# Jester being very hormonal



## Clevergirl (Nov 18, 2016)

Jester is my presumed about two year old albino female Budgie. Her cage mate for the last year has been mature male Bard whom is strongly bonded to her and who is somewhat tolerated by her. For the last several weeks she has started devouring cuttlebones and mineral blocks and started getting very cuddly with Bard so I separated them and have been covering her for much of the day to try to calm her down a bit. Despite doing this for the last three weeks she is now spending all of her out of cage time trying to huddle under the cages and regurgitating food to not Bard but my green cheek conure who seems very confused. When given access to Bard she immediately starts cuddling and grooming him. 
Bard is not doing well with the separation and has begun to start panicking when I move to separate them or even approach his cage. I'm not sure what the best way to help them is.


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## Hunterkat (Mar 29, 2017)

Try rearranging the cage more frequently and feed her less protein (egg food). I think you made the right call in separating them.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*This can be a problem when you have a mixed gender pair and you are going to need to do everything possible to prevent your female from laying.

I would move the female into a separate cage and put her in a different room away from both Bard.
He won't like it initially but will adjust in time. This advice is for the health and well-being of your budgies.

Rearrange Jasper cage ever two days, and limit the light she gets to no more than 8 hours a day.
This should help tremendously. 
Limit the protein in her diet as well.

Please be sure you never put a nest box or anything that could be used as a nesting site in her cage.

Jasper is determined to breed. 
If you don't move her away from Bard she is quite likely going to lay even if the eggs are not fertilized. You don't want this to take place or for her to become a chronic layer.

http://www.talkbudgies.com/articles...a-birds-risks-signs-treatment-prevention.html

*


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## Clevergirl (Nov 18, 2016)

Thank you I have taken most of your advice and rearranged the cage. She does not have access to anything other then her normal pellet foods. She won't touch other foods without Bard going first. I have moved Bard to the smaller cage and closer to Gir my conure which seems to be limiting some of his more obvious distress about being away from Jester. I can not put them in different rooms for cat related safety reasons but they can't currently see or access each other. I certainly won't be giving her a nest box or encouraging breeding. I have been covering her for most of the day for a couple weeks but had been trying to limit Bard's distress by keeping their cages beside each other.

She's still chowing down on cuttlebones and mineral blocks at a shocking rate. Should I try to limit that? 

Thank you for the reading on egg binding it is good to know what to look out for so I can act immediately.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Let her have as much of the cuttlebones and mineral blocks as she wants.

This is very important in case she does lay eggs so her body's calcium levels won't be depleted.

If she lays any eggs in the cage, remove and dispose of them immediately, then rearrange the cage yet again.

Good luck and best wishes. 
Hopefully your actions will throw her out of condition soon!*


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## iHeartPieds (Jan 9, 2017)

You've been given great advice. I just wanted to add that it's recommended to not have mirrors in your birds cage. Birds can easily become obsessed with their reflections causing hormonal and aggressive behaviour as well as excess regurgitating.


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