Ekkies, hormones and what-not...

[Jottlebot]

Hi Everyone,

I'm doing my research before taking the plunge in around 12 months time and adding to my feathered family. I have had an Orange Winged Amazon in the past - sadly only for a couple of years as her first home's bad diet caught up with her (supermarket/pet shop "parrot mix" grrrrrr, they shouldn't be allowed to sell the stuff!!!) and she developed liver failure and bowel problems and passed away - I have a Common Mynah at the moment.

The sticky at the top is very helpful, but I've ready quite a lot about the hormonal changes and wondered if anyone could give me some more information about this. In particular do males and females go through periods/seasons of raging hormones or is it pretty much constant for the few years it takes to reach full maturity? And is there an 'other side' once fully mature? I'm not so concerned about the behaviour because our Amazon was outrageously bad tempered ALL THE TIME and did not like me at all, ever, but some of the descriptions of the feather plucking in males while maturing sounds quite distressing so I'd like a sense of how frequent this could be.

Also if anyone has any thoughts about getting 2 young birds from the same family from the outset rather than potentially introducing another bird later on? I prefer to have flock or pack creatures more than one (2 cats and 2 dogs), but we mis-handled the timing of introducing our 2 dogs and have had to keep them completely separate for most of their lives unfortunately.

I'm incapable of being brief, I do apologise!

Many thanks

 

[GaleriaGila]

Welcome! Lots of Ekkie peeps (and more) to help you out. Meanwhile, (in addition to stickies, you can take any issue or topic which interests you, use the Search Tab and then read about it. Almost every day. The people here are an amazing source of information, advice, and support. I'm glad you found us!

 

[chris-md]

Hi there and welcome!
The answer to your question is both. They go through puberty, so it's all hormones all the time (how this manifests and how intense the period is will vary). Once maturity is reached, they can still get seasonally hormonal. Though ekkies are one of the few that don't have a thoroughly defined season so they could get hormonal at any time.

That's said my male tends to go through two seasons a year. Intense in the spring where he becomes unhandleable and stays in his cage for a few days, and this time of year when he's more manageable and less pronounced. I do occasionally notice something, well call it minor flare ups, once every six weeks or so. Though admittedly I haven't seen any recently.

We have on or two members swing their birds through puberty right now so hopefully they can speak to you with regards to managing that.

The manifestation of hormones can vary highly. My ekkie, for example, mostly jut gets aggressive (nothing a fleece glove can't handle). With others they are more amorous, constantly rubbing themselves on everything, and still others may simply regurgitate on everything. Or it could be a combination of these.

 

[Anansi]

Chris is right on point about how these things can vary. Both Maya and Jolly are going through puberty right now, and the hormonal behavior has not been much of an issue.

With the first onset of hormones, Maya did draw blood from me for the first time EVER! It was a surprise because she has always been ridiculously gentle with me otherwise, so it just goes to show that sometimes they just get somewhat thrown by the new feelings and such. But since then she's been really good. Part of that, however is me doing my part. Watching her for signs of when she's getting too worked up and putting her down for a few minutes to cool off. Otherwise, sexual frustration could easily cause another bite.

As for Jolly, though I am his favored person, my wife became the object of his affections. There was a 2 or 3 week period where he would land on her hand with a very singular intent on his mind. But even when he was throwing a tantrum over her lack of cooperation, his bite pressure never exceeded that of a slight pinch. (There's a reason he was named Jolly. Lol!) His situation was handled in the same way. Any time that his beak would get all flushed and warm around my wife, or if his body language suggested amorous intent, we headed him off at the pass and gave him time to cool off.

There are others, though, for whom the experience is far more harrowing. Taw5106, for example, has had a far rougher road of it with her Venus. The onset of hormones have had a far more persistent effect on her, and she has been dealing with it for a few months, now. Apparently some ekkies get a little more ramped up during this initial stage than others, and can take between 1 and 2 years (and I've even heard 3 mentioned, though rarely) to pretty much "level out". It really depends on the bird. You have to hope that won't be the situation in your case, but also be prepared for the worst.