Behavior Question (also on tiel board)

[mjpeter]

I hope it's okay if I post this question here, also. I just really wanted to get as many opinions on it as I can...just to make sure it's behavioral and not a health issue...Thanks...

Last week I noticed Charlie exhibiting a strange behavior. He would crouch down with his tail up and his crest low under one of his "chime toys" and get almost in a trance...very quiet chirping. (he usually doesn't make noise like this) It scared me that he was having some kind of seizure or something, but when I approached and put him on my hand, he was fine.

Later, he did it again, under the same toy...nowhere else. I finally moved the toy to a different part of the cage the next day where he can't sit under it, and it hasn't happened again. What was this...some sort of agression, being territorial, hormonal, frightened? ...I don't understand.

It only happened a few times under this toy. It's a hanging toy with chimes and bells hanging from the end.


BTW, somebody just told me that this may be a hormonal signal from a FEMALE. So much for the DNA test, lol.

[cheezehed]

My male and female would do this too, didn't matter the gender. I'm pretty sure it's hormonal, but since they both did it I don't believe it's gender specific :)

[mjpeter]

Hmmm...maybe it reamains a mystery, then. ??

Thanks!

[Busguy]

I am certainly not an expert but it almost sounds like a "mating" thing to me. My mother used to have a Cockatiel and she told me that he used to "make love" to a bell in his cage pretty frequently. Since he had no mate, I always just figured it was something instinctual and "normal".

None of my birds do anything quite like you describe but they have "mates" and, as I have posted elsewhere once before, the Conures still don't know how to get it together and end up grinding on their perches etc while sitting next to each other.