# Anyone recognise this weird behaviour?



## Flappy (Aug 28, 2008)

This is about my tiel's mental health, not physical health, and i'm really worried.

Background: I've had her 7 months. She was tame initially whilst in quarantine. Then she met my 4 budgies (2 pairs) and decided she preferred them to us. So we let her share a big cage with them. Attempts to put her in a seperate cage failed. We're also not completely sure what sex she is.


So, since we got Misty, she's been getting progressively more and more bossy with the budgies. At first i didn't mind, because the girls picked on her a bit, so i thought at least she's standing up for herself. 

Recently she's been chasing them round a bit, especially the girls, and the last few nights when we've locked them in the cage, she's been really fidgity. She won't keep still in the cage.... she wants to be somewhere then she doesn't, and there's lots of bickering going on.

Now onto even stranger behaviour. The last few nights she's been making a really weird noise, like she's growling at the budgies. She's been sitting on a lower perch, looking up at them, with her head kind of bent back, and making an awful noise. It's not the usual hissing noise she makes. It's like half hiss half growl. And she'll just sit there looking at them, making the noise. Just a moment ago she got really angry and jumped on one of the girls, who fell to the floor of the cage. Straight after she went and jumped on one of the boys. 

This may or may not be related, but we found a big clump of crest feathers on the floor of the cage, which looked suspiciously like they'd been pulled out (unless they fall out 8 at a time?). So she's got a tiny crest and huge pin feathers coming in at the moment. 

I'm hoping this is why she's angry. If not, i'm really concerned for her mental health. I'm worried it's because the budgies are paired, and she never gets preened and doesn't get much attention from them. She just basically gets to sit with them.

Anyone have any ideas, or recognise this problem?


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

Crest feathers don't come out in a clump like that. I'd say there is trouble is paradise. She is probably getting hormonal. If the Days are getting longer where you are that is highly likely. So she's probably a lot grumpier than usual. You know Budgies will never shrink away from conflict. On the contrary. They probably meet every challenge and then take out their revenge on her crest. A very common behavior for Budgies. It would be a good idea to separate her from them at this time. She may just have outgrown them.


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## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

^ I agree. Budgies and hormonal cockatiels don't usually mix, since budgies are pretty confrontational. You'd probably be better off separating them at this point.


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## Flappy (Aug 28, 2008)

sweetrsue, the days have just gotten longer, clocks went forward a couple of weeks ago, budgies are chirping before we're even up (despite the black curtain!). She probably is getting hormonal too. I've seen her jumping onto Maya's back a few times (not sure if this means she's actually a he or not, as she may be copying our boy, Pebbles). But she also jumps on her to attack her, so i'm not sure if it's aggression, or attempted mating, or what. We had to catch her the other day, and for the first time ever, she drew blood  You're right about conflict as far as the girls go. They're bickering at anyone within pecking distance at the moment. And Ruby, in particular, i've seen pull out a bunch of Misty's feathers before a few times.

The thing is though, we did a trial seperation just over a month ago, and it didn't work at all. We put her in the other cage, near to the budgies, on the other side of the playgym, but she squawked the house down all night. It was awful! And i felt so cruel. I will think about trying it again though.

Do tiels get angry like that with other tiels when they're hormonal too?

Thanks for the advice both of you.

Oh, and here's the clump of crest feathers that i found on the cage floor:


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## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

If you put the 'tiel in her own cage the adjustment period will probably be difficult, however, IMO it's much better than potentially putting any of your birds in harm's way.
I would say that amount of crest feathers falling out definitely isn't normal. You didn't notice any blood or anything, did you?


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## SweetSimmy (Sep 1, 2008)

its not a very good idea to keep budgies and cockatiels together. for some it works out. but its not safe in alot of cases. put your tiel in a different cage. 
All the birds can spend time together when supervised. 
Keep an eye out and see if any thing else happens (even after separating)


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

Budgies can actually get quite violent. To the point of killing a rival. 'Tiels are much mellower and less likely to fight. It really is for her safety to separate her. You don't want to wake up to a tragedy!


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

Instead of putting her cage on the other side put it Side by side with the budgies ONLY make sure they can't bite each other through the bars 

it will take time This I can guarantee, my budgies and teils (when i only had 6 budgies and 4 tiels) decided they wanted to live together - This was not at all my doing - They had out of cage time together all day long from 6 am to 9 pm you would think this was enough time they were together. but no I'd get the budgies in their cage which was in my bedroom and the tiels in theirs to go to bed (their cage was in the living room) the budgies could see the tiels from my room, All they did was contact call to each other All night long even being covered up this went on every single night for 2 weeks, I just couldn't go it no more, my kids weren't getting the sleep they needed for school I wasn't getting sleep and my house was loud ALL night long So i let the budgies out one night figured they'd play in my room and get wore out and go to sleep. Nope they headed straight to the tiels cage So i let them in because them hanging on the out side loudly contact calling wasn't helping any - no more then i opened the door and they all got in - my house was silent once again all you heard was beaks grinding 

So i let them live together the cage was more then big enough and my budgies are (the ones from that time not so much my younger ones i have now) are as mellow as the tiels 

I didn't have room in either room to put both cages, But when I moved They had a room all of their own, So with budgie cages by tiel cages I tried separating them again and all was quiet They just had to be as close to them as humanly possible 

now my original group of budgies and teils still get along great, but my new tiels (babies and new adults) and new budgies (babies i've bred and adults i've gotten) do not get along. 

and to end my long winded post - This is a picture of my budgie Casper, This is what BUDGIES did to her, she was in her cage, actually in her nest box, and we had the lid open just a bit for the babies to get some light (so when they came out it wasn't such a shocker) she was peeking out seeing what every one was doing and this is what they did to her


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## Flappy (Aug 28, 2008)

Thanks for the replies and advice. ATV, i remember that, poor Casper.... budgies can be so evil!

I have to say though that i'm more worried for the budgies than i am for Misty. Misty's behaviour is terrible at the moment. She was acting crazy last night, chasing the budgies around the cage in a rage. The poor boys were jumping around and really skinny! The girls were trying to settle, and making that bickering noise whenever she came near. She settled later, when she got the best perch, and when she was surrounded by the budgies (she seems to love being centre of attention).

It would be difficult for us to put her in a seperate cage at the moment, as we have the cage in an alcove, and a curtain covers the alcove at night. If we put a cage nearby it wouldn't get covered.... and we wouldn't get much sleep.... light mornings now!

I'm considering getting another tiel, even though it's nowhere near convenient at the moment.


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## Flappy (Aug 28, 2008)

Just to let you guys know that Misty is back to normal! As soon as her crest had grown back, she calmed right down.... no more squabbles. So she's happy again, and looking lovely.


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## Katta (Mar 21, 2008)

I had to rehome my budgie two weeks ago. Everything was fine and dandy for months, the tiels and him even flock called to each other and there was no bickering at the feeding dish.

Then the budgie started getting aggressive, pulling tail feathers, crests, and being an all around nuisance. The tiels just wanted to nap and preen all day so when they ignored the budgie, the budgie got angry and threw fits.

The line was crossed when he started biting the tiels feet and DRAWING BLOOD. I separated him for a couple weeks but he was incredibly lonely and I didn't think I could handle getting an additional bird. So I gave him away and now he's got 8 other budgie friends to play with, and is MUCH happier.

With birds, you can hope all you want that things will change but at the end of the day their welfare is the most important.
________
Voyeur Vid


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