DallyTsuka
New member
- Mar 19, 2011
- 1,331
- 1
- Parrots
- Dallas and Tsukasa (Cockatiels)
Mango and Munchlax (Peach Faced Lovebirds)
munch is determined as all heck.
i don't know what else is there to do about her hormones.
she has laid 2 clutches already this year. last year she laid one egg and ignored it, and it was the end of it.
this year she laid 6 eggs off perches and broke them all. stopped for a week, then started up again. after the first few broke, we gave her a nest, which she laid in and sat on 4. she laid a total of 13 eggs this year.
we have full spectrum lighting to be sure she is getting the proper calcium and vitamin D3 for laying, we make sure she gets extra calcium (when she starts showing signs of laying we give her powdered cuttlebone, powdered egg shells, and powdered pellets on her veggies to be sure she gets that extra boost).
we remove anything she sees as a nest, we rearrange the cage, we remove anything she shreds and turns into nest materials.
but nothing we do stops her. she will turn the cage corner into a nest. she takes her SEED HULLS and turns them into nest material if desperate enough. which is why now we only give shelless sunflower seeds! she turns millet into nest material. if desperate enough, i've seen her turn veggies into nest material (she shreds it and tucks it and puts it in the cage corner).
all her shredding falls through the cage grate and is picked up daily but nope it doesnt stop the hormones.
this starts up in october every year. it dies down, which i am hoping it dies down soon. i am very tired with the hormones!! i want to be able to change her food and water without having a little turquoise feather ball charging and latching onto my fingers. she has already got me bad to the bone a month ago and i now have a scar for life (no joke there either--she got me in the knuckle)
we have tried long nights, but she wakes up at sunrise, whether she is covered or not! we have been putting her to bed earlier now, but with it being light outside it's very hard to get her to actually have full darkness by that time.
i want to try a small sleeping cage, as it will be MUCH easier to give her complete darkness in, but i worry she will just see a small dark cage as a nest.... thoughts on this one?
her cage she is in is 56"long 19"tall 19"deep and we try to keep the bottom open so there is no "nests" but it dont matter.
she has shredded rope perches and cannot have those any longer. she has started to shred her MANZANITA swing, which she was debarking and making into a nest, so we took it away... i caught her earlier this morning trying to strip her fleece ledge too. i have to adjust that so she cant... wish me luck!
i have taken away before any perch she shredded and any toy, she doesnt have anything to shred left, she has a few manzanita perches that she so far has been unable to shred (these ones dont have bark like the swing did). all her toys are made from materials she cannot take apart and make into nests.
we took her nest away last week and got rid of the eggs, because they were cracked and went bad... plus it had been over a month she was sitting on them.
she went to normal until yesterday. now it's kicking back up again and she is charging me in her cage.
i just wanted to vent out some of my frustrations with her. she is not an easy bird to deal with. i love her to pieces, and it makes me worry that she is so bent on laying. i think at this point, all there is for me to do is make sure she has enough calcium, D3 and all the nutrients she needs to keep her healthy and prevent problems, because nothing is stopping this little feather monster lol
she has also mutilated her legs in the past, she chewed the skin off of them, out of frustration at having nothing to shred, so we worry about her starting that again, because its either chewing legs or constantly laying eggs.
she also plucks herself while sitting on the eggs.
seems no way i look at this, i dont ever win with her. she is a determined little birdie genius who for some reason likes to live her life making eggs and its like whyyyy lol i understand its her instinct, but its like her goal in life is to take over the world with baby munches but because she isnt getting any babies from the eggs, its like she just wants to keep trying....
we've even considered asking a breeder for fertile eggs for her to hatch and raise and see if that ended the cycle. she wont get fertile eggs in this home because the only other lovebird we have is her DNA'd male sibling.... so no inbreeding in this home.
photo of the little bugger:
we love her, but she is the most difficult of our flock, the most determined, and the most intelligent lol it's like living with a tiny evil mastermind who wants to take over the world lol
her cage currently:
and the said travel cage, bottom level is hers (of course paper will be removed!) and top level is mango's for when he needs it... we keep them set up for emergency lol summer is coming, we often get tornado watches here...
i don't know what else is there to do about her hormones.
she has laid 2 clutches already this year. last year she laid one egg and ignored it, and it was the end of it.
this year she laid 6 eggs off perches and broke them all. stopped for a week, then started up again. after the first few broke, we gave her a nest, which she laid in and sat on 4. she laid a total of 13 eggs this year.
we have full spectrum lighting to be sure she is getting the proper calcium and vitamin D3 for laying, we make sure she gets extra calcium (when she starts showing signs of laying we give her powdered cuttlebone, powdered egg shells, and powdered pellets on her veggies to be sure she gets that extra boost).
we remove anything she sees as a nest, we rearrange the cage, we remove anything she shreds and turns into nest materials.
but nothing we do stops her. she will turn the cage corner into a nest. she takes her SEED HULLS and turns them into nest material if desperate enough. which is why now we only give shelless sunflower seeds! she turns millet into nest material. if desperate enough, i've seen her turn veggies into nest material (she shreds it and tucks it and puts it in the cage corner).
all her shredding falls through the cage grate and is picked up daily but nope it doesnt stop the hormones.
this starts up in october every year. it dies down, which i am hoping it dies down soon. i am very tired with the hormones!! i want to be able to change her food and water without having a little turquoise feather ball charging and latching onto my fingers. she has already got me bad to the bone a month ago and i now have a scar for life (no joke there either--she got me in the knuckle)
we have tried long nights, but she wakes up at sunrise, whether she is covered or not! we have been putting her to bed earlier now, but with it being light outside it's very hard to get her to actually have full darkness by that time.
i want to try a small sleeping cage, as it will be MUCH easier to give her complete darkness in, but i worry she will just see a small dark cage as a nest.... thoughts on this one?
her cage she is in is 56"long 19"tall 19"deep and we try to keep the bottom open so there is no "nests" but it dont matter.
she has shredded rope perches and cannot have those any longer. she has started to shred her MANZANITA swing, which she was debarking and making into a nest, so we took it away... i caught her earlier this morning trying to strip her fleece ledge too. i have to adjust that so she cant... wish me luck!
i have taken away before any perch she shredded and any toy, she doesnt have anything to shred left, she has a few manzanita perches that she so far has been unable to shred (these ones dont have bark like the swing did). all her toys are made from materials she cannot take apart and make into nests.
we took her nest away last week and got rid of the eggs, because they were cracked and went bad... plus it had been over a month she was sitting on them.
she went to normal until yesterday. now it's kicking back up again and she is charging me in her cage.
i just wanted to vent out some of my frustrations with her. she is not an easy bird to deal with. i love her to pieces, and it makes me worry that she is so bent on laying. i think at this point, all there is for me to do is make sure she has enough calcium, D3 and all the nutrients she needs to keep her healthy and prevent problems, because nothing is stopping this little feather monster lol
she has also mutilated her legs in the past, she chewed the skin off of them, out of frustration at having nothing to shred, so we worry about her starting that again, because its either chewing legs or constantly laying eggs.
she also plucks herself while sitting on the eggs.
seems no way i look at this, i dont ever win with her. she is a determined little birdie genius who for some reason likes to live her life making eggs and its like whyyyy lol i understand its her instinct, but its like her goal in life is to take over the world with baby munches but because she isnt getting any babies from the eggs, its like she just wants to keep trying....
we've even considered asking a breeder for fertile eggs for her to hatch and raise and see if that ended the cycle. she wont get fertile eggs in this home because the only other lovebird we have is her DNA'd male sibling.... so no inbreeding in this home.
photo of the little bugger:
we love her, but she is the most difficult of our flock, the most determined, and the most intelligent lol it's like living with a tiny evil mastermind who wants to take over the world lol
her cage currently:
and the said travel cage, bottom level is hers (of course paper will be removed!) and top level is mango's for when he needs it... we keep them set up for emergency lol summer is coming, we often get tornado watches here...
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