BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds My cockatiel is a troublemaker! Help!

(This is going to be a long one, sorry guys)I feel like I am going crazy. I "rescued" my cockatiel, Sheik, from a pet store in our town a few months ago. My boyfriend and I weren't going to get another bird after our other cockatiel died of cancer in early September, but when we saw Sheik, we just instantly fell in love. She was being so playful, hanging upside down in her cage and chirping loudly when we talked to her, that we couldn't help it.

She was terrified of people when we brought her home. We've been working with her since we got her and we've seen some drastic improvements. She now loves to be pet and loves people's attention, but she's turned into a spoiled brat. She's got two problems, which I can't seem to correct no matter how much I try. The first is that she screams constantly if she wants something. It doesn't matter whether it's food, attention, to be out of the cage, you name it, she screams.

We tried to ignore it at first, following the suggestions of some articles online. The problem with this is that she does not stop screaming until you give her what she wants. There was a period where we changed the type of food we were giving her. (She wouldn't eat her pellets, only the seeds, so we started giving her just pellets to get used to them.) She would just scream all day long. And I'm talking ALL DAY, no exaggeration here. It caused a lot of problems with our roommate. We finally got her to eat the pellets and that calmed the screaming a little. But she still screams whenever she wants attention. It's easy to ignore during the day, but at 7am when you're trying to get that last half hour of sleep before you have to get up for work, it's not so easy.

I tried to find other methods of controlling the screaming. Someone suggested spritzing her with water. That worked for a while, but then she started to like it, so now she screams in order to get sprayed.(It's really funny, she'll open her wings so she can get a bath.) We also tried making the room darker, and giving her a heavier cover for her cage so she wouldn't scream in the morning, but that didn't help either. Putting her in time out is also not working. I'm all out of ideas at this point.

The second problem we have with her is that she bites really hard. She's broken skin on numerous occasions when I've had to handle her. This morning I was trying to put her in her time out cage because she had been screaming since 7 am, and she clamped onto my finger and wouldn't let go! I've never given her a reaction to the biting, except telling her "No," so I don't understand why she keeps doing it. Sometimes I wonder if it's possible she understands when she's being punished and is doing it out of spite.

I'd appreciate any advice you guys can give me. Thanks so much.

A very frustrated bird owner,
Angie

Hi Aerith,

This is going to be VERY long but i hope it will help you.

First, thank you so much for being willing to rescue a bird. I volunteer with a bird rescue group and the path you have chosen can be very difficult but extremely rewarding.

Cockatiels are generally very personable and friendly birds although any rescue bird can come with "baggage." There is lots of help available. First, there is a woman who publishes a magazine dedicated completely to behavioral issues with birds. Her name is Barbara Heidenreich and the magaazine is called Good Bird Magazine BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Lots of great information Pat. Thanks for passing that advice on for Angie and for many of the others who read the forum.

The only point that I disagree with you on is the "alpha" point. I do not believe that birds really have alphas or leaders. There often is a problem with a bird being higher than the person though - either on the head (sometimes shoulder too) or on top of a very high cage (or cupboards or curtain rod). The problem is that the bird knows he or she can't be reached easily and enjoys watching your frustration trying to catch him.

Although you stated it Pat, I have to really emphasize again that punishment DOES NOT work with birds. All they learn when punished is that they can not trust you and you have just taken two giant steps backwards in your attempt to fix the problem.

Your first step, as Pat indicated, is to make an appointment with an avian vet to rule out a medical cause for the screaming. Cockatiels do not normally scream, although the males do sing, and sing loudly at times.

Please keep us informed as to how things are going.

Hi Mavis and all,

Mavis, thanks for your thoughts and knowledge on this issue. I have so often heard (from my bird rescue group and our vets) about keeping birds "low" (when they are aggressive) and working with them due to the "alpha" thing and am really interested to hear more about your what you know about this issue. I have 12 birds in my home (8 my own and 4 fosters) and all of them are rescues. As i thought about what you said i realize that with my small birds (budgies, for example) i never worry about this issue. I don't really either with my cockatiels actually. I certainly do with my DYH Amazon. She is a wonderful bird with a wonderful and loving 25 yr background (unlike most rescues) and yet she can get aggressive especially when she is hormonal. But, i guess, i still am a little puzzled in that i have heard for so long about this issue of keeping them low cuz when they are higher up and aggressive they often do think of themselves as "in charge" or "alpha." So, i'm really interested to hear more of your thoughts.

I, too, hope that you, Angie, will keep posting and letting us know how it's going.

pat

Hi Pat

Yes, the thought of birds on shoulders getting the idea that they are dominate has been around for a long, long time.

Birds do like the highest perch, but not for dominance. They naturally go to the highest perch so they can see farther. Birds are not domesticated and they still work on the instincts of a wild bird who needs a good vantage point to check for danger.

A shoulder is a nice comfortable place for a bird to sit. They are up high enough to see around and they are close to their person. If their person puts a hand up to try to get him to step up, the bird can quickly move over to the other shoulder or hang on right at the center of your back - out of reach. He might even try to bite the hand. The problem isn't dominance, the problem is that the bird knows you are going to put him back in his cage and he doesn't want to go. Another problem is that they might bite their person, especially when hormonal when you can never really trust them or if something startles him, or if a bite might mean he won't have to go back to the cage right now.

An article that a friend (Gay Noeth) wrote called Bird Behavior explains a lot about shaping a bird's behavior without trying to dominate.

Hey guys. Thanks for the advice. I will try looking at those articles you linked for me.

I have actually taken Sheik to the vet already (we have two avian veterinarians at an animal hospital not far from me, about 30 minutes or so) because I suspected something was wrong when she was biting me so hard. They said she was a very healthy bird, and all I would have to do is just ignore the screaming and work with her more. I'm also lucky to have a good friend who has been breeding and raising cockatiels since she was about 13 or so, so she is a great resource, but even she's stumped on this one. It seems like Sheik only screams when she wants us to do something. Like, when she hears us moving around in the room, and wants us to play with her at 7:30 in the morning. hehe.

I've never yelled or screamed at her. I've said "shhh" a couple of times, but she has no idea what that means, so it didn't make any difference. Sometimes I'll tell her to be a quiet birdy, and wait until she calms down a little to give her attention, but the positive re-enforcement hasn't been working so far, maybe I just need to keep up with it and be persisitent.

Her cage isn't in a high place, it's on my desk next to my computer where my boyfriend and I spend most of our time, so she shouldn't be lonely. I take her out of her cage whenever I'm home and I let her sit on my shoulder or the arm of my chair and pet her while she plays with her toys and things. She's very tame, she knows the step up command, and loves to be pet, and is okay with being touched, it's just that when she gets startled, or when she's in a particularly bad mood, she bites REALLY hard. Especially when I have to cradle her in my hands for wing clipping and such, then she's relentless. My friend who's got experience with cockatiels said I need to handle her more and it should quell the biting, but I haven't seen any improvement.

I have my suspicions that my boyfriend might be making the situation worse. Whenever I have to pick Sheik up, she will squeal and complain, and bite. Then my boyfriend will make a huge fuss because he thinks I'm hurting her, but I've never held her tight at all. I know she doesn't like it, but I can't clip her wings without handling her. I really don't think I'm hurting her. I think she can probably sense that he's upset and it may be making her more irritated.

Could she be bonded to the boyfriend and screams when you are close to him? You don't mention how old your tiel is. Do you have the radio or TV on in your room when you are gone? You might try adding a little Rescue Remedy to her water to calm her down abit and lessen her anxiety. Is she clipped? Sometimes that will modify the behavior and give you a chance to bond with her before the feathers grow back again. Also, make sure she has absolutely NO sunflower seeds in her seed/pellet mix. Sunflowers can make a fid nasty!

I think you have gotten excellent advice from both Pat and Mavis and I just wanted to add a few more thoughts.