Mika, my white capped pionus, has sexy time on her mind. It’s that time of year for parrots, that time when hormones rule and some birds get extra lovey-dovey and others get super cranky. Hopefully it’ll be over soon, as summer nears, but for the last month she’s been making her mating noise incessantly. It goes on longer than usual and is louder than ever. She often couples her “clucking” with something that looks a lot like toy-humping. (She’s not necessarily rubbing her vent on the toy, but she rocks back and forth while holding the toy in her foot behind her.)
I’ve never been able to catch this behavior/sound on video because she stops when I point my phone at her, but Mika’s clucking sounds just like this blue-headed pi does:
And this bronze-wing pionus:
How have you and your birds been faring the hormonal season?
Related: Parrot Hormones – Is Brat Bird Season Over Yet?!
Also check out: Hormones — The Downside of the Good Life
I’m so glad I have a male! (He was given to me as a ‘she’, DNA said otherwise!) Hope this sound doesn’t morph into screeching or anything! 🙂
Oh yeah…those are TOTALLY Dolly (Maxi Pi) “in the mood” sounds! Mom calls it clucking.
We have a Maximillian Pionus that we named “Uno” but now I suspect from recent behavior that perhaps “Una” is more appropriate. It is definitely that time of year! 🙂
My bronze-wing totally falls in love with my feet during this time of year. I’ll be laying on the couch totally relaxed and the next thing I know, he’ll be clucking and trying to hump my toes. And he means business! It is impossible to divert him; I have to put him back in his cage till he calms down.
Awww, you also have a conure/pionus combo. How do they get along?
They tolerate each other most of the time but they certainly are not buddies. Hormone season has them hating each other; I have to be very careful to divide my time equally between the two. Merlin is the one that wants to be friends, but my Nanday is a one woman bird and he doesn’t want anyone else’s attention but mine 🙂
I have just taken in a 30-year-old female blue-fronted Amazon and this is mild compared to her behavior and cries – I thought she was having trouble passing an egg at first! But she isn’t irritable at all, she’s a complete sweetheart and hasn’t done anything self-destructive. I’m trying to limit the nest-seeking behavior and touching, hopefully that will help.
My lovebird and my Grey are both too young for hormones, so they’re doing fine. But my double yellow-headed Amazon, who is 14 years old, is spending a lot of time in her tent masturbating. Every time she sees my boyfriend, she needs to masturbate. She makes quite sweet noises though, which build in speed and intensity until…well, you know. She also can’t handle much physical contact from either one of us right now. Just sitting on our shoulders can be enough to make her start masturbating. But she’s not cranky. More persistent than usual about flying to places she’s not allowed, but not cranky.
what is the proper way to deal with a hormonal bird? i have a 4 yr old white capped and no matter what i do i cant win..i want to do what ever it takes to makes sure he accomodate him.. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
There’s a good blog post on the Phoenix Landing site about dealing with hormonal parrots. You might want to check that out. Good luck!