# How to stop mastubating and start mating.



## Kristian (Jul 5, 2011)

My cock Paco is one of the first male cockatiels I have owned. I have wanted to breed him a couple of times but he doesn’t want or doesn’t know how to court the hens. Once he was placed in a box with two hens that both laid infertile eggs in one box. He is always masturbating on food bowls, peoples fingers etc. does anyone know how I can get him to stop masturbating and get him to want to start mating. I’m planning on buying him an albino hen to mate with him. He is a pied cock and we don’t know his age because he was found in a bush in our front yard around 7 years ago. 

He is the family favorite and everyone would want one of his babies. If we can get him to reproduce successfully we would be very grateful.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Some males are just clueless and Paco might be one of them. Vlad belongs to that club - he has two hens in love with him but doesn't know what to do with them. He has progressed to the point of standing on a hen's back wondering what to do next, for as long as it takes for her legs to get tired and collapse. The two hens are currently sitting in a nestbox on several infertile eggs that they produced plus two fertile eggs that I stole from Shodu. Vlad goes into the box sometimes and sits there with one or both hens but he's basically useless. I'm hoping that watching the hens raise the babies and maybe helping out a little himself will help develop his natural instincts to the point that he can actually mate with a hen.


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## casualrepartee (Apr 28, 2011)

@tielfan -- ok, that mental picture is just too funny, because I see it so vividly. Poor hens (and oblivious vlad!). Maybe its time to make the first instructional video on mating for tiels? Not for the owners...for the tiels themselves who are a little...challenged lol.


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## Mentha (Jul 11, 2010)

You might try getting a younger cock to show him how it's done. If you've had him for 7 years, it's also possible he's infertile because of his age anyway.


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## Kristian (Jul 5, 2011)

Mentha said:


> You might try getting a younger cock to show him how it's done. If you've had him for 7 years, it's also possible he's infertile because of his age anyway.


 I hope not! Paco's ex-hen is currently with a new cock and are trying to hatch their new clutch after their first failed attempt. He has seen mating occur but he doesnt do it himself.


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## Kristian (Jul 5, 2011)

tielfan said:


> Some males are just clueless and Paco might be one of them. Vlad belongs to that club - he has two hens in love with him but doesn't know what to do with them. He has progressed to the point of standing on a hen's back wondering what to do next, for as long as it takes for her legs to get tired and collapse. The two hens are currently sitting in a nestbox on several infertile eggs that they produced plus two fertile eggs that I stole from Shodu. Vlad goes into the box sometimes and sits there with one or both hens but he's basically useless. I'm hoping that watching the hens raise the babies and maybe helping out a little himself will help develop his natural instincts to the point that he can actually mate with a hen.


Paco has only been on top of the hen when the hen once got into the food bowl a with her tail up and Paco tried mating but the bowls wall was in the way. :blush: Is their any other way? Insemination? Contact with the bowl? I really want a mini Paco.


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## Kristian (Jul 5, 2011)

Now all my tiel cocks have started to do it on the food bowls. I don’t know what to do.... Any ideas? Is their anything I can do to instigate Paco into breeding, or at least make him have some interest in breeding?


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## lovelyolivia (Jun 3, 2011)

Since Paco was found outside, and has been with you for seven years, it might be possible that Paco is quite a bit older than you thought he was. Therefore, maybe he has just lost his "desire" to pursue tiel hens! And also, one never knows how an abandoned and/or lost bird might have been raised, or what environment he/she had to live in. All of these factors could cause his current behavior. 

If I had Paco, I just wouldn't force the issue. Even though you would like to breed him, it might be best to try another male tiel to use for breeding purposes.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> ok, that mental picture is just too funny, because I see it so vividly.


The funniest event was the time Mims fell forward and catapulted Vlad off her back. It's partly the hens' fault, since I have extra males including an experienced breeder who looks a lot like Vlad. But Mims and Snowy refuse to be diverted by any other male, even for a quickie. 

Unfortunately I don't know of a solution for Paco. Does he seem to be bonded to any of your current hens? If he does then he might not be willing to switch his affections to a new hen. If he isn't currently bonded to anyone then a new hen might or might not inspire him. 

BTW if he was paired with a whiteface lutino hen (aka albino) then all their babies would be normal grey if the parents don't carry any genetic splits. If he carries the gene for whiteface and/or lutino, or if she carries the gene for pied, then you could get some visual mutations in both male and female chicks. The genetics calculator at http://www.kirstenmunson.com/cockatiels/blue.html will show you the expected results for different combinations.


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## Kristian (Jul 5, 2011)

Hopefully buying a new hen will give him some breeding desire. He is more bonded towards people. He really is not that interested in other birds except for his cockatiel male buddy Panchito that have whistling competitions next to each other. 

I still think he has some kind of desire to breed becouse if not he wouldnt be humping objects all the time. I dont think he knows exactly what to do...

And I wanted to ask tielfan if maybe a lutino hen would be a better match up to breed him too?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The results wouldn't really be any different than with the whiteface lutino hen. Lutino is a sex-linked recessive mutation (so are pearl and cinnamon) and the inheritance rules are complicated. This is the simple version of the story: to get a girl in these colors, she has to get the gene from her father. She can not get the gene from her mother. To get a boy in these colors, he has to get the gene from his father and also from his mother. So no matter what color the mother is, you wouldn't get any lutino chicks at all unless Paco is carrying the gene. And he might have it - there's no way to tell just by looking at him.

Whiteface and pied are ordinary recessive genes. To be visual for these mutations, a chick has to get the gene from both mom and dad. You know for sure that Paco is pied, so if he was mated to a hen with the pied gene you could get pied babies.


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## Zyden (Aug 9, 2011)

I would say poor Paco, but to me it sounds like he's living the life. 

But sadly you can't easily convert a cockatiel that is orientated towards people (or bowls!). I have one hand-reared cock now 11 yrs old, and no hen has ever turned his attentions away from a well tied ponytail!

All you can do is offer a choice of females, and perhaps try a few hens on some dummy eggs to get them in a broody mood to encourage your cock. At the end of the day, practice makes perfect, so giving him all the chances he can get is the most you can do for him.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> All you can do is offer a choice of females, and perhaps try a few hens on some dummy eggs to get them in a broody mood to encourage your cock. At the end of the day, practice makes perfect, so giving him all the chances he can get is the most you can do for him.


But don't hold your breath waiting for it to work! I gave Vlad and his two girlfriends Mims and Snowy a nestbox, hoping it would inspire him. He progressed to the point of standing on Mims' back but couldn't figure out what to do next. The hens laid some infertile eggs, and I stole two fertile eggs from Shodu and put them under Mims and Snowy. They hatched out the eggs with no real help from Vlad and are wonderful mothers. As for Vlad, he goes into the nestbox when they're feeding the babies and eagerly watches for food dribbles so he can lick them up. Instead of acting like a daddy, he's acting like one of the babies!


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## Kristian (Jul 5, 2011)

Well maybe he can help raise some of the other's babies atleast? I'm still hoping he will have his own some day though.


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## stormgsd (Aug 10, 2011)

Lol, i have the same problem, except my boy has been with me since 9 weeks. He has an older fem and a younger female. hamish likes to sing while he's masturbating. He has a special song and you just know what he's up 2 !!


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## Kristian (Jul 5, 2011)

stormgsd said:


> Lol, i have the same problem, except my boy has been with me since 9 weeks. He has an older fem and a younger female. hamish likes to sing while he's masturbating. He has a special song and you just know what he's up 2 !!


Funny! Hahaha


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

hmmm what a bizarre thread!  You'd think they'd work it out eventually...might need another couple to show them how to mate properly!


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