It is my nightmare that my two boys will start doing that
But honestly, they already kind of do. Due to circumstances they are in a bedroom/living room type and they humped the bed. Here are some tips that work for my birds;
- I only let them out when I felt they were calm, playful, not hormonal. So after dinner for example for my two. I often do some target training before letting them out to let them focus on something.
- I did multiple short times out of their cage, I would flight train, trick train, give them special foraging toy or treat etc. When they would go to the bed, I would say no and try to redirect them. If they did it three times I put them back, they don't know what they do wrong but I don't want to keep them in those bad habits. I never let them actually hump it, even if I have to gently shoe them away. For me it was a constant battle who could get to the bed first haha. It takes lots of persistence.
- My birds are very used to change and schedules that aren't very time based. At that moment it was pretty regular, my other half worked from that room so was with them all day. I shook up their schedule a bit, instead of veggies in the evening they got in in the morning, multiple little bits of seed on forging toys through the day, switching up the way their food was presented and where. They always have pellets available, they don't like it much but they won't go hungry
- Limit all dark places and do everything to make it easier for them to not go there. As I said my boyfriend works from home in their room. He would sometimes let them out, set up some activities and hide a few pieces of millet in their toys and play areas and would sit on the bed with his laptop. When they went there he would remove them, that worked pretty well. There also a lot of other places in our room they could 'nest' in. They key is to never let them have succes in going there, and try to make play areas as attractive as possible. Try to be involved with them when they are out, and when you get frustrated put them back. I preferred having them out succesfully 4x for 15 minutes, heck even 5, then a couple hours whith them being all hormonal an doing nothing but trying to hump. I love having my birds out the entire day, because that is usually possible. They used to not even have a cage. But if the situation makes it that they get a little less out time for a while, so be it. Offer them as much enrichment as you can and try to see what really interests them. It was a very long journey for me, but I have mostly come to and understanding with my boys, and they have ceased to be as hormonal as they once were. They still get themselves worked up from time to time, but it's manageable.
