# Obsessed With Toy



## Crescit (Jan 22, 2011)

So when I first got my cockatiel we get him what was a small yellow food dish with a small perch and a mirror attached which he loved. The mirror was detachable and he quickly learned that and he kept detaching it and it would fall off. I got rid of the mirror as I was worried it would smash when he detached it and the broken glass would end up hurting him. 

Well after I detached the mirror I noticed he would knock the bottom part which was the small perch and food dish off from where it was hanging in his cage and would start walking around the house with it, carrying it everywhere. He would start carrying it into dark corners underneath the bed, couch, in a closet and just sit beside it for a while and sometimes sing to it. If you hold it up to his face he will sing to it until you pull it away. I've had to tie it to a string in his cage so he wouldn't throw it out of his cage and go hide somewhere where we couldn't find him. When I'm home I let him wander with it I just make sure I know where he is going. If you try and walk away with it he will fly after you no matter where you go.

One time when we tried to take it away to see what would happen he screamed for hours so we had no choice but to give it back. He's become extremely attached to it to the point where I bought two more of the same at the pet store because I was worried if we lost it he would go crazy. So just in case we lose one we give him the other.

The toy is laying at the bottom of the cage most of the time and what he does is he will go to the bottom of his cage right beside it and spread his legs and puff his feathers and sleep right beside it, occasionally giving it a light peck to move it into the position he wants it in. This is how he sleeps the majority of the time, almost as if he's sitting on eggs.

Just to be clear, I'm not worried about this behavior as it doesn't seem to detrimental to his health in any way I was just curious if anybody else has encountered this before. It almost seems as if he treats it as an egg, except for the fact that he does throw it down from his cage onto the floor to go wandering around with it. 

Whenever I tell anybody about this, even people who have lots of experience with cockatiels, they say they've never heard of or seen this type of behavior before. What do you guys think?

This is him sleeping on the carpet right beside my bed post with the toy right beside him.


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## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

To this extent, no, I've never heard of it happening.
However, Echo's food dish used to be a really large one (his cage is built in certain ways for a larger bird...didn't affect him eating at all, but anyway) and to encourage foraging, I put colorful wooden blocks in his dish so he'd have to move them aside to get to his food. Shortly after I did this, he became weird about his food dish. He would hiss and bite if anyone came near his cage, he spent almost all his time down by his food dish, often sitting in it as though sitting on eggs. I took the dish out, bought a smaller one (no blocks!) and he got over it quickly, so I've kept it out.

But you're right, in your case the fixation on the yellow dish doesn't seem to be harming anything. And, if I might add, it's pretty cute.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Yea i think its too cute aswell i don't see the harm in it... He is gorgeous 
He is little a little baby sleeping with his favourite teddy/blanket (dish)
far too cute awwwww


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

It sounds like he thinks its his girlfriend and he's carrying her around the room with him lol. Super cute and since its not hurting anything its ok for him to have his love with him heehee. Ah they sure are funny sometimes!!


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## Duckybird (Sep 13, 2010)

They can bond strongly to their 'mates' and it seems that's what he thinks it is. If you're doing what you can to reduce hormonal behavior, I don't see too much harm. As long as he's not moody or nippy I don't think you have a problem.


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