# Vibrating peck?



## BirdChewToy (Nov 23, 2016)

So lately, Jacob's been sitting in the corner of his cage, where he has two walls behind him, and pecks at the bottom of the cage. He's pecking so fast it sounds like a vibrating phone. The sound is a little annoying but if the behaviour isn't a sign of anything harmful, I'll tolerate it.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Some males like to "drum" as part of their courtship display. Some of my guys do it on the cage bars or inside the rim of a food cup - I've never seen them do it against the floor. Elvis does it best so I call him the little drummer tiel. 

Sitting in the corner of the cage is nesting behavior, so it sounds like your boy is hormonal. A hen might actually lay eggs in the corner, but the most that a single male can do is pretend to sit on imaginary eggs. And attack your hand when you put it in the cage. If his behavior gets problematic there are simple hormone control techniques that can help him settle down.


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## gottogo (May 2, 2012)

My boy used to do that on the cage bars. But he quit after a while.


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## BirdChewToy (Nov 23, 2016)

ooooh. Should I try to lower his hormones then?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Since he doesn't have a mate, he'll really be better off not wasting his time on an empty nest. But you don't have to do anything if it's not causing any problems for either you or him.


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## EllenD (Oct 9, 2016)

Yes, as stated it's most likely that he's gone into breeding season (although I'd be sure to watch him carefully for other signs of illness, such as eating less, sleeping more, lethargy, irregular poops, etc. Sitting on the bottom of the cage can indicate illness; this sounds hormonal to me, but I'm just warning you to get him to an avian vet ASAP if anything else changes) A male in breeding season with no mate can become very frustrated, and it can lead to harmless behavior like frequently masturbating on perches, food cups, or people's hands, shoulders, etc., or it can very often lead to aggressive behavior towards people. Often they become very aggressive towards all people and other birds, and sometimes they target the person they are most closely bonded to, because they don't understand why you aren't reciprocating. They can start doing anything from biting hands and not letting anyone touch them or even stepping up, to actually targeting and attacking people violently. So it is usually best to try to knock them out of breeding mode naturally (rather than with hormone treatment from the vet, like with a shot of Depo Provera or Lupron), because this behavior can become increasingly aggressive, and it can last for anywhere from 3 weeks to a few months.

The best way to try to knock your bird out of breeding season is to put him on a solar schedule. In general, shorter days (less light) and longer nights (less light, more sleep) will do the trick. You want your bird to get at least 12-14 hours of dark, quiet, undisturbed sleep, and they absolutely must be able to see the natural sunrise and sunset through the window. So step one is putting his cage near a window, facing the window, and keeping the blinds/curtains to all windows in the room he's in open so that he can see what the natural light is like outside. Make sure you have a dark blanket or something similar to cover his entire cage when he is supposed to go to bed, if you don't already. He must be uncovered at dawn, so that he can see the sunrise naturally through the window...Now if you have a room that has a window and that you can shut the door to so he isn't disturbed by anyone in the evening after he goes to sleep, you can put his sleeping cage or his permanent cage (if that's all he has) in that room. This way you don't have to cover him at night when he goes to bed, you just have to shut the door and don't disturb him until morning. This will prevent you from having to wake up at sunrise to uncover him every morning. Just make sure the blinds or curtains to all windows in his room are always open, and most importantly that if he doesn't have a sleeping cage separate from his main cage (which should be in the main room of your house that is most active and that you're in the most) and you're putting his main cage in a room that is away from the main, active room that his people are usually in, that you keep him in the main room with yourself and his people until sunset and time for bed. The last thing you want to do is just put his main cage in a spare bedroom upstairs and never let him out with you. Actually the easiest thing to do (very easy and cheap for a cockatiel) is to purchase a small, cheap cage to put in the room he is going to sleep in, and then leave his main cage with all his toys and things in your living room, TV room, den, wherever you usually are. That way whenever he is awake he is amongst his people, sounds from people talking, the TV, stereo, etc. even if he's not out of his cage. This is very important for maintaining socialization, tameness, and your bond with him. The sleeping cage that you will put in a spare room that has a window and a shutting door does not have to be very large at all, as it will only be used for sleeping. All of my 4 larger parrots (one being a female cockatiel) have separate sleeping cages of their own, all upstairs in my bedroom. My cockatiel's sleeping cage is actually a parakeet cage, nothing at all fancy, just a square parakeet cage. Put absolutely no toys in his sleeping cage, nothing at all for him to play with or chew on. Just the two perches the cage comes with, and a dish of water at all times, and if you want a little bit of whatever his staple food is, either a few pellets or a little bit of seed mix. My sleeping cages are all very small, only large enough that they can spread their wings fully. They have 2 perches, a swing (some birds sleep better on a swing, so I suggest it), and one food dish with a few pellets and a full dish of water. That's it. I think the cockatiel sleep cage cost me $30 at a local pet store. This is definitely the easiest way, and most importantly the healthiest way, as having no distractions in his sleeping cage like toys, treats, etc. will allow him to sleep more deeply and for much longer, and this ensures that his main cage remains in the most active room of your house, and that he will always be amongst his people and all of the action in your house whenever he is awake.

So here's the way to end his breeding season: once you pick the room he'll sleep in and get him a sleeping cage (or a play stand for him to be on when he's awake to put in your main room if you're not buying him a dedicated sleeping cage but rather just moving his main cage to the sleeping room, which I don't recommend as the first choice but as the second choice), then determine what time the sun sets wherever you are in the world. I'm in the Northeast, so right now the sun starts to set pretty early, around 4:30 or so. So I make sure I feed my birds around the time the sun starts to set, around 4:30. They eat in my living room with me in their big, main cages, and all of my lights in the living room are off except my tv, and my blinds are all open, while they're eating dinner. As soon as they're done eating I take them upstairs, I say goodnight, and put them in their sleeping cages. I leave the blinds in my bedroom open, so they've seen the entire sunset and are in their bedroom, in their sleeping cages, by the time the sun has completely set, which is around 6:00. I shut the door to their bedroom. I don't have to cover them because the door is shut and they won't be disturbed all night, so they will wake up naturally, on their own, at sunrise, which happens now around 7:00-7:30 in the morning. I get up at 6:00 in the morning for work, but I do not wake them up then, I get ready for work or make their breakfast, whatever it is I'm doing, and I let them sleep and wake up naturally with the sunrise. That means they're getting between 13 to 13 and 1/2 hours of sleep each night, and actually seeing the natural sunrise and sunset, and they're internal clocks are running according to the solar clock, which is how they do it in the wild. These longer nights, shorter days, and more sleep usually knocks them out of breeding season in a little over a week, maybe 2 weeks at most (combined with less protein in their diets when they start breeding mode and while in it by lowering the amount of pellets, seeds, nuts, etc. they get and giving them more fresh greens and fruits as a substitution; this will only last usually a week or at the most two weeks, usually less, if you follow the solar schedule and cut his pellets and/or seed and nuts in half and replace with fresh veggies and fruits, so this protein substitution will not result in any weight loss for that short of a period of time).

I don't know how old your cockatiel is, but most species of birds go into breeding season at least twice a year, although captive birds tend to do this more often than wild birds, some are constantly in breeding season, because they aren't getting enough sleep, they have only artificial light and cannot ever see the sunrise or sunset naturally, they have a diet loaded with nothing but protein, meaning they get only pellets and/or seed and nut mixes and treats loaded with protein, etc. 

So that's the healthiest, easiest way to help him. As already stated this breeding season won't kill him or anything, but I would highly suggest not encouraging it and would try my best to keep him on a strict daily solar schedule every day, all year round. If you do this year round and are strict about doing it, he may never go into breeding season again, as long as you don't go get another bird. This is just my opinion (based on 21 years of experience with not only owning many pet birds, but being born into a home where my mother bred and hand-raised English budgies and cockatiels for almost 40 years, and where I myself started breeding at the age of 16. The reasons I stress doing this solar schedule with your male cockatiel in your specific situation are #1 cockatiels in particular are highly hormonal and are known to often go into breeding season many times a year, and are historically difficult to knock out of it, and difficult to keep out of it. Because of this tendency, female cockatiels typically lay clutch after clutch of infertile eggs if they are not with a mate, and if they are being bred they tend to double clutch, meaning they will lay and hatch a clutch of chicks, and will mate again while still sitting on the first clutch of eggs, and will then lay a second clutch of eggs with the first clutch. #2, from my own personal experience with hormonal, male cockatiels, they do tend to become very aggressive, nasty, and do often start biting if they are allowed to constantly go into breeding mode. I've seen several posts on this forum, in fact there were just a few last week, with cockatiel owners wondering why their sweet, loving cockatiel that lives to cuddle and get scritches suddenly hates them and is attacking them, biting and drawing blood...So being proactive about this and stopping it before it starts will prevent any behavioral issues or aggression towards you and will prevent him from going through the accompanying frustration he is going through.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

I've heard this odd rumor before that pellets are loaded with protein, in fact I've got a section on it in my pellet article at http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/info/nutrition-pellets.html Follow that link to the actual article if you want access to the source material that's mentioned in this quote:



> _"Pellets are too high in protein."_
> 
> Not true. The Expert Panel on pet bird nutrition recommended a minimum of 12% protein in the diet. Typical "mainentance" pellets are 11-15% protein, which is similar to the protein levels in many seed mixes. "High potency" pellets are 18-20% protein.
> 
> ...


A person I know who's worked with a nutrition calculator to check the nutritional balance of mash recipes says that it's hard to get enough complete protein using plant foods alone, even if you boost the level by mixing beans and legumes with grains and seeds. She knows people with PhDs in animal nutrition who have actually worked for pellet companies, and even they report that it's not easy. The chance of getting too much protein from a diet of plant foods is basically zero.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It appears that protein and other specific components of the diet like fat are NOT breeding triggers. The general abundance of food is a secondary breeding trigger, so it might help to reduce the overall quantity of food that's available (while still making sure that your bird gets enough to eat). But it's difficult to get enough complete protein in the diet anyway, so specifically trying to cut down on protein could do more harm than good. The light cycle is the primary breeding trigger for most species. That's what scientific observations of birds in general indicate, and it fits my observations of my own little flock. I have an article on hormone control that's basically the same as the sticky thread that's on this forum at http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=32330

But the article on my website has an additional section that's not included in the TC thread, with scientific information on breeding triggers. It's at http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/info/breed-hormones.html#geek if anyone would like to see it.

Edited to add: the days are currently getting longer in the northern hemisphere, so the natural light cycle in that half of the world will start telling birds to breed sometime very soon. My birds follow the natural light cycle for most of the year, and they usually start getting hormonal in February or even January. So if I don't want them to breed, I have to manipulate the natural light cycle by using thick cage covers to make it seem like the days are NOT getting longer. After we get past the summer solstice I can go back to following the natural light cycle.


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