# My female cockatiel won't stop squawking and wanting to be on me



## tgmm (Jan 3, 2014)

My female cockatiel, Tweety, that is about 7 to 8 months old lives with a flock of 4 total tiels. She is very jealous of the the other three and won't have anything to do with them. The other three are all younger than her and one is a male that chases her around at times. Tweety has become extremeley bonded to only me and squawks continuously if I move away from her. She has free flight of my place with the cage top always open and if I don't come back to the cage near her, she flies off the top to my head and stays on my head. This makes the other 3 birds also want to get on me and they try to fly but can't make it to me yet. I play with all four birds for at least 2 to 4 hours every morning and another hour in the evening. It is not enough for Tweety. She wants me with her every minute she is awake. She will squawk and squawk every 3 seconds loudly and it is driving me crazy. Often, she will fly to my head and when I put her back, she flies right back to me. I cannot keep her off of me for even 5 minutes to go to the bathroom or do anything at all. If I take her with me, all the other 3 birds want on me, too and it is very difficult to do anything with four birds all perched on me. I have playtop gyms and all kinds of stuff for them, but they only want to be on me. I can get the other birds off and they are happy on the playgyms, etc, but Tweety demands my attention all day. She also started doing a mating dance every single day with a specific chant that I know is a mating song and her tail bobs up. Is she just going through a hormonal phase and will it pass or is this a permanent behavior? How do I get her to not be so needy of my attention for every minute she is not sleeping? These are my first pet birds. I bought two more babies after my initial Tweety and Goofy that did not like each other, thinking the next 2 would bond with them, but the next 2 bonded with each other and Tweety hates them. I can't get her to like other birds. She only likes me. Please help. Thank you.


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## dianne (Nov 27, 2013)

Hi, TGMM.

I hear how frustrated you are about Tweety.

I am relatively new to cockatiels and only have one, a female who is not really very tame or eager for my company. Your situation sounds a bit unusual. From what I have been reading on this site, it is more common that there is difficulty in taming cockatiels than with them wanting too much attention. However, just as people differ in personalities, birds do too.

Since Tweety is seven months old, it is possible she is going through a hormonal period. There are stickies on hormone control you could look at.

I wonder what Tweety was like when you first got her: was she handfed? how old was she? was she tame right away? what are the sexes of your other birds? are you sure she is female? I wonder about the mating dance--I don't know for sure, but I thought it was something males did. But, I could well be wrong, because i don't have that much experience. However, I see no one else has replied, so I thought I would have a go at least in expressing some support.

I wish we could take a little bit of Tweety's clinginess and give it to my Emma.


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