Bickering like children

[Kiryon]

So, As some may know, I've gotten a second cockatiel (a female named Kaila). Both her and Oz are over 1 year old and have been together in a cage for a little while now. They've been doing rather fine and do have the occasional squabble over food or toys.

Kaila now climbs on our hands of her own free will and even lets me give her kisses but sadly head scritches are still a no go. Progress thought! Oz will sometimes follow her around and whistle her some tunes while doing the heart shaped wings (which she completely ignores lol Poor guy) thought most of the time they just ignore each other or steal the toy the other is playing with in turns. (he takes it from her, she takes it from him, he takes it from her... Can go on for hours lol)

Now I've noticed some things I don't understand. Oz seems to like pulling at her tail feathers (he hasn't plucked any of em) and almost every time I'm giving Oz scritches trough the cage bars, Kaila will come over, get close to Oz and promptly pull at his crest feathers (always the crest feathers and she's only done it while I was scritching him so far). Of course that get him fired up so he screeches at her and she turns tail and run like a gleeful kid who just pulled the best prank while he tries to pull at her tail feathers. He then turns to me and rampages my finger with pretend bites (because of course it's my fault she did that lol). 5 seconds later, he puts his head upside down for more scritches and it starts all over again. I'll try to catch it on video.

Is this worrisome or normal tiel behavior?

 

[Mekaisto]

This just sounds to me like a case of jealousy - Some birds will get along fine with each other in the cage, but as soon as you give one attention over the other, the problems begin. It doesn't sound like anything too severe though, maybe while you are giving Oz scratches, you could feed Kayla little treats (if she still doesn't like pats)?

 

[Kiryon]

Yeah, I thought it looked like jealousy but it perplexed me a bit since she's so reticent to spend time in close contact with us. She comes on my hand and accept kisses but, unlike Oz, she doesn't actively seek us out when out of the cage (except for that one time she came to join me and Oz at the computer desk, that really surprised me)

And nope, no pats thought she's totally fine with eating from my hand. I try to avoid feeding treats trough the bars now since they just fight about it even if I give them 1 each.

She's really come a long way thought. She used to screech and run if my hand was close to her or in her old cage, took lots of treats to get her to hop on. Now She'll even sit on my shoulder as I walk around the house thought I have to put her there myself... She doesn't run from us anymore but as I said she doesn't seek us out either.

 

[Mekaisto]

Yeah, some birds just aren't as 'needy' as others, it can depend on how they were raised or socialised, or just how their personality is
It sounds like you're making good progress though, hopefully you get to a point where she'll accept head scratches through the bars

 

[TessieB]

My cockatiels consider me number one in their flock and the number two cockatiel will defend her position with every thing she has. And as soon as she decides she's made her point she will kiss and smooch on me only to have a lesser ranked cockatiel pull her tail, push her aside, or grab her toe. And everyone starts carrying on like toddlers on the jungle gym. Me first! Me first! Me first! And just like toddlers everyone gets timeout until things calm down.