Cockatiel making strange noise?

My cockatiel is about 13 weeks old, she is a handfed cockatiel from a breeder. I've had her since she was about 9 weeks old. She's very sweet, very social and an excellent eater. But lately over the last week or so I have noticed she makes this strange low muffled scratchy sounding call whenever she sees me. So, I reach in...pick her up and she continues to make this bizzare noise for a few minutes. The only thing that quietens her is if I let her chew on my wedding ring, or necklace. If I remove the ring or necklace she just sqwaks. I have an older male cockatiel, and he never does this so I'm puzzled. when she's doing it, her (we just assume she's a her until the first molt) head is drawn back, feathers around her face fluffed and her head bobs back and forward. I really dont know what to make of it!


She is on a good quality seed and pellet diet with the occasional millet spray,as well as daily fruit and veggies, pasta,etc.She is only caged at night, we spend lots of time w/her

I dont think so, she just had a checkup not too long ago and the vet said she was very healthy looking. Once you are holding her, she seems perfectly content. Right now she's climbing on my arm trying to get to my necklace. Sometimes she will stop making the noise when she's preening herself. If someone without a necklace holds her, she only makes the noise for a few seconds then just stops. I think she might be obsessed with shiny thing?!

I would imagine that she's begging for food, like she would from a parent. They make a strange reptilian-like sound.

This video is a little strange, but it will give you an idea about baby cockatiel behavior.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Qv4AL6M...

Maybe she is sick.

well maybe it wants shiny toys in its cage and an other thing to try leaving the cage outside and locked properly cause teils like soaking in the sun but just for a little while.And all i can say is they just love eating the seeds that just have sunflower seeds and the little yellow seeds but since it is still young you can feed it bread soaked with milk and feed it to him/her in small little balls and they like eating it a lot and hopefully it gets full and stops doing the wierd noise.


and you can tell if it is a boy if the teil is a normal gray one their face usually has the brightest color of yellow and if it is a girl the body feathers look a dull grey and the face or crown is almost a dull green.

Birds will make all sorts of noises to get you to pay attention to them. I would not worry about them. I would worry about letting her chew on your necklace or rings. Aren't you aware that birds can remove a diamond or any stone from a setting in just a few minutes...very easily???? When I worked in Petland many years ago we had to warn women all the time about letting the birds mess with their jewelery. Many of them lost the stones to rings, bracelets and earrings. Necklaces were ruined too. Some times we were able to find the stones on the floor, but most of the time they were just lost.
You are discribing a bird that is happy and relaxed. That is what they do with the feathers around the face. Your bird is starting to set the rules with you and you are letting her get away with it. The bobbing back and forth does not mean illness. Her diet should be one mostly of pellets. You can also feed her treats of fruit and veggies. (watch out for too much fruit, it can cause the runs in some birds ) Make sure your birds are not allowed to be perched above your eye level. If they are, it puts them in the dominant position. They should always be at your eye level or below so you are the dominant one. Make sure your birds have plenty of toys to play with and don't give in to the squawking or screaming. Ignore it now, or later you will have a really big problem. Please read my profile.