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Nesting behaviour

Shirley Pino

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Shirley
My 4 year old conure has chewed various holes at the bottom of the couch. He is free range around the house, even when I am not home. The only time I cage him is at bed time. I have never had a problem with him getting into anything before and has never destroyed/chewed anything up until these last 2 weeks. I came home one day and could not find him anywhere, only to see him crawl out of the base of the couch. He has managed to crawl into the base and has been chewing up all the foam/wood. To me this is nesting behaviour, because he gets quite aggressive when I try to deter him from going under there. I need advice on how to discourage this behaviour
 

Shezbug

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Block the area off or better still, use a cage for his safety when he is not supervised. I would be very concerned about the fibres and materials he has access too under there.
 

Hahns0hmy

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My 4 year old conure has chewed various holes at the bottom of the couch. He is free range around the house, even when I am not home. The only time I cage him is at bed time. I have never had a problem with him getting into anything before and has never destroyed/chewed anything up until these last 2 weeks. I came home one day and could not find him anywhere, only to see him crawl out of the base of the couch. He has managed to crawl into the base and has been chewing up all the foam/wood. To me this is nesting behaviour, because he gets quite aggressive when I try to deter him from going under there. I need advice on how to discourage this behaviour
definitely need a cage like she said or it will only get worse. thats a little scary to leave a conure out unsupervised. if its a bird safe room thats one thing, if its able to chew a couch you’re asking for trouble. hopefully no electrical wires are on your floor? at 4 to 5 years old hes just now entering full blown hormones. like a 13 yr old and tube socks. he will find a nest, eat extra and do all the necessary natural things a bird does to attract its mate and be ready for babies. the more you allow that type of behavior the more aggression/violence you will witness toward you.
 

Shirley Pino

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The
definitely need a cage like she said or it will only get worse. thats a little scary to leave a conure out unsupervised. if its a bird safe room thats one thing, if its able to chew a couch you’re asking for trouble. hopefully no electrical wires are on your floor? at 4 to 5 years old hes just now entering full blown hormones. like a 13 yr old and tube socks. he will find a nest, eat extra and do all the necessary natural things a bird does to attract its mate and be ready for babies. the more you allow that type of behavior the more aggression/violence you will witness toward you.
Rest assured the room is bird safe. I have had to take the legs off the couch to prevent him from going under there. But he is now finding anything and everything to mate with. He regurgitates on my shoes/rugs and is constantly cavity seeking. If I put him in his cage he will rub himself up on his toys and branches. I have removed rugs and shoes from the floor. But not sure what to do with his cage. I don't really want to remove all the toys as he won't have any enrichment.
 

WillowQ

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Heather Gerbyshak
12 hrs of complete darkness may help get him out of this.
 

Hahns0hmy

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The
Rest assured the room is bird safe. I have had to take the legs off the couch to prevent him from going under there. But he is now finding anything and everything to mate with. He regurgitates on my shoes/rugs and is constantly cavity seeking. If I put him in his cage he will rub himself up on his toys and branches. I have removed rugs and shoes from the floor. But not sure what to do with his cage. I don't really want to remove all the toys as he won't have any enrichment.

I have that everyday too lol some things we can help some are nature. I put mine to sleep 14 hrs and cut off nuts fruit. strictly pellets in a foraging box. its just about middle of breeding season. hang i there. remove just the toys that can be shredded to pieces to make a nest leave the others.. dont feed anything warm and soft. and try to limit the petting or touching and instead maybe lettem fly more to release some energy if not clipped. i move around the perches and all else to keep things fresh but im still deaf. the rest is prayer and patience
 

WillowQ

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Heather Gerbyshak
Yes it is. And Lupron if health gets affected.
 

WillowQ

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For a smaller bird it was $30 on top of clinic fees but that was almost 20 yrs ago. No real idea now. I hear they have Lupron implants too.
 

Hahns0hmy

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For a smaller bird it was $30 on top of clinic fees but that was almost 20 yrs ago. No real idea now. I hear they have Lupron implants too.
just too bad all this stuff is for female birds only. those with a male helpless
 

WillowQ

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No, I think Lupron works on male birds too. Just that make birds don’t get egg bound and that’s one of the biggest reasons Lupron is used.
 

Hahns0hmy

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No, I think Lupron works on male birds too. Just that make birds don’t get egg bound and that’s one of the biggest reasons Lupron is used.
I got lupron given to my mini today. you are correct its for males too
 

Shirley Pino

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I got lupron given to my mini today. you are correct its for males too
Thanks for your advice, I think a trip to the vet is definitely on the cards. His behaviour is becoming worse and worse since taking the legs off my couch. He regurgitates on EVERYTHING! He is constantly following my feet and tries to mate with them, he will regurgitate on my shoes, on my carpets. I literally have to hide absolutely everything. I've removed toys from his cage which he can shred and turn into nesting material. And even then, when I put him in his cage and cover it over night I can hear him regurgitating into one of his bowls. Its getting out of control now and he is becoming increasingly aggressive. I'm not sure how much more of this behaviour I can take. I am very confused though, because it is coming into winter here in Australia, the days are much much shorter. Not sure why this is happening now
 

WillowQ

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Well, I hope it helps. A super aggressive little boy bird is not much fun.
 

Shezbug

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Thanks for your advice, I think a trip to the vet is definitely on the cards. His behaviour is becoming worse and worse since taking the legs off my couch. He regurgitates on EVERYTHING! He is constantly following my feet and tries to mate with them, he will regurgitate on my shoes, on my carpets. I literally have to hide absolutely everything. I've removed toys from his cage which he can shred and turn into nesting material. And even then, when I put him in his cage and cover it over night I can hear him regurgitating into one of his bowls. Its getting out of control now and he is becoming increasingly aggressive. I'm not sure how much more of this behaviour I can take. I am very confused though, because it is coming into winter here in Australia, the days are much much shorter. Not sure why this is happening now
There is more to birds hormones than just the outside weather/time of year. Diet, interactions and environment can also be triggers for hormones.

I wont remove everything my bird wants to regurgitate to, as long as it is his, he can do what he likes with it, it is not helpful to remove everything and is likely only going to increase frustrations which equals more unpleasant behaviour so I tend to leave the things that are his as long as he is not so obsessed with feeding them that he does nothing else, he has broken bits of blocks and other foot toys he likes to feed so I leave them for him but totally stopped him trying to feed me and my hands.

I can sympathise with you over the difficulty of dealing with aggressive behaviour :( I hope your little guy settles soon.

Just curious if you have tried mixing up the cage accessories, placement of cage or even rearranging the whole room your bird is in- it sometimes helps to clam the nesting behaviour.
 
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