'm hoping she'll get over this egg soon so that I can move forward and try some of them out. :( it's a bit reassuring to know it's not just her falling out.

Another concern I had was that she continuously shakes her head, which she's never done until recently. I was just wondering if maybe anyone else has any idea as to what it is?

And, should I be grabbing her to take her out since she's running from me? I just want to make sure as to whether I should or not, I don't want to upset her.

[kikibird]

Oh I can just feel your frustration, having been through it so veryrecently. I would not try to take her out of her cage for now if she doesn'twant to. And as for running away fromyou, this is probably just instinct to protect her eggs. I suspect her nestiness is probably kickingin more and more. Very soon, herhormones are going to be telling her she needs the tactile sensation of layingon those eggs.

I can tell you that both my girls did the very same thing. As soon as my hand would come in the cage,they would run into the nest box and then sit at the hole entrance to see whatI was doing. If I opened the nest box,they’d run to the eggs. One of my hens immediatelyknew what to do. She kicked into mommyprotective role. The other was quiteconfused for probably almost two weeks. She’d lay for a bit, then she’d want out of the cage to be with me. After a couple weeks, she didn’t wantanything to do with me. Now, I can’tkeep her off of me. She’s more clingythan before. They both are actually.

Not sure what you mean by head shaking. Is it like side to side or what I call “snaking”? Like a down and then to the side motion – or tothe side and down roll – something like that? My closest girl does that. I alsosee some other birds do it. Only one ofmine does it. I try to pick up on herbody language. Best I can figure (so farJ)is when she wants me to do something, like scratch her or pick her up. And sometimes maybe even when she doesn’tlike something she kinda does it. Maybelike it’s her way of telling me, “I’m trying to get something across to you,mommy!” Not necessarily good orbad. Maybe Belle is wanting to communicate,“what’s going on with me, mommy? Is thisPMS or what!!!??? Please make it stop!”

Poor little Belle – poor little mommy L Just be patient, there’s a light at the end Jand Belle will find her way through the maze of hormones!

[kikibird]

Sorry for the maze of run in words. I type it in Word then paste and the line breaks don't translate properly.

[Kare]

Thanks a lot :( I'm hoping she'll be normal pretty soon, it's hard to wait like things when you're used to spending hours with them.

She shakes her head side to side like "no", but she'll just do it randomly and quite often. She didn't used to do it until the hormones started to kick in, and she's never regurgitated before either.

[kikibird]

Hmmm...not so sure about the regurgitation. Doesn't sound like anything I remember reading that hormonal hens do. But my experience is very limited. You might want to post something in the Health section. Unless you've arleady addressed with your vet and they said its normal.

Hang in there, friend. :)

[michael]

......She shakes her head side to side like "no", but she'll just do it randomly and quite often. She didn't used to do it until the hormones started to kick in, and she's never regurgitated before either.

If it appears as though she's trying to eliminate the regurgitate by shaking her head side to side, then she could very well be ill. .. Most of the other "hormonal" behavior your experiencing is quite normal. .. Important, is that you allow her to incubate her eggs for the 23-25 time period. The goal is for her to ultimately abandon them, whereas you will then completely remove all nesting materials. We also recommend people not grab their lovebirds. Not only can you get injured, but you might also compound her protectiveness. Best course, is to always build upon trust, rather than dominance.

[Kare]

I'm not sure what the head shaking is. She seems her usual running around, begging at the cage for me, but when I open the cage to put my hand in she runs away. Then the head shaking is just randomly but somewhat frequently.

And I guess I shouldn't have used the word grab, more-so pick up since she's running from me. Maybe I'll see if she'll come out of her cage on her own and step up like she used to.