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Hello! I am new here and looking for some advice on my nearly 2 year old male cockatiel.
He was adopted right after weaning from a reputable aviary and was very sweet until he became hormonal last spring. We dealt with that by getting him up later, trimming his wings, and keeping him out of high places like window sills where he loved to sit, but became very obsessed with. That worked for a while until a few months ago, when he started becoming aggressive again, and now he’s the worst I’ve ever seen.
For a while (beginning a few months ago) he would only allow you to take him out of his cage at certain times of the day. We got a new, bigger cage recently and he seems to be used to it, but won’t let us get him out at all anymore. He just sits in there all day and won’t come out. We can sometimes bribe him to come out with this fuzzy glove he is obsessed with, but I know that’s not healthy for him.
He will occasionally put his head down when near him and let you reach in your hand ONLY to pet, but if you show signs of wanting him to step up, he starts biting. And I don’t just mean nibbling, I mean biting HARD. Every member of my family has drawn blood from one of his bites.
For the past couple days he gets aggressive when I even go NEAR his cage. Just a few minutes ago, I stood 2 feet away from his cage and he turned into a little dinosaur, hissing and attacking everything surrounding him. I’ve never seen this before.
I’d like to think we give him plenty of attention between the 5 of us. We talk to him plenty and always have him in our gathering spaces, and put on the tv when we’re not around. He follows a pretty regular routine. He probably sometimes doesn’t get as much sleep as is ideal because sometimes we have to get up early or go to bed late, so that could be something to work on.
We’ve tried training him, but the problem is that he doesn’t really have a “treat” we can bribe him with. He doesn’t like millet that much. He likes ezekiel bread toast but when he’s in a bad mood, the toast might as well be your finger coming to threaten him.
I really miss playing with him and it makes me so sad when every day he rejects my offers to come out of his cage.
Anyone have any suggestions??
He was adopted right after weaning from a reputable aviary and was very sweet until he became hormonal last spring. We dealt with that by getting him up later, trimming his wings, and keeping him out of high places like window sills where he loved to sit, but became very obsessed with. That worked for a while until a few months ago, when he started becoming aggressive again, and now he’s the worst I’ve ever seen.
For a while (beginning a few months ago) he would only allow you to take him out of his cage at certain times of the day. We got a new, bigger cage recently and he seems to be used to it, but won’t let us get him out at all anymore. He just sits in there all day and won’t come out. We can sometimes bribe him to come out with this fuzzy glove he is obsessed with, but I know that’s not healthy for him.
He will occasionally put his head down when near him and let you reach in your hand ONLY to pet, but if you show signs of wanting him to step up, he starts biting. And I don’t just mean nibbling, I mean biting HARD. Every member of my family has drawn blood from one of his bites.
For the past couple days he gets aggressive when I even go NEAR his cage. Just a few minutes ago, I stood 2 feet away from his cage and he turned into a little dinosaur, hissing and attacking everything surrounding him. I’ve never seen this before.
I’d like to think we give him plenty of attention between the 5 of us. We talk to him plenty and always have him in our gathering spaces, and put on the tv when we’re not around. He follows a pretty regular routine. He probably sometimes doesn’t get as much sleep as is ideal because sometimes we have to get up early or go to bed late, so that could be something to work on.
We’ve tried training him, but the problem is that he doesn’t really have a “treat” we can bribe him with. He doesn’t like millet that much. He likes ezekiel bread toast but when he’s in a bad mood, the toast might as well be your finger coming to threaten him.
I really miss playing with him and it makes me so sad when every day he rejects my offers to come out of his cage.
Anyone have any suggestions??
