# Squeaking in waterbowl?



## Dragonsworn (Aug 26, 2017)

Hi!

My cockatiel has adopted a very odd behaviour recently.

She will go into her waterbowl, sit in it and make short squeaking sounds.
She does this a lot, I always coax her out of it, but it's still very odd?

She loves bathing and getting misted a lot, however she gets an opportunity to do so every two days, so I don't think it's that she really wants / needs a bath.

She also doesn't splash around in the water, just sits there and squeaks.

Any ideas?


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Is her vent pressed against the edge of the water bowl while she's doing this? If so, she's masturbating!


----------



## Dragonsworn (Aug 26, 2017)

Hi,

I was looking this up and according to this youtube video, that does appear to be what she is doing.

I'm a bit surprised since according to her breeder she's no older than 6-7 months currently.

Is there anything I can about this behaviour?

I'm all for letting her do what comes natural, but I'd rather not encourage her to lay eggs for her own health - I usually take the waterbowl out for a minute or two before putting it back in so her attention goes somewhere else. My birds also sleep from around 8-9 pm to 10 am, so plenty of hours of darkness.


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Hormone control might help: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=32330

Getting a new water bowl that isn't the right size for this "activity" might help too, although she might start using something else as her love toy. Cockatiels hit puberty at an early age, and she's not too young to be doing this. I've had chicks mating with each other at 5 months, and I've heard of them doing it as young as three months.


----------



## Dragonsworn (Aug 26, 2017)

Hi!

Just wanted to update this since I managed to stop her from doing it.

I couldn't, for the life of me, find a smaller bowl for her, so I improvised and put a tiny perch over the water bowl so that she can't get in, but still put her head in and sip. It doesn't hinder her beyond not being able to climb into the bowl anymore.

I also started the hormone control, and she hasn't been doing it since or tried doing it with other objects.

Thanks for the suggestions!


----------

