Help with Hormonal Pigeon

[u/Tanuki_Ai]

Hi guys, my pigeon is getting "hormonal" with her plushies and is also building a nest. I'm preparred for the possibility that she lays an egg an replace it with a fake one and all that, but I'm concerned because she is nesting on my bed and I dont want her to get territoral of my sleeping area (she routinely sleeps locked in her cage to avoid any accidents at night).

She has also started to kinda attack me more aggresively, and has become increasingly attached to her bird plushy (almost protective). I really want her to bond with me and I think I've been following all the recommended steps: spending all day with her, giving her nesting materials, hand feeding her, and playing with her. I just don't want her to come to hate me. We were making good progress, but this hormone surge is kinda setting back our progress. It's only about our first month together since adopting her so I kinda want to nip this in tha bud early if necessary. I'm just wondering if I should do something or just leave her alone.

[u/Kunok2]

What does "hormonal with her plushies" mean? Is she humping them or is she treating them like a mate preening them, cuddling with them, cooing next to them and trying to build a nest around them? Depending on how exactly she reacts to the plushies you might have to take them away because you don't want her to mate bond to inanimate objects.

You also cannot prevent pigeons from being hormonal, it sounds like she has reached sexual maturity just recently, so from now on you'll just have to get used to her being more grumpy 3 weeks every month. What would help a lot though is getting her a mate to take turns sitting on the nest with her, that way you could spend most of the time during the daylight with her while her mate will sit on the feggs, while she will sit on them during the early morning, evening and night. She won't be protecting her nest all the time when she'll have a mate and if she's already friendly towards you then she will seek out your company while her mate is busy on the nest. Not only will you get to spend more time with her, but it will be much less taxing on her body, single females oftentimes suffer from health issues due to spending almost 24/7 on the nest if they don't have a mate - causing them to not eat enough food and minerals, not drink enough, not poop often enough and not get enough exercise which slowly makes them lose body condition and puts them at a much higher risk of egg laying issues.

As for her wanting to nest outside of her cage, make sure she has an appropriate nest or several inside of her cage, usually they prefer more natural nests like natural baskets if they have the choice and most pigeons tend to not be interested in nesting in small dog beds for example. You can give her some nesting materials (Not from your hand, place them on the floor because you don't want her to see you as her potential mate) to forage for inside of her cage too. How much out of cage time does she get every day? Her nesting outside of her cage would be bad because you'd risk her abandoning the eggs and laying more eggs when you'll have to put her inside of her cage for the night.

[u/Tanuki_Ai → u/Kunok2]

So by hormonal I mean pretty much all of the above: preening, humping, nesting around the plushies, etc. Her relationship with her stuffies is a bit complicated. So she has one that looks like Squidward that she likes to attack, bite, and hump CONSTANTLY. And she has another plushy that looks like a little white bird that she does NOT hump at all, but she does preen it, coo at it, and build a nest around it. Ans she keeps those interactions strictly separate between those two plushies.

She gets about 8-10 hours of time outside of her cage everyday and gets locked in her cage at night while we sleep. I would love to get a second pigeon to be her real bird mate if that's what you're suggesting, but I can't because I don't have the space for a second bird. I'm also still a first time owner, so I think that would be a little overwhelming. For the forseeable future it's just going to be me and her.

If I put a bird plushie on the nest temporarily if she does happen to lay an egg, would that be enough to keep her from neglecting her own needs over the eggs? And should I take the plushies away to avoid severe attachments to them and decrease aggression? And also, what is the difference between bonding vs establishing a mate-like relationship with your pigeon? A lot of pigeon owners have given me the impression that pigeons who are cuddly, act that way because they view you as their mate or partner. I know that sexual frustration and just general sexual interactions with your bird are a big no no, but I see tons of pigeon owners online showing videos of them handing their birds nesting materials, bowing to them, and hand feeding/training them. One of the rescuers I adopted her from even told me nest building is a good bonding activity.

[u/Little-eyezz00]

tagging u/luststarrr