Discouraging Breeding

[necoleco]

Hormonal issues can become an issue from a number of reasons. Often times hromones can lead to other medical issues like plucking, egg binding, and obesity. So what can cause my bird to be hormonal? There are a numerous number of reasons.

1. Daylight Schedule
2. Being touched in areas that trigger hormones.
3. Having other hormonally stimulated birds around.
4. Climate
5. Nesting Spots
6. DIET (fruits)

These are all probable cause for hormonal stimulation. How do you fix this? Easy really, give your bird lots to do to stimulate it in other ways.

1. Make sure your burd gets a significant amount of sleep. Longer night make them feel as if it is winter. Shorter and warmer nights feels like summer.
2. For birds being touched on their beak, back, and underbelly can be a stimulant for hormones. To spend time with your fid I recommend ONLY preening/petting on their head.
3. Having other hormonally stimulated birds around will push other birds to become active in nesting behaviors. A common bird this is found is found in are budgies/parakeets.
4. Climate plays a big role in how your birds live. As the cold is becoming more and more prominent outside houses are becoming warmer. The slow warmth can lead to a bird thinking the seasons have changed. Usually birds breed throughout spring, summer, and fall. While we as humans must keep warm we must think about our feathered friends.
5. Allowing your bird to have nesting spots can also have a major role in hormonal issues. Avoid dark spaces, birds want somewhere not noticeable to predators. Dark spaces promote nesting behavior.
6. Diet! Birds should have a diet of freshly chopped vegetables and occasional fruit. Fruit has alot of sugars which is also a sign thats breeding season has begun. Avoid feeding things like fruit and seed constantly because they can become super unhealthy!

 

[Eddie's Aviary]

There is a pinned article in this section about this. What you say is true. I would add to #6 that diets high in protein and calcium, sprouted, fresh, or soft cooked mashes will also be a trigger if fed more than 3x a week. Good news is that Linnies are not generally a "prolific" and easy species to trigger, hence the difficulty breeding/ finding them for so many. So avoiding the things you and I mention should more than suffice.