Question's about a cockatiel

**Balding Bird** · 01-02-2012, 08:11 AM

I have a 3 year old male cockatiel. A few times a year, he goes through the “mating time” and his hormones are very high, he is sexually frustrated as he is a single bird. He becomes quite nippy and even bites to draw blood if you try to pick him up. He also lunges at you and bites as well. We have 2 budgies as well, male and female. Our cockatiel also chases them around during this “mating time”/

Our vet advised us to clip his wings. By doing so, he will no longer be the “Alpha Bird” that knows he can fly away anytime and do whatever he wants. The vet said it would calm him down to a lower pecking order and his behaviour would improve. He would become a lot less nippy and would depend on us more, not being able to fly.

We clipped his wings and he immediately went into a depression. For the past few weeks he sits around a lot with his eyes closed, he cries continuously in his cage off and on every day. He is now flying a bit so seems happier, but he is still very nippy and worse than before after having his wings done. He used to call for us whenever we come home and he no longer does. He doesn’t talk or whistle nearly as much either as before wings was done.

Is there any other way we can deal with his “violent mating time” when he becomes nasty? This period usually goes on for 6 weeks at a time. Is there any kind of food supplement we could add to help?

I really appreciate any advice or help.

**Marrie** · 01-02-2012, 09:53 AM

Usually hormonal periods are triggered by weather/conditions - when they are right the bird thinks it is time to mate. You could try lowering food amounts (don't keep a lot of excess in the bowls), lengthening night time hours and letting it be just a tiny bit colder (a degree or two) when he gets in his crazy mating period and see if that shortens it. Usually when my male gets a bit hormonal I give him another 1-2 hours of sleepy covered time and he calms down.

A few things to look at as well: Does he have a mirror? That can trigger sexual frustration as he will display to it and it won't respond. Does he have a "rubby toy"? If not, you may want to see if you can find one he likes - my tiel is an odd bird and likes the top of his sleep cage, which is shaped like /\ but most will use stuffed animals, soft perches, etc. If they can get that frustration out that way, it can calm them down.

**maxollie** · 01-02-2012, 11:12 AM

When you had the wings clipped did they do a partial clip, or do both wings completely? I'm not familiar with this "option" to tame down a hormonal male tiel. In my opinion, maybe the little tiel feels he has lost all of his ability to fly and be himself. If they did do a complete clip, maybe the next time around you could try a partial clip. There are many breeders and others who visit this community that have a wealth of knowledge about tiel behavior. I am sure that someone who has much more info and knowledge than I will be able to post some other ideas for you to consider. Marrie had some excellent suggestions. I do know that mirrors are not recommended when a tiel is in the hormonal cycle. And whether male or female all birds have their regular hormonal cycle, and display particular behaviors at that particular time. He also could have gotten very frightened during the time his wings were being clipped. Most any bird is scared of human hands, and also, perhaps his wings are hurting from the clipping, especially if they were not clipped before. What are his favorite foods other than his seed and/or pellet mixture. Another suggestion would be to not give him "soft foods", such as boiled veggies, and or soft breads/rice during his hormonal time. Soft foods seem to trigger the instincts of a tiel to mate. And also, if possible, still give to him as much attention and time as you can. Even just sitting next to him and talking to him, or reading a book to him, or encouraging him to chirp and or talk is very helpful. And perhaps the new toy that Marrie spoke about would be something that will perk him up. And finally, tiels and other birds have a keen ability to hide illnesses. Perhaps you might consider having him checked out by your Avian Vet.

**Marrie** · 01-02-2012, 02:43 PM

Ellen, some birds will display aggressive behavior from having their wing feathers - a few members that don't drop by much anymore have to keep their birds wings clipped because if they grow them out, they become aggressive/impossible to handle, think it may be a dominance thing. *shrug* Mine nearly got to that point when he hit puberty, silly thing wouldn't stop dive bombing the boyfriends face and biting blood out of him.

But we managed to save his wing feathers and get him to stop, just barely - with much screaming and 3-4 bloody face bites for the boyfriend. But it is a legitimate suggestion in some cases.