Koda and Hormones??

[SolKale]

Hello lovely people! So my red-bellied boy Koda has been getting quite comfortable with me lately. Loves scratches and snuggles, wanting to be held, the works. Well... yesterday, "the dance" started. Wings dropped, tail up, kissy/squeaky noises. You know. The "I don't think you're mom anymore" behavior. He's not actively trying to hump me, thank goodness, but he's doing the dance. He did this twice yesterday and I just kinda stared at him and didn't make any moves to touch him until he stopped.

... Which brings me to today. Today he is CRANKY. Puffing up at me, he bit me (not super hard) for the first time in a long time. He's back to having to be held with a perch.

Is it even mating season for these guys??

 

[Laurasea]

Lol, he might feel rejected? Penny tried to force regurge in my mouth in our earlier days. When I wouldn't open up and accept it. Wow was she mad at me!! For days she **** poop at me , stormed around...I used a lot of bribes and sweet talks to convince her we were still on friends terms..

 

[ChristaNL]

Friendzoning your bird...is not easy.

matingseason or not ...
Living in a house can throw their hormones out of whack a bit (my greys should be almost sexe-less atm, the opposite is true -> all my fault: it is winter here, so I have lights on a long time each day/ and with the holliday-season the food has gotten a bit too rich as well...)

Just make sure your bird has a lot of other things to do (destroying stuff is a great way to help them get rid of frustrations/ it saves our skin).
It is great he is flirting -> al is well, he is feeling great.
Too bad you are not interested he will have to learn to deal with that,
and he wil!!

 

[EllenD]

Yeah, the season has nothing to do with it unfortunately...It being the proper "Breeding Season" will only make it worse, lol...

This isn't at all surprising since you said yourself that your bond with Koda has been growing closer, and his bond with you, you've earned his trust and he's chosen you as "his person", and now that he's made you the "chosen one", his hormones are kicked into high-gear. Kane, my Senegal, occasionally does the same thing, he used to do it a lot but we managed to curb it quite a bit...

Kane would just suddenly, out of nowhere walk/fly over to me from his cage or his stand while I'd be watching TV or reading or playing guitar, his wings would be dropped and hanging low, lol, and he'd be making that cute little repetitive "chirping" noise. And then he'd immediately go for my hands, actually using his beak to try to position my fingers/hand in the right, um, "position" for him...The first time he did it I was like "Oh no ya don't, I love you but not in that way little man!"...

The best thing you can do is whenever he comes over to you and he's "in the mood", first of all don't yell at him or treat him like he's doing anything wrong or that you're punishing him because it's not his fault and he's not purposely causing his hormones to rage, so it's not something that he can really control, and you don't want to upset him or confuse him because it's not like when he bites you, he can control that...So all you need to do when he comes over to you and he's "broody", lol, is to quickly and swiftly have him step-up and just take him right over to his cage and put him inside it for a good 5-10 minutes to cool-down...Just put him inside, shut the door, and walk away...Then come back in 5-10 minutes and see if he's calmed-down yet, and if so then just open his cage back up and let him be out on top of it or on his play-stand, wherever it is that he hangs-out when he's out of his cage, and give him a toy or what I do is give him a nut in the shell, like an Almond in the shell, and that totally changes his train-of-thought, and the moment passes and he's fine again...

 

[SolKale]

Thank you for the advice, everyone... I don't think I'll have to worry about the mating behavior again for a while, because as it stands, he's completely reverted. I thought perhaps he was just having a bad day, but it's turned into a bad couple days. He no longer steps up or wants to be scratched. He's essentially back to where he was before... which sucks, big time.

 

[MauiWendy]

Thank you for the advice, everyone... I don't think I'll have to worry about the mating behavior again for a while, because as it stands, he's completely reverted. I thought perhaps he was just having a bad day, but it's turned into a bad couple days. He no longer steps up or wants to be scratched. He's essentially back to where he was before... which sucks, big time.

Keoki has been doing this to me a lot lately. It’s usually in the morning, but today it happens a few times. I just go about my business and ignore the behavior. I like the cage idea until they cool down, then let him out again. My boy is only 5 months old. I have also noticed some aggression towards my daughter. He loved her now, not so much. But she doesn’t live with us so she doesn’t take it too personally.