is it normal?

[wilkiecoco]

for the swishy swish behaviour to last this long? kiwi has been in high gear for a few months now, doing his 'special thing' usually with a kleenex and YIPES!
my finger > ( he will be 2 in a January) it's not that i mind. but it seems to be ALL he thinks about. he is eating great, happy and cuddly as always, but i tried to put all the kleenex boxes out of sight, and he was not pleased :confused: he starts the regurg, the clicky noise, and then searches all over for the boxes i hid. will this ever end, is there a way to discourage it, or should i even be attempting to discourage? >o if i continue to limit his access to the kleenex, will it possibly lessen his drive, or it is just something that comes and goes, or he grows out of? has anyone else had a similar situation? Any advice or similar stories would be so helpful.

[Keltoth]

It's absolutely normal. Yah, it's charm quickly wears off, but single birds can get much, much worse than it sounds like your little guy is getting. In any event, you can try keeping all Kleenex boxes out of his sight, but in all likelyhoood he will probably just find some other item to become the object of his ...uh, "affection". :whistle:

I feel your pain; lonely fellas can be a pain sometimes... :lol

- Eric

[wilkiecoco]

so does this mean that he will do this all year, all the time??? :eek: you are so right eric. it was so cute the first few times, and now, well, let's just say, I would love to be able to use my hand for other things :whistle:

[Keltoth]

Well, I can't say that he will do it all the time, all year round, because lovebirds are every bit as varied and individualistic as people. I *can* give a story about one of my birds though; Melody is a fairly old male Wild Green of mine, the first bird we ever bought. He has a mate (Zipper) that he loves dearly - and yet all year round, at LEAST once a day, he can be found gratifying himself on either his Happy Hut (truth in advertising if I ever saw it!) or the top of his Boing rope toy. His favorite partner is still Zipper (and they are caged together and have been for 2 years), but when she is not ready for a clutch, he ...er, "makes do" with one of his other outlets.

None of my other males are so single-mindedly persistant as Melody. Even so, it doesn't hurt anything - although I don't usually have to explain his actions to company, since he is in my aviary and not out in my living room or some such thing. While every male lovie is not like Melody, from talking to other breeders it is not something that is completely abnormal, either.

- Eric

[Janie]

Funny you should ask this question about "how long it will continue?" cause my hubby just asked me the same thing about my two younger males. :D They are at it often every single day. When I adopted Oliver, he was around 7 and I have never seen him do "it"....never. He does occasionally run in circles and click, click, click and scratch his cheek but has yet to hook up with an object. So, my guess is that they start at around 9 to 14 months (that's when my two did) and enjoy themselves till they are at least 6 years old. I'm only basing that on my personal experience with these three. I'll tell my hubby he's not the only one who is curious! :lol

[hungrycorgi]

I just had to deal with the same issue with my guy, Tiki. He would 'gratify' himself on a rope toy numerous times during the day, EVERY DAY. This started at about one year of age, and had been going on for about six months. He also started regurgitating on his shoulder, and picking at it and shaking nervously. He is the happiest, friendliest bird, and I gave him attention/out of cage time, and switched a variety of toys around, but he seemed so fixated on mating. So, what did I do to alleviate the problem? Got him a girlfriend. Holy moly, he is a changed man. Feathers are growing back, and NO humping toys, regurgitation, or anything. I'm not advising everyone do what I did, but I just thought I'd mention it since it has made such a wonderful difference in Tiki's life. As long as he is happy and healthy, I am happy. They keep us on our toes, dont they? :)

[wilkiecoco]

thanks for all the stories and advice! Kiwi too is the happiest bird ever, but I too have been wondering if he needed a special someone, besides me I mean, to share his enamor with :D I always said I would be a one bird person, and Kiwi is a velcro birdie, but...............:whistle:

In fact it really doesn't bother me, but as Kiwi spends all his time when I am home, which is alot, out of his cage, I have had some splaining to do with guests in the house :blush: It is part of who he is and I love him no matter what. I've got some thinking to do :omg:

[DebSpace]

A male is a male is a male be it human, dog, bird or otherwise. Nip and I live in a house full of males and the worst is my 10-year-old chihuahua. I continually have to apologize for his...behavior...when we have friends over. :whistle: Doesn't matter if it is me, the chair, a pillow, the other dog...geez, it's embarrassing.:blush: My teenage hormonal son even thinks Jack's behavior is disgusting, but we all love the horney little dog anyway.