# Cockatiel stopped singing



## Birdman1 (Oct 19, 2013)

About a week ago, two of my male cockatiels had a bit of a fight. My grey one was whistling "Pop Goes The Weasel" lovely. Now he has gone all quiet. I am guessing he got frightened. Do you think he will be alright and start singing again? He is ok, still flying around the house and eating well. I don't let him out now with the other male. Just wondered if he would start singing again. Thanks.


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## Bagheera (Feb 27, 2014)

Put him in front of a mirror for a few minutes, that's how Tiki found his singing voice! LOL! But be careful! People warn against it because they can bond to the mirror and stop bonding to you. Or something like that.


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Bagheera said:


> Put him in front of a mirror for a few minutes, that's how Tiki found his singing voice! LOL! But be careful! People warn against it because they can bond to the mirror and stop bonding to you. Or something like that.


I think it's less that they may bond to the mirror and more that the mirror may make them hormonal because they think it's another bird. We took Elvis' mirror away and he got significantly less aggressive and hormonal (and stopped trying to mate with Georgia), but he also stopped singing about a month and a half later. I'd never thought that taking the mirror away may have been a root cause of that...


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## Birdman1 (Oct 19, 2013)

So what you are saying is that if I get him a mirror, it will bring his voice back? But make him more aggressive, aggressive towards who?


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Birdman1 said:


> So what you are saying is that if I get him a mirror, it will bring his voice back? But make him more aggressive, aggressive towards who?


Our male would beat up the females, scream constantly, etc. and was so unpleasant that my boyfriend wanted him euthanized. The tiel, Elvis, is still mean to everyone, but taking away the mirror quieted him down a lot and made him much less nippy. But he's gradually stopped whistling. (He never sang though.) I have no idea whether not having a mirror is the reason, or not having a mate (he tolerates but is not bonded to and doesn't particularly care for Georgia, who is currently our only female) but if the other commenter who said it's possible that mirrors will help male birds sing was accurate, that could be why Elvis stopped. I guess.

You can try giving this male a mirror and seeing if it makes him start singing again, but if he begins behaving badly in other ways (getting very hormonal, starting to bite more, etc.) then the mirror is likely a culprit.


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