New, worried Cockatiel owner

Loganblahtimes2

New member
Apr 17, 2021
1
0
(Image of my cockatiel and his cage attached.)
Hello! I just recently adopted a new cockatiel, and I am growing a little concerned about his behavior. I'm also new to this site as well as this is my first ever post, so apologies if I give too much information. Iā€™m just giving whatever I can in case some of it may be useful.

Base information:
I am a 19 year old boy, and I recently adopted a male cockatiel, about 3 months ago. How I obtained him was odd. One of my distant family members passed away suddenly and owned 6 cockatiels, all in one cage. The family needed to get rid of the birds, so I took one and named him CMD. Because they passed away so suddenly, I was not able to get any information on him. I know he is male, however I do not know anything about his age, diet or anything else. He was kept in a medium size cage with 5 other cockatiels when I came to take him. His wings are not clipped and he has what appears to be a closed identification bracelet on his left foot. He is the only bird and only animal in my room.
I have wanted a cockatiel for many years, and thus Iā€™ve done my research. I feel I know the baseline rules for taking care of a cockatiel well. I clean his cage out every 2-3 days along with refresh his food and water, feed him mainly millet seed and the occasional leafy green, fruit or bird treat. His cage is in my room, right next to my desk. Iā€™m a gamer, and such I do not leave my room very often and spend most, if not all, of my day in my room. He sees me practically all times of the day, and my other members of the family occasionally come in to visit him. They are very calm and do not appear to scare him. I do online college, and the only time in which I properly leave the house is my job. I only work 15 hours a week.
CMD appears to be happy. He sits on one foot frequently (Iā€™ve read birds do this if they are fine and healthy), preens frequently, and actively climbs around his cage and plays with his toys on occasion.
Some of his behaviors concern me though. I understand this is a little petty, but I want to make sure he is living his best life. His first behavior that concerns me is his cage obsession. I leave CMDā€™s cage open 24/7, as he never, and I mean never, ventures outside or away from it. He is either perched inside, on the door as you can see in the picture, or atop the cage. He never leaves it, at all. Such, I leave his cage open when I go to eat dinner, shower, go to work and even sleep. Next time I see him, heā€™s always on or in his cage. By the way, when I sleep at night, I leave my LED lights on a dim yellow, enough for me to see clearly. CMD is terrified of the dark and if I ever shut all of my lights all the way out, he will hiss repeatedly and scuttle around his cage. I need to keep the lights on for him to sleep.
Iā€™m a little worried about his lack of exploration. Iā€™ve been told cockatiels need time outside of their cage, and I give him this clear opportunity. He does not choose to leave its vicinity unless I or someone else picks him up.
CMD also never asks for attention or sings. He will occasionally sing if I leave the window open and he can hear other birds outside. He will also make frequent and loud calls if he is left alone for more than a little while, such as when Iā€™m in the shower or eating dinner with my family.
He is also very bitey. Whenever I put my hand on or near CMD while he is close to, on or in his cage, CMD will open his beak and hiss at my hand. If I get closer, he bites me. After a while I got worried about this, so I asked him to get on my hand despite this. He will get on my hand every time after a little coaxing and biting, and once he is on my hand he acts as if he never bit me. He clicks his beak, lets me scratch him and frequently attempts to climb to my shoulder, to which Iā€™ll let him sit for short periods of time. After heā€™s done, he always flies back to his cage, as youā€™d expect. I take this as being territorial.

Questions:
I have a number of questions, as some of these behaviors concern me.
1) Why does he never want to leave his cage, and is it healthy? He has the option to do so at all hours of the day, day or night.
2) Why does he never ask for attention? Iā€™ve heard cockatiels need at least an hour of attention a day, but he never approaches me or pays much attention to me if Iā€™m not touching him in some way.
3) Why does he never sing or attempt to communicate with me?
4) Why is he so territorial of his cage, is this a good or bad thing, should I stop him from biting me, and if so how should I? I understand heā€™s just being territorial, but if I can Iā€™d like him to stop biting me every time I attempt to scratch him while heā€™s close to his cage.
5) This last one is unnecessary, but why is he so afraid of the dark, and is there any way I can calm him down at nighttime if need be? As long as I keep my lights on, he appears to be fine, but he still gets scared frequently and his crest oftentimes stays all the way up during the night.

Thank you for taking the time to read and/or effort to respond. Iā€™m just concerned about him, and I donā€™t know if any of this is normal or not =(. Thank you again!
 

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noodles123

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2018
8,145
472
Parrots
Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
You need to build trust, he could be cage-bound (which is complicated). When was he at an avian certified vet last?



How old is her?


How long have you had said bird?
How much sleep on a schedule (quite etc) does he get nightly?
How large is the cage?
How much time does he spend out of the cage daily?
What is his diet?
How old is the bird?
Is gender confirmed?
 

Laurasea

Well-known member
Aug 2, 2018
12,593
10,702
USA
Parrots
Full house
Hello and welcome.
If he has been stuck in his cage all his life, they csn developed a fear of leaving the cage. Like noodles said it called cage bound.
He can overcome this with time, trust, treats. Sometimes tho it can be a slow process, as in months.
It can be normal to defend the cage..especially since he us afraid to leave it. Outta perch on rge outside of the cage next to the door, and teach him to come there for a treat might help..

Millet spray is highly liked. So maybe set up tge outside and top of cage with perches, toys, fiid snd water dish, and milket spray. Never force him to come out. Over time he will get confident enough to go get thst Millet.

Read up on target training. Remember to keep training very short, just a few repetition. But you can do several times a day. Burd tricks on you tube has some good free video on target training.

Trust can take time. Patience sbdceotk. Especially as he has had big changes in his life recently. And may not have been handled a lot before.

This covers some burd behavior, with some tips on bites
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/bird-behavior/

This covers stress in parrots.
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

If you can, a larger cage would be better. You need a few more perches inside as well. Some thst are a little larger around. You are off to a good start . But with a small cage, it increases their fear. They can't retreat. This can also be playing a role in night fear. A fearful bird might need the cage raised higher. And yiu might be disturbing him at night. I suggest a nice oerch up high, and maybe cover half the cage at night
 
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