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OK - this hormone thing is strange - now I know how men feel every month

Anyway, Luna was very clingy with me today as if she had a traumatic thing happen to her. Very strange. I gave her a piece of millet tonight before bed because she was so good. I got up to go to the kitchen, walked a few steps amd BAMM she was right there flying around - wouldn't finish the millet!! I couldn't walk a few feet without her.

Have your females been extra clingy and cuddly?

All of my girls are always clingy, but in the past couple of weeks, Missy, who is really hormonal now and in nest hunting mode was very clingy in a strange way. She'd never been much for being "first" in the morning, but for several days, she'd fly out of the cage and land on me then head straight for my chest for cuddles. After about a few days, she resumed her normal wild self, and now, does not want cuddles at all, or very little.

Thanks Sam, I wasn't sure what to make of it - if is was hormaonal or somethng else. Do your females constantly call out? Luna will go on for hours I have to admit it does get on the nerves.

I don't know if it is just a hormone thing-- your female sounds a lot like my male!! With both the clinging and the crying...

WOW Bubbuabird, yours cries at the age of 10+!! Is it the I'm a hungry baby type of cry? Are you sure it's a boy?

Currently I have 5 cockatiels. My first was handraised from the day she was born, thus she's quite friendly, and is about 5+ years old now. When she wants lovins she'll fly to me (she's currently cage-free in a room that has a closed door 24/7) and ask for scritches... or rather demands them.

The last edition isn't so friendly, but she does call out to me at times because she enjoys my company, and coming out of her cage to fly about each day. She may sit on my shoulder but it's not like she ENJOYS being there, but rather just tolerates it, it seems.

The other 3 are a family, a father, mother and daughter (son was adopted-who was the friendliest). The friendliest one out of them is the daughter, but she seems to be more picky and tolerates handling. The parents now are pretty wild...

He is definately a boy. Regular grey with a bright yellow mask and orange cheeks-- no bars on the feathers and no yellow splotches under his wings. Those went away with his first molt. There is that... and the sheer amout he talks and whistles.

It seems since I moved, 11 months ago, he cries... a lot. To the point where I can't leave the room for a couple seconds... I don't know what is wrong. That is one of the reasons I got a bigger cage--it is suppose to quiet them down a bit--keep them busy. So this summer, when I am again gainfully employed, I want to buy a birdie companion... I think he is lonely, even though he comes out a lot, and I am home for a good part of the day. He is really bonded to me--I hand fed him as a baby, this can also explian his want to cuddle so much. He is very, VERY bonded to me. He prefers to be with me above any other person.

As I mentioned in my humor post, they do call out for me and my wife if we leave the room and they are caged or out of cage. The females all do more crying than the males, but Gizmo and Chibi are nearly as bad, especially when we're gone for more than a few seconds. We are their flock just as much as any other birdie, and they want to know that we are OK.

I was wondering more about the hormonal time of year.

Luna gets pretty vocal when we leave the room - it's actually the more creative and interesting calls she comes up with, so cute.

I didn't hand feed her (except for pelletts! ), and she is VERY bonded to me, way more than my husband - poor guy, and he's the one who's with her all day while I'm out of the house. Go figure. Some of her flights have grown in a bit, so she'll fly to my shoulder with no prompting - sometimes I have to lock her in the cage so I can cook or do what ever I need to.

Chibi-tori, what's it like when you and your wife leave the house for a few hours?!

It depends on where you live as to where it would be considered breeding time (or rather when to be hormonal). In Australia, I believe it's in the winter (cooler months), and some may be the same in Florida... in cooler climates, it may be more in the spring time or summer.... in places where the outside world has very little affect on the inside world (i.e. places like Alaska where-in you have to keep it a constant temperature throughout the entire year maybe?) it could be any time you make it....

Hormones normally come about with the longer days and warmer (or cooler) temps... however when we put birds in captivity, inside, where they get more light than what they should be getting, plus foods that may encourage breeding, we then change their 'seasons' which can screw a bird up and make it think it's breeding season year round.... certainly though, if a bird gets normal amounts of sleeping hours (12-14 or when the sun goes down and when it comes back up) certain times of the year may encourage them to become hormonal more often than other times of the year.

Normally when we leave the house, they are under lockdown, and I've actually recorded their behavior just to see what they do. For the most part, if we're gone for an hour or more, they will just doze, or even sleep. Our house is relatively quiet, and there are little distractions to keep them from relaxing. Of course, I don't know how long or even if they call for us, as my camera did not have audio available. They seem peaceful enough judging by the video.

You know Sam, I see myself filming her while I'm out! I also wonder "how musch sleep does she really get?" After all, I'm sleeping some of that time, and her cage is covered in another room. She does chirp a little in the morning if she hears me moving about. I'd love to have a little camera in her bed time cage just to know!

I used to monitor Smokey and Chibi's sleep, as the way I covered them, and the amount of light from the night light provided me a way to see if they were tucked, or still awake. Results were marginal, but I strongly suspect they both were up till we went to bed, although we use headphones to hear TV, keep their room dark except for the night light, and after they go to bed, we tippy-toe around the house trying not to make any sudden or loud noises. Call it paranoid, but I know my kids, and know what will upset them, or cause them to be startled. Since the addition of the rest, and some modifications to their sleep / awake routines, I don't now know whether they actually go to sleep when bedded down or not. They are fully covered, room is dark except for the nightlight, and position does not permit even partial viewing. I never hear anything except a few cheeps if some noise disturbs them till morning, or the grinding of beaks shortly after covering them. Gizmo is the one who lets me know *he* is awake with first a chirp, then his normal wolf whistle or variation thereof. Nobody seems to be sleepy during the day except Chibi, and I'm ready to consider him a night bird, as he seems to come alive about 3-4 in the afternoon. Pixie is the sleep alarm clock, and she starts hollering about bedtime now about 6-ish, but this evening it was about 5:30 due to cloudiness.

As for the cameras, you can purchase a decent daylight / infrared camera at Sam's club for under a quid last time I was in there. Not sure what the lux is, but most "decent" IR cameras will work satisfactorily in darkness.

I love the little peeps! I'm still up after I put her to bed. If I sneeze, cough, hic-cup, talk - she lets out a peep! My husband does - nothing from her.

Then after a half hour or so, not a peep till morning.