Mating season behavior?

[Joshua]

Hi all,

Just a little background, we have 2 hand reared birds, one Princess parrot (Navi) who is about 2 years old and one Quaker parrot (Timmy) who is a couple months younger. They live in a large indoor cage and have free roam of the downstairs area during the day, they hate being separated and go everywhere together. I think Timmy is the more dominant bird, very bossy can be a bit mean to Navi at times by hogging food bowl, taking toys away his playing with ect but is extremely cuddly to me and partner (aggressive to others :( ). The issue I've been having is that starting about a week ago Navi's been making different sounds and displaying odd behavior. I previously thought he was a male because I read that male princess parrots raise their heads, dilate their pupils and raise a little crest on their head which Navi does, but new behavior might point towards being a female. For last week or so Navi will incessantly lower his/her head at Timmy and make a clucking noise, kind of like a cluck-cluck-cluck (fast) more clicky though. Head lowered, sometimes minor bobbing and non-stop cluck-cluck-clucking all day, Navi will also kind of extend lower mandible/jaw, beak (unsure of proper term) so it might just be in front of top beak or inline with it when he clucks.

I have looked online and behavior is not dissimilar to what female princess parrots do during mating season Sep-Dec, but have had difficulty finding videos or other posts, I don't think they are commonly kept as a hand reared bird so finding information that the lower beak extension is normal behavior for parrots/ princess parrots has proved difficult. The behavior is also upsetting Timmy quite a bit, he obviously gets frustrated at Navi and now relishes in opportunities to be separated from him where before it started he would get quite stressed out when separated. They both have been eating fine, and when I can snap Navi out of it he goes back to playful inquisitive self and has normal posture ect when not clucking.

I would like to know if anyone has got an opinion on what I should do, or any information regarding this behavior. Should I separate them until it stop or take Navi to an AV? I have taken a video of him doing it and can upload it if anyone is interested :)

Thanks,

Joshua :)

[spiritbird]

Hello Joshua. Navi is one of the many beautiful Australian species of birds. I like the name too. What does Navi mean?

It does sound like hormonal behaviors. Are the two birds in the same cage? There is a chance she may get more aggressive with . Timmy while the hormones are surging so I would separate them if possible. Understand this is a natural behavior that we can do little to control. Some things you can do is to decrease the hours of daylight with darkening the room. Serve no warm, soft foods. Increase the amount of exercise or flying times. Refocus your pet's energy by finding activities that distract your pet from showing hormonal signs. Petting the bird on the back, neck, or vent area should be avoided.


Does this help you? When you can we would love to see some photos of your two birds.

[Lady]

Sure would like an update on how things are with Navi and Timmy. Sad we haven't heard anything new in some time.

[spiritbird]

Same here.