Ask Lafeber

Cockatiel behavior

So I had three cockatiels. One of them was not hand tamed one is and the other is still a little offish, but will still get on my finger after a few tries. I decided to give the one that was not hand tamed away. After I gave him away I bought a new cockatiel that is hand tame. When brought home the new bird the offish one started to chase the other cockatiel around the cage and would want to be near the new bird. It’s like he is protecting him. I am not sure how to curb this behavior?

Hi Francine,

If you want to handle these birds and have them as pets, each bird needs its own cage. When they are caged together, they eventually bond and become wild. As far as the chasing goes, this is more likely the beginning of aggression. If the new bird is younger, and the other bird is already sexually mature, the older bird will start to bully the younger bird and at some point this can escalate into vicious attacks because the older bird is frustrated with the younger bird. So my advice is to split them up. If you are wanting to breed them at some point, the female needs to be about two years old and the male at least 18 months old. But if you do this, you will not be able to handle them anymore. Since you bought the one to be handtamed, it is best to split them up so it doesn’t start getting wild and so that the older bird doesn’t bully it anymore.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda