# Elvis, Georgia, and Kitty!



## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Elvis is the mostly-yellow male, and Georgia (who is on the far right) is the female. Kitty is a cat 

I can't really tell whether Elvis and Georgia are bonded. When we still had our other female (the one who flew away) the three of them had a weird relationship... the other female had been Elvis' original mate (though I'm not sure how bonded they actually were) but then when they bred and Georgia was born Elvis preferred her and started violently fending off his original mate's attempts to stay bonded to him. Sometimes he would aggressively try to mate with her and she would really scream. So I can't really tell where those...relationships...really stood.

They eat together, clean themselves at the same time (and occasionally clean one another) and if you separate them, Georgia will scream and Elvis will usually start flock-calling (his wolf whistle).

They are still very unfriendly to us, especially Georgia, but we're working on it. Meanwhile, Kitty is still terrified of them. Elvis tries to climb on her sometimes and she runs away as soon as he gets close!


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## scootergirl762 (Aug 27, 2013)

Is Georgia one of Elvis' offspring? If so, I think you want to discourage any mating behavior. I know there is a lot of information here for hormone control, but I'm not sure of the link.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

If Georgia is Elvis' daughter I would discourage mating any way possible. Children from a pairing like that probably won't hatch and if they do they're going to be deformed. You don't have to separate them though. They're cute


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## moonchild (Jul 29, 2012)

I think it's against the rules to post pictures of cats and cockatiels together. Regardless, very cute! I just hope she never loses her fear and tries to "play" with them, though. She could seriously hurt or kill them without even meaning to.


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

moonchild said:


> I think it's against the rules to post pictures of cats and cockatiels together. Regardless, very cute! I just hope she never loses her fear and tries to "play" with them, though. She could seriously hurt or kill them without even meaning to.


Against the rules -- eek, really? We have had this cat for a while and she is the gentlest animal imaginable...not to mention, we think, a little bit stunted. Her instincts aren't very quick. Neither of us humans has ever gotten so much as a scratch from her. (Other cats beat her up.) 

Also, we do whatever we can to prevent Elvis and Georgia from mating (long nights!), but we do sort of want them to bond regardless -- we can't get any more birds, nor do we have the space to accommodate another cage if we were to separate them, so they're sort of stuck with each other...and we hope they at least enjoy one another's company.


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Oh and I was unclear...the bird that Elvis would violently attempt to mate with (and she'd make horrible panicked screaming noises) was his original mate, not Georgia. I've seen him try to mate with Georgia, but never successfully, and she never exhibits hormonal behavior.


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## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

they're such beautiful birds!
unfortunately it is against forum rules to post photos of cockatiels in situations near potential predators. if you could remove the photo, that'd be great. otherwise i'll do it for you. it's important to be careful with the risks we take - and a cat only has to lash out and the bird is injured.


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Hi, I've removed it.

But frankly, I think it's a little confusing - what defines "predator" or dangerous situation? One of our tiels was nearly killed by one of the other tiels once, and ours are honestly more at risk of being harmed by our neighbors' kids than by a cat who totally lacks hunting instincts. Is it against the rules to post photos of tiels who are out of cage with potentially sharp objects visible in the background that they might fly into? 

Sorry, I get VERY defensive about my cat.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

I think its so others aren't encouraged to put their own cockatiels in harms way (at paws length of a cat they don't know). It has nothing to do with your own personal cat. I was going to suggest editing the photo and removing the cat, then reposting it.


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## scootergirl762 (Aug 27, 2013)

caterpillar said:


> Hi, I've removed it.
> 
> But frankly, I think it's a little confusing - what defines "predator" or dangerous situation? One of our tiels was nearly killed by one of the other tiels once, and ours are honestly more at risk of being harmed by our neighbors' kids than by a cat who totally lacks hunting instincts. Is it against the rules to post photos of tiels who are out of cage with potentially sharp objects visible in the background that they might fly into?
> 
> Sorry, I get VERY defensive about my cat.


If you go to this link and scroll down to Meanneyfids post, it has the rule about "predators"
http://www.talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=1

It's been a rule since then (2011) and the moderators have to enforce the rules. 
I can understand why you might feel defensive, I don't think anyone is implying your cat is a bad cat. I think my dogs wouldn't hurt my birds. But I know they have instincts that will kick in and make them unpredictable. That doesn't make them bad dogs. It makes them dogs. . I'm not trying to be preachy at you, so please don't take offense. The rules are in place for all members and I've found the moderators on this forum to be very fair. I know other birds or even other tiels can be agressive, but they are not known "predators" of the cockatiel. 

I'm sure your cat is just a sweetheart, but someone see's a post with a cat, not bothering to read or take into account what that relationship is with birds and pretty soon you have someone complaining because their tiel was attacked and they didn't know that could happen because they saw a photo on the forum....well, you get the idea how that could go. 

Beautiful tiels btw


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Darkel777 said:


> I think its so others aren't encouraged to put their own cockatiels in harms way (at paws length of a cat they don't know). It has nothing to do with your own personal cat. I was going to suggest editing the photo and removing the cat, then reposting it.


Now that does make sense. I just get very touchy - we are semi-involved in cat rescue and one of the reasons why there are so many homeless cats out there is that people think they're ill-tempered animals who will kill anything smaller than themselves. (Their hunting instincts really kick in if they are allowed to roam around outside, which our Kitty is not.) So many people aren't even aware of what wonderful, gentle pets they can be...but I agree, I wouldn't want anyone to think that all cats are safe for birds to be around. Our neighbors' cats, who ARE allowed to roam (in spite of the fact that we have repeatedly told the neighbors that they are putting both their cats and local bird/rodent species at risk by doing so), would kill the tiels in an instant.


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## moonchild (Jul 29, 2012)

My cats are super sweet, indoor, fixed kitties. I live them to bits. All but one WOULD kill or at least terrorize my tiels. 
I used to have a small cockatoo and they REALLY wanted to play with him. Maybe not kill or attack him, but they would "stalk" him. Then the bird started having other ideas and started chasing the cats...they learned to stay out of his way. It was pretty funny. But my point is, even with a bird much larger than a tiel MOST cats' hunting instinct will kick in and they'll want to play with it. I think your cat is an exception to the general rule.


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## Tequilagirl (Mar 4, 2013)

I think these rules are very important as there are a ton of children that read this forum. Pet ownership is yours and you balance your risks as you see fit, but you probably don't want to be responsible for a mauled bird because some kid saw your tiels hanging out with your cat and they thought it was safe for them to do the same.

Tequila himself has some products that are actively discouraged in this forum, he uses them under my supervision as that is my decision but I won't be encouraging their use because you just don't know who your audience is.


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## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

Yup it's just so other people don't see photos and say "well she does so i can!" 
It's a personal decision and you need to know your cat. TC recognises dogs and cats as potential predators and doesn't want to promote them being together.

I have a cat too. Ollie always tries to say hi to her


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## Binca (Oct 15, 2013)

moonchild said:


> My cats are super sweet, indoor, fixed kitties. I live them to bits. All but one WOULD kill or at least terrorize my tiels.
> I used to have a small cockatoo and they REALLY wanted to play with him. Maybe not kill or attack him, but they would "stalk" him. Then the bird started having other ideas and started chasing the cats...they learned to stay out of his way. It was pretty funny. But my point is, even with a bird much larger than a tiel MOST cats' hunting instinct will kick in and they'll want to play with it. I think your cat is an exception to the general rule.


LOL, that is really funny! I think tiels know how scary they can be!  One of my cats fails at hunting so thinks caged birds are easy prey, but she also fails at that too. We used to keep the bird cages hanging on the ceiling, so she used to stand on the backs of chairs to try and get them. Then a chair fell over on her. 

The other cat was an excellent hunter in her younger years, and even brought mum a giant huntsman spider once.  But she seems to know you don't go for caged animals. Once she stuck her head in the caged of my previous tiel, and he sat on her head and pulled her whiskers, and she seemed to enjoy it, but I certainly had a bit of a panic and didn't encourage that behavior! 

And sorry, thread hijack to tell cat stories!


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

moonchild said:


> My cats are super sweet, indoor, fixed kitties. I live them to bits. All but one WOULD kill or at least terrorize my tiels.
> I used to have a small cockatoo and they REALLY wanted to play with him. Maybe not kill or attack him, but they would "stalk" him. Then the bird started having other ideas and started chasing the cats...they learned to stay out of his way. It was pretty funny. But my point is, even with a bird much larger than a tiel MOST cats' hunting instinct will kick in and they'll want to play with it. I think your cat is an exception to the general rule.


Yeah... Kitty is not very good at cat things. She has never tried to stalk anything, she doesn't chase laser pointers, and she's totally fine with the tiels sitting on her and preening her fur unless they move too suddenly, in which case she runs away. But she never swipes at or bites anything.

Totally understand that children may see this forum and get the wrong idea about what kind of other pets are ok to socialize with tiels. But honestly is it ok to show pictures of tiels hanging out in a kitchen where there may be knives around? There's potential danger everywhere, honestly.


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## moonchild (Jul 29, 2012)

I think if there was anything obviously hazardous like sharp knives lying around with points facing out (how would that even work? Haha) then someone would surely point out the danger.


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

moonchild said:


> I think if there was anything obviously hazardous like sharp knives lying around with points facing out (how would that even work? Haha) then someone would surely point out the danger.


Georgia once got her head stuck in the bars of a metal bin that we have high up on a kitchen wall to store stuff...it was scary!! We put duct tape on it to prevent that from happening again. She had been flying frantically and I don't think she realized what she was doing.


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## moonchild (Jul 29, 2012)

The truth is that freak accidents can happen no matter how careful we are. All we can do is our best to minimize the risks. Glad Georgia was okay!


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