# Cockatiel feeling hormonal and agressive



## punkeydew (Nov 16, 2008)

Hi there, my beloved Bella has been alone for over 7 years now. 

Untill recently I thought he was a "she" (hence the name bella), since I feel wierd refering to her as a him... I will just refer to her as a her...

However for the past... 6 months or so she has been very hormonal and "humping" her perch.

she has also become very agressive since this started and bites my finger whenever I try and take her out of the cage! When I manage to get her out and get on my shoulder she is usually just fine to sit there and enjoy herself. But she's drew blood on a few occassions.

Any suggestions on getting her to stop being hormonal and agressive?

Also I thought recently about mabey buying a female to keep her company....but I have horrible nightmares about my cockateil when I was a child. We got a female to keep him company and he plucked out all his feathers and had to wear a cone on his head 

Also I've thought about mabey getting a budgie???

I'm just desperate to get my sweet bird back!


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## Zayna (Apr 19, 2009)

are you sure she is a he? Females can also get hormonal and our female tiel used to hump her toys. Does your tiel have barring under her/his tail? If so then you have a girlie.

You can do lots of things to prevent this behaviour. Try covering bella up for at least 12 hours at night so that she thinks its winter time. how much are you feeding her? If you are giving her more food then what she is eating you need to cut down a little as too much extra food encourages them that its breeding time. If she seems to have become 'attached' to a particular item in her cage and is becoming over friendly with it then remove it if you can.


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## dingal2000 (Oct 18, 2009)

My Charlie was doing a very like thing, but that because he wasnt used to the contact, where i got hm from wasnt very friendly toward him, kept him covered all day and used to shout at him for being loud, so something had happened to change his trust in humans.

So i yu could say rescued him from that life its taken ages to and a lot of things tried, he was humping his pirch for the longest time and would never let anyone near him, he used to fly and attack me, but he has changed he'll come and ask for fuss now. and all this since i got Chelsea another Tiel for company,, he doesnt go near his pirch now, and loves fuss.

he seems to have his confidence back both in another bird and humans.

Zayna is right, you can tell what sex your tiel is, not only by the tail feather, but also 80 to 90% of the time, a hen will have faded cheek patches, not as bright as the male. 

With the Tail Feathers, remember on a hen there will be Barring or speckled in some way, in most cases the Cock will be solid coloured under the tail


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## dingal2000 (Oct 18, 2009)

You can see quite a clear difference in my too when it comes to cheek patches and marking, Charlie is a cock and chelsea a hen


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## punkeydew (Nov 16, 2008)

Hi thanks for the advice!

Now I've checked and yes she must definitally be a he! All solid grey under the tail and very bright yellow around bright orange cheeck spots. Also she is VERY vocal and I hear females tend to be a bit... only a bit... more quiter.

The item she is humping is her heated perch, i would hate to take it away, since its stil winter and pretty chilly in my house.

There is also one of those yellow "cozy corner" things. She goes up to it and preens it and "tounges" it.. dont know it thank makes sense, its just wierd.

I will most likely take that away, she doesnt really use it as a cozy corner lol.

She has a free for it bowl of seeds and I fill it when it's mostly shells. I try and mix it with pellets but she won't touch them. I wish she would eat the pellets as they are supossed to be more healthy. Ive just ordered some "beak appetite" a little meal you cook up for them, because she loves pasta and most people food.

I've also ordered her some new toys to see if they will distract her!

Thanks let me know if you have any more suggestions!


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## dingal2000 (Oct 18, 2009)

My Charlie and Chelsea love dried mealworms in there diet as a snake, as well as the normal, and egg yokes (from boild egg of course) and love there greens.

when it comes to toys, its sometime nicer to invent a toy and build it yourself, do some reasearch as to whats safe to use and make something fun and interesting, you culd probably make something a lot bigger and more fun and cheaper than you could buy them. rack your brain, you may surprise yourself


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## Zayna (Apr 19, 2009)

if he keeps preening that little soft thing he prob thinks its another bird.. so you prob should take that out til he calms down.

He will probably get out of his aggressive stage, i had a male budgie who would all of a sudden go off on one and attack my fingers then after a few days he would be fine.

Try the less daylight thing and maybe change his cage around about as that should maybe snap him out of it (i know this works with broody females but i dont know about males?)


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## punkeydew (Nov 16, 2008)

Took out the yellow thing today and she was PISSED! She peeped for like 20 minutes lol.

Hmm meal worms huh... sounds gross but if it's good for her i'll try it! Normal birds eat worms...

I've tried giving her greens and she doesnt like them too much. She used to be really spoiled and would eat off my plate with me :S But now I just give her a little cooked rice, a few kidney beans and some veggies from time to tijme... oh and pasta cause she loves it and I can't cook it in the house without her knowing and screaming for it..

Yea I didnt do anything about it before lately because I thought she would eventually snap out of it, but its been 6 months so im done waiting!

I'm going to need to invest in one of those official bird cage covers. I use a sheet now and it lets plenty of light through when she's covered up so she still makes noise and can hear everything going on in the living room.

Thanks!!


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