Cockatiel Love Frolics

Oh dear…well as I suspected, I appear to have psychologically damaged my cockatiels by forbidding mating in my presence.  Don’t get me wrong – I allowed them to mate in my presence for about six weeks, and it went from a couple of times a day, to every three minutes for a couple of hours on end with a half hour break and then a new round would start.  The activity is beyond my interest but the noise was beyond my capacity to accept.

If you read the previous couple of blogs, you’ll be up with the play.  Perhaps you’ll be relieved to note that cockatiels, while being somewhat feather-brained in some realms, are exceptionally intelligent, and my two have come to the conclusion that the ‘act’ is not the problem, but the noise is.  So, now they engage in incorrect mating activities without making a sound, while constantly  turning their heads to make sure I either haven’t noticed, or don’t care.  There’s definitely some scarring but I think it will wear off.

We all love each other you see, so I’m pretty sure they know I wouldn’t actually hurt them.  Occasionally she begins to get a little enthusiastic and starts to peep while they’re playing – I pick up my red pen and thoughtfully play with it, and they separate as though allergic to each other.  Poor things…I’m sure everything will be resolved when they reach sexual maturity at around nine months of age.  They’re seven or eight months now.