How to calm down hormones in kids/teenager lovebirds? (if it is needed...)

[OkiF]

Long time no see! Here is the next round of Botan chan's adventures. So "previously in Botan chan's adventure": her left leg recovered, but she still shows paresis in her right foot/leg. but she is not doing too bad and is now using her "back toe that is pointing forward" as a self scratching tool as the nail is pointing upward. She also got a new little friend name Hani chan (Hani meaning feather in Okinawan language). Hani is a hybrid fisheri/personatus (it seems nearly impossible to find non-hybrids in Japan as they have a confusing naming system, Hani was sold as a fisheri but shows all the characters of an hybrid). Well Hani arrived rather young although I was upset that the seller could not provide a clear birthdate (we guess "he" was born around the 1st of November or slightly earlier). This makes Hani a bit more than 3 months and Botan about 10 months.

Last summer, we had already observed Inko chan who at 5 months old appeared to discover interest in sex with Botan (parading around her making a KKKKK sound, and then trying to climb on her). Lately Hani chan started the "KKKK dance" but he was always quite strongly rejected by Botan, however, since yesterday, it seems that Botan is more welcoming (spread her wings and lowers her body) and even potentially is the one "heating up" Hani. We have no experience of bird breeding and this may be just a normal phase of their development, discovering their sexuality, with hormones boosting with the days getting longer. We are just worried if this leads to egg laying as they are too young for this. Actually a few times, Botan tried to climb on Hani, so not sure how serious they are (not sure even Botan is a female, although she definitely has a more dominant and selfish/territorial character).
Because of Botan's leg, the bottom of the cage is covered with journal paper and they spend a lot of time foraging on/under the paper, or putting the paper in their bath so all the water is soaked out of the bath and all over the floor of the cage. But I could not identify any behaviour that would make me think to nesting behaviour. They both sleep on a little platform on the top of the cage.
Is there anything to do to keep their games "innocent", or simply there is nothing to worry and we just let them discover their bodies? We heard that long days, and heat promote sexual behaviour, and both of these factors will increase much much more in the coming months.

Actually, sorry for the direct question and no offense is meant, but do birds masturbate? I noticed Hani "sex mode" (KKKK sound) rubbing his butt on a branch after Botan rejected his attempts and I found it quite funny.

At least, so far it looks like we may not have two females and this would be rather a good thing for having them live together (although Hani is still a kid and l heard some people being convinced they had a male until they found an egg at the bottom of the cage).

Finally on a different topic, does anyone know about behavioural studies on lovebirds, or if any study was made to understand their language. So far, we got the "Hey! I am awake, is someone around?" (loud single "Kya!"), the "I am warning you, don't disturb my mess" (kind of low rolling rurururu), the "Wow! Yes! I want some!" (short "uncontrolled" high pitched "pya!" for example with Botan seeing us come with a piece of papaya), "Wowowowowo that is/was scary!" (short rapid pyapyapyapya, when they nearly or fully fall, miss a landing, etc) and the "let's have some sex babe!" (KKKKK) but there are other "phrases/words" that come regularly and that we have trouble to associate to some situation (I think I am starting to get the bird vs bird argument, but still need a bit more work to learn to distinguish it for the normal chitchat). I don't know if each bird has its own language (Hani seems maybe to use different sentences, except for the KKKKK that is identical to Inko chan's one, and the "scared" one).

[linda040899]

I just want you to know that I've read this thread and it will be a while before I can get back to you. I'm traveling to the NE USA to see my daughter so I will be offline until roughly late this afternoon. Will get back to you on this.

[Z28Taxman]

I just want you to know that I've read this thread and it will be a while before I can get back to you. I'm traveling to the NE USA to see my daughter so I will be offline until roughly late this afternoon. Will get back to you on this.

You're gonna freeze. It's cold and snowy up here.

[linda040899]

You're gonna freeze. It's cold and snowy up here.

Tell me about it!! My Florida is definitely not used to this!!!!!

[linda040899]

Actually, the one thing that encouraging breeding is the availability of food so there will be enough to successfully feed their young. In the wild, lovebirds breed once/year, during rainy season, as rain will produce a bounty of nutritional items. In captivity, there's certainly no absence of available food and they don't have to work for it. My best suggestion is to set up a feeding system where they gave to forage for food. You don't want them to starve so start slowly and increase the difficulty. Birds in the wild stay very busy all day looking for food so take away some of their free time.

Some males will self satisfy even when they have mates. I've had birds who have been alone or lost mates prefer to masturbate. Their favorite object is always available and if you remove it from sight, the bird will simply find another one.

[OkiF]

Thanks a lot for the answer.
I hope you had some nice family time in the frozen North.
I will look for ways to make food a bit more challenging to get, and maybe give a bit more of the grass (grown from their seeds) that they like to tear apart, it seems to be a good low calories entertainment and could give them a few vitamins.

As for the self satisfying part, I am not disturbed by it, I just found funny to see this little bird rub his butt everywhere. But if he is happy that's all what matters.