Strange behavior

Question
Hello Jan,
Our cockatiel has been doing a strange thing lately, he or she will get into a position between the cage wall and the water dish lift its tail and make soft chirping noises, my wife and I are curious about this behavior, and if you have ideas on what it could be doing?
Thanks,
Ed


Answer
Hi Ed,
  Sorry it took a little bit for me to get back to you. It has been a long weekend here with a drowning at the park where I am a ranger on Satyrday and having to attend services today for a friends 16 yr old daughter who was killed in a car accident last Thursday. The combination of the two have kept me away from the computer for a bit.
 
 I am going to bet from reading your description of your bird's behavior that you have a female. Is she just over a year old or have you just gotten her recently? What I think you are seeing is your female bird being "romantic" to put it in a tactful way.  If you had a male cockatiel with her she would certainly be welcoming of his advances right now.

Now don't take this to mean that she NEEDS a mate. This phase will usually pass quite quickly with the females. I would make sure there is nothing in her cage that will resemble a nest as this can encourage egg laying. Cockatiels will lay infertile eggs and sometimes do so to the point that it becomes detrimental to their health.  For some reason I have never had that problem with any of my females but I have talked with a number of people who have. Usually without something that appears to be a nest, my birds will quit feeling romantic after a few days and go back to more normal behavior with no problems. I don't suggest getting a mate for her for several reasons. The first is that providing her with a mate will cause her to lose interest in you and your wife. The other reason is the reason I quit raising cockatiels myself. It seems far too many people consider them disposable birds because they are plentiful and rather inexpensive. I handfed my babies and then sent them home with baby books, hatch certificates, care instructions, etc.... and thought I selected only the best homes for my baby birds. Unfortunately, from what I know only about 3 of my 50-60 baby cockatiels lived past their first year or two. They were victims of neglect, improper care, senseless accidents, etc.... It made me sick. You can also look in to any of the manu bird rescues or even on Petfunder and find all kinds of cockatiels needing new homes. I even have found cockatiels - still alive- in dumpsters where they had been put to go out with the trash. It is for those reasons I don't encourage people to breed them.

 As for your bird, make sure she does not have a dark, closed in corner in her cage that would resemble a nest and just wait her out. She will give up on romance ( at least for awhile) and go back to being her normal self again. If by chance she does start laying eggs, feel free to come back and let me know and we will talk about what to do from there.

Best of luck to you,

Jan