So, long story short--two Eclectus birds, one male (11 years), one female (12 years). who came as a mated pair (since they were only a few years old). They live next to each other in separate cages. 3 years ago they had a baby. He has grown up nicely. His cage is adjacent to the female. He is kept separate from the other two when they are out, as they will bother him.
Btw, I'm not the owner. I have a housemate who owns, feeds, and cares for these birds. I help her frequently with taking care of them, feeding them when she's away, etc.
The thing I'm wanting to know about is regarding the female. I've posted about her before (link). At times she makes this really awfully loud, unpleasant squawk. It's usually when there are people nearby and we've determined it's a sound of frustration. She doesn't want to be in the cage. She wants to be out with her mate. Essentially she has 2 cycles of living: 1) nesting and 2) procreation.
When nesting, she's extremely easy. After laying eggs, fake ones are substituted and most of the time she's sitting on her nest in her cage. She has a routine down to minimize pooping in her nest. She comes out and paces back/forth at her door. We let her out onto a nearby "gym" platform where she hangs out, eats, drinks, preens, and of course poops. After about 10~15 mins, she's ready to go back to her cage and we hand carry her back. Nesting, she's totally quiet.
When she has no nest, things are a very different story. Every day, it's important for caged birds to have time outside. The adult male is very easy to handle. We can let him out and trust that he won't get himself into trouble. He loves to go around and feed his mate and even feed his son, one cage over. He'll be atop and regurgitate through the bars. The son loves it. He'll perch in a variety of locations and when it's time to get him back in his cage, he generally cooperates. The female is a problem, though.
When we'd let the female out, she'd immediately focus on scoping out the room she is in, looking around fervently. Then she'll fly off, usually to a spot she sees that she believes has nesting potential. We had numerous problems where she'd go under furniture. All furniture gaps are walled off now. But, we have shelves and she will fly to them seeking for some place to stake out as her nest. Trying to recover her is another huge problem. She bites. HARD. She has damaged her owner's hand, gashing through flesh, bruising tendon... yeah, that hard. It's awful. The male never bites that hard.
My housemate's solution to this problem was to take out a carrier she uses to transport a bird to the vet, and set it on the living room couch. It's a very high quality carrier, super sturdy, and is roomy enough for 2 birds to fit inside. There's also a perch in there. So when the female is let out, WHOOSH--she flies right to it, scrambles inside, and starts nesting behavior. When the male sees this, he'll get very agitated, doing his rapid short wing flutter, and making chirps for wanting out. As soon as he's let out, WHOOSH--he rapidly flies over to be with her. He'll go inside and mate with her. They'd hang out inside and around the carrier for the entire day, until they're hungry enough to go eat their food in their cages.
There's another complication, and that is, sometimes these two birds don't get along. For some reason, the male will at times perch on the sill of the opening flap to go in and spread his wings wide, then make hostile sparring gestures with his beak. The female will spar back with him and do a frequent territorial head-bob. Sometimes they simmer down and stop, but other times they get so hostile with each other that they physically attack each other and have to be separated. For this reason, they can't be left alone hanging out together unsupervised. So, during a workday, until about 6pm~7pm, they're in their cages and they can't go anywhere. The female is generally quiet until a human is nearby. Quickly, she moves herself to the highest point in her cage, rests on the perch there, and stares into the kitchen where the human(s) are. And lets out an ear piercing squawk, about 1 or 2 per minute. She does this while staring at you. Close the curtain between the cage area and the kitchen, and she squawks less, but as soon as you make any noise she's back to squawking.
My assessment of all this: the female wants to be with her male companion and free to mate, and to exercise nest prepping behavior. Not getting this, she's unhappy, and will let her human owners know by letting out this nasty loud squawk when we're in range. While my housemate and I work from home, we can't babysit these two during the day. Too time consuming and unpredictable.
So what would be a good solution for this? Is the female having a visual line of sight with the male the instigation of the problem? Should they be separated so they can't see each other? I'm just wondering since they've spent most of their years in close proximity, would that wreak emotional havoc on them changing things up... Also, if they are physically separated enough where all they can do is vocalize to each other and not see each other until given out-time, will they become more difficult to get back into their cages?
One thing -- we did try to control the female's hormones with an implant. It was an extremely expensive procedure and it was supposed to effectively suppress her reproductive drive (so that no eggs would be produced) for up to 1 year. But, it didn't work, on the two separate attempts.
And lastly... is it safe to say that some females just naturally have an extremely strong drive to reproduce and that they really should be living in a situation where they can do it, such as in the care of a breeder? She usually pumps out 2 to 3 eggs in her egg laying cycle. AND... she's extremely dedicated to incubation. We once let her sit on an egg (fake) for 7 weeks... and she still wouldn't abandon it (we had to take it out with the nesting box when she was out). Otherwise, I assume there might be some other techniques we've not yet tried to help stem the drive of the female, and make her more "audibly copacetic".
Btw, I'm not the owner. I have a housemate who owns, feeds, and cares for these birds. I help her frequently with taking care of them, feeding them when she's away, etc.
The thing I'm wanting to know about is regarding the female. I've posted about her before (link). At times she makes this really awfully loud, unpleasant squawk. It's usually when there are people nearby and we've determined it's a sound of frustration. She doesn't want to be in the cage. She wants to be out with her mate. Essentially she has 2 cycles of living: 1) nesting and 2) procreation.
When nesting, she's extremely easy. After laying eggs, fake ones are substituted and most of the time she's sitting on her nest in her cage. She has a routine down to minimize pooping in her nest. She comes out and paces back/forth at her door. We let her out onto a nearby "gym" platform where she hangs out, eats, drinks, preens, and of course poops. After about 10~15 mins, she's ready to go back to her cage and we hand carry her back. Nesting, she's totally quiet.
When she has no nest, things are a very different story. Every day, it's important for caged birds to have time outside. The adult male is very easy to handle. We can let him out and trust that he won't get himself into trouble. He loves to go around and feed his mate and even feed his son, one cage over. He'll be atop and regurgitate through the bars. The son loves it. He'll perch in a variety of locations and when it's time to get him back in his cage, he generally cooperates. The female is a problem, though.
When we'd let the female out, she'd immediately focus on scoping out the room she is in, looking around fervently. Then she'll fly off, usually to a spot she sees that she believes has nesting potential. We had numerous problems where she'd go under furniture. All furniture gaps are walled off now. But, we have shelves and she will fly to them seeking for some place to stake out as her nest. Trying to recover her is another huge problem. She bites. HARD. She has damaged her owner's hand, gashing through flesh, bruising tendon... yeah, that hard. It's awful. The male never bites that hard.
My housemate's solution to this problem was to take out a carrier she uses to transport a bird to the vet, and set it on the living room couch. It's a very high quality carrier, super sturdy, and is roomy enough for 2 birds to fit inside. There's also a perch in there. So when the female is let out, WHOOSH--she flies right to it, scrambles inside, and starts nesting behavior. When the male sees this, he'll get very agitated, doing his rapid short wing flutter, and making chirps for wanting out. As soon as he's let out, WHOOSH--he rapidly flies over to be with her. He'll go inside and mate with her. They'd hang out inside and around the carrier for the entire day, until they're hungry enough to go eat their food in their cages.
There's another complication, and that is, sometimes these two birds don't get along. For some reason, the male will at times perch on the sill of the opening flap to go in and spread his wings wide, then make hostile sparring gestures with his beak. The female will spar back with him and do a frequent territorial head-bob. Sometimes they simmer down and stop, but other times they get so hostile with each other that they physically attack each other and have to be separated. For this reason, they can't be left alone hanging out together unsupervised. So, during a workday, until about 6pm~7pm, they're in their cages and they can't go anywhere. The female is generally quiet until a human is nearby. Quickly, she moves herself to the highest point in her cage, rests on the perch there, and stares into the kitchen where the human(s) are. And lets out an ear piercing squawk, about 1 or 2 per minute. She does this while staring at you. Close the curtain between the cage area and the kitchen, and she squawks less, but as soon as you make any noise she's back to squawking.
My assessment of all this: the female wants to be with her male companion and free to mate, and to exercise nest prepping behavior. Not getting this, she's unhappy, and will let her human owners know by letting out this nasty loud squawk when we're in range. While my housemate and I work from home, we can't babysit these two during the day. Too time consuming and unpredictable.
So what would be a good solution for this? Is the female having a visual line of sight with the male the instigation of the problem? Should they be separated so they can't see each other? I'm just wondering since they've spent most of their years in close proximity, would that wreak emotional havoc on them changing things up... Also, if they are physically separated enough where all they can do is vocalize to each other and not see each other until given out-time, will they become more difficult to get back into their cages?
One thing -- we did try to control the female's hormones with an implant. It was an extremely expensive procedure and it was supposed to effectively suppress her reproductive drive (so that no eggs would be produced) for up to 1 year. But, it didn't work, on the two separate attempts.
And lastly... is it safe to say that some females just naturally have an extremely strong drive to reproduce and that they really should be living in a situation where they can do it, such as in the care of a breeder? She usually pumps out 2 to 3 eggs in her egg laying cycle. AND... she's extremely dedicated to incubation. We once let her sit on an egg (fake) for 7 weeks... and she still wouldn't abandon it (we had to take it out with the nesting box when she was out). Otherwise, I assume there might be some other techniques we've not yet tried to help stem the drive of the female, and make her more "audibly copacetic".
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