# Tweey,again.



## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

As much as the thought breaks my heart,I may have to rehome Tweety.Since Sunday she has become very agressive and violent towards the other girls.Misti is still isolated,so she's safe,but Tweety has taken to attacking Lily and Patches.It does'nt matter if they are in the cage or not.Her attacks on Patches,her lifelong companion,are the most often,violent,and disturbing.I've had to physically seperate the two,fearing a severe or deadly injury.Tweety is perfectly healthy and not hormonal.I've tried rearranging the cage,thinking territory issues,but with no effect.There are no other enviromental changes.Tweety has always been aggressive and domineering.Unusually so for a cockatiel.Though I still believe there is a good companion bird in her,I begin to believe it will take a person with a lot more experianced than myself.Possibly in a one-on-one situation.I've contacted the local parrot rescue Mickaboo with this in mind.
My question is this,What effect will separation have on Tweety and Patches?They've been together all there lives,with a good bond until now.Is seperation going to cause more harm than good?Will it cause a permanent heartbreak that won't heal?Or am I over projecting?
Before anybody yells at me about this,I don't want to do it!!!!But I've got three other birds to worry about,and I know how easily an eye can be lost or how a small wound or some pulled flight feathers can cause death.And after Misti's $1000usd trip to the vet last week,I really can't afford anymore emergency trips to the vet.


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## Catherine (Jun 11, 2009)

I do sympathise. It may be that you will have to rehouse her.
However, it interests me that this extra aggressivenss is recent. How do you know that she is not hormonal? I'm new here, so am not sure about Patches. Is this another female? If she is, it may be that Tweety is wanting to breed and regards Patches as a rival while she is in this condition.
In the meantime, I would recommend that you keep her caged separately and let her have her out of cage time only when the others are safely locked up.


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## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

Tweey and Patches are both female and have been together there whole lives.They were both cage bound when I first got them.To put it bluntly,they are a bonded lesbian pair.Tweety is not hormanal,because she just went thrpugh the whole routine including laying and sitting on a clutch of eggs.The sitting duty was gladly shared with Patches,just as it would with a normal(sic)m/f pair.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Sigh...I don't think that rehoming is going to change the initial problem. It sounds like she has a gender crisis and 'possibly' she might fair better housed with a male. If you have a local breeder you might ask them to try to pair her so that she follows 'natural instinsts' Possibly after a clutch she may be fine, or you can ask for one of her offspring.


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## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

That makes a lot of since.She is a frustrated mother,and I always felt that her breeder really blew it by getting rid of a quality breeder.I have seen her sit on not just her eggs,but Patches'eggs as well.She has gone so far as to steal Lily's eggs so she could sit on them.I really wish I knew some quality breeders(locally).Unfortuanatly,all the local breeders I've had contact with are more deserving of a bullet in the head.Yes,they impressed me that negatively.

Could it be also that Patches has recently shown signs of being friendlier towards the other birds,and us humans?


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Could be...I know some tiels can get *very jealous*. My mousebirds are more possesive of humans than the tiels are and they are normally a very docile speieces til they have to share their 'human'

I have a daddy bird like that. Show the babies attention *first* and he will take it out on the babies by biting and pulling feathers and stare me down while doing it. If I show him attention first he is fine and very docile and loving.

Since she was a breeder, you are her chick and flock member. It sounds like she wants to be *UNO* bird. It's a shame there are no breeders locally you feel comfortable with.


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## Tony's Tiels (May 21, 2009)

Yep, I defenitely agree, this girl needs to raise a clutch.
It is the natural thing for Every species, & it is her time Now to have her own babies
so she is Very Frustrated that it is not working.

Perhaps you can find a nice male from a private party ?
Craiglist ? Post wanted ads ?

But , of course I do not know if you want to have the extra work of having baby birds ?


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## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

Are you kidding?!?I would love to breed!It's just that we live in a two bedroom townhouse,and I don't even have room to set up a third cage.


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## Tony's Tiels (May 21, 2009)

So, If I understand right, the 3 girls can Not share a cage , while the 2nd cage is set-up for breeding ?

That is too bad the breeders in your area are not up to your standards, 
(which obviously are good)

SR would know more about this, but I don't think re-homing her as a single bird will resolve her issue, if you need to re-home her, it sounds like she needs to go to a private party with a single male, that would want to breed a clutch.

We have taken in birds after letting the previous owner make sure our home was up to their standard, so I do not think it is unreasonable to actually bring the bird to the new home, or a home visit prior to letting her go to anyone.
IF this is what your solution has to be.

There is also a hormone injection the vet can give, to take the desire to breed out,
but I do not know much about it. (safety)


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## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

No,I have four girls.The second cage houses my girl Misti who is being isolated from the others on Vet's orders.She is still some what weak.She's the one who went to the vet for what turned out to be liver issues,last week.


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## Tony's Tiels (May 21, 2009)

Oh yeah, Thank You for reminding me.

Perhaps by the time you find a male tiel, she will be able to go back to flock life ?
Or is her diet always going to be too different ?

Actually, her new diet might be perfect for the other girls too ?


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## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

http://www.theperch.net/discussion/showthread.php?p=791297#post791297
alink to the thread i have going at The Perch.Not my favorite forum,to generalized and blatantly commercial,but does give me a wider reader. base.Frankly,the girls and I are more comfortable here.


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## Tony's Tiels (May 21, 2009)

Now that I have read all of the posts back to when you first got the 2 new girls, I KNOW that Tweety's issue is the desire to breed For Sure.
( It looks to me like this is the real reason they were re-homed)

We had the same thing with 2 boys, seperating them & giving them each a girlfriend has completely changed them ...from frustrated mean birds into good & HAPPY birds.

It was loud with them screaming to each other for 5 days, until they realized their new cage mates were available to choose a variety of girls from, & once they chose a girlfriend they went to work on raising a Successful clutch immediately & are very proud daddy's now (on eggs still)
These 2 boys had been trying to produce eggs for at least one year, (previous home)once they were finally able to, it made all the difference in the world to their mental health.

SO, my big question to some of the other posts over there....if they are so against breeding, how did they get their birds ?
Somebody bred them, somewhere. but that is probably OT here.

I know there is a thread here somewhere about how to help get your hen out of the 'wanting to breed stage' it is partially seasonal, so it MIGHT help to cover their cages early in the night & make sure the room is quiet also, along with the other things 
listed in that post. (sorry I don't know where it is)
Chronic egg laying is dangerous, as you know.

I wonder if your next vet check-up would be a good time to bring in Tweety for the hormone shot ??? (good idea to research it more first, it is called Luprine, or something close to that) 
will your vet give a multi-pet discount ?

The reason these 2 girls are acting the way they do is because they are bonded, they think they can have babies, but of course Can't, hence their meanness & screaming to each other, & they are Not Happy.

It sounds like Tweety defenitely needs a boyfriend, or a different means of getting her out of breeding mode.
The other (new) girl sounds like she would be content living with 2 girls (3 in the same cage), or in a seperate cage as a pet bird.
She may go thru a depression stage, but I doubt it will be as bad as her current frustration. Especially if you give her lots of human interaction.

I sure hope everything works out with the 4 girls, whatever you decide to do.
Please keep us updated, & I hope some more folks will post some ideas here as well.


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## Tony's Tiels (May 21, 2009)

And Now, I saw a pic of Tweety, I want her 
I would get her in a second if we were closer, & you would let us have her !


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

srtiels said:


> Could be...I know some tiels can get *very jealous*. My mousebirds are more possesive of humans than the tiels are and they are normally a very docile speieces til they have to share their 'human'
> 
> I have a daddy bird like that. Show the babies attention *first* and he will take it out on the babies by biting and pulling feathers and stare me down while doing it. If I show him attention first he is fine and very docile and loving.
> 
> Since she was a breeder, you are her chick and flock member. It sounds like she wants to be *UNO* bird. It's a shame there are no breeders locally you feel comfortable with.


I was wondering about mousebirds they sound neat  What do they eat and are they loud? I never heard of them before you mentioning them.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

xxxSpikexxx, Here is a link to my online albums. click on the pix for a larger veiw ans there is info on each illus.
http://s525.photobucket.com/albums/cc331/Mousebirds-and-more/?start=all

Here is a pix of Robin playing 'Mighty Mouse'


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## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

I started looking them up friday.Mostly wikpedia and animal planet.Like xxxSpikexxx I'd never even heard of them until srtiels mentioned them.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I had heard about mousebirds in an old bird magazine years ago. There was an article but no pix. 

I have been breeding birds since 1993, and during this time the dander from contact with the tiels had slowly been builing up in my lungs. March/2005 I was gasping and went to the emergency. Wound up with a colapsed lung, fluid in the other lung, pulmenary hypertension, and which lead to a damaged heart valve. Spent almost 4 month in CCU and ICU in a drug induced comma, and on a breathing machine. The Dr. told me to get rid of ALL the tiels. What I did was re-arranged them into various flights outside, which cut down on being exposed to the dander. I sold off many, but I just could not get rid of them all. Dr. still tried to get me to so I started looking for a bird that had a crest but without any of the dander problems. Turned out to be mousebirds...which are a joy to be around. In the meantime my husband was after me to get rid of the rest of the tiels. A friend that is on disablity was just getting into breeding, so I sold him some birds and have been mentoring him. BUT, I just can not part with my favorites, and be damned if I was going to give away years of hard work with them. so I set some pairs up...outside. Told my luung doctor what I was doing, and he had to conceded and told me to be cautious of the dust. sorry for the long story...

As to Mousebirds...as a pet, especially if you live in an apartment they are the ideal bird. They are quiet, don't bite, mellow dispositions, and no dander. The downside is they eat fruit, greens and some pellets...thus wet droppings and can vbe messy.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

There's an article on mousebirds in the June 2009 issue of BirdTalk.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

THere is? I haven't read BirdTalk in years. I'll have to get a copy.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It's a one-page article, on page 39. They sound like great birds.


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## RG Walker (Feb 17, 2009)

Well,with the loss of Misti,I've decided not to rehome Tweety.Her bond with Patches seems to be breaking down,and Patches has been much friendlier to the family.I really can't pass up the opportunity this presents on finally getting some where with Tweety.


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