Need Help

[aashna]

Hello everyone.

I have few querries. I own 2 cockatiels, one is normal grey(Piku) who is around 10 months old and other one is lutino (Chiku)which is around 3 months old.

We have Piku with us for 5 months. He is a very friendly bird. Sings, whistles, jumps on our shoulders. He thinks us as his own flock. He loves to eat with us in our plate. He is very vocal.

Thought of getting a new bird for his company. So we got Chiku 10 days back. Initially piku was excited to see a new companion. used to give flock calls if chiku was not around. But since chiku came Piku is not vocal.
He doesnt sing nor whistles. He almost stopped coming to us. He stopped eating as well. we saw chiku talking to him in some different chirps and piku started eating. slowly he has started coming to us, sitting on our shoulders. but still he has not started whistling which he previously used to do.

So i just wanted to know do birds have insecurity when new bird comes to our home. will he ever sing again. sometimes i feel whether we did the right thing bringing companion for him.

Pl advice

 

[Lady Jane]

Did you quarantine the new bird? Its best to have a slow introduction of the new bird to your existing flock.

 

[sunnysmom]

@CeciliaZ ?

 

[CeciliaZ]

I have heard that birds will sing, whistle, flock call as a way of attracting or looking for another bird. Most of the time I have had more than one tiel in my home. For a long time I had 4 tiels. As they passed, I eventually only had one. This was my "hands off" tiel, Buddy. He always preferred the company of his tiel buddies. But now he was alone. He sang, whistled, called more than I have ever heard from him. I brought home 2 tiels. He has bonded very strongly to one of them. And now does not sing or whistle much anymore. Maybe because he now has a companion. It is just over - I think 7 years now - and they are still bonded. They will definitely call for each other and sing and whistle in the morning - but not much at other times. I planned on only adding one tiel - but I could not decide which one to get - so I brought home 2 - so happy I did as it turns out, Buddy bonded to the one that was not my first choice.

I now have 5 tiels. two are very bonded to each other. All tolerate each other most of the time...but I do supervise all out of cage time and separate them in 3 cages when I am not home.

Give him more time to adjust to the new bird. And spend extra time with Piku...whistle and sing to him. I can usually get Buddy to sing and whistle more if I direct my attention to him and talk, whistle and sing to him.

 

[aashna]

Did you quarantine the new bird? Its best to have a slow introduction of the new bird to your existing flock.

Ya I quarantined it for few days. Both were sleeping separately . We made them play together in observation. Looks like they are bonding well .

 

[aashna]

I have heard that birds will sing, whistle, flock call as a way of attracting or looking for another bird. Most of the time I have had more than one tiel in my home. For a long time I had 4 tiels. As they passed, I eventually only had one. This was my "hands off" tiel, Buddy. He always preferred the company of his tiel buddies. But now he was alone. He sang, whistled, called more than I have ever heard from him. I brought home 2 tiels. He has bonded very strongly to one of them. And now does not sing or whistle much anymore. Maybe because he now has a companion. It is just over - I think 7 years now - and they are still bonded. They will definitely call for each other and sing and whistle in the morning - but not much at other times. I planned on only adding one tiel - but I could not decide which one to get - so I brought home 2 - so happy I did as it turns out, Buddy bonded to the one that was not my first choice.

I now have 5 tiels. two are very bonded to each other. All tolerate each other most of the time...but I do supervise all out of cage time and separate them in 3 cages when I am not home.

Give him more time to adjust to the new bird. And spend extra time with Piku...whistle and sing to him. I can usually get Buddy to sing and whistle more if I direct my attention to him and talk, whistle and sing to him.

Thanks dear for sharing your experience. May be he is enjoying new bird''s company.

 

[Monica]

Ya I quarantined it for few days. Both were sleeping separately . We made them play together in observation. Looks like they are bonding well .

"Few days"


Quarantine should, ideally, be for 30-90 days.

 

[aashna]

"Few days"


Quarantine should, ideally, be for 30-90 days.

Oh didn't know this . It means they should be separate for this many days and I should not leAve them together even for playing.

 

[Monica]

It's difficult for most people to do a true quarantine, since it involves having birds in different areas that have separate air systems. Most homes do not have separate air systems unless they have a guest house that's not built onto the main house, thus having it's own air system. It helps to have a friend who doesn't own any birds to be able to do quarantine at their house, but again, this may be difficult for many people.

That said, following a strict quarantining to the best of your abilities (separate cages, rooms, perches, food, toys... washing between birds, including showering, and having separate clothes for each area - not allowing the birds *anywhere* near each other until after quarantine) can be a great way to reduce the chance of spreading any potential illness that a new bird might bring into the flock.


Here's some links that further explain the quarantine process.

How To Quarantine Your New Pet Bird | Petcha
Quarantine | Mickaboo



Anyone who chooses not to quarantine must accept the risks involved in case the new bird they bring in is unhealthy. A lot of people add new birds without problems! But there are plenty of stories out there, if one searches around, about how a new bird put an entire flock at risk, or possibly even killed several other birds due to a hidden illness.


It's best to get new birds checked by an avian vet, however since you live in India, I'm not sure if there are any avian vets near you. Abnormal behavior can be an indication to get a bird to a vet, even if it's an existing bird, such as Piku. The behaviors he's displaying could be an alarm going off indicating he's sick.

Association of Avian Veterinarians



I hope both Piku and Chiku are healthy.

 

[aashna]

Thank's everyone for your valuable advice.
Thanks Monica for the links. They are really helpful..

Have quarantined them again. Both are healthy.

 

[Jaguar]

There's really no point in attempting quarantine if they've already had contact.

Hope they're healthy and just adjusting to having another bird around.

 

[aashna]

Both are healthy. Piku is a spoilt brat type of bird. Very intelligent at the same time. Chiku is very sweet matured type of bird. Piku tries to scare Chiku. I saw him trying to land on chiku. Don't know what does this mean. poor chiku. Felt very bad for him.

 

[blewin]

If Piku is acting aggressively towards Chiku, you probably want to keep them separate. The other possibility is that Piku is trying to mate with Chiku. Since both are very young, I'd keep interactions between them very supervised.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

It would be quite normal for Piku, your original bird, to feel insecure and put out due to bringing in a new bird, Chicu. If you are a normal familiy, you unthinkingly gave the new bird more attention for a while than you did the original bird. This is normal behavior for humans to concentrate on the new and unusual; and you indicated your new bird is a Lutino. Your original bird is probably having some depression about not being popular for you to spend time with; they do have emotions just like us, get jealous and angry and you can hurt their feelings. This is probably what is going on because you said as time goes on, the original bird, Piku, is being more interactive and normal. To speed this up, you need to deliberately give Piku attention every day IN THE SAME AMOUNT YOU GIVE CHICU. Having cockatiels is like having permanent ten or twelve year old kids; and they have the emotions and needs of kids this age.

Relax. Make sure Piku eats every day; maybe give him a special high value treat from your hand each day. My tiels love sunflower seeds and I don't all them to have them in their seed mix, so sunflower seeds are a real treat for them.

One thing I want to say is it is not good for your birds or for you to be eating from the same dishes as the cockatiels. Birds can carry a lot of diseases and parasites, but more important, birds are related to reptiles and have a basic bacteria and gut flora much different from ours and if they get too much of our flora in them, then their digestions and immune responses get all messed up and the poor babies get sick and can die from this well meaning problem. Think about your size and you realize unless your bird gives you a disease (not probable) you will not get sick, but they are so much smaller than us it is easy for us to accidentally change their gram positive gut flora to our gram negative. I really recommend you put out food dishes for the tiels is you wish them to eat with the family and not allow them to take food off your plates, from your mouth or from your eating utensils.

If you decide to add any more birds to your flock, make sure you do a thirty or forty day quarantine. Since your guys already were out and playing together, let them back out together; they are probably fine. But you can find those pet shops and breeder who have things like mites and ring worm and psittacosis. It can be easy to accidentally kill off your pets from one infected new pet. I accidentally brought home a cat with a disease and the disease killed off four of our long term pets.

Enjoy your flock.