Help! My lovebird is trying to mate with my hair!

[steph&bird]

I'm a relatively new lovebird parent, and today, for the first time ever, my lovebird keeps trying to dry hump my bun! I've taken extra care to never stroke his back, wings, or tail, so I'm not quite sure where this behavior is coming from. Every time he lands on my head and attempts to hump, I either shake him off or put a piece of paper in between me and my bird, to get him to fly away. Other than that, he has been more aggressive and flighty than normal. I tried to channel this energy into training, but he's not in the mood to be trained. Today is a bit warmer than it has been, so I was wondering if that could be driving his hormones a bit crazy. (He also slept one hour less than usual today, just so many minor things are slightly off.)

Any advice on how to deal with this? I don't want my lovebird to lose my trust or get the wrong ideas about my hair.

Thanks in advance!

~Steph and Birdy

 

[FeatheredM]

I would honestly wear a hat, to keep him off. I would also not even give scritches and give him some foraging toys to occupy him. Don't let him on your head and make sure he doesn't have access to any dark spaces.

 

[Wardy]

@Zara

 

[Zara]

Definitely sounds like hormones are at work. You´re doing the right thing by not allowing it to happen.

A hat might not be a good option for obvious reasons, but perhaps a different up-do could work, a claw clip instead of bun for eg.

Some things to try are similar to the tips and tricks we use for the girls; reduce daylight hours, besure he gets 13-14 hours covered cage time to sleep undisturbed. Start with the 13, you can up it to 14 if you need to. No mushy foods or warm foods. Stick to larger pieces of veggies with pellets and few seeds.
Another thing to try would be rearranging his cage. Move all the food and water bowls, toys, perches. If you can rotate the cage, do that too. Any changes to mix things up a bit.
As mentioned above, increase foraging opportunities. Try to have less shreddables as destructable toys. So no paper, carboard, palm leaf, banana leaf, popsicle sticks, ect and instead for shreddable toys opt for mahogany pods, cork, sola, chippy pine, things that break into little bits but not strips.

Double check he´s no access to any nooks in or out of the cage.

I´ll tag @TikiMyn as I know she´s dealt with her boys hormones also in the past so hopefully will have more to add

 

[Emma&pico]

Hi
My pico does this I just don’t wear my hair in a bun in his company just have it down also he took to feeding and making love to a tie knot rope in his cage I removed it thrown in bin and rearranged his cage perches toys food water bowls everything and touch wood he’s calmed down a bit

hopefully yours does too not nice having your bun humped haha I try not to let pico on my head but it’s harder said than done at times

 

[steph&bird]

Hi
My pico does this I just don’t wear my hair in a bun in his company just have it down also he took to feeding and making love to a tie knot rope in his cage I removed it thrown in bin and rearranged his cage perches toys food water bowls everything and touch wood he’s calmed down a bit

hopefully yours does too not nice having your bun humped haha I try not to let pico on my head but it’s harder said than done at times

i rearranged Birdy's cage as well, and he's calmed down. I also have not worn a bun since I posted this haha!

 

[Emma&pico]

i rearranged Birdy's cage as well, and he's calmed down. I also have not worn a bun since I posted this haha!

haha rule our life’s even down to our hair style