A African Grey Question

Wakizashi21

Regular Member
Hi All,

Has been a long time since i started a topic but thought I definitely want to know the answer to this question.

Is it the time of the year for African Greys to start mating?

Well reason i ask is....Lola is making some weird noises when she is out of the cage and when i am near her....i dont touch her neck or do anything really when she does that, but i am the one usually feeding them everyday.



Hopefully the link should work




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The sound dose not work but just seeing her behaviour I can say this is female love making behaviour. She is trying to gain you as a partner and also regurgitating to show she is strong to feed the chicks. you should try to ignore her passes and never stroke her down her back. it is not a sign of her about to lay and I have found there is no actual season for them to lay when in a home environment.
 
Thanks for that Michael. Ah i was told Lola could be a boy [emoji65] haha do males do this too? She makes a chirping sort of noise...not sure why the voice never worked...

She is trying to feed me that i know for sure....does it sometimes and i move away quickly


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the reaction is more of a females although the male may drop its wings in the dance the will normally try to regurgitate on your hand or a near by object or even try to feed you. they try to prove they can provide for the female if she is laying the female keeps the food in her beak and shows you
 
Normally the female is a lighter colour than the male, Normally the Female will have eyes the shape of a rugby ball and male have rounded eyes like a foot ball, Normally the female is slightly bigger than the male, Normally the actions I have mentioned can help determine, but are greys Normal Ha Ha NO. as one person said dose it truly matter except for another grey of course, of course as the carer its good to know the sex there is one thing that is a positive sign is if it lays an egg its not a male Ha Ha
 
Can't see your link says something about needing to be logged into icloud etc

With my greys … two go broody towards christmas and one goes broody at easter there are two times of year for them to click naturally into breeding times.
Colour is not indicative of sex of a bird sometimes you can tell on size as hens are usually lighter than the males nor is the old thing about looking at the eye shape. Hens are often smaller than the males usually weight wise by a good amount of grams males hitting towards 700gms tops but since humans can get it wrong with the feeding hmmm hens can get too fat if on incorrect diet and every now and again you get a really heavy hen bird
When hatched the females are heavier than the males until they get to about 8 weeks old and then the males over take in weight and some breeders have observed that the hens actually are totally different when they are feeding when being hand reared females more aggressive at really eating the food until they get to a few weeks,
Males as well as females will do the regurgitating wing dropping clucky thing.
Kev H's Gizmo does it and Gizmo is male

Try this https://www.animalgenetics.eu/Avian/avian-dna-sexing/dna-sexing-feather.html if you really really want to know
 
Can't see your link says something about needing to be logged into icloud etc

With my greys … two go broody towards christmas and one goes broody at easter there are two times of year for them to click naturally into breeding times.
Colour is not indicative of sex of a bird sometimes you can tell on size as hens are usually lighter than the males nor is the old thing about looking at the eye shape. Hens are often smaller than the males usually weight wise by a good amount of grams males hitting towards 700gms tops but since humans can get it wrong with the feeding hmmm hens can get too fat if on incorrect diet and every now and again you get a really heavy hen bird
When hatched the females are heavier than the males until they get to about 8 weeks old and then the males over take in weight and some breeders have observed that the hens actually are totally different when they are feeding when being hand reared females more aggressive at really eating the food until they get to a few weeks,
Males as well as females will do the regurgitating wing dropping clucky thing.
Kev H's Gizmo does it and Gizmo is male

Try this https://www.animalgenetics.eu/Avian/avian-dna-sexing/dna-sexing-feather.html if you really really want to know

@DizzyBlue thanks for that. Really helpful info above. I will see if i can fix the link or post it on youtube and send a link here.

It was kinda strange as she was making a really weird noise lol i am trying to quickly turn her attention away when she does it


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Birds breeding timetable is based on warmth, daylight and abundance of food. In homes we give all this all year round. Maybe increase her night time hours and watch any warm mushy foods as this can stimulate also.
 
Birds breeding timetable is based on warmth, daylight and abundance of food. In homes we give all this all year round. Maybe increase her night time hours and watch any warm mushy foods as this can stimulate also.

Did you mean to decrease the night hours? To my observations (I keep my birdies outside the house) the most important thing that pushes them to be broody is the duration of sunlight. As soon as I get less sunlight than 12/12 ( which is in the middle of the autumn here/mid September) they begin. About warmth, on February which is the coldest month here hey are in their pick. Especially my hen who is hatched on February too.
 
I think I would put her on a playstand whilst she exhibits this behaviour, I feel anything you do in this mode is seen as a green light tbh. BTW my girls are going 12-14 hours at night at the moment.

@erithacus no hun increase them.
 
Did you mean to decrease the night hours? To my observations (I keep my birdies outside the house) the most important thing that pushes them to be broody is the duration of sunlight. As soon as I get less sunlight than 12/12 ( which is in the middle of the autumn here/mid September) they begin. About warmth, on February which is the coldest month here hey are in their pick. Especially my hen who is hatched on February too.

Im sure i read somewhere, that it also depends when they are born....not sure how that has an impact though.

I have mine indoors but we have massive windows with direct sunlight


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I think I would put her on a playstand whilst she exhibits this behaviour, I feel anything you do in this mode is seen as a green light tbh. BTW my girls are going 12-14 hours at night at the moment.

Do yours become more aggressive at this stage? I suppose i try and give them all equal attention but no body likes second turns [emoji23] so i have to watch out for a viper bite as soon as i get anywhere near the other cages


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Did you mean to decrease the night hours? To my observations (I keep my birdies outside the house) the most important thing that pushes them to be broody is the duration of sunlight. As soon as I get less sunlight than 12/12 ( which is in the middle of the autumn here/mid September) they begin. About warmth, on February which is the coldest month here hey are in their pick. Especially my hen who is hatched on February too.

Do you have a link to your post? Looking for it but cant find it....


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Birds held in captivity are prompted to breed, it is someone's income. I would be looking closely at the quantities of food I am feeding, birds in homes can be greedy. Make her forage more, @RoyJess came up with some great ideas of food in cups. The more occupied she is with food the less time she has to think or be driven into mating behaviour.
 
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Do yours become more aggressive at this stage? I suppose i try and give them all equal attention but no body likes second turns [emoji23] so i have to watch out for a viper bite as soon as i get anywhere near the other cages
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No hun, I don't accept anything that resembles mating behaviour. Lou tries, she will do the 'hokey cokey' on my hands but she just gets put down and given a distraction so she goes back to juggling :)

The girls get attention in another room out of sight, Lou can be jealous sometimes but she just hurts our ears LOL.
 
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