Too Much Hormones

[Bea 0]

For about the last 5 days all i've heard is the jingle of Blinkie's ducky toy as he holds it and humps his perch like crazy. I've NEVER seen him this "excitable" in all his life.

 

While he used to be particular about which toy he held and which perch he humped, he'll now grab whatever is closest and hump rope perches, branches, and even the cage bars. It's INSANE. And poor little Ozzie, when Blinkie gets in one of his "happy" moods Oz gets bullied for being too near (in the same cage).

 

The tension escalated in the budgie cage a little while ago so i've taken out all the toys Blinkie's been using to hold while he humps (plus another one which he found soon after i removed the others) and he's finally given up, sitting chattering evil plans to himself. By taking all his humping toys out, there are now few toys left in the cage at all and i feel like a mean mummy about this.

 

I've recently rearranged their cage completely and i've been making an effort to get them to bed earlier so they're getting more sleep, but instead of getting better he's getting WORSE.

 

Threats don't seem to work either - "If you can't keep it in your feathers, you're not going to have any toys at all!" only got a filthy look in response.

 

So, any tips?

[macka 0]

Yes, Don`t take any notice, or find him a mate,

[**KAZ** 0]

I have probably said this many times....get him a girlfriend

[Bea 0]

Yes, Don`t take any notice, or find him a mate,

I don't care if he's humping a perch, but i do care if it's causing him to attempt to murder Ozzie.

 

Finding him a mate isn't a solution, it doesn't make sense how it could be? It would just make him untame and give him a temporary way to relieve his frustration.

[macka 0]

Thats not a problem.Take Ozzie out.

[Bea 0]

I would really rather not, they are friendly most of the time (anytime Stinks isn't humping) and Ozzie gets really stressed when i seperate them. If there's a way i can reduce the humping without removing Ozzie, i would like to try.

[Elly 0]

I would agree with Macka if you feel that Oz is going to get hurt at least until he settles. Maybe taking Oz out will help the situation.

 

How have you completely rearranged the cage? (I Mean I know how but what have you done with the perches etc..toys)

[macka 0]

You could sit him down & give him a good talking to.

 

No I don`t think there is anyway of stoping him from

doing it.Its a cage thing,You go along to a show & they

will be be full on humping there drinker,the cage front.

 

If you find away let the forum know

[Bea 0]

How have you completely rearranged the cage? (I Mean I know how but what have you done with the perches etc..toys)

Changed position of all the perches and toys, same as what i would usually do...

 

You could sit him down & give him a good talking to.

 

No I don`t think there is anyway of stoping him from

doing it.Its a cage thing,You go along to a show & they

will be be full on humping there drinker,the cage front.

 

If you find away let the forum know

If only you could bargin with budgies...

 

*pleads* Blinkie, if you stop humping i will ... give you a lifetime supply of spray millet and always let you help yourself to my bananas.

 

Now you've made me want to go to a show just to see the posh and proper show budgies humping their cages.

[Boomberry 0]

I dont think advising Bea to breed Blinkie just because his hormones are racing is a very sensible idea.

 

Getting him a girlfriend is easy to see but could make him worse. Thats what happened to one of my tiels.

 

Blinkie is an indoor pet bird and I think that would be a terrible mistake to 'get him a girlfriend' as you are saying.

 

I dont know the actual answer to cure him buttt that option well its not an option.

[**KAZ** 0]

Booms....Bea knows that answer was very tongue in cheek as we all know what Bea's answer would be. I am sure Bea is just doing some "thinking out aloud" stuff to work out what next best to do for Blinkie. A few people have a sense of humour about it thats all.

[Kestral 0]

I know how you feel Bea. With Holly at the moment I am trying to deal with humping and regurgitating.

 

It's strange how he used to hump his ladder all the time and then I moved it to the other side of the cage and I have not seen him hump it since (instead he uses it as his place to sit which i scratch his head and he goes to sleep).

 

I have cleaned the cage and removed the jingly ball which has been receiving all the food it does not want - for some reason the other non jingly ball just gets humped, not fed. Going to see if I can get a few less humpable toys at the weekend to replace the ones I have tried which have either gotten broken or that Hol just didn't take to.

 

I totally sympathise with Bea...tho I don't have the added problem of other budgies getting picked on cos I just have Holly, it is very very frustrating to be watching tv and hearing nothing but a poor jingly toy getting humped to within an inch of its life. Holly is only six months old and so even if I was thinking of getting him a mate to try and appease the humping (which I'm not sure is really the answer anyway) he's way too young to breed from.

 

I guess we just have to try all we can and hope we don't wake up one morning to a cage full of mutant budgie-jingly ball babies!

[Norm 0]

I read on here so many are worried, that they don’t want to breed their budgies & the humping worries them. The only solution is to get a different mind set about humping. They will probably slow down a little as they get older [like us all].

Just look at what you are asking them to do; you keep budgies as a pet, often completely by themselves, except for their doting owner. A budgie by nature is a very gregarious bird, which lives its life in large flocks in arid areas. By nature & natural selection, they have become a little breeding machine, for their survival. So you stick them in a small cage, pump them full of lovely healthy stimulating foods, so nature clicks in & all they have is their toys or feed trough, what do you expect to happen.

I don’t want to sound cruel, but just think about it, you always want the best for your bird, I read it all the time. But what you expect of your bird is really the cruelest thing; you wish to deny it its very nature. So all I can suggest is just change your mind set as I say, let the dear little thing have its small pleasure. Try not to let it worry you. This is not just for Bea, but many here…I hope I’m not being too honest for some of you…reality is reality.

[Sailorwolf 0]

Well I have ten budgies in one cage, 5 boys, 5 girls, lots of budgie sex all the time, but little Alo (the one that looks like Blinkie, maybe it is a blue spangle thing? ) loves to hump the little plastic wobbly budgie. He really enjoys it. I just let him go at it, because none of the girls are really into him at the moment and I think he is a bit jealous of his idol, Sir Casanova himself Arkady, who currently has it going with 3 girls.

 

Maybe you should just get toys that don't make sound when they are being loved?

[Guest Phoebe]

Guess you have to wait out this period in Blinkie's life. But think if he were laying eggs, that would be more visual and worse!

[Bea 0]

Thank god he's not laying eggs!!! With the cage now half empty of toys he's not humped anything today...yet. They have a ropey preeny toy and i thought i saw him *thinking* about humping that. I was ready to strangle him because that toy makes no noise and i've never seen either of them touch that toy before.

[Guest Phoebe]

:ausb: Repeat after me, humping is better than eggs, humping is better than eggs and Sir Blinkie WILL give it up in a bit. :bluebudgie:

[Elly 0]

maybe Bea you should keep him covered just for this week a little longer and see if that helps? More prolonged darkness? I know you like him out a lot but it may get him through the stage quicker? You don't have the fish tanks by his cage do you?

[Bea 0]

Nup, fish is in my room and there's no filter going anyway so there's no sound of running water. I've covered him earlier tonight, will do that the next few nights too and see if he improves.

[Elly 0]

I would work on 14 hours of covering I know it seems extreme but temporarly and it is worth it to bring him out of his hormones. At least to me it would be. Pretty was much more horomonal then Merlin so I did this at times to calm him down. Mine never humped though.

[Bea 0]

Well with nothing to hump, the budgie cage is peaceful AND there have been no runny poos at all (there have been on and off for a while, i'm now certain it was stress on both boys part). Covering 14 hrs would be hard because the boys wouldn't get the time out they usually do and someone wouldn't always be around to uncover them if we left it that long.

[Elly 0]

as long as what you are doing works.. just a thought for a temp basis to throw Blinks into his normal self

[Bea 0]

as long as what you are doing works.. just a thought for a temp basis to throw Blinks into his normal self

His normal self is still a hump-a-maniac...just not this extreme.