# He Destroys EVERYTHING! A tale of Silas.



## SilasBB (May 30, 2010)

Silas is a male cockatiel who turns nine in september.

He is also the most destructive bird I have ever met. He's been living in my house for about two months now. While we've finally broken some of his bad habits that he got with his old owners (screaming, junk food, siren calls, disobeying, etc.), we've found that he will chew on -everything-!.

Silas is no longer allowed in our kitchen (and if he must pass through it, he must have his feet secured to my hand) as he has pooped once too many times on mom's kitchen counter. Dad caught him chewing a hole in the couch yesterday. He took off last week while he was out, and then we scoured the house looking for him. I found him sitting in the bottom of one of mom's house plants, munching away on the leaves.

He's got a thing for shiny objects, but if he can clearly see his reflection in it, he'll attack you and get incredibly territorial if you approach him. We've instead been allowing him to play with some nickels and dimes that we've boiled and sterilized (as he can't damage them, but has something shiny to play with). I've been searching every pet store I've seen for a "shiny" toy that didn't include mirrors (or anything where he got an undistorted reflection). A member on here recommended to me the "ActiviToys Knife-Fork-Spoon" (http://www.petco.com/product/104729...e-and-Spoon-Bell-toy.aspx?CoreCat=BirdFC_Toys). I bought one. He loved it, but it lasted a whopping total of 3 hours before Silas managed to rip apart the metal rings and start chewing on a jump ring. I had to trade him lettuce to get him to drop the jump ring so I could remove the toy. I've since "fixed" it by making the jump rights as tight as I possibly can around the knife/fork/spoon and bell so that he can't take it apart again, but I expect it'll last only a few days before he figures it out. He's also started to take off the reflective coating on the plastic knife fork and spoon (something that I didn't think was possible).

Any toys we've purchased that were "cockatiel" toys have been destroyed within a week and a half. If the toy has any plastic in it, it goes back on the shelf. Metal jump rings? Back on the shelf. Currently the only toys he has are those meant for "larger" birds, and consist of rope, large wooden blocks, and "pony" beads....but even those are missing chunks from where he's ripped them apart.

I don't understand how he does it. The manager at my local pet store and I were laughing about it. She's got a parrot (can't remember what kind, but it's about twice Silas' size, and a "resident" in their store) and Silas has destroyed toys that her parrot hasn't even managed to. She's been laughing that I've gotta be the only person living with a Cockatiel who thinks that he's a Macaw. 

I don't understand why he has such an affinity for chewing. He's a scrawny little thing, despite being VERY well fed, and yet he causes such large-scale damage for a bird. Every toy we've bought him, he's shredded or ripped apart. His cover for his cage has chunks missing from it from where he's chewed holes in it at night time.

He gets plenty of attention, spends hours out of his cage every day. If he's not out with me, my brother or my dad have him out. He has to have someone sit over him at every second that he's out, because the second we take our eyes off of him, it's like having a two-year-old in the house, he takes off and gets into something he shouldn't be in (like last week when he found the staff paystubs and chewed the edges of them!).

Is there anything I can do to discourage his chewing?


----------



## jc119007 (Dec 28, 2009)

Sounds like you have Jaws on your hands there!

Why don't you try getting him to chew on more interesting things like carrot sticks? I'm sure if you make a hanging toy with hard veggies attached to it with (safe) hooks you might be able to turn it around into something positive- if he chews it into tiny pieces it wouldn't really matter that way! There's a photo somewhere on this forum where someone has used a S hook to spike a slice of corn cob on it- he might find that more of a challenge!


----------



## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

Hahaha. Yeah . The only thing I can think of is just providing more chewing stuff in his cage. But safe stuff... go get some bird safe branches and foods and make birdy kebabs for him to destroy. I don't think you can get a bird to stop chewing and destroying everything. That's just what they do! So encourage him to chew the good things for him instead! Paperbark trees are loved by my birds who destroy them. Or crunchy vegies. Wooden bird blocks. 
Be creative. And yeah always keep an eye on them when out.
My dude loves to chew our table cloth. Our carpet. Our pencils. Our couch. Our clothes. Out chair legs. Out electrical cables....... anything! So totally supervise all the time!


----------



## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

My Piglet is like that, into everything. I can't take my eyes off of her for a second. 
Are the coins non toxic? Not sure what Canadian nickels and dimes are made of.  I don't have plants anymore because of my birds and my cat. I think I'll see what's non toxic and maybe get more that's safe for them. 

My Piglet is a big bird in a little bird body too.


----------



## SilasBB (May 30, 2010)

I cracked out a scale today out of curiousity... Silas, despite being a scrawny little brat, weighs between 100 and 105 grams.

I've looked at the "shredders" toys in the stores, but I know for the $10 it'd cost me, Silas would get all of ONE hour of play with it before it needed to go in the garbage.

I'm going to have to get creative and build him some stuff. I thought about building him a playgym type thing, but I have the feeling he'd destroy it within 2 days of use...

I'm going to try the S-hook veggies... thought about making him a toy with washers and a couple "baby-sized" metal spoons... will be a project to try once I've got some extra time on my hands.


----------



## Jynxstorm (May 15, 2010)

I agree with Dude on the Chewing stuff. I have some chew paper thats called Rainbow Shredders, that could work probably though Sila's might have it shredded with in so many hours but least it would keep him content. Mine have it on their cages and they love it.


----------



## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

SilasBB said:


> I cracked out a scale today out of curiousity... Silas, despite being a scrawny little brat, weighs between 100 and 105 grams.
> 
> I've looked at the "shredders" toys in the stores, but I know for the $10 it'd cost me, Silas would get all of ONE hour of play with it before it needed to go in the garbage.
> 
> ...


You don't have a cockatiel you have a termite! LOL 

Is there a store (even online) that sells toy making parts? That's what I buy for mine according to what they like. 

Ahhh, took me a few minute to remember but here's a site, I've ordered from her before and she has great toys and parts, just takes me a while to get them in the states.  

http://www.birdyboredombusters.com/bulkbirdtoyparts.html

And for a gym, maybe get some hard PVC from Lowe's or Home Depot to make one? The hard PVC is non toxic.


----------



## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Sounds like Silas loves to chew  I would take away the coins, I don't think they are safe for Silas to chew on. I would also not make him a washer toy as he could get heavy metal poisoning. I would only give a bird nickle plated (only if they are small enough not to chip the nickle plating off) or stainless steel metal toys. Spike likes this paper toy he has https://www.healthybird.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=1297 Once the paper is gone you can easily get refills


----------



## Cassie (Jan 7, 2009)

liltweets said:


> You don't have a cockatiel you have a termite! LOL


That's funny.  I was thinking maybe you actually had one of those flying birds that were in Avatar. 

Mine are obsessed with paper sticks at the moment (I got them from myparrotshop.com). I know paper may not be strong enough for him but he would have hours of fun shredding them.

I also wish you hadn't posted that link to the Petco website. Now I'm going to have to buy them stuff from there as well!


----------



## SilasBB (May 30, 2010)

xxxSpikexxx said:


> Sounds like Silas loves to chew  I would take away the coins, I don't think they are safe for Silas to chew on. I would also not make him a washer toy as he could get heavy metal poisoning. I would only give a bird nickle plated (only if they are small enough not to chip the nickle plating off) or stainless steel metal toys. Spike likes this paper toy he has https://www.healthybird.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=1297 Once the paper is gone you can easily get refills


Yeah; I planned to do a little more research before I put anything together.
We monitor him when he has the coins, though each he's played with has shown no sign of any wear. As long as he cannot swallow the coins, I can't see how they'd be a danger to him.

I'm checking out a few sites that have been mentioned on here. Once I pay off my credit card, I'll buy some more stuff for Silas. Between my four aquariums (46 gallon, 15 gallon, 10 gallon, 5 gallon; All Freshwater Tropical Peaceful/Semi-Agressive Community + Bettas), and Silas, I spend a FORTUNE.... Thank geeze I never got into salt-water fish tanks...


----------



## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

He doesn't have to eat the coin for it to harm him, here is a link about heavy metal poisoning http://www.avianweb.com/heavymetalpoisoningbirds.html


----------



## Katta (Mar 21, 2008)

I built my tiels a custom aviary out of two by fours awhile back (birds have since moved into something bigger and better). This is what they did to the edges after about 2 weeks (No worries, the stain is totally organic and nontoxic and safe enough for baby's toys, I made sure of it). I hindsight I should've mounted the grate in the inside :blush:










You should just get some thin planked non-treated lumber from the hardware store, there's all sorts of shapes and sizes and types. It's cheap and stands up to power chewers. I usually just hang up a 1 ft section in the aviary and the tiels will go nuts chewing on it for a week. An 8 ft long plank costs about $4.
________
VAPORIZERS


----------



## Siobhan (Mar 21, 2010)

Give him paper towels to shred -- Freddie loves paper towels. Wooden blocks to chew on. Rawhide strings, not the dog chews but leather, like you'd use for mocassins. (Human) baby teething toys. Even the most destructive birdy takes a while to get through a baby's teething toy.


----------

