My boy and girl cockatiel are always hormonal now. For months they shred the newspaper in their house or hide under it. I move their cage around, rotate their toys, cover them up early, and they do have a LOT of time out of their cage to play. They get so worked up ; what else can I do?
Hi Caroline,
It sounds like these two share a cage? In that case, no matter what you do, they are going to exhibit breeding behavior at times. The first thing I suggest is not giving them any paper or anything else they can shred. They should not have anything they can get under or inside of. When you said “their house”, did you mean their cage or do they have a bird hut or nesting box? You definitely don’t want to give them a box or hut or anything that can resemble a nest. If your cage does not have a metal floor grate, then you may actually have to stop using anything in the tray and just wash it out daily. Even other types of bedding or tray substrate can be viewed as nesting material and cause those hormones to fire up. Everything else you are doing is great and should help keep them from trying to nest. I think once you take away paper, they should settle down a lot. You also mentioned they are out of the cage a lot. As long as they are not allowed to wander or get into small spaces like bookshelves or behind things, then being out is fine. But when birds can fly free through a house and explore dark or small areas, this is also a big nesting trigger. I’m not sure if you watched our webinars on pet birds and hormones, but I’ll give you the link. You may pick up more tips from those.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
