Little Bully

[Sunny]

Firstly - I am a new member, and nope, haven't introduced myself yet but I'm holding off until my camera comes back from being "lent" to a friend, so that i can do it right and crow about my birdies then let you scroll down and force you to "aww" then "ohhh" then "...?" at them

But this cannot wait, I have one little problem and i want to nip it in the bud before it turns into a much bigger, much harder to shift problem. 'Her' name is Alex and she is a cockatiel, i got her as a handfed, very tame, around maybe 8 weeks old baby with her nest buddy Japh, they'd been together from way back (not that way back - since, you know, only 8 weeks old) but were from diferrent clutches.

when i bought them alex was described as the little sweetie, the breeder was actually i little tearful about letting her go, and she is sweet, to us humans. she always wants to be with us, she'll come flying to me in seconds of me walking through the door and she hates being put down.

Unfortunatly for Japh, he is not human, and so he bears the brunt of it all, she doesn't like it when we pay attention to him, doesn't like it when we touch him or feed him, if we're holding him and paying more attention to him she will fly and land right ontop of him - which sends him shrieking for cover. he's a sweetie, he just takes it mostly but i've noticed that he sometimes becomes real frustrated when she picks on him continuously and once he even bit me when he was playing with a toy in my hand - and he NEVER bites, but he was just so agitated that he didn't realise. today my sister noticed that japh, who normally loves our attention kept shying away everytime she tried to touch him, he would just sidestep away from her. normally when Alex is mean to him he comes running up my arm and stays on my shoulder.

they do share a cage, and although she does tend to throw her weight around there as well nothing major has ever happened, lately i noticed that she refuses to let him eat until she's done, so i put in another food bowl and she'll go and snatch any toys he's got even if she's got the same one. they don't really seem to bond much with each other either, if we leave the room they just sit there in silence waiting till we come back, they don't attack each other but just sit there, doing nothing.

what should I do? i've been letting her get away with it since it seemed like it was something that should happen, them deciding who's alpha and that, and she's never hurt him, but i don't want him like this forever.

[zazanomore]

Buy a separate cage. You don't want your male being neglected and getting a behavior problem.

You can give each bird equal attention at separate play times.

This is the best advice I can give!

[Sunny]

Do i really need to go that far? It's just that i work, and we do tend to be out of the house a lot so i bought two to keep each other company, isn't there any methods to desensitize them to each other?

[zazanomore]

You could have their cages next to each other.

I have 3 birds in my room. My cockatiel is alone, and the two budgies (who get along) are in one cage. The sounds of each others voices will be just as good.

Besides, with them in separate cages, they will bond stronger with their human friends.

I'd hate to hear if anything bad happens to your babies

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I can't, offhand, think of a way to train her not to pick on him, so I'd be inclined to agree that separate cages is the right answer. They do keep each other company from separate abodes. I have not yet tried to keep two birds in the same cage, so I am by no means expert in this area, but I've heard 'tiels can get pretty nasty to one another, plucking to the point of permanent damage or worse. If at some later date they seemed to reconcile, you could try putting them together again, but they may just plain not be compatible. MHO, others here are more experienced with multiple birds.

[Sunny]

Yeah, you're both right - I don't really want to take that kind of risk with them, it's best if i order another cage. although i have noticed that she doesn't do anything to him when we're not there, just when we pay too much attention to him

anyway thank you lot so much for the help so nice to have people to talk to about my "obsession" without being called "Crazy Bird Girl"