# Tiel Has Bad Temper-Help!



## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

I noticed that Sunny's temper has been getting worse and worse lately. I understand it's partly my fault---I think I was not being firm enough with the discipline at the beginning and now he's sort of spoiled: :blush: 

When he's out of his cage and he is doing something I don't want him to do (such as chewing on wires or going places that I don't want him to go to) and I stop him by trying to get him to step up or putting my hand in front of him, he hisses back at me and threatens to bite me by opening his mouth and rapidly shaking his head the way cockatiels do when they threaten to bite you. Everytime when he does this, I would say "SUNNY! NO!" very firmly, and now I've even started putting him back inside his cage for a short "time-out" to let him know that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable. Then I would let him back out, kiss him and scritch his head and we'd make up. But when I try to stop him from doing damage again, he would threaten to bite me again! Obviously, putting him back inside his cage is not working. I'm kind of hurt that Sunny is so mean to me and has such a bad temper towards me.  Every night, it's like one minute I'm kissing him and he's cooing happily, the next minute he hisses at me and I have to yell at him and shove him back inside his cage! :blink: How can I teach Sunny to stop acting so mean and spoiled in a more effective way, or do I just have to accept the fact that "tiels are tiels"? Does anyone have tiels that are the same? Please advise if you can. Thank you.


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## Mythara (Apr 9, 2009)

How old is he? 'Tiels have their first moult at six months, and puberty starts for them around nine months old. Moults aren't comfortable at all, and all their hormones can be confusing so they often have mood swings and get grouchy around that time. You say you "have to yell" at him. I don't know if you actually mean yell, but you should never raise your voice to a parrot that you are telling off. Parrots love drama and yelling at him is drama. If you do verbally repremand him, keep your voice low. As far as wires go, I've never met or heard of a parrot that could resist them! Really I find it's best to have toys all over the desk so they have plenty of other things to do. Even then it's not fool proof. Ours respond to the noise "eh!" if they're chewing on the wires or the mouse, they'll either run away, or stop and look at us, and we'll chase them off. Personally I wouldn't punish him for hissing at you. It's his way of telling you that you've done something he doesn't like, and I don't like the idea of punishing a bird for communicating. If our two his at us, we just ignore them until they're done sulking, and usually after one hiss, they'll fluff themselves up, shake and come and ask for scritches, or sit on our shoulders.


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

Thanks Mythara, you're helpful as always (and always so quick!). 

Sunny is actually starting to moult (just starting to loose a feather here and there) and he would be about 6 months old right now so it all makes sense. I didn't know that you're not supposed to raise your voice---I thought it's part of the discipline. When I try to stop Sunny from chewing wires by saying "no" or "eh", he just ignores me, and I know that he knows I want him to stop, he's just not listening! And I know because when he's with my dad (who is a lot stricter with him), and when dad says "NO!", Sunny stops immediately because he's more afraid of dad, but he's not afraid of me because I'm just mommy.  As I said before in previous posts, Sunny is such a brilliant boy, he's like night and day when he's with me and when he's with dad! 

Re. giving him toys to distract him from wires, believe me, I've tried to offer Sunny everything from A to Z. I even got a bunch of colourful toddler's toys from a second-hand store and spread it all over the floor/bed for him. But da lil' brat doesn't even look at them because he knows I got them for him to play with. :blink: He'd still rather chew wires or damage something. It's like when I give him scraps of coloured paper to chew on, he doesn't even look at them, but he would scale mountains to get to my nice craft paper (I make a lot of paper crafts) so he can put a "decorative border" in them!  I think I'd have to use reverse psychology on him---get some wires from the dollar store and act like I don't want him to touch them so that he'll end up destroying them and leave the good wires alone! :blink: I've talked to another person in this forum who had to do something similar. I can't believe I have to play mind games with a bird. How can something so tiny have such a big personality? :wacko:

Okay, re. the hissing, I think in the end I'd just have to let Sunny be a tiel and not take it personally. Da little spoiled brat!  

Thanks again.


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## jerry2006 (Oct 10, 2008)

Take Sunny & his cage out of the room where the wires are.
My tiel Ash, who is a rescue can be distracted by using head scrithes & millet.
Ash is 2 & is my lone burd,
Cockatiels are perpetual 2 year olds & every day is new to them-Usually?
Jerry & ASH!


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## Mythara (Apr 9, 2009)

Don't make a big deal of the wires. Can you pick him up? If so, when he looks at the wires or chews on them, lift him up and move him away from them, without saying anything. Does he play with these "bright coloured todder's toys" at all? If not, they're unlikely to distract him from chewing on something he likes. Find a toy or toy parts he does like. Mine like things like vine balls, paper sticks, palm shredders and so on, and play with them in the cage, and out of the cage, so those are what we have on the desk for them. We also bring up their foraging tray if they really won't be distracted by anything else, because it always works. My two aren't really into bright colours, plastic or hard wood - like kids toys are normally made of, so I wouldn't expect them to work for my birds.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Spike use to have temper tantrums when he was younger, full out foot stomping, wings out and squaking. I ignored him and they eventually stopped, I would just remove him whenever he is doing something you don't want him to do.


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

Foot stomping? Tiels do that? I've never seen Sunny do it (don't get me wrong, I'm happy he doesn't do it!).


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## jc119007 (Dec 28, 2009)

Glad to know that my bird's not the only one who has temper tantrums! I remember reading somewhere (perhaps in this forum) that 'tiels are grumpy when they moult 'cause they itch but if you mist them with a water bottle daily it will soften the new feathers and help with the itching, either way if your bird is wet it might distract him long enough to forget being grumpy with you (it works with Curry anyways). As for the nipping and carrying on, everytime Curry was like that it was in the cage for 15mins. If the screetching in the cage was really unbearable he got his night cloth on too. Didn't happen very often but he quickly got the picture.

In the beginning it felt like I was spending the whole day taking him in and out of the cage but he finally cottened on to what behaviour I would and wouldn't tolerate. However, there are things that can't be changed, like the wires (we recently discovered that Curry had almost chewed our internet cable in half) and herbs that I grow (finding at least half of the plant on the floor) but we just move him away from them whenever he ventures near. I think persistence and patience is the key- all this started about a month or so ago- Curry still has temper tantrums and other behaviour issues but he knows where we draw the line and it isn't as bad as in the beginning. Hope this helps & good luck!


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## Wilma (Aug 30, 2009)

This is what I do with my four tiels and it works for me so it may work for you..

moulting- I spray them once or twice a week with warm water. Only when it's sunny outside and that seems to aleviate the itch and also the dandruf in the air. I use the spraying time to also have them walk around while I clean and desinfect the cage (citric detergent).

chewing- I read somewhere that tiels go through a "teething" stage and when my two babies went through that stage I just provided them with hard wood and leather toys. They seem to LOVE leather toys more than hard wood ones. I don't like plastic toys because they can chew off little pieces and get blockages in their intestine. They also love to chew on the hat I use to let them on my head (only two of them do this).

Correct behavior- Think parrot!! As they said above, they love drama! lol So when mine chew on cables I just tap or "play" with something else and because they are parrots they leave whatever they are doing to come n get "my" toy. If you have something they will want it too, you need to show them how nice is to play with things other than cables. If you play with the toys you bought for him and ignore him he'll realize that those colored things are something you want, which means, he will have to have it!

Hissing- I have one tiel that hisses at me if I come close to him and avoids me as much as he can, he was neglected before I got him so that's part of his "psychological scars". I've noticed that although he hisses at me, I'm the only one he lets in his cage (my hand that is). And whenever he hisses at me I just say, "Pichu, don't hiss at mommy" and he'll focus on my voice instead of me. He won't step up on my hand or fingers but he does step up on a stick if I'm holding it. Maybe you just need to figure out what your tiels limits are and work around them. Pichu won't eat from anybody's hand but mine and even stand on my hand (while eating only) so I guess it's not much about controlling the bird or it's behavior but about bonding in a way that they feel comfortobale. I have had my birds for 6+ months and they weren't tame or social, it is just something you need to work on everyday. 


Time out- I don't do time out with my birds but since I have four, whenever one of them hurst my feelings I let them know with my facial expressions and tone of my voice and move on to another bird...they soon realize that mommy is hurt and they start clowning around again 'till they hear me laugh. Believe it or not, they LOVE to hear me laugh (maybe b/c I'm noisy). Just don't expect anything from your bird so you can take the little things as gifts from him to you. Celebrate his uniqueness and character, I know he will come around sooner or later.


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## Kerry78 (May 25, 2009)

When Sandy Tiel gets in a strop he normally takes it out on his toys,
I think they get into a strop for attention though,
Sandy loves scritches and it doesn't help if im watching hollyoaks cos 2 of my birds want me to give them attention when it's on lol


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