[FunkatronJive]

Hello everyone!!
I have three male cockatiels in one cage. The baby of the bunch (I think we have had him for 9 months now), sits on the food dish and POOPS in the food!!! Its not like there is no where else to sit..... our old, smaller cage (before we got him) had pieces that snapped in place above the food so the birds couldn't sit on the dishes....

Any ideas what I can buy, or rig up that would be safe?

Thanks,

 

[tielfan]

This is just what birds do. They poop wherever they want to, and if they enjoy sitting on or above the food bowl they will poop on the food. It's worse when they poop in the water bowl - with the food bowl they can pick out the clean seed, but with the water bowl they've got poop soup. The only thing you can do about it is to rearrange the cage so it's harder to poop in the bowl, or provide a new perching place that he likes better than the current spot.

 

[Daytontiel]

One of my cockatiel was used to doing similar thing. Every time I saw her perching on the edge of food bowel, I would pick her up and put her back to main perch. After about month or two, she must got my message, stopping doing that. Some bird will get your message quicker than others. Cockatiel is pretty smart bird, not difficult to train.

 

[Joni]

Try moving it to a different location first. Or may be put in another seed dish somewhere and leave the one he’s sitting on empty. I would try moving it first. They’re creatures of habit and the tend to be very anal about certain things. My baby who is 6 mos old now, kept landing on this wreath I made out of feathers hanging in the wall. I finally took it down for a few days. Then I put it back up and he has no interest at all in it anymore.