# My tiel bonding with his toys?



## Thelastkiss19 (Jan 11, 2013)

I decided to put this topic in another thread. My tiel Lufi has been with me for 5 months and was not hand raised, he is not tame yet. :cinnamon: He was in a pet shop for a year before, didn't have any toys, but always had other tiel and parrot companions. 

He is not really warming up to me, but he is warming up to objects. First it was his food bowl that he snuggled with at night and sometimes during the day. I changed that to a new one because the old one made him step half on the bowl and half on the perch and his posture looked imbalanced when snuggling. He doesn't fancy the new one, just for eating.

Now I got him a mirror with a wooden frame. He destroyed half of the frame, haha, but loves the mirror, snuggles with it all night and sometimes during the day. He is not watching his reflection, but really snuggling with it. He has several toys, but doesn't even look at some of them. He just chooses what he likes and what he doesn't like. When I moved the mirror, to the middle of the cage, he just went after it and now he snuggles with it there.

What's going on? Is this normal?


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## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

i don't know much about this topic, but i've heard that mirrors aren't good for male cockatiels to have  unfortunately they usually imagine the mirror is their mate and they fall in love with it, and become aggressive or untame towards their owners.
mean as it seems, i'd probably remove the mirror if i was you


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## Thelastkiss19 (Jan 11, 2013)

Really? That's unfortunate. As I said, he doesn't look at his reflection, he just snuggles with the mirror (he goes so close to it that it's impossible that he sees his reflection). He is also playing with its wooden frame during the day. I haven't noticed any aggressive or protective behaviour towards the mirror yet, but as soon as I do, I will take it out immediately. But at the moment he can spend an hour just playing with the frame, so I would feel bad for taking it away from him.  Thanks for the useful information though!


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## Loopy Lou (Jul 26, 2012)

He wouldn't see it as a reflection, he sees it as another bird. And oh look, that bird wants to snuggle with him too, cos it always gets closer as he gets closer to it!

That's pretty much what the tiel's thinking anyway lol. Tiels can get really aggressive over their mirrors and they can get so obsessive with them. It really is better just to take it away.

I had to take Smokey's favourite toy away from him a few months ago because he was getting hormonal and aggressive over it. He got over it really quickly and just had other toys to play with. Good luck!


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## Thelastkiss19 (Jan 11, 2013)

Okay, you two convinced me.  He has other toys as well, and he plays with them very very rarely. Maybe if I take the mirror out, he will pay attention to the other stuff in the cage too. It's worth a shot!

Actually I took his previous feeder/food bowl thingie away (the one I mentioned in the first post) as well because of the same reason and he got over that quite quickly as well.


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## Loopy Lou (Jul 26, 2012)

Your tiel is gorgeous by the way <3


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## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

Maybe you can find something else wooden to replace it 
And i always feel terrible removing their favorite things  thankfully their memories are fairly short!
So long as he has other toys he'll be fine. They particularly love foraging/shredding toys


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

This will also probuarely make him bond to something else... You
This toy is making him feel that all he needs is home and by you taking it away bonding can go so much smoother


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## Thelastkiss19 (Jan 11, 2013)

I'll take the advice.  He has another wooden toy (wooden blocks on a rope) that he rarely plays with. Maybe he could focus on that a little. Or maybe on me. Lol That would be nice!


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## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

I've heard people recommend regularly changing a bird's cage/toy layout to help them to unbond from their toys. Hopefully Lufi will realise you are worlds better then the wooden framed bird mirror


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## Thelastkiss19 (Jan 11, 2013)

I change the placement of his toys regularly, he keeps going after the ones he likes.  but I will change them up today!


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