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homebird
Flier
Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 455
Location: Toronto, Canada |
| Male Budgie & hormones - lots of Q's |
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Laker, my mature male budgie, is going through a hard time at present. I imagine it won't last but I'd like to save him any unnecessary time in this state.
He is also going through another molt – he had one when I got him in July. He is a bit nippy but otherwise our relationships with him have been going well. He’s still very social & inquisitive.
About 3 weeks ago he started regurgitating; putting a mixture of seed & mineral block on just about all his favourite spots: the waterer, the preening toy & the cuttlebone.
To discourage him
I’ve increased his fresh food – but that’s not going too well. We rearranged his perches. We bought new toys. We encouraged more flying & out time. He is a little sluggish the last few days, but I have put this down to the molt primarily.
The results
– he stopped for almost a week but returned to it with gusto. Now he has added long couplings with his ladder, his rope perch & his preening toy.
The toys are in a daily change & we have found that the coconut shell & wood toy is the only one so far to be lest unfed & of course ignored at this time.
I read this article: http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.....rmones.php
They talked about:
Food
– we have reduced the millet spray – trying to offer cooked & fresh foods – some progress but he’d starve (I’m sure) if that’s all he had. The most success is with him sharing my lunches & yesterday, the greens I brought back from my garden, including some grass seed heads.
Changing things around
– did this
More Exercise
– did this too
Small nest places
– this may be a problem as I made a cotton canopy for his cage to give him some protection when he’s at the window, but have gotten into the habit of leaving it on even when he’s elsewhere. Would the canopy be a problem do you think?
Sleep.
His sleep time is about the same all the time, so I wonder if this is the problem? 8:30pm – 6:30am = 10 hrs. We are often awakened by the cat during the night – this can happen up to 3x’s a night as she requires feeding do to her lack of teeth issues.
We are thinking of offering him a nap time – any thoughts on that?
If you’ve had success with this issue please give me some advice
– at least walk me through what you do. I would also like to know how long this will last. Is up to me to trigger somehow the end of this behaviour with the right solution? |
Saturday September 23, 2006 8:20 pm |
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Fluffy Sue
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 10063
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| Re: Male Budgie & hormones - lots of Q's |
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Whoops, this is hard. i have heard that to encourage an African grey to breed, you can increase the soft food: veggies and stuff. I don't know if this is different in budgies?
Perhaps you could let him out the cage a lot? Change his environment from day to day? Take him on tours around the house?
I don't have budgies, but I did have a hormonal Sennie. He got 'in the mood' by soft food.  |
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Sunday September 24, 2006 10:51 am |
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homebird
Flier
Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 455
Location: Toronto, Canada |
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The long & short of it is that we have found a solution! 
We tried everything but missed the largest clues - does that happen to everyone?
We increased sleeping
We increased fresh food
We increased flight time & play outside the cage time.
We changed his cage about & introduced new toys.
We removed the Canopy.
Along the way we remembered how much fun his paper toy had been & then how crazy he got with it -attacking it & slamming it across the cage. Well he's had this toy - a preening toy - all summer & loved to hang out with it. He always slept beside it too. It definitely was one of the toys he fed the most. We bought another one so we could wash the old one but he immediately fed it too.
Then we replaced it with the Coconut shell toy he didn't feed. The hormonal behavior stopped.
It stopped cold.
I guess without his
'spouse'
he isn't consumed with nurturing.
Thanks for the support - it was tough, but then he is a little guy & we were concerned about his overall health & happiness.
It's nice to see him happy & singing again.
He got a lot of new toys out of it though!  |
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Tuesday September 26, 2006 2:30 pm |
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Fluffy Sue
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 10063
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That's strange.. Good to hear that it has stopped! |
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Wednesday September 27, 2006 10:46 pm |
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