"Glorfindel" > wrote in message ...
> pearl wrote:
>
> > "Glorfindel" > wrote in message ...
>
> >>I lived with a cockatiel who regularly masturbated on my hand.
> >>Poor little guy, he was never going to have another bird as a mate,
> >>he was quite old when I adopted him, and he was definitely oriented
> >>toward humans. Why should I make his last few years less pleasant
> >>for him by denying him this release, when it did him no harm, and it
> >>did me no harm?
>
> > Good grief, Glorfindel! The OBVIOUS and CORRECT thing to
> > do would have been to adopt a FEMALE cockatiel! *That* would
> > have been the *respectful* thing to do. Wrongly thinking that it was
> > just ok to enable the aberrant behaviour resulted in him missing out,
> > not only the opportunity to engage in their natural courtship, etc., but
> > every other facet of meaningful association with one of his own kind!
>
> I adopted him from a person who had more birds than she could
> take care of properly. He had lots of opportunity to find a
> female, but in the eight years or so he had lived with her,
> he had had zero success.

Because of the competition.

> She gave him to me because he was
> crippled and barely able to fly. The other birds beat
> up on him, so she couldn't let him out of the cage with the
> others. I started giving him physical therapy, letting him out
> most of the day as an "only bird" and he got much stronger and
> eventually was able to fly the full length of the house.

And probably strong enough to finally have a mate.

> It was either my hand, or Scented Nectar's piece of vegetation.
> I thought it was rather sweet, in fact. He certainly was a
> happier bird with me than with the other 'tiels.

Neither extreme was the optimum, imho.

> OTOH, I once adopted a 'tiel who hated humans. She bit any
> hand or other part of a human body which came near her. We
> tried all the suggestions of the local bird behaviorist, but
> she just was having none of it. After a year of trying, we
> gave her to a person who had a breeding colony of 'tiels where
> she didn't have to be friendly with humans at all, and *she*
> was a happier bird there. She was not wild-caught, either, so
> she just didn't like people. It wasn't just us,either. She
> bit the bird behaviorist too.

She wanted the company of other birds too.

> So birds are just as individual as humans.

Of course they are.. but they're still birds.