male cockatiel aggressive with new female cockatiel

[nadu14]

hi, i have had my first cockatiel (donnie) for about a year and a couple months. he's almost 2 years old and he is fairly well trained. we got another cockatiel (casper) in january, he's almost 1 years old and they are inseparable. they are both white faced cockatiels. About a week or two ago i adopted a 6 month old albino lutino (i think) cockatiel named omelet. her previous owners said they thought she was a girl and we think so too. donnie keeps attacking her. he has lunged at her multiple times, even with supervision. he's flown to her and attacked her while she was on my hand. he even will sit on her cage and push her off her own cage. i don't let them hang out together unless I or someone else can watch them and he's gotten less aggressive over the past couple days but will still chase and and attack if we let him. she's become so scared of him but she loves casper. she had two brothers at her old home so she wants to be with the other birdies so bad. she calls for them when we separate them especially at night when they go in a cage together and i have to bring her upstairs to sleep in my room. she's starting to attach to me and she's getting more comfortable by the day but the second she sees the birds she wants to leave me and go hang out with them and it makes me so sad that donnie won't accept her. i'm not sure what to do, i just want omelet to feel safe and be able to become buddies with donnie and casper. side note: donnie has become hormonal (we think) he masturbates with his food bowl so could the hormonal changes be causing his aggression? he never had issues with other birds before. we bird sat another cockatiel a couple months ago and he was aggressive for a day or two so we kept the separated and then after the second or third day he started to attach to her and was preening her. he even abandoned casper for the couple of days we had her here at the house. so we are very confused on why he's acting like this

 

[BirdG1rl]

@TielFeathers
I have a cockatiel but I am rather new to them! It does sound (to me) that it is hormonal aggression…Is Donnie well bonded to you? Maybe he’s ‘jealous’ or ‘protecting’ you from Omelet? Hopefully the member I tagged will be able to give you more info

 

[sunnysmom]

He could be hormonal. He also could see her as the third wheel and is protective of your other tiel. Just because they're both boys doesn't mean that they can't be bonded to each other. Also, sometimes adult tiels find baby tiels annoying. (I still consider 6 months a baby.) I'm not really sure what you can do other than to just take precautions to keep the baby safe. It might get better; it might not. Often that's why they say even numbers of birds are better so that one isn't left out.

@CeciliaZ ? @Tiel Feathers ?

 

[BirdG1rl]

Whoops! I just noticed that my tag didn’t work. Sorry!

 

[CeciliaZ]

I think it is a combination of hormones and seeing Omelet as a "third wheel" . I have 2 males that are very bonded to each other and protective of each other.

Are you sure both whitefaces are males? The one on the left definitely looks male - has the bright white face - the other one - face looks much grayer in the pic - typical of a female whiteface.

Omelet sure is cute - you may have to be her buddy.

 

[nadu14]

@TielFeathers
I have a cockatiel but I am rather new to them! It does sound (to me) that it is hormonal aggression…Is Donnie well bonded to you? Maybe he’s ‘jealous’ or ‘protecting’ you from Omelet? Hopefully the member I tagged will be able to give you more info

Yeah he is bonded with me the most and i've been around omelet more just trying to make her more comfortable and help her bond more. he's also been attacking me a lot and has made me bleed several times which never happened before

 

[nadu14]

He could be hormonal. He also could see her as the third wheel and is protective of your other tiel. Just because they're both boys doesn't mean that they can't be bonded to each other. Also, sometimes adult tiels find baby tiels annoying. (I still consider 6 months a baby.) I'm not really sure what you can do other than to just take precautions to keep the baby safe. It might get better; it might not. Often that's why they say even numbers of birds are better so that one isn't left out.

@CeciliaZ ? @Tiel Feathers ?

That makes sense. I don't see it getting any better because we think he's making progress and then just starts going crazy again. it sucks because she wants to be with them, especially donnie

 

[nadu14]

I think it is a combination of hormones and seeing Omelet as a "third wheel" . I have 2 males that are very bonded to each other and protective of each other.

Are you sure both whitefaces are males? The one on the left definitely looks male - has the bright white face - the other one - face looks much grayer in the pic - typical of a female whiteface.

Omelet sure is cute - you may have to be her buddy.

We've just assumed casper was a male since he's so hyper and active. he still has his baby feathers so we're just waiting to see how he'll look after his first molt! do you have any suggestions on what to do? i would love is she bonded with me and was content with just my company but she wants to be around them so bad. she's constantly screaming for them and going after them even after donnie attacks her . i feel bad, she just wants friends. i don't want to rehome her AGAIN but it seems like it's gonna end up being the best option

 

[CeciliaZ]

I would wait awhile. Let them get used to her. I have 6 tiels - 2 males are very bonded to each other but they will allow the company of another one of my males - they will hang out together outside of their cages. I also have a male/female pair also bonded to each other. And another female - my last tiel to be added to my flock - she also seems to be a "third wheel" - I just pay extra attention to her. I got her from the humane society and will not rehome her.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

It could be because your new bird is young, it could be that Donnie is hormonal, or it could be that he sees Omlet as a threat to his relationship with Casper, or maybe he just needs time. It’s not uncommon for cockatiels to not get along. I would let them out at separate times until they get used to each other. Two of my cockatiels don’t get along, but now they just avoid each other.