Hormonal implants on male birds

[Pie]

Hi, I decided to make this into a separate thread although it is related to my previous ones.
Recently I heard of suprelorin/deslorelin implants that can be put onto birds with excessive hormonal behaviour. However most people discussing it talked about how they had it put into their female birds to help with chronic egg laying. I was wondering if the implant would do any good on males? I have a male cockatiel that I believe is hyper hormonal, and that if all my attempts at making him calmer fail, this could be my second last attempt before having to consider rehoming.
I'd rather not get him any surgery to sterilize him as these surgeries seem to have high mortality rate and I don't want to lose him, as much troubles as he causes.
Please do share any experiences, my females are all good but the male needs some serious attention as his bad behavior has recently ramped up. (Currently "quarantined" into another cage for week at a time then let back into the big cage with females. I put him back into the small one if he starts attacking the females or shows any aggressive behaviour otherwise)

I also do want to mention that this will be talked through with the avian vet before any procedure takes place, and they will make the ultimate decision.

 

[CeciliaZ]

How about trying Lupron injections first? I have a female tiel who is a chronic egg layer and has had Lupron to help control it. Her cage mate- a male has begun plucking. I have never seen them mate but they do preen each other and are bonded to each other. The vet thinks his plucking is behavioral and hormonal...and has suggested Lupron for him also...but wanted to wait to see how my female was after her injection. Perhaps - if she became less "nesty" and hormonal - he would also. And he has.

Maybe - keeping him in a other cage separate from the others is just frustrating him more...

Please don't rehome him...hormones come and go...try decreasing daylight hours for both of them. Rearrange the cage, position of the cage in a room. What I have found really helps is to place the cage "out in the open" a little - away from a wall...

 

[Pie]

How about trying Lupron injections first? I have a female tiel who is a chronic egg layer and has had Lupron to help control it. Her cage mate- a male has begun plucking. I have never seen them mate but they do preen each other and are bonded to each other. The vet thinks his plucking is behavioral and hormonal...and has suggested Lupron for him also...but wanted to wait to see how my female was after her injection. Perhaps - if she became less "nesty" and hormonal - he would also. And he has.

Maybe - keeping him in a other cage separate from the others is just frustrating him more...

Please don't rehome him...hormones come and go...try decreasing daylight hours for both of them. Rearrange the cage, position of the cage in a room. What I have found really helps is to place the cage "out in the open" a little - away from a wall...

the main issue with the injections is that the vet is over 100 kilometers away from me and i don't have a car (no busses go there either as the office is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and i can't afford taxi's + vet bills that often). it would become a real hassle to get him there, since from what i read the injections are needed every 2 weeks. i've been trying all the tricks in the book and still have a few to try (light hours decreasing has been applied for weeks now with no effect and some of the more common ones like more fruit and veggie based diet).
i've tried the rearranging but it only seems to work on the hormonally active female. he basically ignores all my attempts with the most popular techniques, and his behavior got worse since he most definitely plucked some of the feathers on the back of the other females head thus getting moved into the other cage to avoid further damage. said female definitely got happier with that, and the male got a lot quieter, which i assume is him being sad. he is still very much so in the room and gets to be outside with the females for a few hours, but goes back into his cage for the night and for some time during the day.

but i assume that the implant would work on the male as well, so if it does, it will stay as one of my last options with him. he was known as a problem bird from his last home (from a breeder, he mated with so many females and got multiple clutches at the same time which stressed him out so he chewed off some of the babies toes off killing them. sadly the breeder didn't notice this early enough to intervene). like i said i am very reluctant in rehoming him, but i will keep it as an option because i believe at that point him being with me is making his life quality worse. his optimal home would be with a female as wild as him and to have her all to himself as he is also very possessive of his current mate who is also basically my baby.

 

[Destiny]

Lupron lowers estrogen production and affects the female hormones. You would need a different injection for a male bird because different hormones are involved with producing male sexual characteristics and behaviors - primarily testosterone.

There are medications that are capable of inducing chemical castration in male animals (or humans). But personally, I would not recommend going that route unless your bird is experiencing life-threatening symptoms (like chronic egg-laying in females) and other strategies have failed.

Here is a decent article on non-medical approaches to interrupt hormonal behavior.

Hormonal Behavior in Pet Birds - Therapeutic Remedies — For The Birds DVM — Avian Vet

Table of ContentsIntroductionPsittacine BehaviorsPet Bird Behaviors UnraveledTherapeutic RemediesConclusionReferencesTherapeutic RemediesAvian veterinary medicine has become adept at developing effective therapeutic modalities for the most common manifestations of hormonal dysfunction...

www.forthebirdsdvm.com

In your case, if you exhaust other management options, permanent separation or separate housing from the females may be the best option.

 

[CeciliaZ]

I don't use the Lupron on a regular basis - as I have heard that it sometimes stops working after awhile. If I find my tiel continuing to lay after I have tried all the other measures...I will make an appointment for her to get the shot - only once or twice a year.

Good luck - I hope you find something to help him.

 

[sunnysmom]

How old is your male? He could just be going through his puberty/hormonal phase.

 

[Pie]

How old is your male? He could just be going through his puberty/hormonal phase.

exact age unknown but he should be around 10 years old now, so should not be puberty.

 

[Laurie]

Have you tried your male in a cage with just one female (whichever he prefers)? This may solve your problem entirely. If he has chosen a mate he may be attacking the others in an attempt to get them to leave the area and of course they can't. How big is the cage and how many birds are in it?