Cage defensive cockatiel

[necrosacorporis]

Hey everyone, I'm kind of struggling with my bird as he's kinda aggressive when in his cage. He won't let me change his water and food without hissing and threatening to bite, and touching him/trying to make him step up when inside his cage is a big no no, he won't let me do that but bite me instead (it's not a painful bite tho, more like if he was trying to say "don't do it"). I find it kinda strange as his behavior is literally the oposite of this when he's outside - he lets me pet him, give him head scritches, and just loves it when he can sit on my shoulder. I mean, he's very social and playful outside his cage, but incredibly defensive when inside. So my question is: what's the reason behing this kind of behavior? Could it be just because he's young (5 months old)?
Scritch video

 

[Tman]

First off well your in the right place.
Now if he's that way out of the cage it's something in his cage post a picture of his cage make sure you get everything in the picture. And we will be able to help.
Also tell me about him. How long have you had him
Were did he come from has he always be a lone.

 

[Scott]

Welcome, the lovely video proves he's not deeply fearful of you. Cage aggression not uncommon with birds in new home. He's young, but how long in your care? To help show cage is not the only security, try feeding him a beloved treat once out as reward. If you have a separate stand or playpen, give him food there as well. The goal is not to feed exclusively outside the cage, but to show he can feel safe anywhere in your home.

Plenty of other techniques, you're in fine hands with Tman!

 

[necrosacorporis]

First off well your in the right place.
Now if he's that way out of the cage it's something in his cage post a picture of his cage make sure you get everything in the picture. And we will be able to help.
Also tell me about him. How long have you had him
Were did he come from has he always be a lone.

I guess the cage is big enough for a single bird, anyway I understand that something wider would be way better for him, however he spends most of the time outside his cage and flies inside only to eat, drink or when it's time to sleep. I usually feed him a mixture of seeds for cockatiels and medium sized birds, some greens or fruit, also my mom told me eggs are beneficial to parrots so I boiled one and gave it to him. I always change his water and refill his food daily, change the newspaper 3 or 4 times a week (or whenever it needs to be changed) and wash the entire cage once a week. Also no, he doesn't stay on the ground, I only had to take the cage down so I was able to take a photo under a better lightning (camera flash would scare him).
There are 3 perches for him to sit on and also that swing-thing which he uses rather rarely. That pink thing behind him is a small mirror he doesn't seem to care about, so I ordered some nice toys on Amazon to keep him busy while I'm not home, now I'm waiting for them to be delivered.
I've had him for 3 months or so and got him in pet store, he was scared and shaking as he was all alone in there, so I couldn't leave him in such stressful enviroment and adopted him. He's currently an "only bird", however I try to spend as much time as I can with him, and thanks to covid and zoom classes, I'm able to stay with him and play most of the day.
I'm trying to give him the best care I can, could I be doing something wrong though?

 

[necrosacorporis]

Welcome, the lovely video proves he's not deeply fearful of you. Cage aggression not uncommon with birds in new home. He's young, but how long in your care? To help show cage is not the only security, try feeding him a beloved treat once out as reward. If you have a separate stand or playpen, give him food there as well. The goal is not to feed exclusively outside the cage, but to show he can feel safe anywhere in your home.

Plenty of other techniques, you're in fine hands with Tman!

He loves millet spray and spinach leaves, I use these as treat when he steps up or when he's simply being cute

 

[Tman]

First off listen to me very carefully. You are not doing anything wrong. Just get that out of your head.
I am going to help you make things better. If you parrot being alone that's fine. I asked because if he had a freind that might of been the reason for him being moddy. So we know it's not that. The one thing is not so much fruit.
More veggies. Now something else for.right now we won't worry about the size of cage. We are going to work with what we have. Your parrot is going to be fine in that cage. We are just going to fix up the cage. We will get to working with him in a minute. First we need to fix up his cage a little.
First thing take your buddy out put on top of the cage or some place he can watch. The love watching what we do. Now pull out all the perches. Take out the mirror. We won't be putting the mirror back in.
Take one of the perches put it at the very top of the cage where your parrot can just fit on the perch without touch the top, also move the perch.to the left or right side as close as you can just to give your parrot enough room to sit.
What this will down is make him feel comfortable. He will probably use this as his sleep perch.
Now the next perch you want to put it on the opposite side of the cage and down about 6 inches lower than the top perch. The last perch your going to want to put it on the opposite side of the cage for the second perch. You want to put it right at the bottom of the cage door at the end corner.
Now I going to put a few pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.

 

[Tman]

Don't worry Iam not leaving you.
I have something to take care of I will be back.

 

[Laurasea]

Welcome to the forum, beautiful cockatiel!!!
I have Quakers, they defend the cage, but are great outside of the cage. I have a perch right next to the door but attached on the outside of the cage. That way they can step out on to that, then I can move them while I clean tge cafe and give food..

I'm sure Tman will give you lots of great advice. There is always room for improvement. I've had parrots fir 20 year's, and still trying to find ways to improve their lives, their activities, their diet, their cage, ect.

Such a beautiful cockatiel!! So glad you will be giving him the best life you can.

I share this link to a great article often. Lots of great info here. And not just for a stressed parrot, for any parrot.
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

This one is also really nice. Describe normal behaviors, and problems behaviors like bites.n
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/bird-behavior/

 

[necrosacorporis]

First off listen to me very carefully. You are not doing anything wrong. Just get that out of your head.
I am going to help you make things better. If you parrot being alone that's fine. I asked because if he had a freind that might of been the reason for him being moddy. So we know it's not that. The one thing is not so much fruit.
More veggies. Now something else for.right now we won't worry about the size of cage. We are going to work with what we have. Your parrot is going to be fine in that cage. We are just going to fix up the cage. We will get to working with him in a minute. First we need to fix up his cage a little.
First thing take your buddy out put on top of the cage or some place he can watch. The love watching what we do. Now pull out all the perches. Take out the mirror. We won't be putting the mirror back in.
Take one of the perches put it at the very top of the cage where your parrot can just fit on the perch without touch the top, also move the perch.to the left or right side as close as you can just to give your parrot enough room to sit.
What this will down is make him feel comfortable. He will probably use this as his sleep perch.
Now the next perch you want to put it on the opposite side of the cage and down about 6 inches lower than the top perch. The last perch your going to want to put it on the opposite side of the cage for the second perch. You want to put it right at the bottom of the cage door at the end corner.
Now I going to put a few pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.

Thank you, I'll try that tomorrow as it's really late rn and disturbing him would be kinda insensitive :20:
I hope that he'll get comfortable with me being in his "territory" sooner or later :25_coolguy:

 

[necrosacorporis]

Welcome to the forum, beautiful cockatiel!!!
I have Quakers, they defend the cage, but are great outside of the cage. I have a perch right next to the door but attached on the outside of the cage. That way they can step out on to that, then I can move them while I clean tge cafe and give food..

I'm sure Tman will give you lots of great advice. There is always room for improvement. I've had parrots fir 20 year's, and still trying to find ways to improve their lives, their activities, their diet, their cage, ect.

Such a beautiful cockatiel!! So glad you will be giving him the best life you can.

I share this link to a great article often. Lots of great info here. And not just for a stressed parrot, for any parrot.
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

This one is also really nice. Describe normal behaviors, and problems behaviors like bites.n
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/bird-behavior/

Aww thank you a lot, I'm gonna hop on Amazon real quick and order a perch for outside of the cage :2_smile:

 

[Tman]

Please tell me where you live.
If it's late what country.
This way I will know what time it is for you.
And just so you know we will be getting your parrot use to you going in his cage. Have a good night.

 

[Jottlebot]

If/When you get him a bigger cage try and get one where you can access the bowls fr the outside so you don't have to put your hands inside.

Of course you don't want your bird to bird you when you need to care for them in their cage, but as well as training you can just try and minimise the behaviour without stopping it. I have never tried getting my Alexandrine out of his cage, but I'm confident I would get bitten.

I also wonder whether he might feel a bit exposed, it looks like a person could walk all the way round that cage? Apologies if I'm just interpreting the photo wrong. He might feel he needs to really protect his "space" because it's the only safe space he can guarantee for himself.

A bird liking their cage is no bad thing though! Don't work on changing things so much that he loses this security.

 

[necrosacorporis]

Update!

As someone here advised, I bought my bird an outside perch to sit on and he absolutely loves it + he isnt so stubborn and defensive when I try to make him step up. I also tried rearranging the perches inside of his cage and threw out the mirror.
(This is what it looks like)
It pretty much helped me when I was struggling to get him out of his cage, so thank you for that!

 

[noodles123]

Hello and welcome-


I'd move him off the ground and put him on a stand (as that looks very vulnerable).

I would keep him in the part of the house with most activity (not the kitchen though-- even though one shouldn't use teflon/ptfe/pfoa/non-stick ANYWHERE in the same house as a parrot period, but there are many other hazards in the kitchen as well if up-close, which is why I say not to keep him there).They need exposure and socialization-- even if not hands-on, just getting familiar with everything/everyone.


I would get a bigger cage when you are able (look up flight cages).

****Make sure you have him on a sleep routine of 10 hours nightly (bare minimum), as this impacts behavior significantly, as well as immune health (you will have to time your wake-ups/his bedtimes to make sure he is not staying up too late because of your noise by his cage, or waking up too early or too late etc). His cage should be fully uncovered for the whole day, until it is bedtime (this should fairly consistent) --- you don't have to cover the cage if you have a dark room for him to sleep, but consider a night light if he is prone to night frights, because when startled in the dark, some smaller birds will fly into their cage bars..The sleep room doesn't have to be perfectly silent, but it needs to be fairly quiet, or mostly just white noise. Sudden sounds or walking by the cage etc (inconsistent sounds at night= sounds that will wake them/startle them). They may not scream etc, but if you guys are living life like normal with the bird in the room with a cover over it, it's highly unlikely that your bird is actually sleeping under there.

Think of him as a kid with a routine--- solid sleep and light cycles impact mood and immune health a ton. You need to make sure you plan his bedtime and wake-up so that you are still able to schedule 3-4 hours of out of cage time, with at least one being highly interactive (not just petting-- that shouldn't be a constant..think enrichment, dancing etc--at your bird's speed of course-- don't want to scare them).

Do not buy him any huts, tents, hammocks, tee-pees or provide boxes or any even remotely shadowy space (like in your shirt, under a blanket, under furniture)---bad news for hormones.

Also- avoid mirrors, as they can become objects of obsession/hormones. Parrots who like them, like them for the wrong reasons.

If you can get him a larger cage (because that one is honestly too small), then you could also get him more toys/space and he might feel less cornered/protective (assuming you avoid hormonal triggers and build trust etc). Remember, these birds are meant to fly for miles a day and they would normally have a whole flock, plus, they are as smart as a human toddler (3 ish). If you do get new toys, never just shove them in with them because they need to get used to them/be taught what they are first.

This is unrelated to behavior, but I would also switch out those dowel perches for those with more variety in texture (manzanita, dragon-wood or custom from parrotwizard.com etc).Those can lead to a disease called bumble-foot which you want to avoid.

 

[Laurasea]

What a beautiful cockatiel!
You can add more outside perches, maybe a rope one, turn the outside of the cage into an play area.
I hope your friendship deepens.
Do offer fresh veggies, greens leafy greens. Bell pepper is usually a big hit.
Will pay off in a healthy bird with a long life.
Keep your story going we would love to hear more!