[JonM]

My cockatiel is about 14 months old now. I've been his favorite in the family for most of the time we've had him and it has been about 10 months now. We bought him when he was just 4 or 5 months old. It is my wife and I and our two boys ages 12 and 9. All of a sudden he is attacking and biting me very hard. I know I'm not supposed to react to the biting but he goes for the ears and fingers and bites very hard and draws blood so it is impossible to not react. I am now hunching over and putting my arms over my ears to keep him from biting me in those places. I don't know what to do about this. I've read that he could be hormonal but I can't continue going on like this for much longer. He is out of the cage from around 7:30 to 8:30 or 9 every night. Do I put him in the cage when he bites and leave him there to punish the bad behavior? Please help!

 

[Daytontiel]

Yes, it is hormonal. He is reaching the breeding age. At this age, male cockatiel will start to defense territory, biting is not surprise to me. It is like suddenly, a sweet boy becomes a monster. This is why so many year old boys have been re-homed for the same reason, a sad truth.

What you can do is to increase night hours if possible. If not, use a stick to pick him up. If you keep food and water in cage, he will go back cage by himself

And in the case if you want to get a young cockatiel in the future. Handle the young one daily, such as step up, head scratching, even pick him up by hands for a few months. Once this kind of handing become part of his life. At hormonal stage, he will be more handleable than your current one. Short summary, "early age education" is important!

 

[JonM]

Yes, it is hormonal. He is reaching the breeding age. At this age, male cockatiel will start to defense territory, biting is not surprise to me. It is like suddenly, a sweet boy becomes a monster. This is why so many year old boys have been re-homed for the same reason, a sad truth.

What you can do is to increase night hours if possible. If not, use a stick to pick him up. If you keep food and water in cage, he will go back cage by himself

And in the case if you want to get a young cockatiel in the future. Handle the young one daily, such as step up, head scratching, even pick him up by hands for a few months. Once this kind of handing become part of his life. At hormonal stage, he will be more handleable than your current one. Short summary, "early age education" is important!

Thanks, Daytontiel. We did all that from when we first got him and during this pandemic he's been out of the cage from morning to night and only in the cage to sleep. He was constantly on me and wanting me to scratch and rub him which I did. He was always a very affectionate bird loving attention and rubs. It has just been in the last couple days that he has become territorial over the whole house and has been attacking me and trying to bite my ears and fingers. We were trying to keep him in the cage for the next few days and try to train him and hopefully stop him from biting but my son just let him out by accident. He isn't attacking me right now which is good but I don't know if he'll turn on me at any moment. We shall see what happens.

 

[Boothebigbaby]

I’ve had the same problem with my conure in recent days , it’s breeding season currently and it’s natural for boys to be little monsters at this time , luckily with time he will go back to being calm and sweet . All you can do is sit it out . Put him to bed early , pop him into his cage when he bites , keep noise low and calm, try to give him things to tear up like tissues or cardboard and even popsicle sticks ive found have been my saviour. All you can really do is give him his space and wait it out.

 

[Boothebigbaby]

My conures beak is almost bigger than his body so I know how frightening it can be when they attack you , but try not to feel discouraged , they don’t really know what they are doing and they don’t mean to hurt you it’s just their hormones .

 

[JonM]

I’ve had the same problem with my conure in recent days , it’s breeding season currently and it’s natural for boys to be little monsters at this time , luckily with time he will go back to being calm and sweet . All you can do is sit it out . Put him to bed early , pop him into his cage when he bites , keep noise low and calm, try to give him things to tear up like tissues or cardboard and even popsicle sticks ive found have been my saviour. All you can really do is give him his space and wait it out.

Thank you. Will try all of that.

 

[Newfie_In_TX]

I had someone tell me that blowing on them when they bite works to train them not to bite or wearing latex gloves (because they don't like the taste). We've only had our cockatiel a week now so we are taking the handling slow for now so I don't know if any of this works or not.

Your tiel sounds like a cat my grandma used to have. It would let you touch her and she would purr like she was happy then all of a sudden without any warning claws would dig into your arm and bite, or she would attack with you just sitting there minding your own business totally unprovoked. Used to have everyone nervous all the time! It was terrible feeling!

I feel so bad for you and your family! I hope ours doesn't get like this. Cockatiel bites do hurt way more then I imagined they would! Ours only bit me once when we first got him home and I was trying to get him in cage. He even had drawn blood through my guitar playing calloused finger tips! It took me two days to get the nerve to put my hand in cage without a glove on after that. I'm so sorry you are going through this!

Good luck to you.

 

[JonM]

I had someone tell me that blowing on them when they bite works to train them not to bite or wearing latex gloves (because they don't like the taste). We've only had our cockatiel a week now so we are taking the handling slow for now so I don't know if any of this works or not.

Your tiel sounds like a cat my grandma used to have. It would let you touch her and she would purr like she was happy then all of a sudden without any warning claws would dig into your arm and bite, or she would attack with you just sitting there minding your own business totally unprovoked. Used to have everyone nervous all the time! It was terrible feeling!

I feel so bad for you and your family! I hope ours doesn't get like this. Cockatiel bites do hurt way more then I imagined they would! Ours only bit me once when we first got him home and I was trying to get him in cage. He even had drawn blood through my guitar playing calloused finger tips! It took me two days to get the nerve to put my hand in cage without a glove on after that. I'm so sorry you are going through this!

Good luck to you.

Thanks, Newfie. All is actually really good now. We moved to a different house during this pandemic and the change of scenery brought him back to his gentle, affectionate ways. No biting and just wants to be massaged and played with. He’s super happy. We’ll see what happens when he gets more familiar with the surrounding but for now all is great. Good luck with your new cockatiel.