Male Cockatiels and Mirrors?

[cockatiel_lover]

I keep reading and hearing that male Cockatiel's shouldn't have mirrors. I was just curious as to why that is. My Bubba is 6 months old and I never exposed him to a mirror until a couple of days ago and he really loves it. I don't understand the harm in it unless someone can explain to me why it's bad.

 

[AmberMuffinz]

Short answer is because some birds get obsessive with it.

 

[Bokkapooh]

I try to give my birds mind enriching toys. However a single cockatiel would find a mirror very mind enriching and I suggest to allow single birds to have a mirror, as well as other toys.

 

[cockatiel_lover]

Unfortunately he is my only bird but he has a bunch of toys and when I go to work I leave the T.V. on for him. The only mirror he really has is the one on his new play set I just got him which he only has access to when I'm home and I let him out of his cage. How do I know if he is getting obsessed and I should take it away or limit access to it?

 

[Mizzely]

It will be easy to tell. He will be next to it every chance he gets, talking to it, regurgitating for it, etc. I don't think mirrors are bad, either I think it comes from a myth that birds with mirrors don't bond with people because they "bond with teh bird in the mirror".

 

[AmberMuffinz]

I'm so-so about mirrors. If they only want to stand by the mirror all the time, I don't think that's really enriching for them. My aunt has a mirror on top of her 'tiel cage and sometimes Jake will talk to it but he doesn't stay long and he'll go play with other toys. If he's ignoring everything for the mirror I would say there is a problem there.

 

[brilywi]

If your bird becomes obsessed with their mirror, it will be really really obvious as others have said.

At the zoo we have a double eyed fig parrot who is obsessed with his own reflection. He goes and finds reflective surfaces and sits in front of them talking to them and regurgitating and tasting them and rubbing on them (in a sexual and nonsexual way) and just about anything he can do with a reflective surface. It wasn't bad at first when there was another DEF parrot in the aviary, but we unfortunately lost Newton and we weren't able to get another. Figgley was then given a mirror for some enrichment and he sat and interacted with himself for hours. He refused to leave his mirror for anything except food and water. We aren't supposed to put "unnatural" things outside so he ended up staying in the indoor portion of the aviary all day instead of flying around outside and being looked at by guests and told how cute he is. He did absolutely nothing BUT interacted with himself. It made the keepers really uncomfortable at the level of his obsession so one day when he was out eating they took the mirror so they wouldn't get mauled by the little guy. He still finds shiny things to interact with but he's not sitting in front of them all day long and doing nothing else. In fact yesterday he was chirping to the metal latch on one of our aviary style cages since we had to lock him inside for a day or two and then he went and had a nice nap and ate something and went and terrorized the birds sitting in the next stall.

 

[clawnz]

Male Tiels when hormonal can see a mirror as it's mate. This is not science friction as you may find out if he adopts the image in the mirror, as then he will turn aggressive towards anybody he sees as a threat to his mate.
This is the reason mirrors are not recommended for male Tiels.
it does not always happen, but when it does those owners do know about it.

 

[Artagiel]

My birds are not all that interested in mirrors. Noodle used to scream at her reflection in it, I think she was warning off the mirror birds from her human, haha.

I think it just depends on the bird, if your guy is happy with it and not getting obsessed don't stress. If he does get too clingy just remove the mirror.

 

[meaggiedear]

I had to take the mirror I had in out because of Grey. He would sit in front of it and only move to eat and drink. I eventually got a toy that has a fun house mirror in the back and beads in front of the mirror, and i had to slide something between the beads and the mirror so the mirror was less noticable bc he still would try to sit and look at himself.

 

[clawnz]

My birds are not all that interested in mirrors. Noodle used to scream at her reflection in it, I think she was warning off the mirror birds from her human, haha.

I think it just depends on the bird, if your guy is happy with it and not getting obsessed don't stress. If he does get too clingy just remove the mirror.

With the females this is a normal reaction, or they just ignore the reflection..
I have also seen this.
We are talking male Tiels and mirrors.
The only thing with taking the mirror away after they become possessive, is that, then you may will have to deal with the birds depression. Which can include screaming and other undesirable behavior.
We all know how they grieve when a mate is lost.
As Tiels are not into toys much why would one need to try this in the first place?

 

[Daisy's Mom]

When I adopted my Mikey from our local animal shelter, he had a rusty dirty broken icky mirror in his cage so I threw it away... The following week I went to Petsmart and found the exact same mirror so I got it... Immediately upon placing it in his cage, he started with loud happy chirps.. He was visibly happy to have his mirror back and I was happy to give him back a beloved toy... I have absolutely no aggression issues with him and his mirror... He just likes to look at his handsome self.. Now my other tiel Daisy, she is way too hormonal so no mirror for her..

 

[Coco's Momma]

My male tiel, Sammy, lived to be 28 years and 2 months old, and had a mirror the whole time with no aggression or any behavioral problems whatsoever. He did get a little grumpy old man syndrome when he hit 25, but I figured he was entitled. It is just my experience that while there can be some generalities, I hesitate to ever apply anything across the board since all birds are individuals. So I like to never say never when it comes to things that can be negotiable and individualistic. Sammy loved his mirror, as well as other toys, but never became obsessed, territorial or aggressive, despite all those years always having at least 1 mirror. Plus, there was a huge mirror in the bird room itself. The budgie-boys have mirrors too, and it has never caused them a problem either. I wouldn't even mind Coco having one, but she ignores the mirror, so I don't bother.... She's like, 'yeah, yeah, yeah... I know I'm pretty.....'

 

[cockatiel_lover]

Thank you everyone for your advice.

He loves his mirror but he only looks at himself in it and makes a laser shooting noise at himself (he learned that noise from a toy I have in two days), knock his beak on the play set then get bored and climb up on the perch and start preening himself. I'm going to assume that he's fine with having a mirror but if I notice him becoming obsessive, I'll try to limit his access to it. If limiting access to it doesn't help, I'll get rid of it but for now he's fine.

 

[Quadriplegic]

My bird brain has one of those little parakeet mirrors he doesn't spend more than a few minutes in front of it. When he is in front of it he starts singing and looking at his reflection and then he goes on about his usual business.

 

[Thugluvgrl187]

Squeeky is and has always been obsessed with mirrors. Toys with mirrors are his favorite. He will sing and hang out near mirrors most of the time.

 

[LemonGrass]

Both my males love whistling and admiring their mirrored-buddy. Neither of them have shown any sort of aggression and I notice that they do get bored of the mirror after a few hours...they will leave, wander to other toys, and eventually come back to the mirror again. I consider that pretty nromal. I had a budgie that was very obsessive of mirrors though, he would attack my finger when I tried to take the mirror away or even when I tried to clean the mirror.