# What's wrong with her?



## Flappy (Aug 28, 2008)

*The situation:* 

Since Misty met the budgies, she's loved them. They're not overly keen on her (the girls mostly), but they don't go out of their way to pick on her, and their relationship seems to be getting better day by day. We have moved her cage near to theirs (playgym is inbetween). When we let the budgies out, we open her door and she'll get on our finger, but mostly fly off straight away to be with the budgies. Even when they are locked in their cage she will squawk to be let out and sit on top of it, to be near them. She's hanging out with the budgies through the day, and at night we bring her upstairs (not every night though), away fom them, with us.

Another point to add is that their playgym is very tall. The lowest branches are above my head height, and there are more above those.

*The problems: *

Firstly it's that she sqauwks if we lock her in her cage through the day, as she wants to be with the budgies whether they are locked up, or not. We think ignoring this might be enough to make her stop that though.

The major problem is that Misty has been getting cranky with us. When we get her to step-up, she cries and kind of growls, and attacks our hand (luckily her bite isn't that bad.... yet). Tonight was the worst she's been so far. We covered the budgies up for the night, and took Misty out of her cage to bring upstairs. She was really cranky, crying and biting my fingers and hand. I was giving her seeds, and she was getting angry at those. She was on my boyfriends shoulder and attacked his ear. It's the first time i've been afraid of a bite when she's on my shoulder.

Something i noticed was that she kept looking upwards, as if she was looking for a high perch. My boyfriend held his hand higher than mine, and she jumped to it. I stood up, and she flew to my shoulder. Then he stood up (like a foot taller!) and she flew to his shoulder. A few minutes later, she flew up to try to get on my light shade, but missed and jumped to my clock, then my highest shelf.

*Reasons??:*

Could it be a dominance thing? Is it because the playgym is too high? The budgies have never been hand-tame, so we've never noticed this behaviour with them. They are towering over us most of the day. Should we lower it?

Is she starting to prefer the budgies to us to the point where she doesn't like being with us at all? How can we stop this? Is she spending too much time with them?


I'm really worried about this, as my boyfriend and i will be very busy as of next week doing masters, and will have even less time to spend with her. I don't want to find that next year, she is completely untame and hates us.  We may get her a tiel friend, but there is no way i would get one now. The last thing we need is 2 untame tiels. Hopefully the budgies will be good enough as friends for now, but i don't want her bonding with them too much! Arrgghh 

And here's a pic of the playgym from when we first made it:


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

She might be getting hormonal and wanting to mate with the budgies. If you think this is the problem, then make sure she gets AT LEAST 12 hours of interrupted darkness (13 is better) every night. Meaning quiet and dark as night, not just covered up in a bright, busy room. If the problem is hormones you should start seeing results after about a week of this.

The old ideas about height dominance in parrots have been disproven by modern research. But still, there's no doubt that many birds are more aggressive when they're in a high place. The reasons aren't clear, but the possibilities are that they fell safer up there and resist coming down. It's better to have the high ground in a fight with another bird, too. The lower bird can bite at the higher bird's feet but the higher bird can defend its feet by attacking the lower bird's hard-to-protect head. Downward strikes are usually more forceful than upward ones.

In the case of a captive bird, it's quite likely that they have some idea of your plans and don't want to cooperate so they go to the place where they're hardest to reach. They're smart and figure things like that out very quickly.

It's best not to give a bird an opportunity to bite you, especially in situations where you know she's likely to do it. Biting habits are easy to establish and hard to break. If she'll step up on a stick it's best to use that instead of your hand until she settles down. Attacking the stick is okay - it doesn't feel pain and won't respond to the bite in any way so the bird doesn't get any payoff from the bite. Reward her with a treat for stepping up on the stick so she does get a payoff for cooperating. Millet spray makes a great food bribe since it's long and you can keep your fingers out of biting range.


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## Flappy (Aug 28, 2008)

Thanks for the response tielfan.

I don't think she wants to mate with the budgies. She's about 5 months old now. Not had her first moult yet. I think she would like more attention from them. She has had little moments with each of the boys....... she was nibbling beaks with Cookie, and Pebbles preened her head for a couple of seconds! But the girls bite her wings and tail if they get near.

I'm not sure what was going on last night. She seemed irritated. Not only by me though. Before i got her out of the cage last night, she was crying and attacking a toy in her cage. I think she's annoyed she can't be with the budgies all of the time.

Today though, i let them all out, and Misty tried to land on my head. Then landed on my arm a few times when i shouted for her. But i was standing near the playgym. Don't think she'd do it if i was say sat on the sofa.

I'm still debating about cutting down the playgym to eye level. I don't want to spoil it, as it's a great place for them to hangout when out of the cage.


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## Flappy (Aug 28, 2008)

Actually, i've noticed a few of Misty's feathers lying around today. Could she just be moody because she's having her first moult?


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## PtsRPpl2 (Sep 22, 2008)

I definitely think you're right there! My cockatiel got really cranky and moody when she first started moulting, too - and I've read everywhere they do that. Now that she's still moulting, she still has good days and cranky days! LOL I actually thought about getting a budgie or another bird but now I'm not sure I should after reading your problems. I'm still trying to get my cockatiel to completely bond with me (had her for almost 4 months now) and I worry now that she'd rather fly to the budgie, too!  Hope your little Misty gets better...please keep us up-to-date!


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## PtsRPpl2 (Sep 22, 2008)

*PS*

LOVE your gym...great job!!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> I don't think she wants to mate with the budgies. She's about 5 months old now.


Sometimes they grow up fast! My Casper was mating with his sister Teela at the age of five months, and this was just two or three weeks ago. I was really shocked since I didn't think they could mature that fast. I made Casper get some long nights by sleeping in a small cage in the closet for a week and that solved the problem. He's still singing love songs but his hormones are under control. Teela stopped acting horny when he did.


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## Aderyn (Apr 1, 2008)

As long as she's not plucking herself, it probably is the moult.

Imagine how you'd feel if you suddenly had feathers falling out, itching, and then this horrible prickly stuff poking through your skin as the new feathers grow. I'd also be grumpy. Try to spend as much time with her as possible, and don't react to bites. You'll probably find that she'll want scratches to relieve the itch in a few days, I know Screech did. Just give her the time to come to you. Good luck.


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## elijahfan (Jul 28, 2008)

i have the opstie problem my tiel hates the budgies, i have to have them coverd up he get protective over me, he watched me hand feeding them yesterday i tole them good boys and rewarded them with millet, and let me tell you jojo was so well behaved out of his cage after that lol, my jojo seems t prefer me to other birds so i havent had this problem, 

maybe he is just showing his authority


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

it could be a combo of molting and dominance 

Birds who are above the eye level will not cooperate 

I have a Quaker parrot who chose my b/f as his best buddy, He does what Ever he says when he says. BUT get him above my b/fs head (my boyfriend isn't short) and the Quaker Won't do squat! but try to bite him or actually bite him

My tiel who's tame is the same exact way, as long as We are taller then her she steps up w/out issues Get her above us and she is stubborn and bites 

The Rule is birds are not to perch Higher then eye level of the shortest person in the home. and Not on the shoulders - i get bit the most when any of my tame birds are on my shoulders


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