[Nattybaxter91]

Hi Everyone,
I am hoping you can help me.
We have a white pied faced cockatiel. We have had Lenny for just over a year.

We have had issues with him becoming obsessed and aggressive when he has a mirror. He seemed to go through the adolescence stage with a few behaviours but after the breeding season he became content without the mirror.
We thought we had passed the behavioural issues HOWEVER......around August until present he has become obsessed with his shadow, reflection in any surface. He's obsessed with the fridge. Unfortunately we have shiny gloss cupboards, yes he's obsessed with these. Even his tray on the bottom of his cage when we take the paper off, he can see a slight reflection.

He has a toy in his cage that he is also obsessed with. And he pecks at it whilst what we think is masturbating

At the moment we are not able to interact with him outside the cage as he will just fly off and get his fix in the fridge, cupboards bar stools, photoframes.

If this just the mating season or a phase. Is there something we can do apart from sell and cover all our furniture/fittings and sit in the dark 🙈🙈

We have even had to cover his metal food bowls, he is extremely obsessed. We obviously don't want to just get another cockatiel as I think he would stalk her to death. 😂

On a serious note though I am worried that he's not happy or that we are doing something wrong.

Thanks everyone. 🤞🤞

 

[luvtiels11]

Hi. I've never used a mirror with my cockatiels because they can get too attached to the "other bird in the mirror". But it seems he's both hormonal at the time and also lonely. You can try getting him a companion. If you don't want a female, maybe another male. In any case, you would have to put them in separate cages at first and put them side by side so that they meet and get used to seeing each other. See how they react. I also recommend putting the new bird in quarantine before putting them together. Does he has toys in the cage? They love things that they can shred. Also, you can leave some soft music for him or the tv with sounds of birds and instrumental music. Mine love music.

 

[Nattybaxter91]

Thank you so much for your reply and great advice.
We both thought he is hormonal and lonely. And obviously getting worse as he's become more obsessed with finding that "other bird" in reflective objects.
I now need to convince the husband to get another one 😁😁
Would you recommend the same breed?

 

[dianne]

I think a cockatiel would be the best companion. I have three budgies and two tiels. The tiels seem to much prefer each other’s company. However, in my experience they get along. If you got a budgie that could work out too. Before I got my second cockatiel the female spent more time interacting with my budgie, which I had one of at that time.