# New tiel owner- flapping issue



## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Hi everyone, adopted my first tiel 'opus/opie' only 5 days ago and as a novice bird owner am doing ALL the reading possible to learn as much as i can. It is a 9 weeks old tiel, hand reared and seems to be settling in well. He's responding well to both myself and my boyfriend; will step up, eats out of our hands or food bowl, and even leans in for a cuddle when he/she is up on our shoulder. 
Last night though Opie began flapping his wings like crazy on my partners shoulder.... for about 20 seconds... It was as though he was in attack mode.. He didn't actually attack... or fly off.. but it was quite strange.. Would this kind of behaviour be due to excitement(Opie loves spendin time on my partners shoulder)? or being scared?? 
We were a bit spooked by the behavior and decided to put opie back in the cage... figured he was either spooked or tired. 
Anyway.. tonight.. when we put him back in his cage he carried on......... whistling alot; so we brought him back out .. and once we sat with him he did the crazy wing flap thing again...... this time taking off after about 5 seconds.. he flew about 3 metres.. 
His wings are actually clipped.. so he can't fly properly. 
Anyway, any advice on what you think this means would be great.


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## Astarael90 (Jun 7, 2012)

I have no idea why they do that, wait till one of the more experienced people respond BUT!!! My birds do the same. I have no idea why. One of them has her wings fully grown and she can fly really well but occasionally she will just flap really hard on our shoulder or even in her cage and then just fall down.... I recently got a new little baby, about 2 months old and he does the same thing. I am also interested in why they do this. I would say don't worry about it, since my female who I've had for a year and a half does it still and it doesn't do any harm, but we'll see what the more experienced members have to say.


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Thanks for the reply. Glad to know I'm not alone  I'm guessing it's not an aggression thing... But perhaps exercise or excitement?? Will wait and c what others have to say. I was just a bit spooked by it last night.. Especially being a first time bird owner


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## AMom2011 (Apr 25, 2012)

mine do that too. I would think it's for exercise. After all, those wings are muscles, and when they are out of the cage, they can flap without hitting the cage bars.

mine sound like 2 little helicopters, lol


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## mikec2003 (May 28, 2011)

The best theory I've heard why tiels start flapping on people and objects is that it is a show of ownership. By sitting on something and flapping, they are saying "this is mine", so if they do it on you or a family member, it means they like that person.

Or they could be exercising or crazy


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Its part of bat bird...he is claiming whatever he's doing this on (whether it be you or his cage or what not) as his.


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## JaimeS (Nov 28, 2011)

Mine do this almost every time they come out. I think they are just exercising and happy to be out of the cage. It is perfectly normal and nothing to be concerned about. I hope to see pictures soon!


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Thank you very much everyone for your replies. I'm so happy to have found a forum to ask these sorts of questions. And im so happy with the answer as i was quite freaked out by it... Glad to know its an exercise or ownership thing.... Means he is setting in.  Photos will be up soon when i Figure out how to do it.


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Hey everyone, here is a photo of my cheeky cockatiel Opie.. PRetty sure its a HE.. not a she.. judging by the amount of whistling he is doing at only 9-10 weeks old. 
I'm having one more issue with him.... i'm sure i'll have many more... but for the time being... I'm having issues with his food/drink. He currently likes "sleeping" in his food... and obviously i am changing it.. to ensure it has fresh.. pooh free.. seed. But he seems to only wanna eat when he comes out of the cage and i give it to him. I know this is a habit i need to try and get him out of.. as he needs to be able to eat when im not home. The main reason we feed him out of the cage is because he gets nippy with us.. tries eating our clothes etc... once he's fed though.. hes an angel.. (mostly)  Also about the food... the breeder gave me some egg n biscuit mix which i was meant to be weaning him off... which my cockatiel actually HATES...wont eat it at all... is it okay at this age to just go onto seed n pellet? 
Also i have never seen him drink any water in the 5 days we have had him. Do they normally drink much? 
Sorry for the rambling.. but i feel like a new mother with a zillion questions atm


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> Also about the food... the breeder gave me some egg n biscuit mix which i was meant to be weaning him off... which my cockatiel actually HATES...wont eat it at all... is it okay at this age to just go onto seed n pellet?


Individual breeders do it different ways but I've never heard of a baby being weaned onto egg food then weaned off? Egg food is generally reserved for a breeding pair not for the babies. So yes, its definitely OK to not give it to him and just let him eat normal birdy food.



> I'm having issues with his food/drink. He currently likes "sleeping" in his food... and obviously i am changing it.. to ensure it has fresh.. pooh free.. seed.


This seems to be a baby thing (the food must feel like nesting material) and he'll grow out of it. Til then just keep changing it. As to him only eating outside of the cage, tiels are flock animals and the flock eats together, so he may only being eating when he sees you eat. Try eating when he's in the cage (so he can see you) and see if he eats then. Also you can offer him millet in the cage so he'll eat it. 



> Do they normally drink much?
> Sorry for the rambling.. but i feel like a new mother with a zillion questions atm


No not really, maybe a couple sips a day and if you actually see it happen you're lucky. I see mine do it first thing in the morning but that's about the only time.


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## stevechurch2222 (Sep 25, 2011)

It should be fine to get him on to seed and pellets,also introduce him to veggies especially green leafy veggies.You can try fruits like apples make sure to get all the seeds out of the apples since they are dangerous for tiels,if he doesn't eat the fruits like apples,watermelon,cantalope don't worry since many cockatiels don't like fruit.Also honey wheat bread with whole grains is good for him,also make sure to have a cuttle bone for him for calcium.Your cockatiel is gorgeous.


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Thanks so much for the reply Roxy. Am glad to hear about the water thing.. i was concerned he wasnt getting enough.. but if they only sip occasionally no wonder i haven't noticed him doing it. Also.. With the food that is a great tip. His cage is near the dining table; so i have been making an effort of sitting there for my meals and talking to him.. but he usually just fluffs around and tries to convince me to let him out  He does eat a little bit in the cage ; but nowhere near what he would eat outside with me feeding him. He's been coming along in leaps and bounds in the short time since we got him.. so hopefully if i persist we'll get there.  Also very glad to hear he doesn't need the egg and biscuit mix..... as he simply does not want it.  
Thanks again to everyone for the great advice and i'm sure i'll have many more questions to come


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Thanks as well steve. Only just saw your reply. I started him on apple straight away.. he eats it if i chop it up really small for him. Also i tried capsicum last night which he seemed to enjoy.He hates carrot... but wll try again another day as after all hes like a baby.... I intend on getting opie on lots of fruit/vege as i try and eat alot of that kind of stuff myself. Ive heard this can be difficult but he seems to be doing well so far


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## leeb (Jun 17, 2012)

My young female tiel loves to hang and swing from her toys and sit on her perch and flap and stretch her wings all the time. I have read that they do this for exercise and fun.

She also took to sitting over the water bowl at night to sleep so I remove the water bowl at night and this solved the problem, I can now leave it in some nights and she sleeps elsewhere.
I hardly ever see them drink but our girl Summer loves to swim in it lol. She's a cheeky girl.

The boy tiel that we adopted did not eat fruit or veg and then we got our girl and she helped him change his mind. Their favourite is peas and corn. They like spinach and parsley and a little apple.Some pasta n rice. I just keep trying different things to see what they like. They say you should never feed them advocado!!

There cage is right near our dinner table and they love to watch and hang and chatter to us while we eat.

I found the library also has a lot of books on tiels and I found them usefule for starting out. You will have lotsof fun getting to know and love your bird and he will love you back just as much. Good luck


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> The boy tiel that we adopted did not eat fruit or veg and then we got our girl and she helped him change his mind. Their favourite is peas and corn. They like spinach and parsley and a little apple.Some pasta n rice. I just keep trying different things to see what they like. They say you should never feed them advocado!!


This is true, avocado contains too much fat for a tiel. Tiels also really aren't big fruit eaters so don't be surprised if they don't eat much of those either.


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## delawaregirl (Dec 2, 2011)

When Tweety first came home she would only eat when out of her cage. I also noticed when she was in her cage she stayed at the top. So, we moved her food to where she was perching and she started to eat in her cage. She was young when we brought her home and it took a little while for her to learn her way around her new big cage. She came from a much, much smaller cage with 3 other siblings.


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Cool. I will def grab some books from the library. He's cuddling a lot now which I'm really happy about. It's so adorable.  will keep working on the food thing.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> This is true, avocado contains too much fat for a tiel.


The biggest problem with avocados is that some of them contain toxins that are deadly to birds. Apparently there are some varieties that do not contain this toxin, but not too much is known about the subject and it's better to be safe than sorry. Humans usually don't have problems with the toxin.


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Just wanted to update you all on opies progress. He ( appears to be a male) is making progress with eating in the cage..  which is a great relief. We have put food near where he likes to perch and he feeds himself and tonight we encouraged him to eat in his cage with the door open which to me feels like a massive achievement. prior to this the second the cage door opened he wanted to be out and on our shoulder  no luck with getting him to eat pellets he though but will keep persisting. And I have finally seen him drink water so am very happy with the way he is settling in.


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## catalinadee (Jan 1, 2011)

Most of my indoor flock do this. I think it's to get the blood going before they choose to fly, and of course it works as exercise too  your tiel is very cute!


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## alli (Jun 17, 2012)

Thanks Catalina  yeah he seems to do it as exercise and I've also noticed when we go into a room he's not familiar with he gets a bit flappy, I don't mind if he does it now, I was just a bit startled when he first did it.  but when I take him back to the lounge where he normally is he calms down


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