Can u tame an avairy cockateil?

[kimbo85]

hi there. i got 2 male cockateils from a lady who was gettin rid of her whole avairy in february. they were very timid and kept fighting with each other. i gave one to my mum due to them fighting. i now have just george a beautiful lutino, hes about 20 months. he hisses at me and tries to peck if u go near the cage. when i let him out he enjoys the freedom, and has even let me stroke his tail feathers for a minute or so before doing a strange noise that i assume meant back off, so i left him alone til he went back in the cage. im just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to tame him. i spend a lot of time talking to him and whistling.

[Mygala]

Time and patience. Don't rush them. Set a goal of maybe holding them on the finger by this time next year, ...or the year after that. Let it happen in it's own time, if it happens at all.

Bob

[Brighteyed]

i know this sounds cruel but deny it food for a day then start buy feeding it with gloved hands. try to find its favorite treats and snacks, sunflower seeds worked best for my green conure. talk to it alot and keep it where its around you any time you are in the house still in its cage but where it can see you, so if you are in the kitchen put the cage in the kitchen with you. and feed it tidbits of its treats and just talk to it. make sure you feed it through the door of the cage not through the bars. then, after it trusts you, take a stick that looks similar to the perches it has in its cage, put it slightly above its feet and rub its tummy with it, it should hop on if it doesnt just keep up with the treat giving inside the cage and try again later. when you take it out of the cage you should have a stable perch for it to sit on while you train/tame it. make sure its wings are clipped for this. when a bird is not in its cage its not in its home. often birds are very protective of there cages, i know my green conure was. when its on the perch just feed it treats and coo/praise it until it becomes comfertable being out of the cage. soon it will stop biting knowing you will feed it treats. then you can start trying to rub its tummy head and wings, even try to get it to hop onto your finger. once it is used to the cloved hands petting it and no longer seems agressive you can try it with gloves off, just make sure you have alot of treats and do not try to pet it bare handed first off, you might get bit. anyway after awhile of feeding it treats on its perch and it learns to be ok with you petting it and holding it on your finger you can start letting it sit on your sholder ect. i recomend and high collared shirt and remove any earings. remember you cant do all this in a week or two, this will take a month at the bare minimum. it took me 3 months to fully retaim my abused conure. but dont give up hope, doc holiday(the conure) became a very happy friendly bird that even let children hold it without biting. THERE IS HOPE!! so just be paciant and keep working at it.

[Mygala]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brighteyed i know this sounds cruel but deny it food for a day then start buy feeding it with gloved hands. try to find its favorite treats and snacks, sunflower seeds worked best for my green conure. talk to it alot and keep it where its around you any time you are in the house still in its cage but where it can see you, so if you are in the kitchen put the cage in the kitchen with you. and feed it tidbits of its treats and just talk to it. make sure you feed it through the door of the cage not through the bars. then, after it trusts you, take a stick that looks similar to the perches it has in its cage, put it slightly above its feet and rub its tummy with it, it should hop on if it doesnt just keep up with the treat giving inside the cage and try again later. when you take it out of the cage you should have a stable perch for it to sit on while you train/tame it. make sure its wings are clipped for this. when a bird is not in its cage its not in its home. often birds are very protective of there cages, i know my green conure was. when its on the perch just feed it treats and coo/praise it until it becomes comfertable being out of the cage. soon it will stop biting knowing you will feed it treats. then you can start trying to rub its tummy head and wings, even try to get it to hop onto your finger. once it is used to the cloved hands petting it and no longer seems agressive you can try it with gloves off, just make sure you have alot of treats and do not try to pet it bare handed first off, you might get bit. anyway after awhile of feeding it treats on its perch and it learns to be ok with you petting it and holding it on your finger you can start letting it sit on your sholder ect. i recomend and high collared shirt and remove any earings. remember you cant do all this in a week or two, this will take a month at the bare minimum. it took me 3 months to fully retaim my abused conure. but dont give up hope, doc holiday(the conure) became a very happy friendly bird that even let children hold it without biting. THERE IS HOPE!! so just be paciant and keep working at it.

You're right. It IS cruel.

Why don't you just beat it into submission. Animals aren't "objects" that we should force to do our bidding. It's also stupid if you don't know the animal's health history (which can be dodgy when coming out of an aviary). Before you do a diet reduction like this, you should have a baseline weight and be in a position to monitor the bird closely (Then again if you could do those things you wouldn't be starving it now, would you?) It might have an underlying condition that might succumb to the stress of starvation and forced handling. Just because the animal is doing something "willingly", does not mean that you aren't inducing stress on it. By starving it and then making it come to you for food, you aren't reducing the stress on the bird, you are increasing it.

Patience and time are the safest ways to deal with hand shy birds. Cutting corners can work in the short run, but in the long run it can hurt, sometimes fatally.

Bob

[Brighteyed]

this is the way i learned how to do it from a professional breeder and taimer. and yes i forgot to add that the bird shouldnt be underweight when you do this. the point of this is to show the bird that the food is coming from you. if you just wait for the bird to all of a sudden like you, it will never get there, and i am not saying starve it for a week, only 24 hours, when birds are not in captivity it is not uncommon for a bird to miss one day of feeding. and its not like i am beating the bird into doing my bidding like you think, this is a basic princible for training any animal. with dogs if they have trouble with being aggresive when they eat there food you sit down and feed them there meals one piece of kibble at a time until the bowl is finnished, with birds if you want them to trust you, know need to show it to them, and if they have plenty of food in there cage they will just hiss at you and eat the food in the cage they already have. if you feed them there meals from your hand it is obvious where the food is coming from. i have had many foster birds from the shelters i volunteer at and none of them got sick from the 24 hour fasting period,

[Brighteyed]

also not all the birds i trained i did this way, only the most extreme cases, doc, a bird i actually owned was hand raised and then sold to a pet store where something must have happened to him since he became violent and extremely untolerant of people. i did try other options before resorting to this and he was taken to the vet to make sure there wasnt any internal problems before i did it. when i bought him from the pet store they were saying he would have to be put down because no one would buy him. not all the birds i have fostered were trained this way, all options were tried before this. also, when i did this i was able to spend all day at home. i was home schooled most of my life so i devoted much of my extra time to unadoptable animals. from dogs, to cats, to rodents, to birds. i retrained them then found them loving homes that had the means to take care of them.

[Kendalle]

you could feed it, then keep treats in your hand for when it is out to see if it comes to you, you have something for it that it will like and grow to take from your hand. start with treats close to you and work you way up to your hand. Just sit very very still.

[spirithawk06]

My cockatiel Isis was from an aviary. I obtained her when she was only 2 months old, but she was still not used to being handled. I spent time with her every day. I would sit with my hand in the cage for quite some time holding a handful of seeds or a treat for her. I would take the food out of her cage when I was doing this but I NEVER left her without food to force her to come to me. Personally, I believe your tiel will come to know where the food is coming from. He will see you bringing the food every day, so I find the starving for a day bit a little extreme. I would move my hand closer to her until she let me put my hand next to her without shying away. Slow, steady movements are a must because any quick motion will scare the 'tiel.

Patience is a must. Speak to the bird softly. Establish a routine.

I wouldn't recommend grabbing the bird and holding it to you unless you have to. I was told by one trainer to grab the bird and hold the bird to my chest until it calmes down. I found this just pissed Isis off and I'd have to start all over again with her. This might work for some birds, but this didn't work with Isis. She just became scared of my touching her back and now I have to take even more time to show her that I am not trying to grab her if I go over her head. You'll have to be careful not to cause other behaviors that you will have to fix in the future while trying to tame your 'tiel now.

[HW84]

The trick i did with mine was to put enough seed in for a day or too and then change this each day and change the water at a differant time to the seed change as he will be seeing you as a provider often in the day and not a threat. Also at another time during the day offer him bread or toast in his cage by holding at arms length. Once he gets used to you in his territory, when he is out whichever food of yours that you are giving him in his cage that he prefers the most offer it him again at arms length outside when he is having his freedom. personally I never shut the cage but until he became fully trained never left any food on top of his cage. Now he follows me about everywhere and sulks if I leave the room without him and when I go to bed I put him in his cage with no arguments and he stays there until it goes light in the morning or until I get up

[BklynPets718]

Try clipping his wings. They are usually more dependant on you when they have their wings clipped. I used to have a tiel that hated hands and people, but I clipped him and after a little while he is now a great bird that loves being pet and loves intereaction.

[Eli]

well the breeder and tamer is wrong and freaking cruel. IW ould NEVER buy anything from her/him