# I'm Done. I give up



## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

For the last few weeks tsukas been getting worse and worse. especially towards me. he bites and bites hard. hed first bite hard enough to make me say ow. then start just punctures. now its chunks. no matter what i tried to make him stop hed only bite harder the next chance hed get. today dally was flying and landed on the cage and he chased after her and nearly bit her toenail off. its all cut up and bruised now. so that drew the line. he was separated from the cage and hes all alone now. i know hes in a much smaller cage but its only temporary as i had been planning on getting a really big cage for the two. well now hes blown that. regardless im getting the big cage just for dally and tsuka will have the old one all to himself. i will be getting another female to keep dally company. i give up on trying to get tsuka to stop biting. hes not going to stop. i am done. 
so from now on im hardly handling. im tired of my hand being shredded every time i have to go near him. no one does anything to him he just attacks. what ticks me off the most is that he DEMANDS scritches after ripping my fingers apart. im done. he wants attention, hes getting it from my boyfriend who he never bites. tsuka will still come for walks with dally and me since thats the ONLY time he doesnt bite. other than that, his cage doors will be left open so he can come and go as he pleases. other than that, im not handling him unless i have to. im tired of the biting. hes not making any progress, just getting worse. so im done.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Quite possibly he is of the age where his hormones are kicking in and he just feels frustrated, and cranky. When I have a tiel like this I grab them and hold them against my chest, and stroke them. Ususally they will wiggle but my heartbeat calms them down. You might want to try that as a means of a 'time out' for him.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

he hates being retrained. he bites even harder. he is an evil little bugger most of the time... but ill try it. its worth a try


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## D&J - SA (Sep 27, 2010)

never give up try anything, i wa always told that birds go through a teenager stage when yip you right they act like teenagers. Never took much notice till one of my conures started attacking me and my one son the two people who spent time with him. Spoke to his breeder and he mentoned the teenager story, so i gave him space and let him be. A couple months later he was fine but in the interim he chose his rightfull owner my son, they do everything together now and when he wants a treat he comes to me. I also wanted to just give up at one stage but decided to let nature run its course and all worked out ok. Good luck.


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## Duckybird (Sep 13, 2010)

I'm sorry he's being such a brat  My Dixie could be that way sometimes, and knock on wood, Ducky hasn't been. The range of their personalities is quite large. I know you want Dally to have another friend, but what if Tsuka starts screaming or acting worse because he gets more jealous? Dally may be happier now that he's just hanging around and she has all your attention. I know she screamed and got super attached to you before Tsuka but maybe she's settled down now. I dunno. I tried solving Dixie's attitude problems by getting Ducky as a friend and he just got worse...it's a tough situation to be in. I'm sending good thoughts your way!


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## nikol witch (Mar 2, 2010)

Do NOT quit just more efforts.


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## Hemlock (Aug 1, 2010)

I know what you're going through! Simon is about 10 months old now, and we're going through this- he's my Green Cheek Conure. He was a perfect, gentle little guy when we brought him home at 5 months old, and now he's just an evil little nightmare. I can't even change out his food and water without him going on the attack *sigh*. On the times that he's managed to escape out the door of his cage to walk around a bit I cringe because I know I'm going to be eaten alive. 

Like Tsuka, he despises being confined. I've tried distracting him, 'dropping the floor' out from under him, letting him have space.... nothing's worked so far. He's even gotten to the point that he won't even step-up anymore. However, I did have mild success with him last night. He got out while I was changing his water, and he went after me. I slipped my finger under his feet as he took a step towards me, and it suprised him because he was suddenly on my hand. I made this huge, HUGE deal about what a good boy he was and got very excited, and threw a party (my husband came in to make sure everything was okay, shook his head, and then walked out). Something about that seemed to trigger something in him, and I was able to do the step-up ladder with him for the first time in a couple of months. 

Mind you, this morning, he was back to his evil self, but it was a step in the right direction. 

I think you both need a little bit of a break. Step back, take a breath, spend an overt amount of positive time with Dally in front of him.... it seems to be working with Simon. *shrug*


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## cinnamon (Jul 16, 2009)

Hemp seed worked for my guy bird. The pet shop kind! Kind of spendy but well worth it. And yes he is in teenager mode. No fun at all. I have given up many times and come back a week or so later and I am better and the naughty bird. Take a break and return renewed. Good luck.


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## Velvet (Jul 30, 2010)

That's really naughty indeed. I would give it a couple of days of no handling. Maybe it will help him forget this cycle he is in. Like a 'cooling off period'.


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## Cassie (Jan 7, 2009)

My Holly was just like that. He was really loving and affectionate and then he turned into birdzilla. It lasted a few months and then he was fine again. It sounds like hormones. I hope he snaps out of it soon for you.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

i actually tried what srtiels said, it did help a bit. but dallys moping around at being alone in her own cage so i AM getting her another friend eventually. im leaving him in the cage mostly right now so he can take his frustrations out on destroying his toys. dally goes over to his cage and tries to open the doors to go in. shes kinda sitting around her cage not sure what to do. she will get a friend soon but i am not letting tsuka in dallys cage anymore as he nearly took her toe off. i dont want to risk that as they didnt thoroughly get along in the first place. im getting her a bigger cage anyways and tsuka will have the old one, which would be very very spacious for one bird. two birds it was ok for i just wanted bigger for the two... but i dont want dally hurt from tsuka's biting. tsuka's my boyfriends bird now anyways. he was shared originally but as tsuka likes my boyfriend best, hes the full owner. so he may be taking him home every other week. im going back to the breeder i got dally from and looking into getting a bird-friendly female. dally is the same age as tsuka and shes not going through this evil stage at all. shes not even moody. shes just kinda depressed at being alone whereas tsuka doesnt even care. hes singing more, playing more and overall seems more happy. maybe hes just one of those birds who want to be alone. so dally will be getting a new friend within a year. most likely a whitefaced since i like them. id like a pied but its hard to tell genders with them. so id like to know for sure my next bird is female. ill keep trying what srtiels said as it seemed to work. i have to run out later and get dally some ointment for her foot as tsuka really shredded that toe. shes using it, its not swollen, but when she rests she tucks that one up. and she doesnt want it touched when i clean it.


as for it stopping soon, from what im hearing, its gonna continue for several more months as he JUST started this. yes he bit originally when we got him a month and a half ago as he was never handled before we got him and he was a parent raised bird.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

_*id like a pied but its hard to tell genders with them.*_
*---------------------------------------------------------*

I've found with pieds, you can get an idea of sex by looking at the underside of the wings, close to the body.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

hm.... well ill keep an eye out when i go. as long as the bird is bird friendly, calm, and gentle then i dont really care about mutation. i would prefer a pied, pearl pied, or whiteface though as i really like those mutations and i already have pearls


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## Dave & Tito (Aug 1, 2010)

Don't give up on Tsuka!

Tito is eleven months and seems to be surging with hormones. He's courting everything in sight and his bites, like Tsuka's, are drawing blood occasionally.

I'm going with the hormone story everyone else is offering here, while I haven't had birds other than budgies I spent a year and a half reading and deciding what bird would suit me best before I chose a cockatiel. It seems that every species you read up on they mention a hormonal phase, or the teenager phase like others have said here. Happens with all birds, very noticably in species like ringnecks or amazons and it can apparently end as quickly as it begun!

Stick with Tsuka, I am sure our birds are like tired toddlers at times, even they don't know why they're so cranky.

Good luck!


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## tielmom (Aug 4, 2010)

My tiel Lenny is acting this way now too...he used to be so sweet and (most of the time) gentle...if he was walking on the ground, you could put your hand up to him and say step up and he would with no fuss...but now all of a sudden in the last week, if you even walk up to him he is hissing and lunging at you
I am puzzled what has set him off. The only thing I can think of is that my daughter accidentally stepped on him when she was getting off of her stool...feathers went everywhere...I checked him over and he was okay, a bit shook up and he had a bald spot around his lower back the size of a quarter. Now he seems to HATE feet and will attack them if they are walking towards him. 
I hope Tsuka starts turning around and behaving himself. I think my male tiels get hormonal too...some weeks are better than others, maybe he is just having a bad week...I mean you haven't had him for a really long time...please don't give up on him.


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## Dave & Tito (Aug 1, 2010)

Another good thing to keep in mind is that cockatiels are pretty much wild animals that we keep in our homes; genetically their the same as their wild counterparts, a vast difference to the thousands of years of breeding that led to domestic dogs and cats. This doesn't change their behavoir but might help us understand it!

Stick with Tsuka, just as the rest of us in this thread will stick by our bitey young tiels until they've all moved through their hormonal changes. We can all whinge about it together and talk about how it was worth it when once its done with


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

srtiels said:


> _*id like a pied but its hard to tell genders with them.*_
> *---------------------------------------------------------*
> 
> I've found with pieds, you can get an idea of sex by looking at the underside of the wings, close to the body.


Does that work with pearl pied aswell?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I think Dally hasn't gone through the bitey stage because she's a girl. None of my girls went through the bitey stage and Fuzzy was the only boy to do so. And now he's back to his sweet lovable self. It just takes some patience and in the end its worth it, I promise. But if you really want to get Dally a girl you could get a white faced pied since you like both mutations. They're very beautiful but I'm not sure how to sex them....


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

im thinking of getting a friend anyways... shes really depressed at being separated. shes eating but less than usual. shes not happy at being alone. so if tsuka gets through this stage, ill try putting them back together but the chances are slim. i had them both out yesterday so they could still visit and what not and he still went after her feet. so chances are, hes just one of those birds... but i will talk to my boyfriend bout it. hes still insisting on them getting along. personally i think another companion for dally would be best.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

The thing to remember is that three's a crowd, if you get a friend for dally tsuka might get worse because he'll feel left out. Just something to watch out for.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

well, he will also have his favourite person at the time too. he loves my boyfriend and hes technically his bird now as tsuka likes him so much. so **** be getting attention.... dallys starting to eat better as ive been bribing her with her favourite treats (corn, apple cinnamon cherios, and now avicakes) so shes eating more. tsuka's not even caring. he has his mirror which hes been screaming at so he can take his frustrations out. im hoping he calms down. he went after dallys foot again as i had them out together. no bleeding but he broke skin. its not as bad as the first time, which is still being treated daily with the antiseptic cream for birds. its looking a lot better and shes not hurting from it at all. so shes doing better but shes now afraid of tsuka. when hes out she hides in a corner and wont move until hes away from her. so shes obviously not too keen on being near him. he was a little better yesterday with not biting hard but he was still nippy and kinda mean


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## mpayjr (Aug 16, 2010)

I hope soon that Tsuka will be back to his normal self. You must be somewhat dissapointed I bet.


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