Ask Lafeber

How to deal with my bird’s sexual frustration?

I have three lovebirds; Tiki (cobalt masked) probably male, Miki (Dutch blue) probably female and Kiki (peach faced) probably male. I got each of them separately from different places. Almost a year ago, I only had Tiki and Miki who seemed to be bonding well with each other. None of them were tamed and after seeing them getting along so well I decided to drop the idea of taming them so they can enjoy each other’s company. One bad day, Tiki flew away. Miki got super upset and started showing symptoms of illness. I freaked out and got her another lovebird, Kiki. Hoping she’d bond with him but she completely rejected him. Meanwhile, I was searching for Tiki and was lucky enough to find him. As soon as I brought Tiki home Miki recognized him and bonded immediately. Now Kiki was all by himself and would spend most of his time with me. Since I live in a small space I had to place their cages (Tiki and Miki in one and Kiki in the second) close to each other. They would interact with each other through the bars. As I mentioned, since my space is not so big I was having trouble giving Tiki Miki and Kiki out of cage time seperately so I decided to introduce them outside the cage. Miki wasn’t a fan of Kiki since day one but Tiki fell in love with Kiki. He’d try to preen him or just sit next to him but Kiki would totally reject. As time passed and with supervised out of cage time they all became tolerant of each other. Tiki and Miki were still bonded at this time and Kiki was in a separate cage.

All of their relationship with me was not so bad either but Tiki just after a month I got him and after spending some time with Miki became a brutal biter that he still is today. He’d bite any human he sees.

So after four to six months I had to move to a different place. I decided to buy them a bigger flight cage. The cage had a separator that separated the cage in two. Tiki and Miki lived in the top portion of the cage while Kiki had the bottom portion. Kiki hated the cage since day one. When I made the move, all of thier behaviour kind of changed and Kiki decided that he wanted to stay with Tiki and Miki in their cage and surprisingly Tiki and Miki also kind of accepted him. So I took the separator out and It has now become a big 8 ft cage. Now since they have started living together Tiki and Miki have become unbonded. Tiki has become aggressive not to say he wasn’t before but I think he has becoming sexually frustrated. Because ever time he comes outside the cage he’d fly straight towards me and start humping. I don’t get bothered but this has become excessive over the time. When Kiki watches Tiki doing this he’d come to me and start humping too. I am also kind of scared of Tiki because he loves biting hard to the point you’re bleeding, so every time he comes near me I kind of freak out but I keep my calm until he’s done humping. The biting issue began a month after I got him and he had spent two weeks with Miki and the humping started six moths ago. And he’d only hump his favourite blanket or me and sometimes my husband too. Also, at night Tiki tries to regurgitate and feed Kiki, Kiki does the same to Miki and Miki does this to Tiki.

My question is what can be done to make Tiki less sexually frustrated and aggressive.

Hi Maryam,

You have several issues going on here. You have an odd number of lovebirds, you are caging them together, and you have mixed a masked lovebird with peach faced lovebirds(dutch blue is a peach faced mutation). These are three big no’s when it comes to lovebirds. Masked lovebirds are generally more timid than peach faced. Peach face lovebirds are the most aggressive of the lovebird species. I’m surprised that your cobalt masked is as aggressive as it is, but it is possibly a female, because the charging and biting behavior is more common with female lovebirds.

By having three lovebirds, you have created an impossible dynamic. Once lovebirds, or any parrots, bond, then other adult birds are viewed as rivals. When a rival gets too close to a pair, generally the male in the pair will attack it, or turn and attack his mate out of jealousy. Your birds don’t know what to do because none of them are truly bonded. So their loyalties and hormones are all over the place. And possibly you have 3 females or 3 males. Females are more aggressive as lovebirds go, but it’s also surprising you have never seen eggs.

The divided cage was never going to work with a top/bottom separation. A divider should have gone through the middle to make a side by side cage. And generally it will be a double divider with a bit of space in between to prevent the birds from biting each other’s toes. I’ve never heard of one divided the way this one was, unless there was a tray in between. Parrots establish dominance through height among other ways. So the bird on the bottom was understandably miserable being relegated to a low position, and having the other birds above him to poop on him. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding how the cage was divided, but this is how it sounds to me.

I don’t think having the 3 together is going to keep working. The size of the cage is probably the only reason one of the birds hasn’t been killed yet. Again, lovebirds are aggressive regardless of the species, and peach faced are the most aggressive. They will usually kill a masked species or a Fischer’s given the chance.

I’m not sure what to suggest because none of them seem to have a real bond. I would definitely separate the masked bird. The two peach faced might bond without the third bird in the mix. As for the hormonal behavior, letting them out to roam is one thing that encourages hormonal behavior. And as long as the bird can fly, and is out of the cage, he can attack or do whatever he wants to do. Clipping his wings might help temporarily, but would leave him vulnerable to the other two birds. You can try to limit their light to 8-10 hours daily. I doubt that will be enough. I would have the birds DNA tested to determine their sexes. This would give you a better idea of who to keep together. Do not add another bird because you don’t know what you have, and lovebirds generally do not live peacefully in groups. I’m afraid one bird is going to be killed at some point if you keep them all together. I can usually suggest who to keep together, but again, their loyalties seem to be all over the place. So my best suggestion is either 3 cages or keep the peach faced together and don’t let the masked keep interacting with them. Finding out their sexes might help, and maybe you can get a mate for the masked bird, but they would still have to be kept separate from the peach faced. If you don’t split them up, I feel like the situation will just keep getting worse until two birds kill the third bird. I don’t think any of them are content or happy. This situation is stressful and goes against their natural instincts.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda