It Has Started

[zvezdast]

The Nesting!
I need some help in helping her (sorry that this will be a bit long, but I wanted to give a full picture)

My 9.5 month old Fircher's lovie is starting to look for a nest site around the house. She is peeking her head behind the fridge, under the stove, behind the pillows, around the cushions, in the shelves,.... She is making holes in the fabrics, chipping away veneer cabinets.
And this is all in the last couple of weeks.
She hasn't started really making the nesting material, but mainly because we distract her away when she goes for any paper.

About her routine:
She has about 10 toys in her cage; plastic, wood, metal, foot, foraging. The only paper ones are little foraging boxes and pellets I wrap in construction paper. She has at least that many toys on the play stand. Today I started removing the tent from the cage during the day, although she would only sometimes take food in there to eat on a flat surface.
She eats the chop along with fresh green beans/snap peas/apples/broccoli, dried veggie mix in a foraging wheel, and mix of goldenfeast seeds and Roudybush and Harrison's pellets. She gets (cold) sweet potato/carrot and fingernail size of homemade birdie bread in the evening. She also has gotten spoiled with munching from multigrain bread slices (picking seeds/grains from it) at the dinner table, every evening we eat at home.
She is 45 grams, and has been for at least 4-5 months.
She takes baths in the sink every other day.
She will let me scratch her head occasionally, but I don't pet her any further. She gets 1.5-2 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the evening out of the cage. On nice days, which in TX we get those in the winter, we wheel her cage by an open door, or take her outside for a bit in a small cage. Her cage is covered at night for 12-12.5 hours.

She still enjoys flying around the house, and is not fully focused on nesting (I had a female lovebird before who when out of the cage and was in the nesting mode, would only look for paper and nothing else). She has started to be more aggressive when I have to remove her from somewhere. She is less patient to play tricks. I can distract still her when she goes to chew on something.
She hasn't been presenting as much, but has few locations in the house where she gets very excited. We turn away from the mating game or remove the object. She is not showing increased nesting in the cage - still plays around, is not building a nest, doesn't bite any more than before when a hand is in the cage with her (which happens rarely but sometimes it has to happen). She doesn't have the favorite person in the house.

So, before this escalates, I wanted to see how I can help her. I can increase her night time by another 30 min. I read that for birds from the equator region extreme darkness times (14+ hours) don't have much benefits. I can rearrange her cage more often or move it again. I can give her a bit less food.
I already covered several holes she found, remove the pillows whenever she goes behind them. But I can't nest-proof the entire house.

Is there anything else I can do to help her play around the house without trying to get into every single dark hole? The spring in TX is just about to start, so I'd like to make changes before the nesting gets worse.

 

[lupe]

 

[zvezdast]

Thank you lupe.
I thought more people would be going through the same with their birds at this time of year, but maybe everyone is out of ideas.

 

[pajarita]

At her age, she is going through puberty so a change in behavior is to be expected but the reason why it's happening right now is a matter of light schedule. I don't know where you are located but I am in NE Jersey and we only have daylight for less than 10 hours right now so no sexual hormones are been produced by any bird in my house right now although they've already registered the lengthening of the day since the solstice - but, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you would be smack in the middle of the breeding season so she is right on schedule. And, yes, it is true that tropical birds do not use photoperiod as their primary trigger in the wild but, thankfully for us, they easily revert to using it as their main one when exposed to a strict solar schedule (and I don't know where you got your information but this fact has been proven through scientific studies as well as anecdotal and my own personal experience so I have no reason to doubt it's so). If they didn't, we would have hormonal birds all year round, year after year.

 

[zvezdast]

Thank you so much for your response!
I want to help her through this period. She just seems more hyper now. She is calm in the cage and plays with the toys, but when outside she often looks for dark places and tests how chewable things are. But she does play as well.

We live in Texas. Our daylight right now is 7.30am-6pm, so about 10.5 hours, but it is getting warmer. We have some days that it's in the 70s, but then others that are in the 30s. Maybe this affects her as well.
He cage is covered 8pm-8am, (+/- 15 min). We are out of the home from 9.30am-6.30pm, so we can't strictly follow the sun schedule. It will be a stretch for me to add even another 30 min to it and still give her time out of the cage when I am at home. How long do you give your birds to sleep?
I don't remember where I was reading about photoperiod. I've been reading a lot. But I still don't quite understand what is their primary breeding trigger in the tropics if not photoperiod?

 

[Happynme]

Another texan here....and yes i agree its maddening to try to keep a nesty lovie entertained and distracted long enough so she dosent find a supposed nest.
Honestly the thing that finally broke happys nest nest must nest behavior was to give her a plastic box (she was shredding her happy hut) with dummy eggs. She never even sat the eggs...which was weird but she laid three and either shoved them out or they fell out of her happy hut and they broke. I found she was shredding her hut and yanked it. Scared shed lay more eggs i put in a unshredible nest...placed 6 dummy eggs and watched her .... Shed go in...kick around and then come back out. After 2 weeks of not laying more of her own or sitting the dummys...i yanked the whole deal. She is back to a non nesting happy birdy. She was wicked cranky in nest mode.
This is my first and only nesting so im no means and expert but giving her an unshredible nest with dummy eggs seemed to turn her nest nest must nest switch off. Next time i know what to look for should she go into nest mode and shell get her dummy eggs before she starts laying.

@Laurul Feather Cat gave me loads of advice and kept me sane during this period. @fluffypoptarts as well. I tagged them as they may have thier own advice to add...im just sharing what worked for me this time.

 

[pajarita]

Thank you so much for your response!
I want to help her through this period. She just seems more hyper now. She is calm in the cage and plays with the toys, but when outside she often looks for dark places and tests how chewable things are. But she does play as well.

We live in Texas. Our daylight right now is 7.30am-6pm, so about 10.5 hours, but it is getting warmer. We have some days that it's in the 70s, but then others that are in the 30s. Maybe this affects her as well.
He cage is covered 8pm-8am, (+/- 15 min). We are out of the home from 9.30am-6.30pm, so we can't strictly follow the sun schedule. It will be a stretch for me to add even another 30 min to it and still give her time out of the cage when I am at home. How long do you give your birds to sleep?
I don't remember where I was reading about photoperiod. I've been reading a lot. But I still don't quite understand what is their primary breeding trigger in the tropics if not photoperiod?

In the tropics, species use food availability and weather as their main breeding triggers, it depends on the geographical area that composes their natural habitat and the particular climatological conditions of it. For example, there are birds that come from tropical zones that are what we call 'short day' breeders because their point of light refractoriness (the exact number of daylight hours under which they breed best) is lower than other species (for most temperate species, it's between 13 and 14 hours of light). The reason for this could be that the longest days are so hot that the chicks would literally cook in the shells or it could be that the longest days have terrible storms (monsoons) which would make it impossible for the parents to forage all day long to collect enough food to feed themselves and the growing chicks so nature evolved them to react to a lower number of daylight hours in order for them to breed successfully each time.

Now, if this 'tropical breeding set-up' was absolute, we would be in real trouble because, inside a human home, the weather is always good and the food is always rich and plentiful and we would end up with birds with a chronically screwed up endocrine system. Thankfully, we know (through studies) that, although tropical birds live in an environment that has only 20 minute daylight difference between the seasons, they can actually register this small difference and easily revert to using photoperiodism as their main trigger if the difference is daylight hours is enough AND if they can synchronize their 'internal clock' (circadian cycle). And that is the real trick! Because they can't synchronize it properly unless they are exposed to dawn and dusk as it is the change in solar spectrum that marks the length of each day lighthours (it's like a stop watch, it gets started with dawn light and stops with dusk light and the number of daylight hours in between is what determines what season it is and what the body should do or not do).

My birds don't sleep the same number of hours every day. They sleep more or less according to what season it is because they go entirely by the sun. Right now, their overhead lights are been turned on at 8 am and off at 4 pm BUT it also depends on the weather because if it's rainy, dark and gray, the day ends up been shorter than a bright sunny day. Just like the birds on the trees.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

The reason why we don't end up with "chronically screwed up endrocine systems" all the time with our pet birds is their millions-of-years-old instincts over ride the environmental conditions in our homes. Somehow, my cockatiels "know" when it is spring and summer in Australia and go into their breeding mode. I have three tiel hends laying eggs and being broody right NOW (it is summer in Australia). Their instincts are hooked to their body clock and their body clock is what tells them what time of year it is: THAT clock is the one that turns on and off their instincts. It isn't just my cockatiels; my budgies (Australia), and my lovies (East Africa) are also in breed mode. I keep my birdroom at never less than 70 F and with 12 bright sun lighting with artificial lighting every day.

I told Happyme's Mom what I tell everyone on the subject of breeding/brooding birds, and I believe this very strongly as a scientist and biologist: It is 99% a useless waste of time to try and stop a hen from producing, laying and brooding eggs. The hen evolved (and was created by God) solely for the production of eggs to help replace the species on the face of the Earth. It is why she was hatched; it is what she is meant to do with her life. Fighting her instincts will only make you and her unhappy. So, I stopped fighting it many years ago and allow my hens to live their instincts, all the while modifying the outcome so I do not have hundreds of baby birds to provide for. I allow my birds to mate if they wish, and to produce eggs and to brood (incubate) those eggs for as long as they wish. This makes them happy little mother birds and allows their natural hormones to run their course. When breeding season is over, they go back to being my wonderful pets. They are happy and I am happy.

What I change is I do not allow any of the fertile eggs to hatch; I practice birdy birth control. I take fertile eggs and refrigerate them for 12 hours, drying them out and killing the embyoes. Then I give them back to the hen to sit on. I also have a bunch of fake eggs I use to limit the number of eggs the hens produce; and over twenty years I can tell you I have info which shows my birds lay one-third fewer eggs than they used to. My way of dealing with my birds' breeding does leave in tact the risk that my hens may develop egg binding and die. In my life with birds I had ONE hen die of egg binding and I had had her less than a month when she died; I did not have a chance to turn around her malnutrition and give her body a chance to lay an egg normally.

My vet told me the three main reasons a hen dies of eggbinding is Malnutrition (1-lack of calcium, thin egg shells break) or (2-body is run down and not able to pass eggs normally), or the hen (3-has a congenital abnormality in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass; or has an infection in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass). With the congenital abnormality, the bird's owner cannot be aware of this until the poor bird turns out unable to pass her virgin egg and dies. Vets call this "virgin egg binding". As long as your bird is healthy, the risk of eggbinding is very, very low, but does increase with age (supposedly). I have a hen, Mindy Tiel, who is 17 years old, has liver disease and is still laying eggs without a problem. I honestly expect every breeding season for her to develop eggbinding... And dread the day it will happen.

OK. End of opinion. If you have questions, you can private chat with me.

 

[Happynme]

The reason why we don't end up with "chronically screwed up endrocine systems" all the time with our pet birds is their millions-of-years-old instincts over ride the environmental conditions in our homes. Somehow, my cockatiels "know" when it is spring and summer in Australia and go into their breeding mode. I have three tiel hends laying eggs and being broody right NOW (it is summer in Australia). Their instincts are hooked to their body clock and their body clock is what tells them what time of year it is: THAT clock is the one that turns on and off their instincts. It isn't just my cockatiels; my budgies (Australia), and my lovies (East Africa) are also in breed mode. I keep my birdroom at never less than 70 F and with 12 bright sun lighting with artificial lighting every day.

I told Happyme's Mom what I tell everyone on the subject of breeding/brooding birds, and I believe this very strongly as a scientist and biologist: It is 99% a useless waste of time to try and stop a hen from producing, laying and brooding eggs. The hen evolved (and was created by God) solely for the production of eggs to help replace the species on the face of the Earth. It is why she was hatched; it is what she is meant to do with her life. Fighting her instincts will only make you and her unhappy. So, I stopped fighting it many years ago and allow my hens to live their instincts, all the while modifying the outcome so I do not have hundreds of baby birds to provide for. I allow my birds to mate if they wish, and to produce eggs and to brood (incubate) those eggs for as long as they wish. This makes them happy little mother birds and allows their natural hormones to run their course. When breeding season is over, they go back to being my wonderful pets. They are happy and I am happy.

What I change is I do not allow any of the fertile eggs to hatch; I practice birdy birth control. I take fertile eggs and refrigerate them for 12 hours, drying them out and killing the embyoes. Then I give them back to the hen to sit on. I also have a bunch of fake eggs I use to limit the number of eggs the hens produce; and over twenty years I can tell you I have info which shows my birds lay one-third fewer eggs than they used to. My way of dealing with my birds' breeding does leave in tact the risk that my hens may develop egg binding and die. In my life with birds I had ONE hen die of egg binding and I had had her less than a month when she died; I did not have a chance to turn around her malnutrition and give her body a chance to lay an egg normally.

My vet told me the three main reasons a hen dies of eggbinding is Malnutrition (1-lack of calcium, thin egg shells break) or (2-body is run down and not able to pass eggs normally), or the hen (3-has a congenital abnormality in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass; or has an infection in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass). With the congenital abnormality, the bird's owner cannot be aware of this until the poor bird turns out unable to pass her virgin egg and dies. Vets call this "virgin egg binding". As long as your bird is healthy, the risk of eggbinding is very, very low, but does increase with age (supposedly). I have a hen, Mindy Tiel, who is 17 years old, has liver disease and is still laying eggs without a problem. I honestly expect every breeding season for her to develop eggbinding... And dread the day it will happen.

OK. End of opinion. If you have questions, you can private chat with me.

Thank you @Laurul Feather Cat as always you are a fountian of knowledge and . Have 20 years ahead of my experience . You sure helped me and happy get thru it and indeed she is back to my loving kissy silly sass girl

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Great to hear that, Carmen. If we just work with their instincts instead of fighting them, our birds are happier and so are we! We can't give them a wild, natural life, but we can help them fulfill their instincts at least partially.

 

[zvezdast]

Thank you so much for the response! I was feeling like we are the only ones going through this right now.

Another texan here....and yes i agree its maddening to try to keep a nesty lovie entertained and distracted long enough so she dosent find a supposed nest.
Honestly the thing that finally broke happys nest nest must nest behavior was to give her a plastic box (she was shredding her happy hut) with dummy eggs. She never even sat the eggs...which was weird but she laid three and either shoved them out or they fell out of her happy hut and they broke. I found she was shredding her hut and yanked it. Scared shed lay more eggs i put in a unshredible nest...placed 6 dummy eggs and watched her .... Shed go in...kick around and then come back out. After 2 weeks of not laying more of her own or sitting the dummys...i yanked the whole deal. She is back to a non nesting happy birdy. She was wicked cranky in nest mode.
This is my first and only nesting so im no means and expert but giving her an unshredible nest with dummy eggs seemed to turn her nest nest must nest switch off. Next time i know what to look for should she go into nest mode and shell get her dummy eggs before she starts laying.

@Laurul Feather Cat gave me loads of advice and kept me sane during this period. @fluffypoptarts as well. I tagged them as they may have thier own advice to add...im just sharing what worked for me this time.

Howdy there!
How old is Happy?
I really hope we have at least few more months until the real possibility of egg laying starts. I am not ready for it yet. The calendar spring is still 2 months away and we have entire summer to go after that!

When did you give Happy the plastic box? Did you put some nesting material inside or did you let her collect her own? Did you let her fly around the house during that time?

I had a female lovebird for 11 years. Also thought she was a boy for the first 2 years, until the first egg surprise. When she was in the nesting mode, she wouldn't notice anything else in the house but things to shred. We would put a nest box in her cage, and when we let her out of the cage we better had some paper ready for her! She would fly out to the table just long enough to get a back full of paper shreds and then go straight back to the nest.
Oh, and where did you get the dummy eggs? I used to have some of her old eggs that I used for that purpose, but I threw them away after she died.

 

[zvezdast]

The reason why we don't end up with "chronically screwed up endrocine systems" all the time with our pet birds is their millions-of-years-old instincts over ride the environmental conditions in our homes. Somehow, my cockatiels "know" when it is spring and summer in Australia and go into their breeding mode. I have three tiel hends laying eggs and being broody right NOW (it is summer in Australia). Their instincts are hooked to their body clock and their body clock is what tells them what time of year it is: THAT clock is the one that turns on and off their instincts. It isn't just my cockatiels; my budgies (Australia), and my lovies (East Africa) are also in breed mode. I keep my birdroom at never less than 70 F and with 12 bright sun lighting with artificial lighting every day.

I told Happyme's Mom what I tell everyone on the subject of breeding/brooding birds, and I believe this very strongly as a scientist and biologist: It is 99% a useless waste of time to try and stop a hen from producing, laying and brooding eggs. The hen evolved (and was created by God) solely for the production of eggs to help replace the species on the face of the Earth. It is why she was hatched; it is what she is meant to do with her life. Fighting her instincts will only make you and her unhappy. So, I stopped fighting it many years ago and allow my hens to live their instincts, all the while modifying the outcome so I do not have hundreds of baby birds to provide for. I allow my birds to mate if they wish, and to produce eggs and to brood (incubate) those eggs for as long as they wish. This makes them happy little mother birds and allows their natural hormones to run their course. When breeding season is over, they go back to being my wonderful pets. They are happy and I am happy.

What I change is I do not allow any of the fertile eggs to hatch; I practice birdy birth control. I take fertile eggs and refrigerate them for 12 hours, drying them out and killing the embyoes. Then I give them back to the hen to sit on. I also have a bunch of fake eggs I use to limit the number of eggs the hens produce; and over twenty years I can tell you I have info which shows my birds lay one-third fewer eggs than they used to. My way of dealing with my birds' breeding does leave in tact the risk that my hens may develop egg binding and die. In my life with birds I had ONE hen die of egg binding and I had had her less than a month when she died; I did not have a chance to turn around her malnutrition and give her body a chance to lay an egg normally.

My vet told me the three main reasons a hen dies of eggbinding is Malnutrition (1-lack of calcium, thin egg shells break) or (2-body is run down and not able to pass eggs normally), or the hen (3-has a congenital abnormality in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass; or has an infection in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass). With the congenital abnormality, the bird's owner cannot be aware of this until the poor bird turns out unable to pass her virgin egg and dies. Vets call this "virgin egg binding". As long as your bird is healthy, the risk of eggbinding is very, very low, but does increase with age (supposedly). I have a hen, Mindy Tiel, who is 17 years old, has liver disease and is still laying eggs without a problem. I honestly expect every breeding season for her to develop eggbinding... And dread the day it will happen.

OK. End of opinion. If you have questions, you can private chat with me.

Your birdies sound like they are thriving in your care!
Do you keep the nestboxes always available in the birdroom and let them use it whenever they want?
My concern is that we are still in the middle of the calendar winter, and if the nesting behavior has already started, another 9-10 months of it until the next winter could not be healthy for her.
Since I don't have a room with special lighting, its seems the best I can do to regulate the hours is make sure she is in complete darkness for certain number of hours.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Your bird is reacting to her original environments time of year. PFLBs come from Equatorial Africa and now is their breeding season. Lovies have the ability to breed all year round as long as there is enough food. Of course, being a pet bird, she always has adequate food. It is wet season there now; dry season is the time of limited food (April, May). My lovie hen, Blu, uses and maintains her nest box year round. When she is really serious about brooding eggs, she kick her mate, Harley, out of the box.

All my birds can access their nests all year round. All but one of my birds live cage free, so the species compete for the best boxes. My Senegal, Sunny, is a hen, but she has never laid an egg. Still, Sunny tries to claim every box as her own... It is interesting to watch the cockatiels display on their boxes and avoid Sunny's efforts to interrupt their nesting. The budgie, lovie and canary nests are attached to their flock cages and these smaller birds get into the nest boxes from inside the flock cage. I made sure the entry into the flock cage is too small for Sunny to get into the cage.

I had an episode of inter-species fighting and had a cockatiel chick maimed by a lovie who attacked her in the nest box. I learned my lesson. Make sure everyone has access to a nest box and protect entry into the boxes to avoid injuries.

 

[Happynme]

Thank you so much for the response! I was feeling like we are the only ones going through this right now.

Howdy there!
Howdy!
How old is Happy?
Happy will be 10 months on the 31st.
She was 8.5 mo when nesty behavior started and 2 weeks in she laid her first egg.
I really hope we have at least few more months until the real possibility of egg laying starts. I am not ready for it yet. The calendar spring is still 2 months away and we have entire summer to go after that!
If shes alreadt trying to make a nest and or find a nest you already have egg possibilitys. They form an egg in 24 hours if i remember correctly. I know happy sure formed and passed one rather quickly as it wasnt there that night and was on the bottom of the caged cracked by morning a whole 9 hours later.


When did you give Happy the plastic box? Did you put some nesting material inside or did you let her collect her own? Did you let her fly around the house during that time?
Orginaly i not planned on giving her a nest as all. She had always had a happy hut that she slept in but right up till this point had never been interested in it other than as a perch or sleep. I noticed some nesting and wanting to mate postures and decided to leave it so long as she didnt get to nutty about it. Upon some advice to leave her be and let nature take its course i noticed she had a poofy bottom and likely was passing an egg soon. I checked on her several hours later and she was in her hut and asleep no egg u could see and i went to bed. 9 hrs later i peeked in and she was on a perch and a cracked egg was on bottom. So i realsed something with a depth would have to go in there or all the eggs would have the same fate. Thru trial an error and 2 more dropped eggs i ended up with the lunch pail type box and a hole c u t for her to go in and out. She was finally pleased with this but kicked everything i put in there out...including her own eggs! How she pushed them out i dont know but they were in a heap under the box. So i had dummy eggs on the way and thankfully they arrived the morning after i put the lunch pail type box it. So i put 6 in and provided strips of paper and paper towel strips ect and she took several into the box. She would go in every now and then and kick around and roll the dummys but would come back out . I waited for her to lay another of her own or to accept the fake clutch and sit them. She did neither.
Personally i think had the box been introduced BEFORE she laid her own and had the dummys in it...likely shed never had laid her own and would have been satisfied and sat them. But because i caught it too late...it was a mixed up affair.
I have mixed feelings on the subject of HOW to allow but ultimatly my gut says to allow them to nest is what they do in the wild and can benefit them hormonally if they are allowed to do what their bodys are screaming at them.
Provide the proper temp...nutrition...and ideal set up and let them be as nature intended as much as we can for our birds of captivity.
Egg shells...lots of veggies ...... a warm room...and a box happy finally accepted that had a full fake clutch (regardless that she didnt sit them)was what allowed happy to finally get her hormones out of her system .
I did allow her to fly some. But i have dogs so we do things in shifts so that everyone gets out of jail time and attention but no danger of happy and dog interaction thus creating a safety concern. I unfortunatly dont have the space or proper set up for a bird ROOM. Happys HUGE flight cage benifits in that regard as she does pass some hours during the day and.overnight in it.
I had a female lovebird for 11 years. Also thought she was a boy for the first 2 years, until the first egg surprise. When she was in the nesting mode, she wouldn't notice anything else in the house but things to shred. We would put a nest box in her cage, and when we let her out of the cage we better had some paper ready for her! She would fly out to the table just long enough to get a back full of paper shreds and then go straight back to the nest.
Oh, and where did you get the dummy eggs? I used to have some of her old eggs that I used for that purpose, but I threw them away after she died.

I ordered them off of amazon actually. They have some really decent ones! There is also dummyeggs.com

Some say if you provide a nest it creates nesty behavior. And i can see that argument. But ive seen birds not provided a nest still become nesty.
What you have to decide is do you want to attempt to provide a way for her to do what her body says with as little harm as possible. Or do you want to try to trick her out of it. Or do as i tried but somewhat failed due to timing which was allow her to nest but try to trick her into not laying her own b y providing dummy eggs.
My reasoning was she has laid three and to reach clutch number shed lay n lay and lay if i didnt provide a way to KEEP intact eggs since she was so rough on hers.
You could simply give her a box...provide material and put dummys in and see if she will sit them. Or let her lay her own...and sit them. Trully until her first laying you wont know how rough she will be.
Since happy began shredding her happy hut i learned how dangerous they are and yanked it. Once she lost interest in the box and dummys...i removed.it.
She told me basically ok.im done with the whole mother bit..next....lol

I say you really have nothing to loose by giving a already nesty bird a nest. When shes over her nest cycle...yank it all and dont provide anything unless you see the behavior start again.
Least thats the way im choosing to go about.it! I wont ENCOURAGE nesting but should she become nesty on her own....i will provide her a way to get it out of her system and move on.
Hope i am making sense here...as like i said this was my first go round.

 

[Happynme]

Sorry the post got broken up. My answers are in blue

 

[zvezdast]

@Happynme: Our lovebirds hatched within a few days of each other! I don't have the exact date, but based on the age I was told she was when I got her, I am using April 1st as her hatchdate.
The timelines for nesting behavior also align; this started in second part of December.
Could you please post a link for fake eggs on amazon? I searched but couldn't find any. Thanks!

Thank you both for your input. I wouldn't provide a nest box year around for my single lovebird who doesn't have a mate. I am going to try to alter her environment for part of the year. For now, I started removing the tent during the day. I moved her cage and rearranged it. In the last few nights I also wheel her cage to a closet so she has full 12.5 hours of complete darkness and quiet. She was on Roudybush and high-potency Harisson's pellets. I've been giving her less Harisson's and more Roudybush until I get some Adult Lifetime Harisson's. She is also getting a little bit less seeds, and no foraging on bread at dinner time. We also tried to shake things up a bit by taking her for a ride and to the park over the weekend.
Yesterday and today she seems a bit more relaxed. She has times when she's just sitting in one place in the house and just chatting away.

 

[pajarita]

The reason why we don't end up with "chronically screwed up endrocine systems" all the time with our pet birds is their millions-of-years-old instincts over ride the environmental conditions in our homes. Somehow, my cockatiels "know" when it is spring and summer in Australia and go into their breeding mode. I have three tiel hends laying eggs and being broody right NOW (it is summer in Australia). Their instincts are hooked to their body clock and their body clock is what tells them what time of year it is: THAT clock is the one that turns on and off their instincts. It isn't just my cockatiels; my budgies (Australia), and my lovies (East Africa) are also in breed mode. I keep my birdroom at never less than 70 F and with 12 bright sun lighting with artificial lighting every day.

I told Happyme's Mom what I tell everyone on the subject of breeding/brooding birds, and I believe this very strongly as a scientist and biologist: It is 99% a useless waste of time to try and stop a hen from producing, laying and brooding eggs. The hen evolved (and was created by God) solely for the production of eggs to help replace the species on the face of the Earth. It is why she was hatched; it is what she is meant to do with her life. Fighting her instincts will only make you and her unhappy. So, I stopped fighting it many years ago and allow my hens to live their instincts, all the while modifying the outcome so I do not have hundreds of baby birds to provide for. I allow my birds to mate if they wish, and to produce eggs and to brood (incubate) those eggs for as long as they wish. This makes them happy little mother birds and allows their natural hormones to run their course. When breeding season is over, they go back to being my wonderful pets. They are happy and I am happy.

What I change is I do not allow any of the fertile eggs to hatch; I practice birdy birth control. I take fertile eggs and refrigerate them for 12 hours, drying them out and killing the embyoes. Then I give them back to the hen to sit on. I also have a bunch of fake eggs I use to limit the number of eggs the hens produce; and over twenty years I can tell you I have info which shows my birds lay one-third fewer eggs than they used to. My way of dealing with my birds' breeding does leave in tact the risk that my hens may develop egg binding and die. In my life with birds I had ONE hen die of egg binding and I had had her less than a month when she died; I did not have a chance to turn around her malnutrition and give her body a chance to lay an egg normally.

My vet told me the three main reasons a hen dies of eggbinding is Malnutrition (1-lack of calcium, thin egg shells break) or (2-body is run down and not able to pass eggs normally), or the hen (3-has a congenital abnormality in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass; or has an infection in the reproductive organs, not allowing the egg to pass). With the congenital abnormality, the bird's owner cannot be aware of this until the poor bird turns out unable to pass her virgin egg and dies. Vets call this "virgin egg binding". As long as your bird is healthy, the risk of eggbinding is very, very low, but does increase with age (supposedly). I have a hen, Mindy Tiel, who is 17 years old, has liver disease and is still laying eggs without a problem. I honestly expect every breeding season for her to develop eggbinding... And dread the day it will happen.

OK. End of opinion. If you have questions, you can private chat with me.

Unfortunately, Lois, there is no scientific base to your theory. Not a single study that confirms it, quite the contrary, ALL studies we have on breeding triggers say that they are always environmental. I have birds from South America, Australia and Africa and none of them breeds off-season so, obviously, it cannot be that Australian birds breed when it's breeding season in Australia and African birds when it's breeding season in the part of Africa where they come from. But, aside from that, cockatiels in Australia don't all breed in the spring or summer and the ones that do are actually done by now. It depends on the region, they breed Aug–Dec in the South but Apr–Jul in the North because it depends ENTIRELY on which time of the year that particular area gets rainfall (food availability) as they live in arid or semi-arid regions.

 

[Crazy4parrots]

I agree with pajarita it must be enviromental, cause my girls are lovies and they are NOT wanting to breed cause i do not provide them toys that get them hormonal or into nesty behaviour!.

 

[Happynme]

@Happynme: Our lovebirds hatched within a few days of each other! I don't have the exact date, but based on the age I was told she was when I got her, I am using April 1st as her hatchdate.
The timelines for nesting behavior also align; this started in second part of December.
Could you please post a link for fake eggs on amazon? I searched but couldn't find any. Thanks!

Thank you both for your input. I wouldn't provide a nest box year around for my single lovebird who doesn't have a mate. I am going to try to alter her environment for part of the year. For now, I started removing the tent during the day. I moved her cage and rearranged it. In the last few nights I also wheel her cage to a closet so she has full 12.5 hours of complete darkness and quiet. She was on Roudybush and high-potency Harisson's pellets. I've been giving her less Harisson's and more Roudybush until I get some Adult Lifetime Harisson's. She is also getting a little bit less seeds, and no foraging on bread at dinner time. We also tried to shake things up a bit by taking her for a ride and to the park over the weekend.
Yesterday and today she seems a bit more relaxed. She has times when she's just sitting in one place in the house and just chatting away.

Im glad she seemed more relaxed. I think breeding cycles can be a bit frustrating in a sense for a single lovie. Everyones opinion and strategy is a bit different on how to help them thru it...but in the end we all want what we feel is best for our birds! You go with your gut and itll be fine im sure. Is your lovie a green or lutino ect? Also wjats this girls name? Pictures? Lol im nosey...can u tell?
I cannot find the eggs i got anywhere on that darn site. I have no idea why not. My husband actually ordered them..when he calls from work at lunch this evening (night shift) ill ask him about it.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Fine. Believe what you want. My tiels are breeding now, the middle of our winter. I am not going to debate this with you. My vet and I manage my birds and they do great and are happy and healthy.