Cockatiel suddenly became aggressive!

[Birblover7]

I got my sweet pied cockatiel at just 7 weeks old, he was the only surviving chick of the litter so got lots of 1 on 1 time as well as hand fed.Ive I've had him for about 2 months? He has always been extremely tame, loved cuddles and pets, and has never shown any aggression. I have one other cockatiel, and 3 parakeets. About a week ago, he started biting my hands occasionally. He would step up just fine, but sometimes when I went to pet him he would attack my fingers. This slowly got worse, to where most of the time I try to pet him he would bite several times. sometimes hard, too. Just a few moments ago I went to pick him up off the ground and he hissed at me and started going for my fingers. I picked up my other tiel, as well as him and sat down with them. he wouldn't let me touch him, so I pet my other birb instead. However, he began to bite my fingers while I was petting her and made angry noises. I placed him a bit of a distance from me, and he jumped back over to me and bit at my face. I dont understand what happened to him. I placed him inside his cage for the time being (by the way, their cage is nearly never closed, and they free roam my room all day.) I haven't changed anything in the way I take care of him. He still flies to me, but will sometimes start biting whatever he can even though he came to me on his own. I would say he's being hormonal but he's barely 4 months old? He has lots of shredding toys, a large cage, lots of attention, and tons of excersize time.

 

[Birblover7]

my other tiel is a 8 month female, by the way.

 

[sunnysmom]

I don't mean this to sound flippant but.... if he doesn't want to be petted, don't pet him. It's him telling you he doesn't want you to do it. I suspect now he is also biting when you are trying to pick him up because now he's associating fingers with unwanted touching. If he continues to bite when trying to get him to step up, trying using a perch and reward or praise him for stepping up so hopefully you can go back to getting him to step up on your fingers. You can also try getting him to step up on the back on your hand with your hand out flat. I think it's really important to try to read a bird and understand what they're trying to communicate.

 

[Birblover7]

I'm not sure. He never used to refuse them, and never once got upset or moved away when I did. This all started when I left him with my mom and her 5 tiels overnight. He became more distant, He still will sometimes cuddle up to my face and fluff up like he wants pets. sometimes he'll let me, sometimes he won't. this is a picture of him currently. I got him out of the cage and he immediately snuggled up to my face. He is the one looking at me. He hasn't started acting up yet.

 

[Birblover7]

If he simply doesn't want to be pet, that could be a possibility? My other tiel constantly wants pet, to the point where almost every time I try to get her to step up she just puts her head down. She rubs her head on my hand and is just altogether a cuddlebug. I've had her since january, and when I got him he also always wanted to cuddle and always enjoyed scritches. so I guess I didn't consider the fact that he just might not want touched then.

 

[sunnysmom]

Girls - cuddly. Boys- not so much. Female tiels typically are cuddlier than boys. Granted there are exceptions both ways but your boy could just be growing up and becoming more of male tiel.

 

[Shezbug]

Doesn’t sound like you’re listening to his communication to you. Doesn’t sound like you’re asking to touch him, sounds like you’re deciding you want to do it and then you just do it.

Always ask your birds permission and learn to read and listen to his body language. They make it very clear when they would like to be touched.