Help! I'm losing my mind with my boys!

LintuLady

New member
Aug 31, 2022
2
4
Parrots
2 male cockatiels
Hello I found this forum today and could REALLY use some help..

I have 2 male cockatiels, they're brothers and have been in my care for around 3 years now but suddenly I've been having some problems.. Seemingly out the blue they've begun fighting a lot more than usual! No blood has been drawn luckily but they have been more aggressive to each other. And.. They've even been.. attempting to mate... I don't know what to do to fix this nor what to even DO, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

For context these are my first two birds and things have gone well until this year when all this chaos began and REALLY started getting strange this summer...
 

LaManuka

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Aug 29, 2018
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Queensland, Australia
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Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Hello I found this forum today and could REALLY use some help..

I have 2 male cockatiels, they're brothers and have been in my care for around 3 years now but suddenly I've been having some problems.. Seemingly out the blue they've begun fighting a lot more than usual! No blood has been drawn luckily but they have been more aggressive to each other. And.. They've even been.. attempting to mate... I don't know what to do to fix this nor what to even DO, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

For context these are my first two birds and things have gone well until this year when all this chaos began and REALLY started getting strange this summer...
Welcome to the forums, @LintuLady - though I'm sorry for the trouble you're having with your boys!

I guess the first question to ask is are you absolutely certain that they're both boys? I've had male/female cockatiel combinations that have become extremely violent when hormones are on the rampage, to the point where I had to cage my hen in order to protect her from a very overly amorous rooster. You also mention you've had them for 3 years, but how old actually are they, and are they housed together or do they have separate cages? Sometimes birds who have lived happily together in the one cage for years can have a falling out for reasons known only to themselves, perhaps this is what has happened with these two?

I currently have two male cockatiels, one is about 12 years old and the other is much younger, probably around a year old and unfortunately they are not friends, so I could never contemplate having them share a cage. Fang, the older one, pretty much considers himself people, and Jem is just a bit too boisterous for Fang's liking, and Fang gets a bit cranky with his younger counterpart if they get too close for comfort. If your two do currently share a cage then you may need to look at giving them separate quarters for safety's sake.

Just occasionally, sudden aggression is the outward manifestation of pain or illness too, so if your bird/s have not had a wellness check in the last 12 months or so, that might be worth looking into as well - I mention it because we've seen it here often. I'm not sure where in the world you're located or if you already see an avian vet, but the following resource may help you to locate a specialist near you ...


A good avian vet is also an absolute gold mine of info around behavioural issues as well.

I hope some other members will weigh in with their ideas for you too, and that you can get to the bottom of your problem very soon! 🙏
 
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LintuLady

New member
Aug 31, 2022
2
4
Parrots
2 male cockatiels
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Welcome to the forums, @LintuLady - though I'm sorry for the trouble you're having with your boys!

I guess the first question to ask is are you absolutely certain that they're both boys? I've had male/female cockatiel combinations that have become extremely violent when hormones are on the rampage, to the point where I had to cage my hen in order to protect her from a very overly amorous rooster. You also mention you've had them for 3 years, but how old actually are they, and are they housed together or do they have separate cages? Sometimes birds who have lived happily together in the one cage for years can have a falling out for reasons known only to themselves, perhaps this is what has happened with these two? I currently have two male cockatiels, one is about 12 years old and the other is much younger, probably around a year old and unfortunately they are not friends, so I could never contemplate having them share a cage. Fang, the older one, pretty much considers himself people, and Jem is just a bit too boisterous for Fang's liking, and Fang gets a bit cranky with his younger counterpart if they get too close for comfort. If your two do currently share a cage then you may need to look at giving them separate quarters for safety's sake.

Just occasionally, sudden aggression is the outward manifestation of pain or illness too, so if your bird/s have not had a wellness check in the last 12 months or so, that might be worth looking into as well - I mention it because we've seen it here often. I'm not sure where in the world you're located or if you already see an avian vet, but the following resource may help you to locate a specialist near you ...


A good avian vet is also an absolute gold mine of info around behavioural issues as well.

I hope some other members will weigh in with their ideas for you too, and that you can get to the bottom of your problem very soon! 🙏
Thank you so much for the welcome and the reply!!

I got my boys when they were about 1 so they're both 4, going on 5! They share a large cage and have for their entire life since I got them from a retiring bird owner so they've had the same cage all their life. I've not had them verified to be boys but in the time I've had them neither has ever laid an egg and they at least LOOK male according to the typical color differences of male and female cockatiels...
 

LaManuka

Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Aug 29, 2018
25,555
Media
26
Albums
1
33,186
Queensland, Australia
Parrots
Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
The easiest way to pick male from female cockatiels is to have a look at the colouration on the *underside* of the tail feathers. Males will have solid colour underneath, whereas females will always have a rippled/stippling effect of colour on the underside, regardless of what mutation they are. My hen that I mentioned, Twinkle, was a lutino and the rippling was hard to see unless I held a feather up to the light, but it was there.

If indeed you have two boys however, one of them may be experiencing a stronger surge of hormones than the other resulting in the aggression, and that may be a temporary thing that will pass. Or they may just have decided that they’re not so crazy about each other any more, it’s very difficult to say for sure which situation you may have with yours, or whether it's temporary or permanent. In the wild, if two previously friendly birds had a falling out like this, they would simply be able to fly off and look for a new companion but our captive birds don’t have that option, so personally I would look into providing them with separate housing if it’s at all possible. Your birds can still have plenty of time together outside the cage as mine do (if indeed yours are still getting on well enough for that), but when it comes time to return to the cage, separate housing gives the one on the receiving end of the aggression a safe place to retreat to.
 

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