How do I get my birds to stop having sex, without seperating them???

Question

They are a couple of Peach Faces and they are going non-stop all the time. They have no shame. The funny thing is their names are Dick and Flop. Seriously. Flop's the female and Dick is the male. Can someone help??

Answer 1

Shame is unknown in birds. :P They don't see it at all as a shameful act. It's more like one of two things:
1. Pleasure. Birds who are bonded will do the "favour" for each other of stimulating the other in the highest sensitivity areas - under the wings and on the back. It's closely related to bonding, whether they're trying to breed or not and even whether they're same or opposite sex.
2. They think it's baby making time. Something in your environment is telling them it's spring time, the birds are singing, the clouds are fluffy, a baby would go great in this environment.

To decrease or stop this behaviour, decrease mating triggers.

i) Decrease daylight hours. If birds have long hours (more than 12) of daylight, it will seem like spring or summer, a good breeding season. To control this, cover their cage at a set "bed time" and uncover them in the morning, 10 to 12 hours later. It's best to use a thin, dark sheet so they don't get overheated and so the light can't get in. Some people use towels or thin blankets, and I like to use fleece throws. If you want to be drastic (in the case that you're afraid the female may lay eggs, for example), you can cover them for 20 to 22 hours and only allow them very, very short hours of daylight. It's up to you and your "desperation".

ii) Monitor food intake. Feed them only what they can eat for themselves. I'll assume by peachfaced, you mean peachfaced lovebird. Typical lovebirds eat about 1.5 spoons of food per day, so for two, you would feed 3 spoons of food per day. You need to judge on your own, however, how much your birds as individuals eat. If they are larger and have larger builds, they may eat more, or if they're petite, they may eat less. Judge this by seeing how much food is left or how hungry they look after eating when you clean and refill the food. An excess of food gives the message that there is enough food for babies.

iii) Mental stimulation. They may not have anything better to do. Do they have toys in their cage? How many? Do you change them around? Birds need constant mental stimulation, and they should have a wealth of toys and perches in their cage. Of course, there should still be ample space to fly and exercise, but the rest of the space should be things they can occupy themselves with. I would say keep 15+ toys on hand so you can change them frequently. I suggest to people that they rearrange their bird cages totally at least once a week so that not one thing remains the same inside. It gives them new things to play with and they have to adjust to feel comfortable and confident enough to have young there.

iv) Petting. Do you pet them? If you do, stop. The only pettable place is really the head, or you run the risk of stimulating them and sending the message to them that they should be making babies because of that touch.

v) Nesting. If you have a little nook in the cage that they can sort of hide in, they may consider that a nest and try to make babies to fill it. The same applies to nesting material. If they see it, they'll take it and put it to good use. If you notice them chewing up the paper to take to a specific place in the cage, you could place a grate over the paper so they don't have access to their nesting materials.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Now that's some kind of sex drive. Just curious, why do you think you need to stop them from doing this? If it is unacceptable to you then maybe finding them a home where it doesn't bother anyone is the answer. They are doing what comes naturally and that's just the way it is.

Answer 3

Throw a bucket of water on them. Seriously, the water bottle constitutes abuse.

Birds have that primal instinct to propagate their species. It's imbedded so deep nobody could change it except by death. I have some I wish I could get to do that. What do you feed yours ?

Answer 4

You may try changing their names. If that doesn't work then the answer to your question is You Don't.

Answer 5

Not much you can do about it. Nobody seperated my wife and I and we have 5 daughters.

Answer 6

There's nothing your going to do to stop them unless their apart, sorry but thats nature.

Answer 7

well theres one thing u can do i would just squirt them with a bit of water, and keep doing it until they know that they should not do that!

Answer 8

no such thing realy,(no offence.)

if u dont want them to not to have chicks ,well just dont provide nestbox.(but i guest u already knew tat)