Mischievous Cockatiel! haha :)

[JessicakOX]

Hello all! I need some advice! I have a very “spirited” cockatiel if you will their name is Sunny and we’re not 100% if they are male/female as of yet because they are only 9/10 months old. Recently they have been very “flighty” and “jumpy” ... goes mental when we leave the room to go into the kitchen or to nip upstairs!
Sunny has always had a lot of freedom and is rarely in their cage when we are home but the door is always pegged open so they can come and go as they please!
It has started taking 20 minutes to get them back into their cage because they constantly fly off/around if they know we are going to put them back and has also just seemed very snappy and bitey recently and seems to have changed drastically from my loving social bird from a few weeks ago who used to loves kisses and scritches!
ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED! what’s going on?! How do we fix/help the situation?

Thankyou! X

 

[Shezbug]

 

[JessicakOX]

Is what I wrote above confusing?

 

[Shezbug]

Is what I wrote above confusing?

All good Just bumping your thread

 

[scrape]

The nippiness and such sounds like hormones might have hit.

As for the cage, make sure to associate it positively, give treats and reward with attention. You could also practice going into the cage/ and or spending fun time in it when it's not necessary, so they learn not every time in the cage means they're going to be shut up.

Good luck

 

[sunnysmom]

I am also thinking hormones. How much sleep does your tiel get a night? And also as @scrape said, try to make the cage fun- as silly as that may sound. I used to give my tiel Sunny, millet spray as a cage only treat (when he lived in a cage). Also, try spending time with him when he's in his cage. Often birds associate "cage" with you going away.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

It sounds like your little bird has hit puberty and wants to be more independent. Now is the time to always reward good behavior, ignore bad, be extremely patient, and never force him to do anything. As mentioned, practice putting him in his cage, rewarding him, and taking him out again a few times throughout the day. I still reward my birds with a small piece of millet every time they go back in their cage. I save millet just for training. Also, when you do put him back, talk to him for a bit so he doesn’t feel abandoned. He should mellow out in a few weeks.

 

[JessicakOX]

Sunny (snap on the name choice!) always gets around 10 hours of sleep at night, and any time I get on the sofa sees this as another napping opportunity! haha! we do already use millett as a cage only treat and loves it, however the prospect of millett just doesn’t seem to bother her so that she wants to go in the cage... @sunnysmom

 

[Davi]

Interesting. I would agree with @Tiel Feathers that hitting puberty seems to be the issue, at least potentially. Try to make the cage as fun a place/home as possible with treats when taking them in and activity/toys that Sunny enjoys. Keep us posted, please!

 

[Tiel Feathers]

Maybe don’t feed her while she’s out of the cage. The millet might be more exciting if she’s hungry.