First molt AND sexual maturity?????

[TangotheGCC]

Hi everyone! I hope somebody can help me figure out what's going on with my green cheek. I've had the bird for a little over two months and it has been molting since I adopted it. It has already bonded to me and I spend at least three hours of on one on one time with it everyday. The last two weeks, there has been a lot of mating behavior going on. Lots of regurgitation and rubbing it's butt on my hands. This bird is supposedly only about 9 months old, so I'm confused. I have read that conures don't reach sexual maturity until AT LEAST one year old.

Since the bird is "sitting" and rubbing it's vent on my hand can I safely assume it's a male? Do females sometimes attempt to masturbate that way?

 

[Animallover03]

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

@JLcribber

 

[JLcribber]

Since the bird is "sitting" and rubbing it's vent on my hand can I safely assume it's a male? Do females sometimes attempt to masturbate that way?

No. They both do it at times.

It has already bonded to me and I spend at least three hours of on one on one time with it everyday. The last two weeks, there has been a lot of mating behavior going on. Lots of regurgitation and rubbing it's butt on my hands. This bird is supposedly only about 9 months old, so I'm confused. I have read that conures don't reach sexual maturity until AT LEAST one year old.

How do you know the bird is only 9 months old? What you have been doing with this intense bonding (and no doubt better food) is artificially stimulating the bird into reproductive activity and causing the bird to mature more quickly. Cuddling and petting is not a constructive way to look after a parrot. It will almost always come back to haunt you.

 

[TangotheGCC]

How do you know the bird is only 9 months old? [/QUOTE]
I got Tango from a lady off Craigslist who stated Tango was 6 months old at the time.

No. They both do it at times.



Cuddling and petting is not a constructive way to look after a parrot. It will almost always come back to haunt you.

Tango isn't very cuddly, being so small. But Tango does love head scratches at times. I never give scratches anywhere but the head and I occasionally reach for pin feathers on the neck to gently break them open. I am only offering scratches so frequently because Tango is molting and I want to preen in a friendly sort of way.

I do training with Tango almost everyday, working mostly on taming exercises as Tango has a bit of a problem with hands. The training seems to help. Tango is less nippy and moody when we have regular training sessions. We also do target training, which he/she has already practically mastered.

When Tango starts rubbing on my hand, I place him/her back on the cage and wait a while before I handle the bird again. The cage is right next to where I am most of the time, and when I sit the bird down I don't walk away because I feel that would be punishing. I certainly don't want to encourage this behavior, but I also don't want to "punish" the bird for it either. Should I not allow Tango to regurgitate for me? How should I go about discouraging this sexual behavior?

 

[JLcribber]

Just like you're doing. Distraction is all you can do.

As far as age. All you have is word of mouth from some lady saying how old he is. He could easily be "old enough".

 

[TangotheGCC]

Should I use a distraction for the regurgitation as well?

 

[JLcribber]

Should I use a distraction for the regurgitation as well?

If you can.