Reasons Why Cockatiels Bite

Below are common reasons why a pet cockatiel may bite. Simply click on the biting topic below for more information. If you cannot determine why your cockatiel is biting with the information provided , please post your question on our parrot forum under the cockatiel section or head on over to our main cockatiel area.

• Reasons Why Cockatiels Bite
• Fearful Biting from a Cockatiel
• A Cockatiel Biting Out of Jealousy
• Cockatiel Territorial Biting
• Juvenile Biting in Cockatiels
• Reinforcement of Biting Unintentionally in Cockatiels

A Cockatiel Biting Out of Jealousy

It’s true! Cockatiels do bite out of jealousy and are a lot like small children that cannot control their surroundings. In fact, some cockatiels form such strong bonds with their owners that many will do anything to keep getting their owner’s attention. For example, a common thing that occurs is that an owner may get bitten just because a family member gets close to an owner. Because they are territorial, a cockatiel may bite the owner if it gets a chance in the hopes that the owner will move away from the family member. This is a natural response and the cockatiel is only trying to communicate in the only way it knows how. Rather, the cockatiel perceived this interaction as a threat to its relationship and reacted quickly to try to solve the problem. If the family member also gets close to the cockatiel, it may also experience an unwanted bite.

In the wild, jealousy actually pays off and is beneficial to the bird. This emotion helps the cockatiels fight off intruders that could potentially damage their bonded relationships. Both the female and male depend on each other to raise their family successfully—without both parents the babies could starve and die. Jealousy is a natural emotion to ensure each bird understands its boundaries and does not find another mate while raising their offspring. Though both males and females can become jealous, it tends to be a stronger emotion in female cockatiels. Most males will whistle and invite new company while females tend to express more outright jealousy and territorial behaviors.

Solution: The issue of a jealous biting cockatiel can be solved through positive reinforcement. The bird should be asked to step onto a perch by its owner and rewarded for doing so. Once the bird steps onto the perch without hesitation, the owner should then ask their family members to try the same exercises with the bird. Once the cockatiel has mastered this and is not afraid of stepping up unto a perch, the cockatiel should then be coaxed to step up onto the hand of the owner. Once this is mastered, then the same process can be repeated with family members. This will eliminate jealousy and territorial issues with your bird. This process should be continued daily until the cockatiel is no longer threatened or feels comfortable with sharing its owner. If the bird should bite, nothing should be done to reprimand it although difficult as it may be. Simply move your finger away and continue working with the bird as if nothing had happened.

Owners and family members should interact and partake in teaching the bird new tricks so that the cockatiel becomes accustomed to being around other people. All family members should reward the bird when interacting with it and should continually provide praise for good repeated behaviors by the cockatiel.

If the bird appears to not tolerate certain family members or other people, it’s advantageous that these persons make an effort to interact with the bird if they are going to be around for any certain length.

Keep in mind that teaching a bird new tricks or behaviors can sometimes take a long time and it takes a lot of repetition of a particular process before a bird may react in a certain way. Teaching a bird new behavior and tricks can be applied during daily cage chores, before going to work, or before placing the cockatiel to sleep. Eventually the bird will come to accept new people as it will perceive them as nonthreatening and will in fact come to enjoy interacting with others as well as its owner. Just remember to ignore unwanted aggressive behavior.

The owner should make every effort to provide an environment that is enjoyable to the bird. It’s important for an owner to always be aware of behavior that will
contribute to the bird becoming territorial and jealous such as petting the bird when they know that the bird is agitated by other people. This interaction is looked upon as bonding behavior by the bird and may cause the bird to feel aggressive if others come near during this time. It is all about understanding these little subtleties that can make interacting with a bird successful or not.