Hey everyone,
My brother picked up a pair of hand raised breeding cockatiels from a private breeder and brought them home about 4 months ago. When he first brought them home they were lovely birds, very friendly, eager to come out and see you and loved to sing. He made tham a large cage and put them in a huge bay window in the livingroom where all the family gathers in the evening and where they can look outside all day while everyone is at work or school. The male has started to act strange, if you even walk by the cage he follows you and hisses and makes this strange cough/screech noise to scare you. If you open the cage he fly about hissing and screeching and now his behavior is rubbing off on the female, she no longer wishes to come out to visit and panics with him. They have been seperated and she has calmed down and become like her oldself again but he is still acting mean, he won't even let you give him food without chasing you hand around the cage trying to bite it and hissing the whole time. Could this be because he is still young and is rebelling? Could it be a puberty thing? We can't think of why his behavior has changed so dramatically, he was such a kind gentle bird. It's been about 4 months since he came home and he has only acted like this for about a month. Is there anything that I can do to show him I mean him no harm, I've been sitting close to his cage and reading everyday so he gets used to us being there and haven't tried to move to suddenly but if i even move to turn the page he hisses at me. I would really like some advice on why he's acting this way and how I can help him.
Thanks
Riz
