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Help! I’m having a hard time putting my lovebird on a proper light cycle

Amber2018

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Amber
I’ve been having a lot of issues with my lovebird becoming egg bound, so one of the things my vet recommended is putting her on a strict light schedule - 8 hours of light and 16 hours dark. I really want to do this, but my work hours are very inconsistent. Sometimes I work morning, sometimes afternoon, sometimes evening/night...the only time I can put her on a regular schedule is from 10pm - 6am. I can leave the light on overnight in the room she’s in. I’ve done that for the past couple days, but she’s still displaying mating behaviour. I don’t know if it’s too soon for it to start working or trying to turn night time to day time and vise versa just isn’t working because there’s always going to be some noise and movement throughout the day, even if her cage is covered and the room is dark. I don’t know what to do!
 

Phocyn

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Laura
Its expensive but you could try a smart device to open and close the curtains. There are timers too. Check Amazon or Walmart or with other outlets. Otherwise, I would try and get a fixed schedule. You really want to avoid a night time bird. What kind of lovebird do you have? The breed can give me a better idea of what might help.
 

Phocyn

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Laura
Did you get your bird from a breeder or petstore? They might have an idea if it was a breeder. My loves are active with any light. I would suggest a specialized light sold specifically for birds and black out curtains for the room the bird is in. I know some finch breeders use this method. In my case I simply close the windows and minimize light until 9 PM. I dont open curtains again til 9 am.

There are hormone therapies too. Lovebirds partner for life, so maybe you can mimic what a not interested partner would do?

All four of mine are mated peach faced. Wintered hours are going to take time. That might be what the vet was thinking now that I reread the original post.

Some ideas I ran across. It might work...
 

Amber2018

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Amber
We got her from a breeder...she’s actually the offspring of the pair we got from the breeder! She is on Lupron shots for now. It was necessary considering her situation. But it’s still not a solution.

Until I can consider the options you suggested, she’s in the natural light for longer than the 8 hours recommended...I’m trying a few other things, like moving her to different spots in my apartment and giving her less food. Apparently when birds have an abundance of food it signals to them that it’s mating time (something along those lines). Her cage is always covered at night and on days where my work hours allow me too I’ll put her to bed early.

Thank you for taking the time to make some useful sugggestions! :)
 

JaclynBin

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Jaclyn
Maybe you could try to completely block out the sunlight and rely solely on some electric light sources on a scheduled timer for when you're out of the house during the day (I wouldn't recommend this unless you have a really bright lighting system and I also wouldn't rely on this method too often since natural sunlight is evidently better). I had to use a system such as this when I was working 14 hour days in the winter so the lovies could have a longer light period but you could control it to suit your needs.

I like your incentive to move her around your apartment, also try drastically moving her cage ornaments as often as you can to try and make her a bit less comfortable. I've found that my hen is much more prone to nesting behaviours in her smaller sleep cage than her flight cage. I don't know your birds living situation but if you can get her an expansive cage with no real enclosed spaces, she might feel less at ease when it comes to finding a nesting niche since it'd be fairly wide open.

I wish you the best of luck - I've also had an egg-binding scare with my hen and can sympathize on how scary it is.
 

Amber2018

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Amber
Do you think maybe spending less time with her would make her less mate-y? I’m doing everything I can...she’s on Lupron but I just checked her abdomen and it looks like she’s making another egg :-( she will not be able to pass it. Fortunately I’m seeing the vet on Tuesday for her next Lupron shot but she’s still not recovered from the last time. I don’t understand why this is happening...she’s never had any problems and she’s not that old. She’s around 10. I’m getting so frustrated because I’m doing my best and it’s still not fixing the situation. I’m also becoming more and more indebted financially and I will not be able to pay off this debt for a long time. I’m running out of options and it’s stressing me out a lot.
 
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