After hormonal behavior passes?

[burdman]

Hi. We have a male eclectus that we adopted 6 weeks ago. He is 13 yrs old.
He is very tame and knows step-up. Handling him is no problem at all.
Recently he has become very affectionate towards me. He engages in behavior that I am pretty certain is hormonal.
He will crawl all over me while I sit in my chair. After a bit he will start to act like he wants to step up, but when I offer my hand he grabs my finger with one claw, clenches his other claw into a "fist", and begins swishing his tail around. I don't encourage the behavior. I try to distract him.
He is pretty obsessed when this is going on. He is not aggressive at all, but is reluctant to be picked up, wanting to stay on my lap or chest.
He is a real good buddy as far as letting me rub his beak, scratch his head, etc. I've read that during hormonal behavior it is not good to rub his back or wings, so I've stopped doing that.
My question is, if this is hormonal behavior, when it passes will there be a change in how he relates to me?
I am concerned that when what I am attributing to hormonal behavior stops, he may relate to me differently.
Does anyone have any experience with this, or insight they could share?
I posted a similar inquiry in the eclectus forum but didn't get any response from anyone with similar experiences, so am trying here.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RiosMom]

There are others who can provide more great advice, but I have been told never to pet the back or wings. Only a mate would do that often. Just my 2 cents!

As for hormonal behavior, they do go back to how they were formerly. Since you haven't had him long I would say if he is being really sweet now, he'll probably still be sweet. Distract the behavior and reward the desired behavior...great advice no matter what!

 

[sodakat]

One of my 5 males would like to be more than friends. I'm not sure what your question is.

Are you concerned if you stop him from rubbing on you, etc. he won't want to b with you when he isn't feeling amorous?

 

[burdman]

My question is, should I expect him to retain his friendly, likable, easy to handle behavior once he is not so randy?

I assume hormonal behavior has a season. Is that correct?

If so, once that season is over does all their behavior change, or will he just stop rubbing and all else will be the same?

Is it possible that this behavior may not stop?

I've only seen similar behavior in a cockatiel we once owned, but the object of his affections was one of his perches.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it.

 

[burdman]

Sadly Riley's becomming aggressive now if I ignore, or try to distract him from his mating behavior.
He is now biting me. Last night was the worst. He got ahold of the skin on my forearm and would not let go. I couldn't move my arm while in the tight grasp of his beak, as doing so would have meant hime falling on the floor, so he just gnawed away. When he finally released he sat there angrily squawking at me. I sang to him and got him calmed down. He stepped up no prblem after that and I was able to get him back to his cage.
This has become the scenario every time I take him out now. He's fine for a few minutes, but soon wants to start the mating behavior.
I could deal with it ok before because he wasn't being aggressive. That's all changed.
I think it would be best for both of us if I stop handling him as long as this behavior continues.
Hoping this passes.
I miss the old Riley.

 

[MonicaMc]

Have you tried changing his diet around? Not feeding warm/mushy foods?

Have you tried moving his cage and rearranging it?

Changing the amount of day/night that he gets?

Changing the quality of light that he gets?

 

[MikeyTN]

To me, Eclectus are more easy going birds. After hormone cycle is over my ekkies goes back being themselves once again without any issue. So I think you'll be fine after tge hormone passes.

 

[U2gal]

Teach him to masturbate appropriately on his toys, stuffed animals or socks.

You stopping his masturbation is now causing him some serious sexual frustration that teaches him to bite you.

 

[burdman]

Thanks all. I re-arranged the cage a bit. Will try eliminating softer foods. I don't know if I want to change too much.
I can kind of anticipate when he's starting to get revved up, and I have been returning him to the cage before he starts grabbing at my hand to try and mount. I will try the toy substitute. I feel bad only being able to hold him for a few minutes, so hoping the toy might be an answer.
Other than this behavior he's great.
He put up with me putting him in the kitchen sink twice today trying to coax him to bathe, never trying to bite. We'd never put him in there before.

 

[LoryLover]

Sadly Riley's becomming aggressive now if I ignore, or try to distract him from his mating behavior.
He is now biting me. Last night was the worst. He got ahold of the skin on my forearm and would not let go. I couldn't move my arm while in the tight grasp of his beak, as doing so would have meant hime falling on the floor, so he just gnawed away. When he finally released he sat there angrily squawking at me. I sang to him and got him calmed down. He stepped up no prblem after that and I was able to get him back to his cage.
This has become the scenario every time I take him out now. He's fine for a few minutes, but soon wants to start the mating behavior.
I could deal with it ok before because he wasn't being aggressive. That's all changed.
I think it would be best for both of us if I stop handling him as long as this behavior continues.
Hoping this passes.
I miss the old Riley.

It's best if you never allow him to do his mating behavior on you. My husband allowed our lory to continue mating behavior with my husband's feet. He regretted that. Forever afterwards (for years), the lory would attack my husband's feet if he put socks or shoes on. And often the lory would suddenly bite my husband on the face, drawing blood... then go back to being a sweet lory. I never allowed the mating behavior to be done on me, and I never had the same aggressive behavior done to me either that my husband suffered with.

 

[MikeyTN]

IF he bites while he's on you, move around a bit so he lose a bit of balance, he will quit. I personally don't agree with letting him have his frustration with a toy while he's on you. That's just teaching him that it is ok to do so. When JoJo start doing stuffs on me, I make him stop. He's threatened to bite before so I moved around a bit for him to lose his balance and then I make him get on my hands. If he tries more I tell him no and I go up and down with my hand. He haven't tried it on me for awhile now. And he doesn't bite me either. I don't have any issues getting him out of his cage with any sort of aggression.

 

[MikeyTN]

Sadly Riley's becomming aggressive now if I ignore, or try to distract him from his mating behavior.
He is now biting me. Last night was the worst. He got ahold of the skin on my forearm and would not let go. I couldn't move my arm while in the tight grasp of his beak, as doing so would have meant hime falling on the floor, so he just gnawed away. When he finally released he sat there angrily squawking at me. I sang to him and got him calmed down. He stepped up no prblem after that and I was able to get him back to his cage.
This has become the scenario every time I take him out now. He's fine for a few minutes, but soon wants to start the mating behavior.
I could deal with it ok before because he wasn't being aggressive. That's all changed.
I think it would be best for both of us if I stop handling him as long as this behavior continues.
Hoping this passes.
I miss the old Riley.

It's best if you never allow him to do his mating behavior on you. My husband allowed our lory to continue mating behavior with my husband's feet. He regretted that. Forever afterwards (for years), the lory would attack my husband's feet if he put socks or shoes on. And often the lory would suddenly bite my husband on the face, drawing blood... then go back to being a sweet lory. I never allowed the mating behavior to be done on me, and I never had the same aggressive behavior done to me either that my husband suffered with.

We think alike....lol....

 

[sodakat]

I like that you have figured out what he does just before he starts rubbing on you so you can place him.somewhere else. This is what I do to make it very clear I'm not interested in Jackie that way. Jackie scratches his head just before he gets "the look". It does go in phases but the periods of high sexual I.terest can occur any time of year with eclectus, unlike some other species.

I use a rope perch to move birds who cannot be held for whatever reason.

 

[burdman]

Okay, 3 months later, and Riley is still as attracted too me as much as ever. I think I should have titled the thread "the hormonal behavior that doesn't pass".
The only time he doesn't make unwanted passes at me is when we are doing something with purpose, like going to the shower, or when I put him in his carrier, or his travel cage. If I just want to hold him and watch TV, it isn't more than a few minutes before the hormonal thing happens. He can become quite aggressive about it, too. I had soooo hoped this was temporary.
Even not allowing the behavior has it's problems, because when I try and stop him he gets frustrated, and resists stepping up. When I try and return him to his cage he gets very aggressive and does all he can to stay on me, often resulting in him biting. He acts as though he doesn't know the step up command when he's in this mode.
I am learning to accept that this may be the way it is, and nothing I can do will change nature.

 

[Birdman666]

Yep. He is essentially masterbating...

He will still be friendly towards you, just not quite so "overly friendly."

We all deal with this issue. Don't encourage it, but in my mind, it's not the end of the world if they do this kind of stuff, UNLESS it is accompanied by mate aggression issues... THEN you have a problem.

Better to be thought of as the PARENT BIRD than the MATE.

They are better off masterbating with one of their toys... than with you.