I'm wondering if anyone here has birds that tend to be total brats at times. Not just hormones or aggression, but just general things that make you think: "What a brat!" This can go from outsmarting you to get what they want, to messing with the other birds (or other animals in general) to just anything in general that may seem like they're taunting.

For me, the brat in the flock is Lucy.

Over the time I've had her, Lucy has: (not necessarily in order)

- taken it upon herself to try and mess with whatever I'm doing even when she has her own things to play with
- scared my dog Bo by hopping off of the table and landing on his back
- try to preen that same dog's fur (which also scared him)
- taken my pencil out of my hand while I was writing or drawing, then just walk away with it and set it down away from me
- hopped into the milk of my cereal bowl (after I had eaten the cereal and all)
- put a pellet in my tea (then not bother eating that pellet or trying to drink my tea for the rest of that morning)
- attempted to bathe in the water bowl on the playstand which is not big enough for her to even get in (so all she really did was shake her head and get water all over the table)
- fly to a higher place and expected me to get her down, then started chewing on things there when I ignored her screams
- taken a vegetable out of Alex's mouth and dropped it on the floor
- chased Alex away from the food bowl in their cage and not even bothering eat out of said food bowl
- pretended to act like she wants to get closer to me just so I'd put my hand there for her to step up... Then lowered her head for scritches
- chased Alex away when I'm giving her scritches
- get in my face when I'm paying attention to Alex and chirp (luckily she's not that loud about it)
- tried to chew on the plants when she thinks I'm too distracted to notice
- stolen food from the other birds' cage
- Made my sister chase her around for 45+ minutes when she let them out of the cage while we were on vacation

Have your birds ever done anything like this? Any in your flock that are specifically known to be the troublemaker? Would love to hear some stories.

Jaid. Jaid. Jaid. Jaid. Jaid.

Jaid is a monster. He's really annoying. He makes the same repetitive sound over and over for 5+ minutes straight, bites for no reason whatsoever, likes to chase the budgies away, get right up in Danny's face, chew the furniture, walls, doors etc, bite holes in the bags of seed, throw the cat food out of the bowl, evade stepping up so he doesn't have to go back in... he's a devil.

He can be cute I guess?


On a similar note, my current little grey pony is a bit of a brat too. Every time I go to catch him, he keeps moving around and ducking his head so I can't halter him as he plays 'outsmart the stupid human (me)'. When I groom and tack him up his ears are always pinned at me. He likes to whip his head around like he's going to bite. He's so cute though. I love him to bits.

I don't know why I always get the grumpy, bratty animals. I still love them.

Welcome to the world of cockatiels. This is what they do!

Easily hands down all of the lories and lorikeets I've owned, but in particular Darwin. Darwin was a downright nightmare in the best kinda way

- purposely aim poop above the door from his cage
- throw his toys to the bottom of his cage in order to make a very loud thud which would have me running up the stairs in horror to see if everything was okay
- bite me so I would swear... he'd then repeat the swear words
- I used to take a bus to my avian vet if there was no emergency and Darwin would often come along. On said bus he would make every sound he possibly knew and have everybody laughing at him. He'd swear, make cat sounds, laugh just like me and go WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE which is the noise I made when we would wrestle...
- every time we would visit the vet he would jump straight in the sink so Toby would turn the tap on for him and he'd have the most explosive bath
- he would proceed (very soggy) to jump on the shelves where swabs and such were kept and throw it all off and rub himself on everything
- fly to me, land on my head or face (ow) and then stick his bristly tongue under my eyelids in the order to get to my eyes... he wasn't allowed!
- step up? rolls over. Darwin please step up? rolls over. Daisy walks away. Is followed by a sad black capped lory hopping at maximum capacity. You gunna step up now (this is off the floor usually)? rolls over...
- has a bath and then proceeds to pick up ALL of the newspaper in his cage and stuff it into the waterbowl
- another bird in the room? nope!

Bella flies to my shoulder for scritches. When I start, she painfully bites my hand. What a brat!
Of course, she doesn't do it all the time. Just sometimes.

So I decided to try having the birds out for breakfast with their pellet bowl so they could eat their own food (which is something I did to get Lucy to eat pellets). As usual they were more interested in my food. Had to shield my cereal because they've not only been known to try and eat from the bowl, but they've also been known to get in the bowl (Lucy has once, Alex tried to once, and given that Alex has landed on a sandwich I was holding before, I wouldn't put it past her to try again).

Well I put a pellet in my hand and ask Alex if she wants it in the way that I usually do to get them to try something.

In response, Alex took the pellet, and threw it on the floor. It wasn't just a drop either, she actually threw it.
So I guess that's enough of a hint as to whether or not she wanted to eat it.

When I was teaching my birds to eat pellets, I'd give them treats that I was holding in my fingers and slip a pellet in every now and then. They'd eat the treats eagerly, but spit the pellet out and give me a disgusted look. But eventually they did start eating the pellets.

"How dare you give me this dry crunchy thing."

Alex typically has no problem eating pellets, actually. In fact, I think Alex might like the pellets just as much as the bird seed (with the exception of the hulled millet and millet sprays).
If anyone remembers when I first got her, she'd quite literally stick her face in the pellets and just kind of bury her beak in them when eating... Then again, that could've been part of her clumsiness that came with being an unweaned baby (she was in the process of weaning, and every time I finished feeding her, I'd put her in front of the pellet bowl).

But I do see her eat the pellets a lot more than Lucy, and it might be possible that she'd be okay without birdseed if I were ever unable to provide it.
It's just when they run out of it, Alex screams whenever Lucy screams...

I already had them out at the time, and needed to eat breakfast, so I thought they'd enjoy eating with me. Of course their idea of "eating with me" is "try to steal my food".

They did eat SOME pellets though, and manage to make a mess in the proccess by scattering the crumbs all over the table.

Now that I think about it, I think Alex just likes food in general. She tends to be less picky when it comes to trying new veggies, and even when she's wary, once she finally tries something, she just goes ahead and eat it.

Slightly off topic, but I have a REALLY bratty cat: Roger. He will:

-knock things off tables when he thinks it's time to be fed.
-eat out of his sister's bowl if she pauses to take a drink of water, even if there is still food in his own bowl.
-stand right in front of the television
- overeat, then throw up, carefully doing so on one of the few spaces that are carpeted.

From personal experience, I think most cats happen to be total brats.

Alex has a new thing she does, and that's whenever Lucy lowers her head for Alex to preen her, Alex will start scratching her own head with her foot.

It's not even how cockatiels usually scratch their heads. It's a slow scratching, much like how larger birds scratch their heads.

The funny thing is that she only ever does it when Lucy asks her to be preened. So either this is Alex's way of asking for scritches, or she's mocking Lucy.
But given that I would've expected Alex to do the same when asking me for scritches, then the latter sounds more believable.
"Nah, I don't wanna scritch you. I prefer to scritch myself."


Additionally, I had recently moved Georgie in with the tiels and he has claimed the biggest perch in the cage as his own, and yells at both cockatiels if they get too close (and by too close, that means: hanging on the side of the cage at the same level the perch is at).

Although Georgie seems to tolerate Lucy at least. He just doesn't like Alex.

So that's one more bratty bird for you.