Frustrated lovebird and owner

[Georganne]

Hello everyone.

First let me say that I admire what you are doing here and I would like to thank you for your wisdom.

I had a cherished lovebird for 13 years who died at the end of last year. Lovie was very special and loved everyone in our family and we adored him.

About 7 weeks ago, I bought a lovebird I named Skye from a breeder and I was told she was about 6 months old. She was not bred by this breeder. She was previously owned but given up for some reason. The breeder did not spend a lot of time with her, so she lost some of her previous taming.

The first week she was funny to watch in her cage, but when she came out she was often downright nasty and aggressive. She became stick trained easily but would run down the stick to my hand to bite me. It wasn't until I had her wings clipped and I learned what to do and not to do that she stopped biting as much. Everything was progressing nicely.

Then, about 3 weeks ago, she started making imaginary nests on the bottom of the cage and became very protective. I still can't even change her food and water without risking some very hard bites. Away from the cage, she would sit on me and even take a nap on my chest while I rocked in a rocking chair, but no more.

I removed all of the paper from the cage. Then, I had to remove all toys that could be torn apart in any way because that is all she did most of the day in an effort to make a nest with string. It would go on all day: Up to the toys, tear off some string, down to the nest. I haven't seen her take a nap in a week. Then I had to take all the toys with little mirrors because she would raise her wings, etc. while looking in the tinest mirror.

Today is the first day of the totally cleaned out cage. I have given her new toys but she is still so determined to make a nest that she is taking seeds and putting them in her wings and then bringing them to her nest corner.

She is miserable and so am I. She is still guarding her imaginary nest. She isn't eating as much as previously and eats her cuddle bone very often throughout the day. She does not appear to have a torpedo butt, but her droppings seem to be looser today.

I have very mixed feelings. I really don't want her to lay eggs, but if she is that determined should I just give in and let her make a nest? If she does lay eggs, how often will she lay throughout the year? She is in my office with me because I work at home, so I can observe her. I would never give up on her, but I am feeling disappointed and don't know what to do. Can you help?

[bellarains]

Hi,

Those of us with hens can sympathize with you. About the only thing left to do is to actually move the location of her cage, and see if that may put nesting off for awhile. If you take away their comfort zone, sometimes it will work. All failing though, you would want to give her a nestbox, let her complete her clutch, and afterward, she will be back to her normal self. It may take a little while, but she'll be back to the semi-sweet fid she was before:)

During nesting time here, I still interact with my hen, Lacey, as much as she will allow that is. She may only sit in the box while I talk to her, but it's still interaction, and it also lets her know that I'm not trying to steal her babies. Oh yeah, her eggs are never fertile, but she still acts as though there are, so the instinct is there all the same;)

[butterfly1061]

Hi Georganne,

Yep, those nesty hens can make you crazy, but ya gotta love 'em. I have one of my hens sitting on eggs for the first time and she too is very protective of her cage. Right now she has 4 eggs and I will let her sit on them until she abandons them in about 23 days. I put her off from laying for a little over a year. Lori gave you (& me ;) ) some good advice and I agree with her. Good Luck and keep us posted on how your little girl is doing.

[DebSpace]

Hang in there. You've got the classic hormonal hen thing going on. :roll: Lori gave some great advice about moving the entire cage to a different spot. I have done this before, too. If nothing else, we're here to offer you moral support. Sometimes it can be difficult when you have had such a great relationship with another bird - we tend to compare them and yet they can be so very different. That doesn't mean, though, that you won't have a very good relationship with Skye, or that she will be this way from now on. It just may take awhile longer to establish and the expectations may have to be adjusted from time to time. Let us know how things are going.:)

[Christine9]

I have two hens, so I do know how you feel. Trust me, don't take her behavior personally. I know that's hard, especially since you haven't really had time to bond with her, but nesty hens can become little b****s, simply because they have the instinct to protect their nests. My normally lovable girls will suddently turn into little biting machines when they become nesty.

You already took away shreddables, which is good. In addition, try increasing her amount of dark sleep to 14 hours per night. I know it sounds like a lot, but it may help. Birds that live inside, unfortunately, are not aware of the seasons, so all year-round can seem like spring time to them. Moving the cage might also help, as Lori suggested. Try moving around all her perches and toys in her cage as well.

And if you are able to get her out of her cage, do so and take her into another room (where she can't even see her cage), and try bonding with her there (if you haven't done this already). More often than not, it will calm them if they can't see their "nests" at all. Of course if she develops a "torpedo butt", as it's referred to, that means she is going to lay an egg, in which case it's best not to move her at all, as the egg can break inside of her.

Good luck, and keep us updated!

[Georganne]

Thank you so much Lori, Jackie, Deb and Christine!

Skye is almost back to being her "semi-sweet" self again. (Love that description Lori.)

She is playing with her new, non-shredable toys, is eating more and is more sociable. She did try to build her imaginary nest with seed for about 15 minutes, but gave that up.

I stay up late and have not been covering the cage early so I may have contributed to her hormonal surge. Tonight and every night she will be covered early. I hope that stops her from regressing.

My one additional question is this: Do ALL hens lay eggs at some point in their lives, and if they do are they guaranteed to lay again at least once a year?

[bellarains]

Hens will be hens, and nature requires them to lay eggs. Some lay more often than others, but generally, two clutches a year is ideal. You can put more time in between clutches by constantly rearranging the cage, etc...., but the inevitable will happen;)

[sdgilley]

Hi Georganne,
I know how you feel! I have a hen, and boy is she a handful when she's hormonal. She shreds everything I put in her cage, so I can't use rope perches, no way to happy huts, etc. I can only have wooden or branch perches (one cement one) and she sleeps in a coconut. She fills that up with wood from toys and seed hulls, so I empty it and move it around all the time. And bites! nasty stuff!

What I do is move things in her cage around as much as is practical. I don't give her anything shred-able. BUT eventually when I see she's in laying condition, I'll give her a nest box and nesting materials. She'll lay her clutch and sit on it for 23 or so days. Then she returns to being my sweetie. Sometimes she tries to nest back to back. That's when it's really important to give her less daylight and move things around quite a bit. Not all hens do this, but Peepo does. I try to limit her clutches to 3 or 4 a year, but that is Peepo.

I think you got a bunch of good advice. Paying close attention to her schedule will help her. I brought on some hormonal behavior in Peepo by letting her shred paper for fun while I had her out to play. Now, I'm paying for that. She's bitten my neck twice today *ouch*.

Your lovie sounds like she's in good hands! Don't get discouraged. And now that you've found us, we'd love to know how she's doing... or you can come and commiserate with those of us with hens!! :lol :lol

[Georganne]

Thanks so much for your support, Suzanne. I really hate the biting. I know better, but it does hurt my feelings and keeps other family members from playing with her. She does often make a loud clicking sound when she is going to bite, so I do have some notice.

My previous lovebird stood on a perch to sleep. He didn't want anything to do with huts, etc. But, he did eventually get arthritis at 12. I don't know if it was related or not.

I am also letting Skye sleep on a perch because I thought that anything else would be too much like a nest. Is it OK if I don't supply any type of sleeping place like a coconut? A hut would definitely be destroyed. She does have a ledge with bars on it that she can crouch down on but she does not sleep there.

I appreciate the help I am receiving and hope to help others in the future.

[Buy A Paper Doll]

What I do with my crazy hen is, I give her a hut/cozy to sleep in at night, but not during the day. That way she has the security of something to sleep in at night, without the opportunity to turn it into a nest during the day. My only suggestion if you do this is to keep Skye out of sight of the cage when you are putting the hut in and out, or you WILL get bitten because you are messing with HER hut! :lol

I once spent a long weekend out of town and had a sitter take care of my critters. (A critter sitter, if you will.) She was a bit skittish around my birds (they BITE, you know!) so I told her to just leave the cozy in for the hen and not worry about it. When I came home she had shredded all of her wooden toys and had piled the splinters up in her cozy like a nest. Urg!!!! :x

[linda040899]

Lovie hens can be very determined when they go into nesting mode, as you are finding out! This is true with all birds, since creation of new life is instinctive with them.

In the wild, lovebirds will produce one clutch/yr and it's timed with the rainy season. Rain means enough food to sustain babies. In captivity, our birds have sufficient food to raise young all year round so that's what many of them do, at least smaller birds. The one thing that no one has mentioned is cutting back on the amount of available food. I'm not saying starvation diet but if she doesn't think there's enough food to feed youngsters, she will not be as aggressive in trying to have babies.