Any Other Breeders Ever Experience a "Hormonal" Baby?

[EllenD]

Okay, so yesterday something extremely bizarre happened, and in 20 years of breeding Budgies, Cockatiels, and different Conures, and 32 years of owning different birds, I have never once seen anything like this. So I'm trying to get some clarity here on this, because it was both so extremely odd and hilarious that I think I'm going to have to keep this little guy, he's too wild to re-home.

I will explain the entire circumstance surrounding this little guy later, but let's just say that I have come to have another 4 little baby Budgies, who are now about 5-6 weeks old. They do not have all of their outer feathers yet, and are still on 3-4 formula feedings a day. There are green pieds and then 2 all-yellows, and they are absolutely adorable...

So here's the deal...yesterday I had them out handling them and playing with them (the 2 older ones are just now starting to fledge). So the 2 older ones were flying around, while the 2 younger ones, 5 WEEKS OLD, were laying in my hand. One of them, a sweet, adorable green pied MALE (yes, we can safely say he's a male without question, lol) has been just learning to perch on my finger, and it's not unusual when a baby bird is first learning to step-up and actually learning to simply "perch", they have trouble balancing, so they actually stand on your finger, but they have to kind of lay down on your finger/hand at the same time or they'll fall off. So he was sitting/laying on my finger, when out of nowhere, my sweet, adorable, 5 week-old baby Budgie started masturbating on my hand!!!

And this wasn't just masturbating. Oh no. I've had my birds masturbate or at least attempt to masturbate on my hand or my neck before, both my Senegal and my Green Cheek went through that phase recently. This little dude went full-on porn star on my hand...If any of you have seen Budgies mating, they are extremely animated and get really into it, more so than a lot of the larger parrot species. Well this little guy not only started masturbating on my hand, but he did the entire "opening his wing up and using it to cover my hand" thing, just like they do to the female Budgie while they're mating...I seriously thought he was going to start slapping my hand with his wing...no joke, he was into it...i was a combination of shocked and laughing hysterically, and I had to actually stop him, as he was going to just keep on going! And then after I put him down on the carpet next to me for about 5 minutes (I was asking him where he learned those moves, lol), I picked him back up, and what does he do? Yep, he starts right back up again, out comes his wing and his little butt starts wiggling, and i finally just put him back in the brooder...

Has anyone ever experienced this with a 5 week old baby bird before? He's not even close to being weaned yet, he hasn't started to fledge yet, he's just a sweet, tiny little adorable, fluffy baby Budgie! What in the world...

 

[ChristaNL]

LOL, the last time I held a baby-budgy I never even thought about animals (apart from humans) masturbating ... but what you describe does not sound all that unfamiliair -> I just asumed the little one was extra extra hungry (ignorance is bliss) never would have recognized it as "sexual behaviour".

Oh *do* keep this one, it is going to be interesting to find out what other little surprises he can come up with!

 

[EllenD]

LOL, the last time I held a baby-budgy I never even thought about animals (apart from humans) masturbating ... but what you describe does not sound all that unfamiliair -> I just asumed the little one was extra extra hungry (ignorance is bliss) never would have recognized it as "sexual behaviour".

Oh *do* keep this one, it is going to be interesting to find out what other little surprises he can come up with!

Oh, he definitely was NOT HUNGRY! Lol...I don't know if you've ever watched adult Budgies mating, but they are very "physical" and very "athletic", for a lack of a better way to describe it...maybe "animated" is a good word, especially in-comparison to seeing Cockatiels or Conures mate, Budgies really get into what they are doing, lol...And that's what this little, 5 week-old baby Budgie was doing to my hand! At first I wasn't certain that was what he was doing, he started out by just rubbing his vent on my hand, I thought maybe he was itchy or something...But he kept doing it, and then when he opened up his wing the whole way and used it to "cover" my hand while he was doing his thing to it, that's when I lost it, lol. That's exactly what they do to the females while they are mating, they use their wing to kind of "cover" the female, or almost "slap" the female lol. At least that's what it looks like...So when he did that yesterday I was just like "What the hell?"

It's not like he saw his parents or any other Budgies doing this and was copying them, lol, that's not how this works...And he can't possibly have any sex hormones yet at 5 weeks old, he hasn't even attempted to fledge, and just started picking at some millet! So apparently this little dude is going to be a handful, to say the least...He's sitting on my lap while I'm typing this, and I think I'm going to move him now...

 

[ChristaNL]

Oh I know mating budgies, never saw a couple of cockatiels have a go at it though.
I just assumed they would be just as 'enthousiastic'.

(birdwise it was just the breeding budgies and doves/pigeons, chickens, ducks and geese at the school my mum worked - we all had to share in the care of them during the hollidays and sometimes weekends - oh and the indoor aviary with the tropical small birds and the incidental fixer-upper; birds of prey mostly)

 

[MonicaMc]

Not I, but the breeder Feisty Feathers mentioned having a female budgie that, shortly after weaning, started up her own family... so she would have been a tad older than your guy.

Although parrots may experiment at a young age out in the wild, I don't think their hormones get as revved up as parrots can within captivity, so it's quite possible that we may unintentionally be breeding them to be sexually hormonal at younger and younger ages...

 

[EllenD]

Well, he did it again, so he's definitely got some hormones going on...his 3 siblings aren't exhibiting this behavior at all, so for whatever reason this little guy is a player, lol...

While I'm enjoying hand-raising some babies again, it's already becoming tiring and not something that I would ever get back into doing again; my breeders are all residing in a parrot sanctuary outside of Philly anyway, well, all but 5 Budgies, so it's not something that I could start doing again if I wanted to any time soon...I'm just helping out someone else who got themselves into a situation that they weren't at all ready for, nor that they wanted to have happen...But they are adorable little babies...Even the porn-star...He just so surprised me with his behavior, I've not ever seen anything like this, he doesn't even have all of his feathers yet, but he's masturbating on/mating with my hand! It just looks wrong, lol...

Christa, FYI, no, most other birds that I've seen mate do not at all get "into it" like Budgies do, not even close. I bred Cockatiels, Green Cheeks, Suns, Jendays, Nandays, (well, my mom bred the Nandays and the Jendays, but I helped)...They all just seem to "mate", while the Budgies, well, you've seen them, lol. And that's what he started doing to my hand! And yesterday when I got him out he started doing it again right away, like as soon as I picked him up out of the Brooder and sat down in a chair with him, BAM! It's hilarious. i again just put him down on the floor when he started doing it, and he looked up at me with that little baby Budgie face like "What? What'd I do?" Lol...

 

[Sandy19]

Although parrots may experiment at a young age out in the wild, I don't think their hormones get as revved up as parrots can within captivity, so it's quite possible that we may unintentionally be breeding them to be sexually hormonal at younger and younger ages...

I have a book about Senegals written by a long time breeder and it says that they don't usually see masturbation displays in wild caught birds. However, as the birds have adjusted more to life with humans, various sexual behaviors have appeared.

It also says that they will engage in masturbation as a result of anxiety. Maybe the little budgie just has a high strung tempermant lol.