Worried he is a she

[patti2297]

The last few days I have noticed that Charlie is pulling the paper off his shredding toy, chewing on it (does not appear to be eating it), and then discarding it. A lot of times this ends up in his food dish or at the bottom of the cage. Again, I don't think he is eating it. Is this normal behavior for a male... female? Any thoughts? Maybe this is simply normal lovie activity and since I am a novice owner, just not familar with it. :D

The black of his eyes to me do look more oval than round.

P.S. I might add, Charlie sort of goes at the tearing of the paper sort of frantically chirping like crazy. What is funny, is today I hung some Kale (that I had nuked for 1 minute to cook slightly) and he goes after that in sort of the same way. I figure he might actually be getting some nutrition from the Kale though. hehe. Tricked him into eating his veggie I think.

[Keltoth]

My females AND males both like to shred paper, but they each go about it differently. Typically, the males like to chew off pieces with no real symmetry to them and often just make spitballs out of it. The females, however, start by shearing off long, precise strips over and over, and then later on when they get a little older, they will take those strips and tuck them into their rump feathers and under the backs of their wings.

In my opinion, I would not sweat it too much unless/until you see Charlie tucking strips of paper into his ...er, her(?) feathers. If that happens, I'd say the chances are overwhelmingly in favor of Charlie being a female.

- Eric

[Janie]

Patti, we have the same toy and if you'd see the floor around the cage in my bird room, you'd see plenty of little blue, pink and green pieces of paper there. All three of my male lovies love to chew paper. They don't tuck but they sure do love to chew. Eric's description of the way males typically chew/shredd paper fits my three perfectly. :)

[patti2297]

Thanks Janie & Eric,

That is exactly what Charlie does, chews thorough and spits it out. The floor of his cage is covered with little bitty pieces and I don't think he pulls off a long piece unless it has just simply reached the point where it is simply torn that way. Definitely no tucking into the wings, though he does sound frustrated or upset while he is tearing, but maybe that is simply part of it.

[Keltoth]

Doh - I just noticed that you have a Black Masked. I don't know that the Masked females tuck like the Peachfaced females; maybe Heather can chime in here, she is the resident Masked expert...

- Eric

[sdgilley]

Heather can probably add something here. Masked don't tuck, as I understand, they carry. My green mask (Peter) tends to carry things (like sunflower seeds) around in his beak. He's never been interested in shredding, so I'm not sure how he'd build a nest. He'd probably be like those birds who steal other bird's nests! :lol

Like Eric said, maybe Heather - or Gloria can shed some light on masked hen behavior.

[LauraO]

Both male and female masks build nests. When Squeak was still alive, he and Zimber would make elaborate nests by carrying material in their beak to wherever they were building. We believe we have a female masked, but she's almost two and she shows no interest in any kind of shredding and tucking:rolleyes: .

[mjm8321]

I've never seen my Masks or Fischers shred and tuck, but boy they love to chew and making nests seem to be a joint effort between male and female.

[patti2297]

Thanks for all the input everyone. So I guess it means I cannot tell the sex just based upon the fact that Charlie likes to tear & chew. :D Hopefull he is a male and if I ever see any eggs then I will definitely know for sure. I do not want to pay for DNA testing as I don't see the real need since I only have 1 lovie at this point. Of course, I am already thinking of what kind of lovie I would like to have later on down the road. :D :D