Hi,
If this bird has never laid eggs, you might have a male. They tend to do most of the gathering of nesting materials. He will tuck the shredded paper under his back feathers and carry to wherever the nest is. You are correct that shredding is a nesting behavior, and if it is obsessive, it interferes with the bird’s quality of life. Some captive birds get stuck in a hormonal state. With females that do, they become chronic egg layers and and can continue to lay eggs until she dies. Males can also suffer health issues from being overly hormonal. You can try some changes that not only help with breaking that hormone cycle, but can also discourage egg laying. This does mean she has to give up the shredding, but you can look at other options for keeping her busy. Next month, our free webinars are all hormone topics, so you might want to check them out. We just had a webinar on enrichment, which can provide alternate activities for a pet bird. I would recommend doing what you can to break this habit and get her to focus on other activities. I’ll give you the list of recommended changes that may help. It is directed at chronic egg layers, but the changes also help with reducing hormonal behavior.
Keep in mind that in the wild for breeding, they need longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. The goal is to reverse these conditions.
Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she show signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
When she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam. When you let her roam around, this mimics searching for a nesting site.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only the head and neck – do not pet a bird on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/category/webinar/
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
