# Our cockatiel bonded with the wrong person - Me!



## txpilot (Nov 15, 2017)

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, even though we have had our bird, Cody, for almost two years. Cody was purchased by my wife and kids at the local pet store. After having Cody a while, we had Cody DNA tested and found out she is actually a girl.

My wife and kids fell in love with Cody when they first saw her. She was kind to them and let them all pet her. But after a couple months in the house, she would only let me pet her and try to bite nearly everyone else, including my kids. My daughter was especially devastated.

Unfortunately, my job has me away from home a lot, and when I'm home I'm usually busy doing things. In other words, I don't have time to pay attention to Cody, even though I would like to. I believe this lack of bonding further exasperates Cody's aggression towards others.

I'm concerned about Cody's well being, along with my kids' happiness. I'm wondering if getting a second bird would be a solution or a mistake. I'm not interested in becoming a breeder, so I'm wondering if two female cockatiels could get along. If not, is there another species of bird that Cody could bond with? Any other thoughts to solve my dilemma would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan


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## rivx (Mar 3, 2017)

Letting your wife + kids 'retame' her -- using food bribery and other common taming methods -- might help them warm up to her, but chances are she'll always see you as hers. But, at least she'll tolerate other people, and perhaps even learn to choose a new human. 

Here's a link. I only flitted through it, but it's a lot of info on one-person-birds and how to train them out of it. http://theparrotforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1528


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## txpilot (Nov 15, 2017)

Thank you for the information, Rivx. I will check on the article and share it with my family.


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## frozengirl (Nov 26, 2016)

If your kids and family don't interact with your tiel on a daily basis, the tiel can end up becoming less social to them. My boyfriend found this out when he was working long shifts for three days and feeling too tired to spend time with my tiel. She didn't hate him, but didn't allow him to give her scritches for a week. He said " oh she hates me now" and a week later after interacting with her daily , she allowed scritches again. During that week I told him to feed her, hand feed her some millet and be the one to let her out of the cage  I am still her favourite but she always goes to him to say hi every so often 

Your kids will have to earn your tiels trust , and it isn't that hard as long as they are patient , gentle and spend enough time. let your family do things with your tiel that she enjoys the most. You know your bird best. In my case, it's feeding her millet, pellets, seed , dehydrated veges while playing on her playground. Stuffing straws with pellets, clicker training ( my tiel loves it because I use millet only for training or taming with other people ) . And , letting her play with my phone, which is usually off limits haha. If anyone picks up my phone, my tiel becomes their friend 😜 She goes nuts over my iPad also.


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## sheikhmz1 (Jan 23, 2018)

I have same problem 
I am taking care of pair but male cockatiel only attaches to women 
and another problem is 

My male masturbates with stick he sits on but always ignores female receptive behaviour


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> My male masturbates with stick he sits on but always ignores female receptive behaviour


This means you don't have a bonded pair. You need to try hormone control to reduce the hormones so that they can bond before allowing them to breed. Reducing the hormones will reduce the masturbation.



> I'm concerned about Cody's well being, along with my kids' happiness. I'm wondering if getting a second bird would be a solution or a mistake. I'm not interested in becoming a breeder, so I'm wondering if two female cockatiels could get along. If not, is there another species of bird that Cody could bond with? Any other thoughts to solve my dilemma would be greatly appreciated.


Never get another bird for your current bird, especially if you are already having issues with said current bird. It will only frustrate you more. Cody sounds hormonal and has picked you as her mate. Which means she won't bond to anyone else until her hormones are under control. http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=32330 Have your wife start using hormone control techniques, it will take about two weeks for a change to be noticed. Then have your wife and kids try food bribery to get her more receptive to them. It will take time and patience.


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## txpilot (Nov 15, 2017)

Thank you all for the advice. Regarding the hormone control, a friend of mine has a parrot and is able to control her hormones by spraying her with a fine mist of water. She says the water simulates a rainy season for the parrot, and tricks it into thinking it's not mating season.

Has anyone heard of that working for tiels?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

That's not how it works for tiels. Their breeding season is the spring/summer, so by reducing the light hours and food you are making them think it's winter. Misting won't work for them.


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