Hormones??

AmyMyBlueFront · Feb 25, 2018

...sighhh..I need some input here folks. The Beebs has turned two years old and he is NOT the sweet little boy he was..well that's not entirely true. Sure he is still very lovey and happy and sings/talks and all..but he is being such a !@#$ I've threatened that he is going to live in his house for the rest of his days if he doesn't behave!

And yes I know "It's NEVER the parrots fault!" and I hope you all know I wouldn't do that to him!

So now..besides being relentless about my hand he has gone from boxing with my ear lobe,to picking at "imaginary" things on my neck..first I thought it was hairs he saw..not so. I have gone from raising my collar so he cant pick...then he focuses on my ear..if I shoo him from my shoulder,he climbs on my hand and wants to chaa-chaa..and its repeat repeat repeat..hand/neck/ear/neck/ear/hand/ear etc etc! It is so bad I can't enjoy my little boy anymore and it makes me sad

to te point I put him back in his house.

Like I said..he just turned two..is it hormones? What did/am I doing wrong?? I really love the fluff boy but it has gotten out of control now.

Jim

ParrotLover2001 · Feb 25, 2018

The same thing happened to Elvis around the time he turned two. He went from a loving, cuddling, fluff ball, to a still loving, out of control, hormonal freak!

Sent from my Galaxy s8

bill_e · Feb 25, 2018

Jim, from another of your posts you mentioned possibly clipping Beebs. My last 6 months of experience with Nike is that the exercise she gets from constantly flying seems to control her hormones pretty good. We even been more cuddly with her without a bad result. She's even playing with her "adult" toys and getting all worked up only to fly off and get back to normal.

Now Nike used to act exactly the same way, picking at bugs on my neck, boxing my ear and constant humping. For the ear and neck I have a "bird shirt" which is nothing more than a long sleeve flannel shirt. It covers all my skin and even helps with the pinches through clothes.

Humping was/is controlled by 14 hours of sleep a day and now the exercise.

In another post I mentioned that when Nike had her annual vet visit I had them take the point off her beak while they were doing her nails. This made a drastic difference in the amount of unintentional pain Nike would inflect. I recommend it to everyone who asks and I will continue to do it. He basically just touched the tip of her beak with the dremmel and that was enough to flatten it.

AmyMyBlueFront · Feb 25, 2018

bill_e said:
Jim, from another of your posts you mentioned possibly clipping Beebs. My last 6 months of experience with Nike is that the exercise she gets from constantly flying seems to control her hormones pretty good. We even been more cuddly with her without a bad result. She's even playing with her "adult" toys and getting all worked up only to fly off and get back to normal.

Now Nike used to act exactly the same way, picking at bugs on my neck, boxing my ear and constant humping. For the ear and neck I have a "bird shirt" which is nothing more than a long sleeve flannel shirt. It covers all my skin and even helps with the pinches through clothes.

Humping was/is controlled by 14 hours of sleep a day and now the exercise.

In another post I mentioned that when Nike had her annual vet visit I had them take the point off her beak while they were doing her nails. This made a drastic difference in the amount of unintentional pain Nike would inflect. I recommend it to everyone who asks and I will continue to do it. He basically just touched the tip of her beak with the dremmel and that was enough to flatten it.

Bill BB is flighted still and does do some zooming about. His picking doesn't hurt,he doesn't have the bite of an amazon really. It is just VERY annoying. The ear boxing is just a bambambam type of thing..no malicious chomp/ouchie or anything IRRITATING is all. Maybe when its time for beddy time I'll move his house into my spare bedroom and try that.

Jim

bill_e · Feb 25, 2018

Jim, you could even try just a cage cover. I use a black one. Nike sleeps in the Library which is pretty quiet and dark anyway but she is totally awake until I go to bed if I forget to cover her.

AmyMyBlueFront · Feb 25, 2018

I've been doing that too Bill. But both of the fids are in the living room. Amys house is in the corner and I put a large dark blue bed sheet over it..Sometimes I'm up late (1 am ish) and the tv is on. That doesn't bother Amy she sleeps good but even covered I can hear BB "peep" sometimes if I get up for some reason.
I just moved his house into the other bedroom and we'll see how that works out..still, I'm wondering if its got to due with hormones.

Jim

bill_e · Feb 25, 2018

Well, the picking and biting and humping (I assumed that is what you meant when you said relentless about your hand) are all hormonal activities. One has to wonder how the mates put up with it in the wild

AmyMyBlueFront · Feb 25, 2018

bill_e said:
Well, the picking and biting and humping (I assumed that is what you meant when you said relentless about your hand) are all hormonal activities. One has to wonder how the mates put up with it in the wild

EXACTLY Bill! lol

Jim

FlyBirdiesFly · Feb 25, 2018

Ducky is two years old and hasn’t shown any hormonal behavior whatsoever. I definetly think Ducky is a female cockatiel.

texsize · Feb 26, 2018

the ear lobe boxing could be his way of taping with his beak.
Male Tiels will tap their beak (normally on something hard) to make noise.
I have read it's there way of attracting the ladies to their nesting spot or a "look at me" noise.
Lucky does this on any hard surface. If he is sitting somewhere that does not offer a hard surface he will tap-tap-tap on his own toenails.
I don't know why BB would do this on your ear.

hormones for sure.
Popeye will be 2 in August this year. compared to his sisters he is not interested in spending time with me. When I let him out of his cage he just hangs around the girls cage. climbing on the bars. making chewing motions with his beak. Singing to them.
Because you have no girl Tiels he only has you to try and impress.
I can only guess this behaviour will moderate itself with time.

AmyMyBlueFront · Feb 26, 2018

texsize said:
the ear lobe boxing could be his way of taping with his beak.
Male Tiels will tap their beak (normally on something hard) to make noise.
I have read it's there way of attracting the ladies to their nesting spot or a "look at me" noise.
Lucky does this on any hard surface. If he is sitting somewhere that does not offer a hard surface he will tap-tap-tap on his own toenails.
I don't know why BB would do this on your ear.

hormones for sure.
Popeye will be 2 in August this year. compared to his sisters he is not interested in spending time with me. When I let him out of his cage he just hangs around the girls cage. climbing on the bars. making chewing motions with his beak. Singing to them.
Because you have no girl Tiels he only has you to try and impress.
I can only guess this behaviour will moderate itself with time.

Oh he does the tap tap thing all the time Wes..but doesn't tap my ear,like I said,its a bam bam bam thing..then again,maybe he's tapping it..I can't really SEE him lol...it's like he grabs it and just shakes it a couple quick times

Jim

FlyBirdiesFly · Feb 26, 2018

Ducky has never done the beak tapping, heart wings, singing/whistling, hopping, or strutting. Very sweet & cuddly and has never bitten anyone. This is confirming my suspicions that Ducky is female.

AmyMyBlueFront · Feb 26, 2018

Beebs does all that and then some

Jim

smbrds · Feb 27, 2018

Well Jim...welcome to the terrible tiel twos!! Baby was like that for a couple of years and went from being a lovebug, to a hormonal bug that would do fly attacks. The result was having to clip his wings a little bit. Partly covering helps and limiting the amount of touching and interaction but still have interaction with other activities. Apparently BB's activity now is wanting the chaa-chaa-chaa!!!

When he gets older he'll mellow out. Baby has, and he's still a lovebug if not more and still a hormonal freaky deaky sometimes!

Maybe this can help some - https://www.petcha.com/tone-down-cockatiel-hormones/

LordTriggs · Feb 27, 2018

looks like for the moment BB may have to be loved from a difference to try curbing the behavior of the monster

Hormones??

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