# Share your Training/Taming Testimonies Here!



## RowdyTiel (Jan 24, 2013)

I thought it might be neat to have a thread where everyone can share their training/taming testimonies that they've experienced with their bird(s).  
Give others encouragement by allowing them to read how you and your bird have made progress! 

-Rowdy


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

I acquired Honey as a very silent, timid and scared 'tiel. I've only had her a couple weeks, and already we have made promising steps towards tameness. In order of learning: she steps up onto a handheld perch, steps up onto my finger, lets me blow lightly on her crest and then replace it with gentle strokes of my finger to the back of her head, and takes millet from my hand. She also no longer freaks out when my hands are messing about in the cage. 

Here's to a promisingly bright future.


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## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

ooh this is a fun thread 
i'll post my birdie's stories separately. and i'll try not to write forever 

Ollie was an aviary bird. i bought her from a large farm-style petshop, where she'd been living with dozens of other cockatiels, lovebirds, and budgies. she was freaked for the first day, but she seemed to calm down quickly. i started by getting her out and snuggling her next to me with my hand on her back. she loved it  i'd sit by her cage and talk to her. i used millet to have her accept my hand as safe. before long she was coming out, and wandering round our dining table eating paper and pencils. i don't remember much from there - she seemed to love being out and has always been a tame little girl. i think it took a week to teach her to step up.

oh and she never had clipped wings either. so it is possible to tame an unclipped aviary bird. now she's the gentlest sweetest little girl, though she does have a habit of avoiding hometime by flying around. trying to curb that one!

this is her - first day home. so scared!


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## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

many of you will know Bjorn's story, since i've only had him a few months 

i bought Bjorn off a private breeder. he wasn't handraised but he was well handled and socialised. he was 3 months old when i got him. she said he was the crazy one of his siblings, so he came with clipped wings (she says that's the only way he's calm! ) 

he wasn't at all freaked in his new home. he loved scritches form the word go and still does  i started teaching him to step up and he picked it up in a couple of days (i used lettuce as a treat). he loved riding round on my shoulder.

his clipped wings are starting to grow out now - thankfully! i won't clip them again. now that they're growing, i'm starting to recall train him (getting him to fly somewhere on cue). that's something i wish i'd done with Ollie, and i may still.

with only a 1\2 hour recall training session, he's flying a meter from one chair to another using a target stick. he loves his millet :lol:

edit: just remembered. Bjorn was extremely cage aggressive. he squawked and snarled and carried on when i changed food, water etc. so i stopped making him come out: i let him choose. slowly it decreased. then when he moved to the big cage it stopped altogether. i think that in a small cage, he was threatened because he had no personal space. but now he's fine


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## sunnysmom (Sep 23, 2011)

A lot of you know Sunny's story already, but I love talking about him- so here it is again...  Sunny came to us when he was approximately 15 years old. My fiancé inherited him when his former owner passed away. Sunny was well loved by his other owner, but we don't think he received much out of the cage time. From what I understand, Sunny was hand tame when he was young but as the years went by we don't think he really was let out much if at all. 

When Sunny came to our house, he was in some ways scared and confused but in other ways, I think happy to be around people again, as I think due to his owner's illness, he was left alone quite a bit the last months before he came to us. I literally knew nothing about taking care of a tiel. So it was a whole new experience for both Sunny and me. Even though I didn't really know what I should be doing, I could see that Sunny liked being around me, even though he was terrified by hands. So in the beginning I would just sit with him and talk to him. Then I started hand feeding him seeds. Then one day he came out of his cage on his own. Which kind of terrified me because I had no idea how I was going to get him back in his cage....

For the first month or so after he came out of his cage, I could only get Sunny to step up on my arm and if it was covered by a dish towel. Eventually I removed the towel, and now he'll step up on my hand. It was months before he'd leave the room that his cage was in. Now, his favorite room in the house is the living room and he boldly explores the entire house. He used to be nervous around new people. Now, when people come to the house, he happily flies to their shoulder to greet them. Where before he was meek and scared, now he's a little ham with a big personality. And his favorite thing in the world is to snuggle with me and get scritches. Sometimes it's hard to believe he's the same bird who first came to us. 

But it did take time. And lots and lots of patience. I really tried to work at his pace and never forced him to do things he wasn't ready for. There were times when I thought I would never sit on my living room couch during daylight hours again because everyday after work I spent hours sitting on the floor with him playing in his room because he was too afraid of the living room. But all that time and effort in the beginning was definitely worth it. Because he is now so sweet and good it makes taking care of him a breeze. So for anyone training/taming a tiel, don't be discouraged if your tiel doesn't come around right away. It may take time, but it's worth it.


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

Love the stories


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## bshel19 (Sep 28, 2012)

I got my cockatiel from a pet shop that sold hand tamed cockatiels and that's what I knew I wanted. I had had parakeets growing up but now I was ready to get a slightly larger bird so I planned and researched and eventually went to the shop and picked out my bird.

When I went there were only a few baby tiels left in the bin, and I picked mine because she stepped up onto my hand, it was that simple. I guessed she was female because of her washed out colors but it took time to be sure.

I've had her for a about a year and she is extremely attached to me. If I open the cage she will either step on my hand or climb to the top of her cage. If she gets bored she will fly to my shoulder (or sometimes my head), that is if she has been careful enough to keep her wing feathers intact and can make the distance. She is quite a klutz but I think that's common for tiels haha.

I don't regret getting a hand tamed one at all for my first tiel. She has almost never bitten harder than a painless warning nibble (only twice when she had a night fright). She is scared of other people but will step up on their hands. Overall a good birdie and I look forward to training and socializing her more. She lets me do almost anything to her, I just need to get her more used to other people. 

Oh and I named her Little Squeak because that is all she does. She is incredibly quiet for a bird. She only squeaks a bit every now and then. Silly name I know but it fits haha.


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## Tequilagirl (Mar 4, 2013)

Tequila has been a very outgoing girl from the first week she came home. She loves being clicker trained I guess because she knows there's millet involved. In fact she goes and pulls the it from the elastic sometimes, it's very cute!

Nelson started coming around a couple of weeks ago. He's still nowhere near tame, but he's starting to get curious. A few days ago I was doing yoga in the living room while he watched me from the top of the tv, and as I was downward dogging he came over and landed on my butt. I was so excited I didn't want to move and I held it for about 10 minutes until I started feeling a bit light headed lol. Since then he'll move closer to check out what I'm doing but he won't let me touch him yet... His loss!


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## jayjay065 (Feb 20, 2013)

when i got sonny he was hand raised and pretty chill. since ive brought him home i spend as much time as possible with him. & we have shower time everyday which gives us fun and relaxing daily interaction. i think plenty of love, patience, & time will help form a bond with a new baby.


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## stevechurch2222 (Sep 25, 2011)

My wife and I got Snickers all most a year and a half ago from breeders here in Iowa he was a breeder bird and it took all most a year to get him to the point he's at now,he will step up on my hand and finger and sit on my shoulder and fly to my shoulder from short medium and long distance.Cinnamon came to our home just over a year ago and was all ready hand tamed so it was easier training her,she can step up on our hand and finger,sits on our shoulder and flies to our shoulder from short,medium and long distance.Snowflake came to our home at the end of January of this year and training her has gone a lot slower than it did with Snickers and Cinnamon.Snowflake had her right wing caught in a wire carrier being transported to Iowa from Missouri and had to have a blood feather removed at the vet's,she is now learning to step up on a ladder and a perch and my wife and I are working with her not to be afraid of our hands and learn to step up on our hand and finger which will happen when she is ready.Oreo came to our home at the beginning of March of this year,he had not been handled or let out of his cage for over a month so my wife and I have been working on getting him out of his cage everyday and learning to step up on our hand and finger.He steps up on our shoulder and loves to be held,snuggle,cuddle and have his head scratched.my wife and I continue to work with Snickers,Cinnamon,Snowflake and Oreo on their training at least twice a day for ten to fifteen minute per bird at their pace and we are both happy on their training progress.


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