Cockatiels are wonderful, friendly pets. The colorful faces, crests, and cheeks make a popular cage for birds, such as budgies or budgie parakeets. Unlike larger parrots, cockatiels don’t make too much noise, and they are easy to handle. Adopting a cockatiel can be a big job, not only to feed and care for it, but also to understand the cockatiel’s natural behavior.
I owned a female cockatiel years ago. When I first got her, I thought she was ‘the one’ because she was hooting and whistling a lot, but in a different voice than my parents’ cockatiel. We thought it was one, but later realized it was a boy. He had a yellow face with uneven orange cheeks, and gray and solid white feathers on the rest of his body. Mine had a very sallow gray face, almost brownish/greenish, unevenly duller cheekbones, and cloying patterns on the forehead and tail feathers.
One day, my grandma started to take out her cup of water and make this funny little wailing sound. They also draw water to absorb it and then spit it out. However, we thought it was, although generally speaking, male birds are more flashy than females. He started to bully me and anyone else near the cage, even though he was quite tame before. It probably happened when we started putting vitamins in her water because she was weak and had been abused and neglected. In a few days, my cockatiel would roam around in his water and make those weird sounds, and would attack anyone who came near him. My mother thought the bird was “psychotic” and “whacko” while my father thought it was “spastic” just going through the water and needing a refill.
Then, while I was going to school one morning (I was domesticated), I heard my mother say to my grandfather: “Well now I know why you’re acting so weird – you laid an egg!”
Curious, I got up to see a little egg in my cockatiel’s cage. Then my mother wrote a note, I think to my father, and included this: “A foolish bird laid an egg.”
We thought maybe my parents’ grandparents had it, but it turns out it hadn’t, and it wasn’t as ‘stupid’ as we thought. Cockatiels are known to lay eggs with or without a male present. Other birds, most notably chickens, lay eggs even if they are not fertilized by a rooster. It’s perfectly normal and doesn’t mean that your grandpa has some form of mental problem – it’s just instinct. Cockatiels like to have babies and call their mothers even for the male to mate with them. That’s the noisy sound my cockatiel made.
If your bird shows the signs I mentioned, such as barking/crowling, or sudden aggression when it has never bitten or attacked you before, get plenty of calcium lollipops and gnawing mineral blocks. The eggs have shells made of calcium, and the calcium they use is lost in the cockatiel’s own system. If it is exhausted enough, the eggs will begin to have softer and softer shells, and it will be difficult or impossible for the cockatiel to extract those eggs. That condition is called ovum and is potentially fatal. If you think your cockatiel may be an egg, such as if it is acting funny or stiff, remove it immediately.
Don’t take his eggs, because he will need to store more and more in them, along with his health. Another thing to avoid is rubbing the back, because it simulates sex and allows the egg to be laid by the male standing on top of the female during intercourse. Your cockatiel just sits on its eggs until it leaves them, which is no more than three weeks after the last one was laid. Soon, your cockatiel will be an old friend again.
So your cockatiel isn’t acting weird – it’s just acting like a normal cockatiel.
Cynthia Kiesewetter, “Incessant Egg Laying in Cockatiels.” North American Cockatiel Society.
Jackiepea, Collywoble, ERHS_Finch, “How do I stop my only female Cockateil from laying eggs?” He blurted out.
