Cockatiel Obsession

[Spacey'sMom]

Hello all,

I posted in behavior abut the same issue but am hoping to get some suggestions/help from the species specific forum/

Our 13 month old, presumed Male, Cockatiel has been hormonal for about 2 weeks now. The first few days were odd behaviors and moodiness but from about day 3 he has latched onto our female dog, Luna. When she is out of sight he settles and starts to behave mostly like our normal boy. He will spend all of his time staring and singing to/at her. Our dogs have been trained to ignore the birds but now he has tried to land on her twice and will perch on us to get closer to her. He also will fly around us when we try to interact with her.

Everywhere I look, the suggestions for this are for what us humans should/should not do. Luna literally can't do any of the things that would normally warrant this type of courting behavior. We can't really keep one or the other cooped up and I'm starting to worry he has already chosen her as a mate and this won't get better.

Things we have done so far:
1-Made sure bedtime is as dark as we can make it with blackout curtains and cage covers(Birds are in bed from 7PM-11AM)
2-Moved the perch that sat on top of her crate(his bedtime cage can't really be moved)
3-Shoo him away when he is sitting and staring and especially when he is singing to her
4-Shoo him off of us when he is using us to get closer to her

Is this typical courting or does he think she is his mate?
When birds do have a mate, do they stay like this all the time or does it come and go with their hormonal periods?

We are at a loss as to what else we can do. Please Help!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwww... I don't have any advice... sounds like you are doing it RIGHT to me. You're up against Mother Nature! I will just wish you good luck and encourage you to keep reaching out here!

 

[clark_conure]

In my experience cockatiels can recognize the sex of anouther animal by phermones, behavior etc. In fact most birds can.

Yep the bird is trying to court the dog in a romantic entaglement as ridulouse as that sounds, in humans they just rub up a lot on the human's neck.

Since...and only since...it is a male you don't have to worry about it being egg bound. Thats a good thing.

I'd just continue to discourage and try not to worry too hard. If it was the other way with a female bird its a lot tougher.

 

[Spacey'sMom]

I'm glad to hear this is courting behavior and not the behavior of a bird who has chosen his pair. He also has shown some interest in my Mom and a female dog that stays with us while her dad is at work.

I am definitely glad he is a male. We have a male and female budgie pair but luckily we haven't had any issues with breeding behavior. The female, however, is a bully and will readily bite you when she's in breeding condition(Color of her cere). The male budgie just hasn't cared about anything we do for the most part.

I guess we should take it as a good sign he hasn't tried courting myself or my husband. Hopefully this means we are handling him correctly. Should this calm down with time? We're about 2.5 weeks in now I think.

 

[clark_conure]

yeah see you in two years when.........well his hormones think you are pretty.

 

[Spacey'sMom]

Update:

To some extent it has calmed down for me... But he now flies in my husbands face and will try to land on his shoulder to bite his neck and ears... We put up a curtain divider and shut him out of our main living space when he does this but he also seems to be getting territorial about certain perches/locations. On the bright side, Lune(the dog) can be within sight now and if she's just laying down he does alright but the minute she moves he's back to the agression...