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Hello all,
I will try to keep this post short in hopes that someone will respond with a bit of advice.
I am someone who has in the past had success with cockatiels. About 8 years ago I got my first pair of cockatiels, both about 1 year old at the time, a male and female. They were together for about 7 years (first few years in separate cages), until the Female sadly passed away after a hawk attacked.
This happened about a year ago, and I was not there at the time as the cockatiels were at my family home with my mother and aunt (I spend about 1/2 my time in my condo about 100 miles away, and 1/2 my time in my family home).
Over the last year I started to spend more time in my condo so I decided to buy a massive spacious cage and move my male cockatiel (now alone) in with me. At first, things were challenging, but over time and with a lot of training, I eventually had a wonderful little companion that would fly when called, remained relatively vocal (but not to an excessive degree), and behaved quite well around me and my girlfriend.
In the last few weeks, me and my girlfriend decided that it might be a good idea to get him a companion, we did, and this is where the problems began.
Immediately after introducing him to the female cockatiel (they are still in separate cages, and only introduced 2 days after the female had already been isolated) my male became extremely aggressive towards me and my girlfriend. Any time we go near his cage he tries to bite us. It is like he forgot who we were, and all of the training that we went through over the past year. He won't listen to instructions, will not "step up" or go near us. Worse of all, he has become completely intolerably loud.
In fact, I am being very gently (not so gently) reminded of the sound ordinances in my HOA (a courtesy step before I get an official notice) because of his constant and extremely loud flock calls. The breeder told us that I cannot put them together yet, as she is only about 8-9 months old.
Basically, I'm in a situation where I will either have to take him back to my family home and have my mother and aunt take care of him (which they will feed him, but not interact or play with him at all, he would basically be on his own), or take the new, terrified, and very young female cockatiel over to them (she's still very apprehensive and scared for the most part).
Not sure what to do at this time. I am leaning towards taking the male back and keeping the female (mostly because of the noise), as I feel as though the last year of training was for nothing.
The female is still naturally extremely fearful of us (attacks and hisses every time we put our hands anywhere near the cage, stands still most of the day in 1 spot looking at us), but I feel as though her being young is an advantage, it gives me time to work with her over the next decade+. This would likely appease both my HOA's complaints about noise, as well as our desire to have a companion bird (though I am aware females are MUCH more challenging to tame than males at times, I did have one).
Anyhow, this is my predicament at the moment. I honestly wish I had never brought a 2nd cockatiel into our lives; what is done is done. Now I have to make a decision.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I will try to keep this post short in hopes that someone will respond with a bit of advice.
I am someone who has in the past had success with cockatiels. About 8 years ago I got my first pair of cockatiels, both about 1 year old at the time, a male and female. They were together for about 7 years (first few years in separate cages), until the Female sadly passed away after a hawk attacked.
This happened about a year ago, and I was not there at the time as the cockatiels were at my family home with my mother and aunt (I spend about 1/2 my time in my condo about 100 miles away, and 1/2 my time in my family home).
Over the last year I started to spend more time in my condo so I decided to buy a massive spacious cage and move my male cockatiel (now alone) in with me. At first, things were challenging, but over time and with a lot of training, I eventually had a wonderful little companion that would fly when called, remained relatively vocal (but not to an excessive degree), and behaved quite well around me and my girlfriend.
In the last few weeks, me and my girlfriend decided that it might be a good idea to get him a companion, we did, and this is where the problems began.
Immediately after introducing him to the female cockatiel (they are still in separate cages, and only introduced 2 days after the female had already been isolated) my male became extremely aggressive towards me and my girlfriend. Any time we go near his cage he tries to bite us. It is like he forgot who we were, and all of the training that we went through over the past year. He won't listen to instructions, will not "step up" or go near us. Worse of all, he has become completely intolerably loud.
In fact, I am being very gently (not so gently) reminded of the sound ordinances in my HOA (a courtesy step before I get an official notice) because of his constant and extremely loud flock calls. The breeder told us that I cannot put them together yet, as she is only about 8-9 months old.
Basically, I'm in a situation where I will either have to take him back to my family home and have my mother and aunt take care of him (which they will feed him, but not interact or play with him at all, he would basically be on his own), or take the new, terrified, and very young female cockatiel over to them (she's still very apprehensive and scared for the most part).
Not sure what to do at this time. I am leaning towards taking the male back and keeping the female (mostly because of the noise), as I feel as though the last year of training was for nothing.
The female is still naturally extremely fearful of us (attacks and hisses every time we put our hands anywhere near the cage, stands still most of the day in 1 spot looking at us), but I feel as though her being young is an advantage, it gives me time to work with her over the next decade+. This would likely appease both my HOA's complaints about noise, as well as our desire to have a companion bird (though I am aware females are MUCH more challenging to tame than males at times, I did have one).
Anyhow, this is my predicament at the moment. I honestly wish I had never brought a 2nd cockatiel into our lives; what is done is done. Now I have to make a decision.
Any advice would be appreciated.
