Cockatiel problem

dubtom

I'm hoping there is some bird experts here, forgiveness please for the long winded post.

We've had a female cockatiel for several years, fully hand trained and friendly, likes nothing more than to sit on a shoulder and be stroked, very much part of the family with the run of the house.

A few months ago, we got another from the pound in Rathfarnam. A male, juvenile I believe, partially hand trained. It took a while but he settled down, has always been head strong though and will only go to the hand on his terms. The relationship between both birds was never close from day one, we believed she had been too used to only human contact, but hoped they'd get along. During the summer the female went into season as usual, she has done this every year for about the last 4, lays a clutch which we eventually take a way one at a time over time, pretty soon she's back to normal.

Just after her session was over, the male started displaying signs of a brooding male, scampering about the bottom of the cage as if preparing a nest. As himself and the female were not close enough to do the dirty, he usually opted for one of our hands. This we found funny at the start, but not so funny when he started to get very aggressive when he didn't get his way. After a while he started using the remote controls as if they were eggs, sitting on them all day, attack mode if anyone came near and now it's feeding mode.

This started on the pictures on the walls, we didn't notice at the time but he was regurgitating his food as if he was feeding chicks. Several ruined pictures later, (we removed them all) he knows uses the basket where the food is stored. He is ultra aggressive, where a normal bird would fly away if we wag a finger, he attacks, wings out and won't back down.
With the female it's a straight forward thing, let her do her thing with eggs and it's all over within a month or so.

This has being going on now for well over 2 months with him, with no eggs to take away we can think of no way of ending the cycle. Along with the unsightly goo he's making, he's bullying the female constantly, even to the extent of stopping her from entering her cage to feed. So any suggestions?

Sigma Force

Perhaps try the parrot.ie site they might be able to help.
Another option might be to house them seperatly and let them out at alternating times but they can still chat and see each other.

Poor fella sounds very frustrated, I wonder would putting dummy eggs in help. Our tiel is on his own he's a people bird and prefers human company he has a 'girlfriend' though which is the lock on the outside of his cage, when he's out and about he goes up there and gets a bit too friendly with it lol.
If I approach him when he's 'dating' he gets really narky, not as aggressive as your guy though.

I usually just leave him at it and when he's fed up I put him back in, depending on his mood he will step up on my finger but usually have to use a perch and sometimes use the perch and then cover my hand with my sleeve so he doesn't bite.

All I can think of is just a firm 'no' and put him back in his cage if he misbehaves but not sure that's the way to deal with him.
A time out kind of situation.

You could try silvers exotic bird and ferret rescue page on Facebook she might have some better advice for you.

dubtom

Hey thanks for the reply Sigma Force,I'll check out that site.