Hormonal little lady

[MxAether]

Hi y'all!!! Thank you for approving me! A few months ago (March!) I adopted my very first Linnie (Stormy!) from the local human society and absolutely fell in love with her! I have two cockatiels (both male) and I was so surprised by how entirely different she is!

The last couple weeks, though, I can absolutely tell she's getting hormonal. I try my best to only scritch her on the head (she is going through a molt, probably nearish the end now) so she's definitely wanted the help with the pinnies on her head. Both her and the cockatiels get less than 12 hours of light a day (They're usually up from 830/9 am - 6pm). They eat harrison's, and veggies a few times a week. But she's started to get aggressive with everyone else - even my wife, who she loves! She's very opinionated and has no problem telling everyone else to back off from me. She's shredding, and clearly looking for nesting spots, and I swear she's got that fat little egg butt happening.

Any advice on ways to reduce this behaviour going forward? I'm obviously not worried about babies, but I don't want her expending all her calcium for eggs for no good reason. She's such a sweetheart normally, and loves to spend her day with me while I work, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to spend a little more time apart from her for a while til all these hormones cool off?

 

[Kenny Sharp]

you can try rearranging the bird room... sometimes that throws them off.

 

[LinnieGirl]

If she’s already hormonal and ready to lay eggs, you can’t stop her until she’s laid a few. If she does, leave them in the cage ( unless they break) and let her finish laying the clutch. If you remove them, she will just keep laying more. If she ignores them, you can remove them a few days after she’s done laying them all. If she wants to sit on them let her. She will eventually abandon them when they don’t hatch.
But for now, give her extra calcium 5x a week, either liquid in her water or powder on her veggies.
When shes past all that, you can discourage future egg laying by keeping the hours of light at 10-12 daily, rearranging the cage contents occasionally, moving the cage to a different location, remove any cozy looking nesting spots like huts etc, and don’t overfeed the soft foods.

 

[Eddie's Aviary]

Hi y'all!!! Thank you for approving me! A few months ago (March!) I adopted my very first Linnie (Stormy!) from the local human society and absolutely fell in love with her! I have two cockatiels (both male) and I was so surprised by how entirely different she is!

The last couple weeks, though, I can absolutely tell she's getting hormonal. I try my best to only scritch her on the head (she is going through a molt, probably nearish the end now) so she's definitely wanted the help with the pinnies on her head. Both her and the cockatiels get less than 12 hours of light a day (They're usually up from 830/9 am - 6pm). They eat harrison's, and veggies a few times a week. But she's started to get aggressive with everyone else - even my wife, who she loves! She's very opinionated and has no problem telling everyone else to back off from me. She's shredding, and clearly looking for nesting spots, and I swear she's got that fat little egg butt happening.

Any advice on ways to reduce this behaviour going forward? I'm obviously not worried about babies, but I don't want her expending all her calcium for eggs for no good reason. She's such a sweetheart normally, and loves to spend her day with me while I work, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to spend a little more time apart from her for a while til all these hormones cool off?

Have you read this article here? CLICK HERE
I would supplement with calcium. Have any?

A couple quick thoughts here though, if she is molting... that doesn't go with hormones. Right after, could start. Anything shreddable in the cage? Any sleep huts? Does the Harrison's have soy as one of the first 5 ingredients? Any ambient light in the sleep room? Is she cuddling into pillows or blankets or into your neck? Was she DNA sexed? I find males get more nippy/fresh with hormones than hens.

I have to get back to work but felt bad I hadn't weighed in yet. Read that article if you haven't yet, it covers some bases. If you answer some of the questions I posted, I will respond tonight. Congrats on the new bird! You're lucky to find one in a shelter, it's highly unusual!