Congo Gray

Question
Our almost 17 yr old gray has in the last month started regurgitating...ad nauseum ..LOL.  She?/He? seems to keep little down, the toys were fed first(which I had to remove) now its anything!!  Kindly advise protocol.  Any soft (good for ya) food stimulates the behavior - guess that figures it requires less processing!  Will this abate?  any idea when? BTW, Agnes is also spending time on the bottom of the cage trying to reach paper to shred.  This behavior is new the last six months. So, at nearly 17 we have two nesting behaviours ...slow to mature, or???
Thanks for your insights.

Answer
Hello Lorna,

You can make several changes to reduce the hormones the signal your bird it is time to breed.

1. Light is the strongest trigger. Increase her nightly dark uninterrupted sleep time from 10-12 hours to 12-14.
2. Don't provide any soft, wet, or warm foods. You are right that his stimulates the hormones, as an adult they would only receive such food from a mate.
3. Don't provide any nest like structure such as a hut, cavity or any nesting materials.
4. Limit your physical contact to head scritches only. Any contact with her back, wings, tail etc is for a bird, sexual.
5. Provide as many birds safe play areas (playgyms, window perches etc.) away from the cage so that the cage is not thought of as a nest location.

This is normal behavior for an adult bird and should last only a couple of months. A bird induced into this hormonal state long term (years) can have serious, even deadly health problems so you do want to manage this. It's not unheard of for older birds to suddenly become hormonal. But something did trigger it. Migration often preceeds the breeding season. Have you moved? Moved the cage? A new cage? Took a car ride with your bird? Is there someone new in the house whether human, dog, cat, another bird? I am curious as to the answer to these questions. Did you add a hut to the cage, new toy, mirror? If you don't mind posting a follow up answer I would also love to know what the trigger was!

Jennifer
www.feathersandscales.com