Cockatiel very afraid of something?

[CocoSun]

Hello all,

I have a two year old male cockatiel, Coco, that up until this point has been comfortable outside of his cage. He used to spend most of the day flying, perching and playing outside of his cage. But a few days ago, he saw something outside of the window and just flipped out. He started flying and screaming, bumping into walls and windows repeatedly until we were able to calm him down and put him inside his cage. The next day, the same thing happened, but all it took was for him to just look at the window and he started the same behavior.

I then waited two days, during which he stayed in his cage, hoping he would forget about the scary thing. Today, I covered all windows and tried to let him out, but he started screaming and panicking in his cage when I went to cover the window he had seen the mystery scary thing out of.

Has anyone had experience with this behavior? Can I train him gradually to be comfortable outside of his cage? I'm wondering if I should just relocate him to my bedroom so he can recover from this scare. We think maybe he saw a cat outside or a hawk.

I should also mention that he is molting, so perhaps this behavior is related to molting? It feels horrible to leave him in his cage all day, although he seems to prefer to be there right now.

 

[Pixiebeak]

Yes I've had my gcc screaming and terrified. Found out a hawk was using neighbors roof regularly as a landing pad. I ended up going outside to scare ut off the roof enough times it picked someplace else to hang out.

I don't like to keep mine caged a lot because they can start to become csge bound and scared to come out. I would I keep working on sitting by him abd when he seems calm open the diur and keep sitting there and try handing out lots abd lots if treats. So he can hopefully come out abd see all is good. Lots if repetition of this.

Sometimes they might link us to something scary. So yiu might need to build back his trust in you as well..

 

[CocoSun]

Thank you, that is a really helpful perspective. I never considered that he would be afraid of me, but I think you're right! I just sat by his cage for a while and offered treats and let him come to me just like when I first started training him. He's acting a little more "normal", now, although it is dark outside so the real test will be when he can see out the window again! But I think until we figure out what scared him, we will keep him away from the window.

 

[Pixiebeak]

Wonderful. Bribes and sweet talking go a long way

Hope tomorrow is even better. But don't worry if it takes a little Ionger