# Help! What's wrong with my tiel?



## JonoSan (Jan 1, 2012)

Hey everyone, I've had a tiel for almost 2 weeks now, I'm a new owner. He's 13 weeks old and very very quiet (sometimes screams for attention, though). Sometimes he sneezes 3-4 times in a row and doesn't sneeze for the rest of the day, sometimes just sneezes once or twice. Normal droppings, eating and pooping just fine. Sometimes he flattens his feathers to become really skinny and his crest rises straight up and he starts looking left and right for no apparent reason (nothing is happening out of the ordinary, but it's like he's afraid of something). Sometimes he also begins to frantically flap his wings inside his cage and ends up falling off the perch. Sometimes he also bites me, but not very hard at all (not painful). I noticed he always leaves sunflower seeds behind and eats the rest of the seeds. When I hand fed those sunflower seeds to him, he keeps biting it and it drops out of his mouth (sometimes he manages to break it in half but still drops the bits). Is this sort of behavior something to be concerned over?


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## DyArianna (Aug 7, 2011)

I'm no expert.. but everything you are describing sounds like normal behavior to me. He's young. You have to remember that it's like having a toddler running around. He's exploring his world and testing limits. In my experience.. nothing to be worried about.


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## enigma731 (Aug 12, 2011)

Welcome to the world of cockatiel neuroses. He sounds totally normal.


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## Kenziekenz (Dec 5, 2011)

Definitely sounds ok to me  you don't freak out everyone you sneeze either  (I hope). Birds tend to pick favorite bits out of their food and leave some behind which its why its best to have pellets and seeds as well as fresh fruits and veggies  welcome to cockatiels!


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## DyArianna (Aug 7, 2011)

There is one thing that you have to remember.. and I am always correcting my daughters on (and they are teenagers). It's slow. Move slowly around them.. fast jerky movements startle them. If you do everything slow.. they will realize you are not there to freak them out. It will get better. Very typical.


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## northernfog (Dec 14, 2010)

DyArianna said:


> There is one thing that you have to remember.. and I am always correcting my daughters on (and they are teenagers). It's slow. Move slowly around them.. fast jerky movements startle them. If you do everything slow.. they will realize you are not there to freak them out. It will get better. Very typical.


Good point. My tiel will freak out if something or someone moves too fast!  
She is so cute!


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## morla (Aug 15, 2011)

I think your cockatiel is normal.  
When they get scared and really alert get skinny and crest up. 
Your cockatiel probably fell of the perch because he was doing batbird.


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## birdgirl (Jul 13, 2010)

Hi yes, it sounds normal to me, when we look after a tiel for friends when they go away, he freaks if he hears pigeons outside and flies to my shoulder, we also have tiels and budgies, tiels can get spooky and are more prone to night frights, if i put something new in our tiels cage i do it when the cage is empty, same with our budgie, i change the budgie and tiel cage around every so often to make it more interesting but do it when they are out. Hope this helps


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## meaggiedear (Nov 20, 2011)

lol. grey was trying to "run" from me by flapping his wings and scurrying. he ended up falling between the cage in the perch because he wasn't paying attention. lol. grey is also too lazy to shell sunflower seeds. tiels are just crazy curious birds.


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## resalat_hasan (Sep 7, 2011)

The behavior seems normal to me 

Mine also acted like this when I brought him home.

My tiel, Precious has been with me since July, 2010. Earlier, he just loved eating sunflower seeds....but for the last 2 months or 3, he's never even touched one! He's on to Veggies now and loves eating veggies like fresh sweet corn, broccoli, carrot, cabbage, capsicum, spinach and cucumber  he also loves eating millet beside them.


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