Having a pet as a companion has become an interesting medium to ease loneliness or to relieve stress of the owner. One of some ideal animals for this very purpose is cockatiel. Cockatiel is the smaller and gentler version of parrot. It also has the ability to mimic tune and human’s voice.
The one that is more adept in producing and mimicking sound is the male cockatiels. Before you adopt one, it better to know more about personality traits of male cockatiels you must know in order to make your first cockatiel happy. Here are some of their quirks.
1. Male Cockatiel Produces Sound for Courtship
One thing that you must know before adapting cockatiel is the nature of why male cockatiel is more active in producing and mimicking sound. Male cockatiels make noises as a sign of courtship to attract their female counterpart. This courtship only occurs when they are still young.
Hence, for a bird enthusiast who wants to adopt male cockatiel, make sure you get one that is on its peak of youth. Older cockatiels are quieter due to their mating season has ended already.
2. Male Cockatiel is Competitive
Compared to its female counterpart, male cockatiel is more competitive. Therefore, it is harder to make several cockatiels to get along when they are males since each of them will try to prove for which one that can attract female the most.
In accordance to this nature, you must be extra careful when planning to keep multiple cockatiels at once. Prepare separate cage and let them out from their cages in separate time. Thus, they will not fight each other.
3. Male Cockatiel is Fast Learner
Having cockatiel as a pet often is associated with training your bird to sing or to mimic a sound. Male cockatiel is fast learner in which it can learn to mimic a voice or sound in a relatively short period of time. The young ones, especially, can carry a tune with fine pitch that is as close as the original’s. As an owner, you can invest time to train your cockatiel to sing, and to get friendly with it.
As time passes, the cockatiel is likely to get tame and start to take a liking on you. Hence, you can improve your relationship with your cockatiel.
4. Male Cockatiel Seeks More Attention
Male cockatiels are excellent in producing sound; however, they are also very attention-seeking. They will try their best to attract your attention and other birds. With this tendency, they tend to be a lot noisier and hyper compared to female cockatiels. Female cockatiels are usually more docile and are not as attention-seeking as the male ones. This will be a challenge to its owner to keep your cockatiels busy so they will not do some unexpected actions to get your attention.
Invest time at least 20 minutes every day to talk to your cockatiel or train cockatiel to fly to you. By spending time and interacting with your bird, it will not try to attract your attention by doing some unnecessary actions.
5. Male Cockatiels Can Be Very Aggressive
Another personality traits of male cockatiels you should know is they can be very aggressive in unfamiliar setting. For example new comer bird may not feel uncomfortable seeing new faces so they will peck any hands that come to touch them. They can also appear agitated by making continuous noise to comfort themselves. If they feel threatened, they will not feel hesitated to attack what they thought as the intruder. Hence, owner needs to be careful not to get too close abruptly in your few first encounters.
6. Reactive in Mating Season
During mating season, cockatiel is very reactive to any stimulation. Once it a male cockatiels sets its object of interest as in the case is with a female cockatiel, it will focus itself to attract its potential mate and will not pay attention to anything outside it. Moreover, it also gets more aggressive and will not hesitate to bite if someone interrupts their actions or distracting them from their object of interest.
This is why owner who owns male cockatiels should be careful not to get too touchy during mating season. Provide female cockatiel if necessary to help your cockatiel to produce offspring. Surely, if the cockatiels match, you will have the chance to have another cockatiel in your house.
7. Need Less Calcium in Its Diet
Female cockatiel needs to hatch egg in which calcium is very important in its diet to help the bird hatch the egg successfully and keep it fit. Since male cockatiel does not need to hatch eggs, they do not need as much calcium as the female ones. Healthy diet is important for both sexes; however, by providing diet according to the bird’s need, you will help them to survive longer. Male cockatiels usually need more protein and vitamin to keep their beautiful feathers shiny. Thus, provide diet that will accommodate this need.
You can start by adding fruits and nuts to your bird’s daily diet, or buy labeled cockatiel’s food in the nearest store. Also check your bird regularly to veterinarian to ensure its health is always on its peak.
8. Male Cockatiel Whistles More Frequently
As stated above, male cockatiel is noisier and pick up tunes quickly. They tend to whistle more than mouthing actual word as in the case with parrot. They can whistle if they find something interesting for example sound of television or music. It also tends to whistle when they see their own reflection in the mirror. If you want to encourage them to whistle, you can put mirror in front of them.
That is all about personality traits of male cockatiels you should know. Hopefully it will help you as an owner to treat the bird appropriately and get your cockatiel to trust you.