Lonely?

[TheCorruptedKings]

Lately my first bird, my cockatiel Atlas hasn’t been very active. She preens, she bathed herself for the first time recently, she even keeps her perches clean before I can clean up her messes. I’ve almost had her for three months now and she doesn’t play with any of her toys. She has a cage large enough for a cockatoo with tons of different toys, but she doesn’t seem interested in any of them. When I try to play with her and train her she loses interest quickly In going where the millet is. I know she’s not sick, but I don’t know what to do. I wanted to avoid getting her a mate sense it would make it harder for her to bond with me, but I also want her to be happy and active! She had a mate in the pet store, but she hated him and plucked his feathers so they had to separate them, but it’s possible they just didn’t introduce them correctly. The pet store said she could be aggressive, but she seems more scared to me. I spend all day with her and talk with her and play with millet, but she just seems to be losing interest. Should I get her a mate? Should I try other things to bond with her? I feel like I’ve tried every thing. Should I buy her even more toys until there’s one she’s interested in? Please help.


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[TheCorruptedKings]

Lately my first bird, my cockatiel Atlas hasn’t been very active. She preens, she bathed herself for the first time recently, she even keeps her perches clean before I can clean up her messes. I’ve almost had her for three months now and she doesn’t play with any of her toys. She has a cage large enough for a cockatoo with tons of different toys, but she doesn’t seem interested in any of them. When I try to play with her and train her she loses interest quickly In going where the millet is. I know she’s not sick, but I don’t know what to do. I wanted to avoid getting her a mate sense it would make it harder for her to bond with me, but I also want her to be happy and active! She had a mate in the pet store, but she hated him and plucked his feathers so they had to separate them, but it’s possible they just didn’t introduce them correctly. The pet store said she could be aggressive, but she seems more scared to me. I spend all day with her and talk with her and play with millet, but she just seems to be losing interest. Should I get her a mate? Should I try other things to bond with her? I feel like I’ve tried every thing. Should I buy her even more toys until there’s one she’s interested in? Please help.


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Okay, now I’m even more worried. After typing this I went and tried playing with Atlas and she actually started seeming interested in the Millet. Going to the other side of the cage to get it, but she wouldn’t come outside of the cage. Still, I had hope that things might be getting better. (Now that I think of it she hasn’t come out of her cage for the past few days?) just now, I was sitting next to her cage in the chair that’s next to her cage. She was already on the other side so I figured, maybe she’ll approach me. I was looking up things about her recent behavior on my phone very calmly when suddenly she flipped upside down, spread her wings and started hissing! She used to only do this when my hand was in her cage which I no longer do now that her bowls are removable from the outside, but even before that I immediately took my hand out of the cage and left her be, but outside of the cage? That’s my space. I still moved back to my bed to give her space. I don’t want to ruin the bond even though I feel like I don’t have one with her anymore. Just a few moments ago she was begging for scratches which I gladly gave her thinking things were getting better! I don’t understand these mood swings!


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[Jen5200]

My cockatiel is less enthusiastic about her toys than my conures, and seems to enjoy sitting on my knee, traveling around on my shoulder and just generally hanging out with me. My cockatiel has been with me about 3 months I think, and she’s just starting to chew on things I leave in her cage. If you’re sure that she’s feeling okay - it could be that she’s still getting comfortable and bonding with you. Just thoughts - I’m sure others will chime in with other suggestions.... .

 

[TheCorruptedKings]

My cockatiel is less enthusiastic about her toys than my conures, and seems to enjoy sitting on my knee, traveling around on my shoulder and just generally hanging out with me. My cockatiel has been with me about 3 months I think, and she’s just starting to chew on things I leave in her cage. If you’re sure that she’s feeling okay - it could be that she’s still getting comfortable and bonding with you. Just thoughts - I’m sure others will chime in with other suggestions.... .

I am very worried, she’s started doing that territory thing with spreading her wings and hissing at me when I’m on the other end of her cage when just moments ago she was bowing her head and asking for scritches (which I gave her) it’s like she’s having mood swings. I don’t know why she is suddenly so angry with me. ;-;


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[Jen5200]

My cockatiel is less enthusiastic about her toys than my conures, and seems to enjoy sitting on my knee, traveling around on my shoulder and just generally hanging out with me. My cockatiel has been with me about 3 months I think, and she’s just starting to chew on things I leave in her cage. If you’re sure that she’s feeling okay - it could be that she’s still getting comfortable and bonding with you. Just thoughts - I’m sure others will chime in with other suggestions.... .

I am very worried, she’s started doing that territory thing with spreading her wings and hissing at me when I’m on the other end of her cage when just moments ago she was bowing her head and asking for scritches (which I gave her) it’s like she’s having mood swings. I don’t know why she is suddenly so angry with me. ;-;


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How old is Atlas? Has she been checked over by a vet? I ask because inactivity can be a sign of illness, and birds are pretty good at hiding when they are not feeling well. Territorial behavior and moodiness can sometimes be hormone-related. Have you tried treats other than millet for motivation? They can be pretty individual in their preferences - my 3 conures all have very different treat preferences.... Some other things that I’ve noticed can impact behavior and moods are diet and getting enough sleep time. Just shooting ideas from what I’ve seen with my birds.

 

[TheCorruptedKings]

My cockatiel is less enthusiastic about her toys than my conures, and seems to enjoy sitting on my knee, traveling around on my shoulder and just generally hanging out with me. My cockatiel has been with me about 3 months I think, and she’s just starting to chew on things I leave in her cage. If you’re sure that she’s feeling okay - it could be that she’s still getting comfortable and bonding with you. Just thoughts - I’m sure others will chime in with other suggestions.... .

I am very worried, she’s started doing that territory thing with spreading her wings and hissing at me when I’m on the other end of her cage when just moments ago she was bowing her head and asking for scritches (which I gave her) it’s like she’s having mood swings. I don’t know why she is suddenly so angry with me. ;-;





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How old is Atlas? Has she been checked over by a vet? I ask because inactivity can be a sign of illness, and birds are pretty good at hiding when they are not feeling well. Territorial behavior and moodiness can sometimes be hormone-related. Have you tried treats other than millet for motivation? They can be pretty individual in their preferences - my 3 conures all have very different treat preferences.... Some other things that I’ve noticed can impact behavior and moods are diet and getting enough sleep time. Just shooting ideas from what I’ve seen with my birds.

I know that she is less than a year and I’ve had her for three months. I don’t know exactly how old she is, but around that estimate, a few months. I would like to take her to the vet, but I’m afraid it might stress her out too much. I can’t get her to step up unless she’s already out of her cage and I very much do not want to grab her, especially when she’s being so aggressive lately. But her poop has been okay and she goes around the cage and such she just doesn’t play with her toys or anything. This might sound bad, but her favorite treat has always been little bits of Dorito. (Getting her to eat fruits and veggies has also been an issue) I’ve tried blueberries, grapes, lettuce, bananas, banana chips, etc. she doesn’t go for any of them. I guess that could also be part of the problem. I’m planning to try broccoli next since I can stick it between the bars and she likes eating peanuts when they’re stuck between the bars. What other treats do you suggest? Also, if it is hormonal what do I do?


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[Jen5200]

I can absolutely understand not wanting to grab her and damage the bonding that you have done with her - but I would always encourage a vet visit to an avian vet to make sure she’s healthy as soon as you feel that you can.

My cockatiel will not eat fruit of any kind (I suspect she’s not a fan of sweet stuff) - but she loves to nibble on broccoli, sprouted seeds, some leafy greens, etc. Does yours eat pellets and seeds for her main diet?

I’ve tried things like chopped pine nuts, safflower seeds, chopped up sunflower seeds, freeze dried veggies, diced nuts, etc for treats. My tiel is on a mostly pellet diet with some seed in the evening. She gets veggies to nibble on daily, and I’m trying to expand her taste for different veggies....slow going, but persistence is important lol .

Hormonal behavior is sometimes reduced by making sure that they get 10-12 hours of sleep per night and a good diet can also help.

 

[TheCorruptedKings]

I can absolutely understand not wanting to grab her and damage the bonding that you have done with her - but I would always encourage a vet visit to an avian vet to make sure she’s healthy as soon as you feel that you can.

My cockatiel will not eat fruit of any kind (I suspect she’s not a fan of sweet stuff) - but she loves to nibble on broccoli, sprouted seeds, some leafy greens, etc. Does yours eat pellets and seeds for her main diet?

I’ve tried things like chopped pine nuts, safflower seeds, chopped up sunflower seeds, freeze dried veggies, diced nuts, etc for treats. My tiel is on a mostly pellet diet with some seed in the evening. She gets veggies to nibble on daily, and I’m trying to expand her taste for different veggies....slow going, but persistence is important lol .

Hormonal behavior is sometimes reduced by making sure that they get 10-12 hours of sleep per night and a good diet can also help.

I do need to be stricter on her bed time. I stay up rather late and wake up later in the day so her schedule resembles mine since she always is wondering what I’m doing if I’m not sleeping. I close her cage and turn off the lights at midnight and open it and turn on the lights at 12 in the afternoon.

She does eat her seed as her main diet and I know that’s not right ;^^ I’ve been trying every fruit and vegetable that comes into our house lol. It’s as if she knows it’s good for her. She’d rather attack grapes than eat them.

I give her peanuts to chew on a lot and I would use sunflower seeds, but they’re in her normal feed. Not to mention she finds it very hard to pick them up out of my hand or from between my fingers and just ends up dropping them and getting frustrated.

I do have her carry cage ready for the vet and as soon as I get the opportunity I plan to take her to the vet to get a check up and her nails trimmed ^^ Maybe when she’s already out of the cage and will step up lol. I want to avoid grabbing her.


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[EllenD]

The first thing I'm going to tell you is to absolutely NOT get her a mate...The best advice I can give you on this particular topic is "Never ever buy another bird for your first bird! Only buy another bird if you want one, and even then you cannot house them together or even let them out together necessarily, they must be housed separately and eased-into knowing each other...And even that may never work out...You have absolutely no guarantee that if you bring home another bird, no matter what species or gender, that they will get along at all, or that they won't be aggressive and hurt each other...They may simply just tolerate each other, or not at all. And then you have 2 birds that you're responsible for, even if you didn't want another one. So this is not the answer at all...Not to mention that you haven't trained her yet, you certainly don't need another bird right now, as your attention and free-time needs to be dedicated to her...

If she's around a year old then this could be hormonal, it probably is at least a bit hormonal..However, it doesn't sound like she was a hand-raised baby, or if she was a hand-raised baby, she had a period of time where she got no interaction with people at all...But more than likely, she is a parent-raised bird who was not put into a "Weaning Cage" while she was being weaned and fledging, and even though this sounds odd, she probably never learned to play with toys. This is extremely common with Cockatiels who are parent-raised and that were not raised inside of a Weaning-Cage with lots of different toys and such...So essentially, they really don't know how to play...and you have to show them!

It sounds like you just need to keep working on hand-taming her, and you also are going to have to show her how to play with her toys. Show her how much fun it is to play with them, show her what to do with them, etc. Because right now she has no idea what they are or what she is supposed to do with them...

And no, you don't want to just "grab her", if she is not stepping-up for you, then you need to start at the beginning of the hand-taming process. It often helps if you get them away from their cage, in a different room with the door shut. However, if you can't even get her to step-up for you or come out of her cage for you, then you need to hit the "reset" button, and start from step #1 of the hand-taming process, which is just sitting by her cage as close as you can get without her being angry about it, and reading to her, talking to her etc. And go from there...

3 months isn't long at all, it often can take 6 months to over a year to even get a non-tame parrot to simply step-up. It's a matter of patience on your part, as you must go at her pace, not your pace...

And her diet needs worked on big-time...Doritos are not a good treat at all and shouldn't be given, they are loaded with salt which can be very, very bad for them...It's a good idea to get her to a CAV for a wellness-exam, and then start phasing-out the all-seed diet and start incorporating a healthy pellet as her main staple, and only supplemented by a healthy, varied seed mix without any sunflower seeds. Only use treats like sunflower seeds, peanuts/nuts of any kind, etc. as training rewards and that's it. Do not just give them to her as a part of her diet, but rather only give them to her when she does something good for you, such as stepping-up, coming out of her cage, etc.

It's just going to take daily work and patience...

Also, do you have her cage located in the main room of your house where the people in your house spend most of their time when they are home? (Usually this is the living room, family room, den, etc.) Her cage should not be in another room where you are not at when you're home. Even if you're not directly paying attention to her, she is far more-likely to entertain herself inside of her cage with her toys if she's in the same room as you are, while you're watching TV, reading, playing video games, on the computer or your phone, etc., just having her cage in that room with help tremendously with her taming process (being around people), and with her behavior...A bird that can hear people in the house but can't see them is not a happy bird...

 

[TheCorruptedKings]

The first thing I'm going to tell you is to absolutely NOT get her a mate...The best advice I can give you on this particular topic is "Never ever buy another bird for your first bird! Only buy another bird if you want one, and even then you cannot house them together or even let them out together necessarily, they must be housed separately and eased-into knowing each other...And even that may never work out...You have absolutely no guarantee that if you bring home another bird, no matter what species or gender, that they will get along at all, or that they won't be aggressive and hurt each other...They may simply just tolerate each other, or not at all. And then you have 2 birds that you're responsible for, even if you didn't want another one. So this is not the answer at all...Not to mention that you haven't trained her yet, you certainly don't need another bird right now, as your attention and free-time needs to be dedicated to her...

If she's around a year old then this could be hormonal, it probably is at least a bit hormonal..However, it doesn't sound like she was a hand-raised baby, or if she was a hand-raised baby, she had a period of time where she got no interaction with people at all...But more than likely, she is a parent-raised bird who was not put into a "Weaning Cage" while she was being weaned and fledging, and even though this sounds odd, she probably never learned to play with toys. This is extremely common with Cockatiels who are parent-raised and that were not raised inside of a Weaning-Cage with lots of different toys and such...So essentially, they really don't know how to play...and you have to show them!

It sounds like you just need to keep working on hand-taming her, and you also are going to have to show her how to play with her toys. Show her how much fun it is to play with them, show her what to do with them, etc. Because right now she has no idea what they are or what she is supposed to do with them...

And no, you don't want to just "grab her", if she is not stepping-up for you, then you need to start at the beginning of the hand-taming process. It often helps if you get them away from their cage, in a different room with the door shut. However, if you can't even get her to step-up for you or come out of her cage for you, then you need to hit the "reset" button, and start from step #1 of the hand-taming process, which is just sitting by her cage as close as you can get without her being angry about it, and reading to her, talking to her etc. And go from there...

3 months isn't long at all, it often can take 6 months to over a year to even get a non-tame parrot to simply step-up. It's a matter of patience on your part, as you must go at her pace, not your pace...

And her diet needs worked on big-time...Doritos are not a good treat at all and shouldn't be given, they are loaded with salt which can be very, very bad for them...It's a good idea to get her to a CAV for a wellness-exam, and then start phasing-out the all-seed diet and start incorporating a healthy pellet as her main staple, and only supplemented by a healthy, varied seed mix without any sunflower seeds. Only use treats like sunflower seeds, peanuts/nuts of any kind, etc. as training rewards and that's it. Do not just give them to her as a part of her diet, but rather only give them to her when she does something good for you, such as stepping-up, coming out of her cage, etc.

It's just going to take daily work and patience...

Also, do you have her cage located in the main room of your house where the people in your house spend most of their time when they are home? (Usually this is the living room, family room, den, etc.) Her cage should not be in another room where you are not at when you're home. Even if you're not directly paying attention to her, she is far more-likely to entertain herself inside of her cage with her toys if she's in the same room as you are, while you're watching TV, reading, playing video games, on the computer or your phone, etc., just having her cage in that room with help tremendously with her taming process (being around people), and with her behavior...A bird that can hear people in the house but can't see them is not a happy bird...

Alright, understood. I will not get her a mate ;^^

Lately every time I put a new toy in there I rattle it a little and show her it’s not going to hurt her. She seems to take a little interest so I’ll keep working with that.

I have definitely been working on hand taming. She’ll eat out of the palm of my hand, let me give her scritches, but if my hand is below her head she gets scared. If she does the territorial thing where she flips upside down and spreads her wings, should I stop the hand training and leave her alone for a moment or continue? I have a chair right next to her cage that I spend most my time In. I talk with her and give her a ton of attention. (Maybe too much lol)

I will be looking up pellets for sure and continuing to try and getting her to eat fruits and veggies. I know Doritos are bad for her which is why I don’t give her entire Doritos. I give her tiny pieces when she does something very good because I know that’s what she wants much more. Lately though she’s preferred these peanut butter crackers I get so I’ve been using that as a treat much more than the Doritos.

I understand this will take patience. I did tons of research on birds before I got her. I was worried with the recent territorialness that I was breaking my bond with her rather than building it and didn’t want to take backwards steps.

Her cage is in my room where I spend all my time watching tv and playing video games. I would like to put her in the living room, but unfortunately my dad and other guests smoke and my room is the only place I can keep smoke free with an air purifier as well as keeping my door closed at all times. Her cage is open in the day time so she’s free to come out of her cage and she does when she wants to.


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