6-7 year old girlie Ekkie Juliette

[JerseyBella]

My girlie Jules is a love bug! Love her to death. Here is my issue. She cannot entertain herself at all. She is flighted, but she is not a good flyer. We do have our time together, then I will put her on a net, or playstand. She will fly down. Then the nesty little brat will immediately run as fast as her little legs can go under the chair, or sofa, or any dark corner she can find. I do not want her to do that!! LOL. Any suggestions to get her to learn to play by herself. This issue is unfortunately cutting into her out of cage time because, I can not sit with her on the sofa for hours, poor spoiled thing! We have toys, trees, nets, orbits, atoms you name it. 586

[spiritbird]

How old is she? Looking to nest like you say. Can you try to get her attention in a different room? Use lots of toys and spread them out and let her see you playing with them. Act as if the toys are yours. worth a try

[JerseyBella]

Thanks! She is 6-7 I think. We adopted her 2 years ago. I will give it a shot. When she is out all she wants to do is get under something, no matter what room. She's my problem child.
D

[roxynoodle]

She sounds very nesty, lol! You could talk to your vet about Lupron shots. Maybe when nesting isn't on her mind she will be more likely to play with her toys.

[JerseyBella]

Good idea!

[roxynoodle]

Merlin gets them and they do work. Within the day her hormones go way down. After getting the shot you will want to teach her to "station" by rewarding her every couple of minutes for staying on her stand, then slowly work up the reward time :) But, I'm quite sure this will be easier for her to learn when her brain can think of something other than where she wants to put her eggs, lol!

[JerseyBella]

Merlin gets them and they do work. Within the day her hormones go way down. After getting the shot you will want to teach her to "station" by rewarding her every couple of minutes for staying on her stand, then slowly work up the reward time :) But, I'm quite sure this will be easier for her to learn when her brain can think of something other than where she wants to put her eggs, lol!

So very true. She is my first girlie bird. Gonna look into that :)

[roxynoodle]

Some girl birdies are nestier than others :) With my conures it just hasn't been anywhere near as much of an issue as it is for my Grey. And in my Grey's case, being hormonal also causes her ABV symptoms to get much worse so it's a double edged sword.

[JerseyBella]

Im thinking I don't like spring but, she is always like this LOL! I'm lucky she doesn't get nasty like some can....

[jtbirds]

I'll say now my female eclectus is like this no matter what, getting off everything just to nest anywhere. Something that curved this a little was allowing nesting to be a game in the cage. I'd take a cardboard box and fill it with shredded paper and pine ones so she has to work and play to get into the so called nest, she loves this activity although it is a nesting activity it has stopped some of the nesting outside of the cage and mine is not an egg layer so I do not have those worries.

As Audrey said Lupron can be used, I'd suggest as a last straw kinda thing, but that is upto you to make that decision:)!

[JerseyBella]

Getting a box now LOL. I used to put paper on top of her grate. When she started shredding them I stopped. This is first experience with a female. Apparently it's quite the learning process. :)

[JerseyBella]

Well,it's not a box, but a basket with shreddy paper, beads, cork, thin wood slats. She is going to town.

[roxynoodle]

Merlin seems very happy with a wood ball that she incubates like it's an egg. It does seem to keep her from laying real ones so I let her keep it. She's been incubating it off and on for more than a year now. She also has no grate so she can shred her paper as she wishes. She also like shredding pine cones, those finger traps and things made of sea grass. I don't give her a box though as I think that might be too nest cavity like. Your call on that one :)

[jtbirds]

The box is very nest cavity like I will not disagree with that lol! It just worked in giving her an actual nest cavity so she would stop searching for one outside her cage... Molly does not care when she is out now, only when she wants to go in does she look for a place to nest and I put her in and she is happy and content. Eclectus have the strongest urge to nest and breed this is we're out issues lay it seems:p.

It is defiantly your call it worked for me, but not saying it is the best most desirable thing to do. I know many people that give there parrots boxes big enough to fit them all the time. I know of a blue and gold that takes toys and hides them in his box and then hides in there talking and playing lol. It can go ether way good or bad if you start seeing it be a bad thing remove it as its not worth the trouble. Molly doesn't send half her day in it only one to two minutes at a time and then back on her boing:)!

[Robin]

Beautiful, the colors are so bright and vivid.

[coltfire]

she is at her egg laying age and no matter what you do she will just want to lay the injections if you give to her , you will be give quite a lot as eckkies breed all year round not just spring, mine lay as soon as the nest is free, there is nothing to be done but try to get her mind off it which i doubt you will do,with my oldest girl lexx she just does not want to know about toys, so when out she is on my shoulder or i put her on a bench top and try to play there, not much luck, but she will stay with me.