# Starting taming our cockatiels



## chrisjfinlay (Nov 30, 2013)

Hey guys,

We got a pair of cockatiels through a private sale earlier this year (June) - the lady who sold them had moved to a smaller flat and couldn't keep the birds alongside her dog in the smaller space. They're now 2, and 2.5 years old, female and male respectively. 

After letting them get used to their new surroundings, we let them come out of the cage, and they would fly around happily and land on us, and Lollipop (the female) would preen our hair - Kevin would tend to keep us at arm's (wing's?) length, and only land on us when Lollipop was on our arm - even then he'd just potter around on our heads and fly away again.

Lollipop's willingness to stay with us may have had something to do with her low flying ability - early on she'd gotten stressed and plucked a few feathers out, hampering her flying ability somewhat to a bit of a glide, which was comical but made us feel really sorry for her, as she was having such a hard time.

The problem came with getting them back in the cage. They would fly away at any movement, and although Lolly was a bit more docile with her feathers still regrowing and we could put our arms back in the cage easily and she'd jump off, Kevin was a nightmare. No amount of food or treats could tempt him from his new found freedom. We'd have to wait for him to land on something we could quickly move to the cage and gently coerce him back in. It's obvious that our attempts to catch him and put him back freaked him out a bit.

Now, Lollipop's feathers have regrown and she's gotten very independent. Previously, she would step up onto a hand-held perch for us - now she just walks away from it. We can't touch the birds - they're very wary of us. We've tried holding our hands in the cage to let them get used to it and come in their own time, but they won't. Every now and again, if they're hungry enough, they'll stand on the side of a food bowl that we're holding, but they won't eat out of our hands. Because they're not willing to let us interact with them, we've gotten a large flight cage, and put the old smaller cage elsewhere for emergencies.

And then the missus talks me into getting two more. They're 17 weeks old each, male and female, from a petshop. We're hoping we can tame these two easier and then maybe Kevin & Lolly will catch on, but so far, they're just flying away from us.

If they ever need to go to the vet (Lolly's been there a few times already!), it's a case of gently shooing the other three to one end of the cage, putting the divider in, and gently grabbing the bird, despite their protests - there's no other way to get them to do what we want...

All the birds seem happy enough right now - they're in good health, they're playing, chattering and preening. Kevin sings now and again - though we have no idea what the tune is! Cinnamon is learning from him, it seems, and is making chattery noises similar to what Kevin did before he learnt his tune.

Anyway, the point of this long story is that we have 4 lovely cockatiels who don't seem to love us! We need help taming them, so that we can let them out of the cage again and not worry about them being afraid when we go to put them back. We'd love them to preen us and let us pet them in return - especially since Cinnamon keeps lowering his head for scratches to the other birds, but gets ignored...

Any and all advice is welcome. We were toying with the idea of bringing the old cage back downstairs and putting one of the birds in there, and trying to tame him/her individually, before rotating another bird in. 

Regards,
Chris Finlay


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## Peaches&Me (Oct 30, 2013)

Oh I'm sure they love you, they're just not sure how to show it yet 
Personally I would put the 2 babies into a cage of their own. Then you can start to work with them  The young may follow the adults examples, by removing that unwanted example you stand more chance of taming the babies 
From what you've said I'm pretty sure you know how taming works  
Go back to the beginning with both pairs of birds, starting by sitting by their respective cages & just chatting to them 
Obviously this is just my opinion though  Good luck with whatever you decide


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## chrisjfinlay (Nov 30, 2013)

Thanks - we've picked up a lot of tips on how to tame them already, but wondering if we'd missed a trick or two... We'll give it a go separating them and see how they get on. At least then we can maybe give a pair some time in the room and not have to chase down 4 birds!


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## Peaches&Me (Oct 30, 2013)

Ah, if you do have to chase them like you said in order to put them back into their cages then it may be worth thinking about not letting them out for a little while? Generally I'm dead against keeping birds caged but whatever steps forward you make with gaining their trust could be completely reversed by chasing them around the room  a one step forward 2 steps back type of thing  I would start with sitting by their cage & talking to them, then introducing your hand into the cage, gradually moving it closer to them & offering treats. Don't rush it, when they are comfortable with you & no longer panic & fly away from your hand is the time to think about out of cage time  hopefully by that stage no chasing will be needed


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