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Question:

October 14, 2019

Cockatiel behavior Part 2


So before like I said I had three cockatiels. One is hand tamed (Patches). One I was working with that is semi tame. He will get on my finger after a few tries. His name is Sugar. The third was not hand tamed. Frosty is his name. I gave Frosty away because I could not hand tame him. All of the birds are male. So after I gave frosty away about 3 weeks I got a new male cockatiel that is hand tame. (sunshine) When I brought sunshine home Sugar start being aggressive toward me and patches. Every time I had sunshine on my shoulder sugar wanted to be near him. Sugar would chase patches around the cage sometimes. When I leave patches and sunshine together they are just fine together, but sugar doesn’t like that. I have put him in a different cage and he paces sometimes. I am not sure what to do. I don’t want to breed any of them. When I had frosty sugar didn’t act this way. I am not sure what I should do.


Answer:

Hi Francine,

Thanks for the clarification. Even with same sex birds, you can end up with somewhat of a hormonal/breeding behavior situation. Birds do flock for safety, but within the flock, there will be juvenile groups, birds just starting to mature who are looking for mates, and bonded pairs. Juveniles all interact although most preening is limited to the head. Slightly older birds who are ready to select a mate will have more disputes, will show off and will tend to have favorite companions until a mate is ultimately selected. And bonded birds mostly keep company with each other and groom each other on the heads and entire body.

So first, since you do want these as pets, each bird needs its own cage. Even when caging same sex birds together, they tend to develop a mate type bond and this comes into conflict when a human wants to handle one of them. Is Sunshine over a year old and you are 100% sure he is male? Regardless, Sugar has decided he likes Sunshine and he does not want to share him. This is what is causing the aggression because when a bird chooses a mate or companion, it will fight other birds because they are rivals for his attention. You are also a rival. Even if you can handle Sugar, he does not want you to handle Sunshine. By keeping them in their own cages, this may work itself out. But, since Sugar is not as much of a people bird as the other two, he may always act this way and may always struggle to be with Sunshine. If you had all three birds in one cage, this is never a good idea, even with same sex pets. You always end up with an odd bird out and as I mentioned, the aggression can become more violent.

So my best advice is for each bird to have his own cage. Even Sunshine and Patches might start acting like Sugar if you cage them together. You are the companion for each bird and need to split your time between them. It might be necessary to handle Sunshine in another room where Sugar can’t see you handle him, or he will keep getting stressed out. You can let them interact on a play stand but not in a cage.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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