Cockatiel Noise Problem.

Question
Thank you for the reply!

The Cockatiel is chirping alot. She doesn't chirp that much when I'm not around, but as soon as she see's me, that's when it get's bad.

I'm feeding her now, once a day. I'm feeding her Exact Bird Forumla. I also feed her vegetables, though her abosolute favorite is Green Beans, so I tend to feed her those often. Although, she doesn't want to eat out of her bird seed cup (And she always has access to fresh bird seed in her cage). She rather for me to put crushed vegetables in a shringe and feed it to her. She doesn't like to eat on her own, though seems to depend on me alot. I don't want her to go hungry, so I break down and feed her through the shringe. I don't know how to wean her off, because she won't eat the bird seed; only every now and then. I also give her vitimns in her food once a week now. I was giving them to her 3 times a week, but it seems that when I did, she stayed hungry. So, I slacked down with that, and only give them to her once a week in her food, or water.

She's in a fairly large cage, but doesn't stay in there much. I leave the door open all the time to allow her access in and out. She just loves to sit on top of her cage. When I try and cage her up by shutting the door, she goes nuts; trying to find her way out, chirping loudly, and going around, and around in the cage franticly.

When she sees me, she flys to me, and begins chirping again. I can't make her be quiet. I've tried feeding her when she does that but most of the time, she only takes a little bit of formula, then doesn't eat any more, so I suppose, she's not always hungry. I just don't know what to do. She chirp's almost all the time, and I don't know what's causing it. Please help, because I'm running out of options.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello!

I have a beautiful pearl female Cockatiel that's 8 week's old. She's very gentle, and I've been handfeeding her since she was 3 weeks. This past week, she's been very noisey, yelling all the time. I know she isn't hungry all the time, and I don't know what to do. She flys over to me when she see's me all the time, and still she yells. I don't know what to do with her; she seem's healthy, and is very active, but she won't be quiet. What should I do; is this an early part of the weaning process?

Sincerely,
Elizabeth
-----Answer-----
Hi, Elizabeth.  Thanks for posting!

Please define what you mean by "yelling."  Is she just chirping a lot or is she actually screaming?  No, this isn't part of the weaning process that I'm familiar with!  Are you sure she isn't hungry?  Tell me what she is eating and when...she may not be getting the nutrition she needs.  What type of cage does she have and is it large enough?  Obviously, you allow her out of her cage a lot...tell me more about this.  How far into the weaning process do you have her and how are you going about this process?  The more details you can provide, the better.  Thanks.

Chrys  

Answer
Hi again, Elizabeth.  Now it's clear to me!  

Your young tiel has you wrapped around her little beak!  In order to be able to wean your baby, you have to allow her to be a bit hungry so she'll try other foods.  A baby parrot prefers being handfed, next in line is seed over other types of food.  Your baby will continue to want to be handfed as long as you'll handfeed her.  I have parrots who are 15 years old that love it when I show them a handfeeding syringe because they were handfed as babies and they remember the syringe!  Your baby flies and cries to you to be handfed...this is why she's behaving the way she is.  Your presence means food to the baby tiel.  

At 8 weeks of age, your tiel should be weaned or pretty close to it.  Leave the one handfeeding for just-before-bed only...about 9:00 PM.  The rest of the day, your tiel should have pelleted food available, and in the morning, at noon, and for dinner, you need to offer your baby tiel soft foods, such as green beans smashed up or cooked brown rice with shredded veggies mixed in or corn bread or whole wheat/multi grain dry sugarless cereals, etc., etc.  I believe in abundance weaning, which means food always available to babies until they are completely weaned.  You have to gain control over this bird.  The bird seed is not good.  Wean your baby to other foods.  Tiels can have a mixture of about 25% seed to 75% pellets, but be aware that if your tiel likes seed, it won't eat the pellets.  Therefore, I leave pellets for my tiels in a separate dish in their cages 24/7, and if they eat their soft food mix when I feed in the evening, then they can have their seed mixed in with the pellets.  None of my parrots get their seed if they don't eat the foods that are good for them first.

It's OK that you leave your tiel out, but you might want to consider clipping wing flight feathers so the tiel can't fly to you anytime it desires.  It sounds like you may grow tired of this bird quickly unless you can get some control soon.  Clipping flight feathers doesn't prevent a bird from flying, it keeps them from being able to gain altitude when they do fly.  A lot of birds won't even try to fly if they can't fly up, so clipping wing flight feathers keeps some birds "grounded" so to speak.  This might keep your tiel on it's cage more and give you a break.  

My website has general information on parrots that might be useful to you:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

Come back with any additional questions.

Chrys