# Restless new cockatiel



## TielKol

3 days ago I recieved a male cockatiel as a gift from my grandfather(don't know his exact age however my grandfather told me he was young, but he doesn't know the exact age), and so far he has been restless, pacing up and down his cage as if looking for a way out and screaming occasionally.

As soon as I got him I put him outside in my garden where I originally envisioned him to stay, however my dog(or so I thought) seemed to be making him unconfortable(even though the dog is very gentile, she seemed fairly indifferent to the tiel, and was not barking or threatening him in any way), so I decided to move my dog somewhere else to see if he would calm down, but after waiting two hours or so there was no progress and he was still screaming very loudly and pacing up and down the cage. I then decided to put him inside the house in a room quiet and calm, he stopped screaming as much but continued to pace up and down the cage. 

I have read that I should leave him to his own, wait till he adjusts to the place, however whenever I go check on him he is still restless in his cage, so I get close sometimes to try to calm him down and sometimes he doesn't seem to care and is still pacing up and down his cage, and sometimes he starts screams loudly. 


It has been this way for 3 days now, what should I do? Should I continue waiting for him to quiet down? I have thought about moving him somewhere he could see me more but he starts to scream loudly whenever I start walking with the cage, I am scared that if I move him again and have him in the presence of others I would only worsen his situation.

Please help.

I should mention that I did get him to calm down for 5 minutes or so by making some gentle shush sounds, however he got restless again and the shush sounds do not seem to work anymore.


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## Mythara

What's his cage like? Can you post photos of the set-up? What sort of environment did he come from? Was he with a lot of other birds before? If so, he's probably flock calling them. If this is the case, he will adjust. Puting him somewhere where he can see you and what's going on should help as he'll learn this is his new flock, rather than being isolated all the time. Leave the radio or TV on for him during the day if he has to be alone too, so that he feels like someone else is there with him.


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## TielKol

Sorry, no way to take photos at the moment, however I must admit that his cage is fairly small. I wasn't really expecting the cockatiel, so I haven't had the time yet to buy him a decent cage and look for toys. I also do not know much about him other than the fact that he is male and young.

The flock calling part makes sense cause in my garden you can hear plenty of other birds chirping away, so maybe that explains why he was so desperate when he was there.

Will try moving him to somewhere he can see me and leave radio on for him.

Thanks for the help!


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## LuvMyTiels

How big is his cage? Follow Mythara's advice and give him time.


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## Kai

When I first got Jasper it was like he didn't have a clue what a cage what. He never stopped pacing, jumping, and all in all constantly moving. He would flock call constantly also. Jasper did come from an aviary so was used to flying wherever he felt. It did take a while (about a month) for him to be comfortable with living in a cage. It took even longer than that for me to gain his trust.

Just give him time. He should settle eventually.


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## tielfan

This happens sometimes with new birds. They're anxious and trying to figure out how to get out of the cage so they can go look for their old flock. They'll form a flock bond with you eventually, and this "new bird desperation" behavior will stop. You might get a new kind of pacing though - some birds get all excited when their owner walks into the room and starts running back and forth.


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## jc119007

When I brought Kikou home and put her in the cage for the first time she jumped around and screamed so much that I thought that she would hurt herself & tick off my nieghbours. I spent the first hour sitting next to her cage talking and whistling to her until she eventually calmed down.
The next day she was still jumping around but we made sure not to make too much noise and talked softely too her, and since she is hand raised we opened the cage and let her come out (once she was calm) when she was ready. She really didn't do much when she did, just climb to the top of the cage and check everything out.

Now, she paces like crazy if she's in her cage and we walk in the room so we can let her out. It's kinda funny, because when she's in the bottom of the cage all you can see is this yellow head running back and forth


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