Bird is really aggresive!

[jnp3000]

To begin with sorry for my English it is not exactly perfect as i am German!

- Spike is a 10 year old male gray Cockatiel

So we got spike id like to say a week before Halloween. He was an adopted bird we got from a local bird club. So when he got to our home he was a very nice bird with little to no aggression! However as the week went on he became very aggressive as he started biting hard. I put a mirror in his cage(beginners mistake! ) which we then took out. Now he has been staring at his reflection on the sides of both his food and water bowls and pecking at them repeatedly. I then covered them in blue duct tape which he then began to rip off of the bowl to continue to see his reflection i guess. Also he just sits on his perch where he can see the bowls from ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT and it drives me insane because he is just so aggressive and i dont know if its the bowls or what

So now when i even go near the cage he begins to hiss at me and bites the air warning me i guess to stay away. When i go to change his food and or bowl he then tries to attack me as well. He also gets angry when im near his cage. When we do get him out of the cage he just runs up our shoulder(which im totally okay with of course) he can get off of our shoulder at any time and when he does he wont let you near him with your finger so he all in all is just being really aggressive.

I also have a female (?) budgie named Bertram (s)he is on the dresser right next to spikes cage. So i thought that might have something to do with his aggression so i then moved spikes cage into another room just a few minutes ago so i guess we will see what happens but i really need help as i am totally clueless!
Thanks in advance ill be on this quite regularly to check for responses so i should take long to respond back!

[Wolf]

Hi and welcome to the forum. My English is not the best either as I am American and I manage to butcher that pretty well most of the time as well.
It sounds like you are using stainless steel food and water dishes, if he is able to see his reflection on the sides of them. I am glad that you got rid of the tape as it is bad for birds, but you figured that out yourself anyway. Depending on the holders you may be able to find ceramic crocks that will work in them if they are built in and if not then it is easy to change them to the plastic kind, or you could feed him on a small plate or saucer placed on the bottom of his cage as Cockatiels are naturally ground feeders. You may need to arrange his cage a bit differently so that he does not poop in his food if you do this. These are all thing to help you for now but the real issue that needs to be addressed is that he is hormonal and it sounds to me that he is overly hormonal and will go into that shortly.
I am so very glad to learn that you moved him to another room away from your Budgie as Spike should have been placed in quarantine for a minimum of thirty days before being placed anywhere near other birds. This is needed to protect you other bird, in this case your Budgie from diseases which could easily prove to be fatal. Always quarantine a new bird for at least thirty days and wash your hands before you touch your current bird or its things such as food, toys or what ever.
Ok, on to the actual problem hormones! you are going to have to look into your birds diet and since we are looking at Spikes diet We may as well look at Bertram's as well. You need to feed spike , actually both of your birds a low protein diet as protein is what their bodies use to manufacture the sexual hormones. Everything that I am saying should apply to both of your birds although an overly hormonal state can have some different effect on their bodies and these different effects are due to sex of the birds and not due to them being different species of parrots. In addition to a low protein diet you need to place your birds on a strict solar light schedule such as the free birds outside your window have with special attention paid to make sure that they are exposed fully to the two twilight periods occurring at dawn and at dusk as the light at these two times have properties that set and reset the birds internal biological clock so that the bird enters and leaves its breeding cycle when it is supposed to do so. These two things are the only way that we have to remedy and to prevent this overly hormonal state in our birds and unfortunately it does take time for this to work, but then it took some time to get this far out of whack.
All of these aggressive behaviors are due to this overly hormonal condition as Cockatiels are perhaps the most gentle and least aggressive of all parrot species.
If you will tell us what you are feeding your birds and when you are feeding them these foods we will help you to get them on the right diet. And will do all we can to help you and your birds through this difficult time.

[Pajarita]

Yes, the poor bird is, most likely, overly hormonal but the other factor is that cockatiels are usually not handraised but parent-raised (the difference been that when they are handraised, they imprint to people tricking them into believing that people are part of their family while, if the parents raise them, they know they are birds and that humans are not family) and that he is now over his honeymoon period (the first weeks or months a bird is in the new home when they ALL behave nice). His aggression is not because of the budgie (but it's good that you separated them because he had to be put in quarantine anyway), cockatiels love the company of other birds. They prefer other cockatiels but would 'make do' with a budgie if there is nothing else available. And I doubt it's because of the mirror, either... Male tiels are not jealous like, say, amazons would be. The only time they fight for their female is when they are courting her and another male wants her -otherwise, they are VERY mild mannered birds.

So, my advice to you is:
1. make sure he is getting a good diet low in protein
2. keep him to a strict solar schedule with exposure to dawn and dusk
3. don't stare at him and don't ask him to step up - just open his cage and let him out to fly.
4. spend hours and hours just sitting quietly talking to him, reading a book out loud, etc. and, when you see that he is relaxed in your presence, offer him a treat (but, if he doesn't take it from your hand, just leave it there for him to eat when he wants to).