'Tiel and GCC Help

[Bguns]

I've had my Cocktiel since October of 2014, and my GCC since November of 2014. For the first few months, they were such nice social birds, and would step up for anyone.. but all of the sudden, they changed. They ONLY allow me to pick them up, give them scritches, and hold them. Anyone else, they will bite. And the cockatiels bite isn't bad at all, but the GCC can do some damage.. my mom has been bit twice very hard. What do you think happened to their social skills? Do you think they just bonded with me all of a sudden?

[Wolf]

I would love to help you but there is not enough information to go on. Please start off with the ages of the birds as well as any background information that you have on them. Other helpful information would be what they are eating and their daily routines.

[Bguns]

The Cockatiel is 1 year, and the GCC is 3 years old. Their feeding routines are 1 TSP of crushed of Nutri-Berries at 6 PM, and fresh fruits, veggies throughout the day. They also have pellets in their cage 24/7.

[Wolf]

Very sparse with giving out any information. This makes it much harder to figure out, but we will get there.
Do you cover their cages at night? If you do what time do you uncover them? What time do they go to bed at night?
Their diets are not very good as it is very high in protein and this could be a cause for aggression. both of these species of parrots reach maturity around 1 year of age and this is often a cause for aggressive behavior and therefore is a possibility of what is going on with the cockatiel.
Is this accepting only you a new thing with the GCC as well or has it been going on longer than with the cockatiel, whom I am assuming just started this recently?
While I am trying to get a more complete picture of what is going on and working out what is happening I would start with a change in diet as a diet that is lower in protein will help to reduce some of the aggressive behavior. I would start by adding some cooked whole grains mixed with finely chopped vegetables and cooked legumes. I would feed this in the mornings along with a fresh fruit, a fresh raw vegetable and a fresh leafy green, using these foods for breakfast as well as for all day long and then a budgie seed mix for their dinner, which I would remove when the birds go to sleep for the night. I don't know what pellets you are feeding but they are generally not highly recommended for cockatiels and are, in my opinion just not all that great for the larger species of parrots either, and certainly not a good option for a freely fed food at all.
What do your birds do for the rest of the day? Do they have time out of the cage? if so how much time and what do they do while out of the cage? Do they have any toys? if so what kind of toys and do they use any of them.?

[BriGuy]

Thank you so much for helping

I cover the cockatiels cage at around 9:30. The GCC Goes in his sleeping hut around 8. They are uncovered at around 7. The change in social behavior has been going on for months now. They are out all day, unless I'm not home. The GCC does not play with toys AT ALL. The Cockatiel loves to shred her favorite you, which is a rope with 2 balls on it that has wrapping paper material all over it.

[Pajarita]

Well, with that diet and that light schedule, the GCC has to be definitely overly hormonal while the cockatiel is going through puberty so, in a nutshell, you need to change the diet and put them on a solar schedule. GCCs are the sweetest things ever as long as they are not hormonal, have a good fresh food diet (they are mostly fruit eaters in the wild so any free-feeding of protein screws them up big time) and spend, at the very least, a couple of hours on their human and another couple of hours flying around.

[BriGuy]

What's a Solar Schedule, and what should the new feeding schedule be?

[Wolf]

This topic started of with Bguns and now we have BriGuy, so I need to know if you are the same person or if I am trying to answer two different people before I go further.

[BriGuy]

same person, sorry.

[Wolf]

Thank you, it is no problem, I just don't want to be giving the advice intended for one person to the wrong person just because the have the same birds. They could have totally different circumstances and on top of that they are all individuals and respond differently than another one would, not on everything, but you understand my concern, I hope.
Basically, a solar schedule is what the wild birds living outside have. They are exposed to the first grey light of the morning, when the sky first begins to lighten up. This is the predawn twilight period and it progresses through dawn to sunrise to full daylight then back to a twilight period called dusk and then on to sun set and full dark. Birds normally start waking up as dawn gives way to sun rise and they are normally asleep by full dark. The two twilight period one in the morning and one in the evening is what sets their internal, biological clock, which then measures the length of the daylight and the length of the darkness and then signal the body to start producing hormones for the breeding season as well as when to stop producing these hormones.
The issue with too much protein affects all parrots as it is a secondary trigger for the production of hormones as well as being needed to produce the actual hormones involved in both breeding and aggression. I don't have either GCCs or cockatiels and although I think I know what Pajarita will say about their diets, I will leave that for her as she is the more experienced and has both of these species of parrots.