Female cockatiel constantly squawking

[Raveien]

Hello, I hope someone can shed a bit of light on my female cockatiel's behaviour. I got her when she was around 9 months old, and she's around 3 years old now. Over the last couple of days she has been squawking constantly. I'm used to her squawking when she wants more food (she's on harrisons pellet food) but this is near constant squawking, and she has food. She's usually a voracious eater but I am noticing that over the last few days she's eating later on in the day, rather than wolfing it down as soon as the food hits the bowl. The only thing that seems to calm her, is being put in the bathroom, on top of the shower, she is still squawking but it's less sharp and less often. She's in the bathroom on her own now and is doing a mix of squawking and chattering/singing. I'm pretty sure she's a female - it was hard to tell when we got her as shes a white and yellow lutino, but her feathers that have moulted have yellow stripes for the tail feathers and the wing feathers she drops have yellow spots running down them.
She's not outwardly exhibiting any physical signs of being ill. Her droppings are normal, her eyes look normal, she's active, follows us from room to room, the only thing that's really changed is either her appetite is voracious and she can't eat enough, or she's a bit disinterested in eating, like she's been today. She'll be sat with me and my partner and she'll be quiet whilst we're giving her head scritches but the squawking starts up again after we stop even though she's still sat with us. Usually she'd be quite happy to just sit and chill on our knees or arms.
If there's anymore info that would help, please let me know. Both myself and my partner have been getting headaches from the constant squawking/screeching from what is otherwise a usually chill and calm female cockatiel. If this keeps up I am considering taking her to the vets beginning of next week.

 

[Monica]

Sounds like a female. If she's not pied, then she would light up under a black light. Females generally have one chirp/squawk as well.

If male, you would not see any spots/stripes on those tail and wing feathers.... *unless* he's also pied, but a light or medium pied. (heavy pieds would look the same as an adult male - no spots/stripes) A light pied to medium pied male may retain some "female" markings. A pearl male may also have mottling. As a general rule of thumb, males will have various calls, whistles, chirps and squawks.


Have there been any changes recently?

Does she eat anything other than pellets?

 

[Raveien]

Hi, yeah I'm pretty sure she's a female, she's pure white save for the head, I'm attaching a picture, hopefully it shows.
She does have more variety in chirps and squawks and will do the odd whistle and chattering but no where near what I know a male to be capable of. But she has more variety sometimes than what I expected from a female - most of the time it is just the same squawk/chirp.
I did have my canary down for a couple of days and I put him back upstairs and the squawking is less now, but she's still squawking a fair bit. Usually she squawks like this when she wants more food but she has food she's just less interested in it. Unfortunately, for the most part she's on pellets. I do give her the occasional bit of fruit, egg, Kale, broccoli but she's quite picky. I'm trying to work on it. She gets occasional pumpkim Seeds as a treat. As far as I know, nothing has changed. Her routine got disturbed a bit for a couple of days last week, but that's the only thing I can think of that's changed. I'm wondering if she might be a bit bored?

 

[Monica]

Attached is a young DNA sexed male lutino cockatiel under a black light.

A lutino female, regardless of her age, would light up in the same way.

A mature lutino male would be missing the areas that light up on the tail, rump and wings.


You did mention seeing "spots" in those areas which should indicate female.

Does she forage much?

 

[Raveien]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply, I don't have a black light but she does have similar markings to what's shown in those pictures, I've attached some photos of her feathers that I've kept, it doesn't show up too well, but there's yellow sports down her wing feathers and yellow stripe patterns on the tail feathers. She doesn't forage much, no, I've struggled to find a Foraging toy that she'll take an interest in. I've got a couple of box toys filled with paper and things like that and it took her a while but she did use them. She has stopped now, she doesn't really play much with her toys recently. Are there any Foraging toys that you could recommend? I do make her an occasional forage bowl using Kale and seeds and dried fruit and things that I put in the bottom of the cage.
I've been doing q bit of research and I'm wondering if she's exhibiting signs of separation anxiety?

 

[Monica]

Yup! Female markings! Which I figured!

If she gets upset or stressed any time someone walks out of her sight, then yes it could be separation anxiety... which is sadly not spoken about much with parrots.


The shredded paper is great! You could also try small pebbles with seed and treats mixed in. Maybe some grass growing. Heck, if she doesn't eat it, a piece of fake grass with food sprinkled on top works! It could even be as simple as placing 5-6 small food dishes around the cage and then spreading out the days worth, or mornings worth, of food between the bowls. Maybe it's some hay to chew! I'm not sure how many "good" foraging toys are out there for cockatiels, as many of them are actually more geared to the mechanically inclined birds, where-as cockatiels seem to be more "simple minded" - but I'm sure some may love some of the more difficult ones, too! I've seen some dog puzzle feeders used for birds as well. You just have to think about what your bird likes to do and build on that.

 

[Raveien]

Hello,

Thanks for all your help I got her some new toys over the weekend ones mainly rabbits, a couple of willow toys that I know she likes to shred with her beak and she seems to have settled down a bit more now. She has also just started doing something new and after looking into it, it's the female cockatiel mating dance. Leaning low, flat back, wings out a little bit doing soft chirps. So that might explain why her behaviour has been a bit erratic! She's about 2.5 years old so definitely hit full sexual maturity

 

[WillowQ]

That’s something to squawk about! (Bird adulthood).

Honestly making sure she’s getting enough sleep (12-14 hrs of real darkness) and not petting her back and wings may help.
I think paper shredding revs up female cockatiels’ and Quakers’ reproductive hormones and would keep paper away from her.

 

[Raveien]

Yeah I read ages ago that keeping 12 hours of night can help keep hormones and mating behaviour in check so she goes to bed around 8/9 and gets up at 9 most nights. I might try putting her bed more consistently at 8pm so that she gets 13 hours instead.
Yeah I don't pet her wings or back, just the head and the neck.
That's a good shout about the paper, she just has like a small box with some shredded paper she can pull out the holes but I might remove that in favour for more bark and willow toys then. Thanks for the tips