Mitu the cockatiel repetetive squawking. (Vote for male or female please).MOV

My cockatiel is approx 1yr old. We think she is female. Her behaviour is getting worse by the week. She is squawking and calling/screeching repeatedly for hours at a time and it is driving us nuts. Is this normal behaviour? Is she a he? Is this hormonal behaviour? Is it boredom? Should we get her a mate?

Mitu is free to fly all day. We rarely put her in the cage unless it is bed time or we are going out of the house. Sometimes we can't catch her though and she is left free in the house when we go out. I've tried to teach her step up and pointer training but she only does it for very very short periods of time and only if she gets an immediate food reward. If she has to wait for a treat she stops co-operating.

Only 2 things make her be quiet when she squawks like this. Either we cover her and put her into her bedroom (in the spare room where she sleeps overnight for 12 hours.) to have an hour of peace or we shower her thoroughly because she is quiet when she is wet. But she looks so pathetic when she stands there dripping wet that we feel really guilty. She's obviously unhappy but we don't know specifically why.

We've started leaving her to sleep for 14 hours now just in case it is hormonal behaviour as I've read that restricting her daylight hours in this way will lower her hormone level.
Have we given her too much freedom and spoilt her?

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• cockatiel
• screaming
• squawking
• calling
• repetetive
• repeatedly
• spoilt
• bird
• hormonal
• male
• or
• female
• vote

[ls61964]

I'm pretty sure she's a she. Her cheeks are very pale when compared to our second, hopefully male, cockatiel. His cheeks are very bright and strong. It's all a bit of a guessing game isn't it really. Mitu adores my partner and Buzz, the new male, prefers spending time with me.

[blueday22]

it is a young male his face will go yellow mine was the same

[sandyhembree]

Male he has orange cheeck circles. He might need a mate?

[blueday22]

thats a male by the colour of the cheeks just so you know