So it seems that Lucy's hormones are starting to act up. For the past few days, she's been doing this thing where she sits in the seed bowl on the bottom of the cage, making weird noises. After watching her trying to figure out what exactly she's doing, I realized that it wasn't exactly child friendly. All I can say is: I guess this explains her recent habit of tearing up the newspaper.

I'm not sure if she expects me to do something, or Alex to do something. Alex is too young to know anything about that, nor does he seem to show interest. I'm not a bird, so that doesn't work either (plus I'm already "bonded" to a human male).

So far, Lucy's behavior hasn't changed otherwise in terms of aggression. She's starting to ask for more scritches though. I'm being careful to not touch her back or anything, because I don't really want her laying eggs. I don't usually pet her on the back anyways, do that's not hard to do.

Is she going to be like this all the way until fall? Should I try the long nights thing to keep her hormones under control?

It sounds like she has a "relationship" with the side of the seed bowl and isn't particularly expecting anything from anyone else. Her mother doesn't hesitate to lay eggs without a nestbox and neither does her sister Teela, so long nights would probably be a good idea.

Jessie Rocko and Loki have been tearing up newspaper the past two days and it has been all over my floor thousands of little pieces ripped up, are they trying to make a nest?

Cockatiels don't build a nest, but they find a hole in a tree and chew up the doorway to make it more homey. Chewing up newspaper is a substitute for this activity. Birds will do some paper-chewing just for the fun of it, but when they do it a lot it stimulates their hormones. So yes, they could be getting ready to breed.

BTW today is the official first day of spring. The days are longer than the nights now, so mother nature is telling them to breed.

Loki has been hormonal since the start of March and wants to mate everyday.

Im gonna prepare to breed them soon

Mine have been wanting to breed since January. With a lot of birds who follow the natural light cycle it begins shortly after the days start getting longer, and it kicks in even harder once the days are longer than the nights.

I think half of the shredding is nesting and half of it is for fun. They seem to really like newspaper soup.

If for whatever reason I can't seem to get the hormones under control and she lays an egg... Should I just keep it on the bottom of the cage, or should I put it in something to act as her nest box? So help me if she decides to lay it in the seed bowl.

I guess my other concern would be if Alex is male and decides that he wants to be an adult before he's ready. That can't be good for his health.
I asked the breeder if she knew his age. She said she found him in the nest box in October, so he's around 5-6 months old (I'd say 6 as he's going through what seems to be a juvenile molt). Longer nights should hopefully prevent that from ever happening though.

Kinda wishing I had a cage with a grated bottom that's big enough for them. Would at least get them to stop with the newspaper shredding.

Well I have newspaper covering my drawer and on the floor to catch poop and they have been shredding it all on the drawer.They dont do it for fun lol because they never used to shred paper.