Neelu is hormonal :)

[Shivali]

Hello everyone
Hope all are doing well with their linnie babies.
Neelu is now 6-7 months old! She is doing so well, has become quite attached to our budgie, gives morning kisses (makes the sound), and happily rides around on hands, shoulders, is snuggly and sweet.
Now, when she first came home she had a tiny bit of territorial behavior around food and any kind of textile (blanket, cage covers, tea towels, scarves), which she would try to burrow in. It was like she didn’t understand the hands were part of us… and she saw them as taking away her food or blankies / nest… so instinctively she would make a big fuss… but rarely bite.
Even when she did bite it was not very severe- and I was able to get to the point where she rarely bit and it wasn’t very hard, just a warning. I used the gentle beak technique I read about online, and also would speak soothingly and give her a kiss (I know that sounds dangerous but she loves my face so having my face close to her would snap her out of it and she would give me a kiss ).
HOWEVER! she is now at that age that I have read about (is it 6 or so months, that’s what I heard anyway, not sure if that correct), and this behavior is increasing in severity.
What happens is that she will jump down onto the couch or bed from her cage or play stand… sometimes just following the budgie… and run around, making little beeping noises and trying to burrow behind things. She used to like to snuggle in my clothes and scarves I would wear but lately the furniture is calling to her.
While it’s cute I don’t want to encourage it and I get nervous not being able to see her- so little and squish able, so I will go and uncover her hiding spot. She gets very agitated , poor little thing , and makes a very big fuss , and also chases my hands and bites them quite hard.
I don’t take it personally as I know she’s just being instinctive…plus she is sooo cute about it we often have a chuckle as she is biting us and chasing our hands. my reaction is that I don’t react, I let her bite me and pretend it’s not happening, speak soothingly to her and move her to a better spot. Sometimes my shoulder, which she likes to be on. If she still seems distressed I give her some apple or millet and she sweetens right up.
but am I unknowingly rewarding her behavior by doing this?
she is not getting any better, in fact she decided that my foot was the enemy - it was so adorable how she ran screaming after my foot one day, it startled us and we were laughing about it. So I just kept my foot away from her in general to avoid stimulating her. But now if she spies my foot she will run after it and attack and if I’m not paying attention it’s quite startling …hard not to react in that case!
Then she started attacking just whatever parts of skin i have exposed… like she thinks the couch and bed belong to her , and she loves my face -but the hands, arms and feet, are like really bothering her and invading her territory.
She was doing SO well, no longer bitey around food and food bowl, no longer bitey when my hand is in the cage… lets me touch everything. But this is a kind of new thing, and I’m worried that I’m not handling it correctly or I’m doing the wrong thing.
i thought she’s just being hormonal and I’ll just let her be however she needs to be, give her love and whatever space she needs… but it’s getting worse, she attacked me on the couch today and bit me really hard on my foot, then crawled up to my chest and was being sweet to my face- then suddenly started attacking and biting my hand and arm… like every time I would move a body part out of range, she would look for another inch of skin to bite. I had to grab her and quickly put her in the large living room cage, where she and Lotus are now happily preening. Lol I had no choice I was being attacked by a tiny dinosaur!
Pretty unlike her, but I think the couch and bed may be stimulating her hormonally.
The problem is we spend most of our ‘social time’ on the beds or couches .., reading, napping, watching shows, working from home…. And the birds are always with us .
She is still a little sweetie of course !
But I miss the baby days when we would snuggle a lot… lately she prefers to chase Lotus the hyperactive budgie. When lotus is in the room she wants to be close to her buddy.
She gets really frustrated because she can’t fly yet. I don’t know if that could be adding to her frustration …? I was hoping she would grow back sooner , but it’s taking awhile.

thanks so much for any opinions thoughts or suggestion on what I may be doing wrong or what I could try/ do better at.

 

[Shivali]

Just wanted to add that she does get 12 hrs night, sometimes even a nap.
I do offer fresh food every day though, because I just want her to be healthy. She doesn’t eat a ton of it though.
If I restrict her food I’m not sure how much to give her so I’m reluctant to try that unless I know exact weights of each food type to give her. Not giving her egg lately , She gets Chirp central linnie , bird salad, and roudybush because she was weaned on it and loved it so, it came with her. But she has since not eaten it much. She gets some extra kaytee supreme seed because …. She is kind of bonding with our budgie and they are influencing each other. My budgie only picks out these little white seeds. It’s a real struggle to get her to eat anything else, she won’t eat and will scream.
so neelu has learned to pick these little seeds and if I don’t give them to her she will go eat them out of Lotus’ bowl.
I’m trying not to snuggle her or let her burrow but she is obsessed …will seek out anything soft and likes to hide in the cage covers. I have these beautiful printed tapestries with like colorful jungles etc, they are light, transparent and also a tight but breathable poly fabric that doesn’t have issues with loose weave or threads. I drape these partially over or behind all the cages , because the girls love them.. it gives them a cozy wall to hang out against , also we can roll cages around because they get overwhelmed with just an open cage. They are free to come and go but like that security of the tapestry. And at night they love to wind down with a backlight so all the pretty colors pop, and I’ll pull the tapestry over so that they can see out but are in their own little jungle world. They Love this so much.
Ok so I’m mentioning this bc I’m realizing Neelu loves to hang out on the outside of cages and will kind of slide under the tapestry. If I arrange it or uncover it, she will kind of fuss a little. Are these tapestries stimulating her too much? She’s not doing it all the time but when I said I’m not letting her burrow, I wasn’t thinking about that.
sorry if I put this in the wrong section- I’m not even truly sure if it’s a hormone issue or taming issue… thanks so much

 

[Eddie's Aviary]

This time of year, hormones can be a problem. Her age is just barely on the cusp. I would try to cover her a little longer, or have a "sleep cage" in another room if the current one isn't quiet.

The wing clips on Linnies last a long time because they have a longer time between hormone cycles (unlike a budgie for example that comes in and out of "season" every 8 weeks on average). Molts usually signal the end of the hormonal round. Since birds don't molt all the primaries and secondaries in a single molt (as in the wild, they would be unable to fly) they rotate them each molt, it can take a lot of time to get the clip dropped and new ones in with this species. Hang in there

They are notoriously famous for their "burrowing" desires. Both sexes. Many lose their lives to crush accidents in couch cushions. This burrowing can cause the "nesty" hormones to kick in, especially with the combo of extended light, warmer temps, unlimited food, high protein, and lots of fresh "fertile/wet season" foods.

I would cut back on the light, rearrange the cage and see if she improves. I would discourage the burrowing (have a pic of the tapestry?) if possible. Feeding is sometimes a difficult dance between superior care, and that which gets them into trouble (hormones/egg laying/nipping/cage aggression). Because Linnies are almost always in perfect feather and molt so rarely, it is hard to detect the hormonal times. This I suspect is one reason why they can be difficult to breed.

Let me know if I missed a question on your original post.

 

[Shivali]

Hi, thanks so much for the thoughtful reply!
I will try putting her bed early and see if that helps? Ironically Lotus loves going to bed early, but neelu is not a fan, she is a party girl.
I can also not feed as much fresh food? hate to do it but I do offer an awful lot of it . I make them mini birdie meals so they can have meals with us when we eat.
I’ve stopped giving her egg food …
Yes the couch anecdotes terrify me and keep me in a constant state of bird mom alert.
neelu needs constant supervision and it’s hard on the nerves she is very willful about burrowing and doesn’t understand why she can’t do it of course. She used to burrow in a gauze linen scarf around my neck when she was a baby because her nails and wings were so tightly clipped she couldn’t even hang onto a perch. Is this the monster I created?
Anyway not much interest in mommy cuddles now anyway, she wants to be an independent couch potato . ‍
Attached a pic of one of the cages with a tapestry on it… just kind of hangs off the back, but when it gets darker we pull it around more … we also have a geodesic cage (I know it’s controversial and I don’t recommend them for most people -for various reasons -but the girls are obsessed with it and it really suits them at times, with a tapestry and lots of toys and interesting perches plus a rope perch , it has a lot of depth and they looove hiding in the back and preening in the evening/ they often choose this over the other ones) that feels more nesty when the tapestry is drawn closely over it but it’s only in the evening when they are winding down as I mentioned.

hope that helps give you an idea, feel free to share any thoughts! Ps she has been better the past few days … could it be bc of the crazy heatwave …?

 

[LinnieGirl]

Agree with everything Eddie’s aviary said above. Hormones can be brutal and seeing our normally sweet cuddly Linnie’s go so suddenly aggressive is so difficult. Good news is that it only happens maybe twice a year and only lasts for a few weeks at a time. They do eventually return to their sweet selves. If you can weather the storm, using all the tips given above, I think you’ll be fine.