my cockatiel has a crush on my ringneck

[marilize]

Hi everyone

I have a very odd problem... a few years ago, i added a ringneck breeding pair to my aivary (where i already had an old pair of cockatiels). Needless to say, this did not end well... the female ringneck ate my female cockatiel . After this happened, i moved all my cockatiels (a breeding pair - the male being the son of the female killed by the ringeck) that i had left to the neighbours birdcage temporarily - just until the end of breeding season.

(ok its a long story, but this is a complicated situation!)

It was a good breeding season, in which i got myself 2 ringnecks to handrear . So i put the cockatiel pair back in my aivary. This is where the nonsense started... the male cockatiel got a crush on my (first) female ringneck! He would follow her everywhere, doing a little tweet-tweet mating dance... and ended up losing a few toes and feathers. Luckily for him, i sold my breeding pair of ringnecks a while after this. For 2 years or so after this, the cockatiel bred with his partner (a great breeding pair) giving around 30ish chicks. By this time, my handreared ringnecks (both females) were full grown, and i was allowing them in the avairy during the day.

And here it began AGAIN. The male cockatiel dropped his female COMPLETELY and went after my one female ringneck (whose mother just happened to kill his mother - sounds like a real drama movie). The ringneck just tolerated him (though he did lose some more toes) - but she died 2 years later . AND THEN the cockatiel decided to go for my other female ringneck... if i were her i would have killed that cockatiel ages ago. He is never more than 10cm away from her... if she flies away he follows, if she baths hes in the water with her. And constantly doing his little mating dance.

My ringneck seemed a bit lonely (i went to uni, and she became an avairy bird - but is still quite tame) so this holiday i bought her a mate (a sexy blue ringneck). They hit it off immediately and started with their ringneck mating dance... with the cockatiel sitting on the other side of the female ringneck BITING HER TO GET HER ATTENTION. She is just ignoring it, but the male ringneck seems to be getting more and more annoyed - the cockatiel has the nerve to hiss at him from the side of the female while he(the ringneck) is feeding the female! That cockatiel is really a bad 3rd wheel.

I really am running out of ideas... the cockatiel has had a 3 day "time out" where we put him in a small cage to maybe find himself (or something), but the moment we put him back in the cage he went straight for the ringneck (btw... he only has 2 toes left on each foot - but hes not learning)
Nobody wants to buy cockatiels... specially not with the way his feet looks.
I dont want to take him to the (only) petshop here... the conditions there is horrible.
If i leave him in the cage, the male ringneck WILL kill him :|
Im actually considering letting him out accidently... and feeding him outside :S

Any ideas? Maybe shock treatment would help? lol

 

[Beilana]

Firstly Welcome to the forum and Secondly...WOW! lol That is some serious birdie drama happening!

I hope someone here has some great advice for you. Have you tried keeping the cockatiel in his own cage?

 

[Aussie Ben]

Man you could make a million with that story line lol.

Welcome to the forum, this is a great place. I have never heard of a cockatiel doing that before. But I guess if they will do it to humans, they will do it to any other bird I wouldn't recommend 'accidentally' letting him out, probably not a smart move. I'm sure someone here can help, there are plenty of people with bird breeding experience on here.

 

[marilize]

Thanks for the replies guys

I have tried putting him in a small cage, and also in my mom's canary/finch avairy... but he just tries to get out and screams non stop.

My avairy is relatively big, lots of flying space, so keeping him in a little cage is a bit cruel i think (hes been in a big avairy since forever)

I do understand that birds form bonds and stuff, but seriously (lol)... he HAS his mate of 2+ years in the cage with him, he should go bother her in stead Also, he is not a tame bird... he was brought up, by his parent cockatiels, with cockatiels etc... maybe hes having a midlife crises? :S

Anyone know a ringneck who is into cross-racial stuff? Coz that would be an interesting breed

ps - how can i upload a pic?

 

[Aussie Ben]

Crikey, a Ringatiel! I would love to see that lol

Is there any way you could divide the aviary into 2? So he could be in proximity, but not right next to the ringneck?

As for pictures I'm not an admin but hopefully I explain it right:
You can attach pictures when you are writing a post, just click the 'manage attachments' button OR you can upload them to your personal album where you control who's sees them (you can also add them to your posts once uploaded) OR you can upload them to the public gallery. Note the size restrictions when uploading. There is some info in the technical support section I think.

 

[marilize]

I need to edit my story a bit (it gets more complicated, I forgot the finer details ) – maybe it will help get behind the psychological problem of the cockatiel

First I had 2 cockatiels, pair A . They were a breeding pair, my original aviary birds.
I then got a ringneck breeding pair, pair B. During the first breeding season that I had my ringnecks, pair A had to stay in the neighbors’ cage, where they had 2 chicks – “C – the male cockatiel causing the problems” and “D” The ringneck pair did not hatch any eggs that season.

The neigbour’s daughter decided to tame “C” by taking him out of the cage when he was young – he flew away after the 3rd attempt and lived outside (a pro escape artist – nobody was able to catch him)

Once the breeding season was done, and the nests were out of the aviary, I put pair A + D back with pair B. Things went well, so the next breeding season we put a nest up for A on the one side of the cage, and one for B on the other side. Female A accidently climbed in the wrong nest, and that was the end of her.

Group B continued breeding (successfully) and gave me 2 chicks to raise that year. At the end of the season I swopped male A for a female for D (call her “E”) – during this time “C” was enjoying being a free man
While I was rearing my baby ringnecks, I managed to catch “C” after he had been free for around 6 or so months. We added him to the aviary, where he immediately started annoying female B with his mating dances etc – male B didn’t tolerate it that much though.

I sold pair B short after this, since I got the baby ringnecks I wanted – then C and E started breeding very successfully (D turned out to be a female), with multiple batches of chicks per season (my sister was handraising them and selling them)

Then I started allowing my handraised ringnecks (candycane & cocopuff) to spend time in the aviary during the day. After some time, I had to allow them to stay in the aviary all day since I was going to university and they could not go with – they loved it.
The year I went to university (I could only go home around 3 months a year at most) the cockatiel forgot his mate (of 2 years), and started going for candycane. Then, when candycane died he started going for cocopuff (what a player, lol)

And that’s the full background of the situation .

 

[Beilana]

LOL sorry no help again I just find that picture to be priceless.

 

[marilize]

I added a picture of the 3-some

I would like the split the cage, but it has a sun section and a shade / hiding section. It is a cage of about 3m x 1.5m, with another cage built onto it that is like 2m x 5m, built around a palm tree. The smaller side is covered and does not get much sun, while the other side gets good sun and is nice for flying space. Difficult to find a place to split it with the palm in the way . And... i dont know what side i would put the other cockatiels, since the annoying male cockatiel wants to fight with the other cockatiels. The ringnecks dont mind the other cockatiels at all though.

Ideally he needs to get away from all other birds, he has a complex.

 

[Beilana]

Ideally he needs to get away from all other birds, he has a complex.

No kidding, poor little guy is VERY confused about the way of things. All the while hes probably thinking "Whats wrong if I love her! You humans don't understand anything....niether do these birds". hehehe

 

[marilize]

Aussie Ben, whats your mailing address? Can i post u a cockatiel?

 

[marilize]

Lol beilana, it would be ok if he didnt love 3 ringnecks (and counting)... the mom and both the daughters!

 

[Beilana]

Never heard of a Cockatiel with a Ringneck fetish before! lol.

So it is true, you do learn something new everyday!

 

[apatrimo94]

You sure are in a knot here. LOL I can't help it but I'm laughing, that picture is just, as Beilana said, priceless and the storyline would make a great soap-op. LOL Wish I could help though. A few members will chime in to help though. I know someone who could help but he's not on.

 

[Aussie Ben]

Aussie Ben, whats your mailing address? Can i post u a cockatiel?

Sure, I live at the south pole Don't forget to put a stamp on him bum

 

[marilize]

great, south pole it is... i wonder if i can train him like a post dove to fly there (better let him out now so he can start flying )

 

[Bobby34231]

Hello Marilize and welcome to the forum, I'm a bit confused as to why you would house ringnecks and cockatiels in the same enclosure, and continue to do so even after death and mutilation have occured to your teils, both african and indian ringnecks are highly aggressive towards other birds, even to those of their own species and especially during the breeding season, so I'm not sure what the real delema is, seperate the ringnecks and tiels and no more delema, its more cruel to allow things to continue as they are, then to worry about if the tiel will miss his girlfriend that doesn't seem to like him anyway, as far as ever having offspring from them, I'd say pretty much impossible, the two species are to geneticly diverse.
please don't take this as a personal attack, just a concern from someone that can't understand the logic of your situation, maybe i missed something along the way.........

 

[marilize]

Hey Bobby,

Thanks for the reply - i know it may seem like a stupid situation, but for the past 4-5 years my ringnecks and cockatiels have been living in the same cage without any problems. Before them, the previous cockatiels lived with the previous ringnecks in peace too, no fighting at all. The breeder i bought the ringnecks from said that it should be fine if you keep their nests in separate parts of the cage - but that i should keep an eye on them if they start fighting. The only violence that occured was between my ringnecks' mom and the previous female cockatiel, which was a clear accident (where the cockatiel climbed into the RINGNECKS'S nest)

My handreared ringnecks do not mind the cockatiel AT ALL - neither the previous one or the current one have actually hurt him. Its only now that there is a problem, since i bought the male for my ringneck (since her sister died, she has been feeling lonely)

I do not care for them to breed - not the cockatiels OR the ringnecks. In the few days that the cockatiel was not in the cage, the other 3 cockatiels and the 2 ringnecks were living together peacefully. Its just the 1 cockatiel thats the problem

btw - mutilate seems a bit harsh... losing 4 toes in over 7 years is not uncommon for birds who like fighting, even if its only a bunch of cockatiels together in a cage. That cockatiel has done MORE MUTILATION to the other cockatiels (he fights them until they cant get off the ground) that there has been done to him by any of my ringnecks. They have never bit him on any part of his body... except his toes and his tailfeathers :|