# How do you teach a cockatiel where the door is?



## Rorschach (Nov 2, 2010)

Poor Chess wants to come out so badly but he can't find the door! He does this everytime Peak is outside but he's not, he makes circles around the top of the cage doing 'bat bird' and crying out. I've tried putting millet in the opening to show him but he ignores it when he's like this.

I don't want to reach in and grab him when he's like this it's not going to give him a good image of me.

And no it's not a small door, it is in fact quite a large door, almost half as big as the wall it's in, he's just not very bright I'm afraid.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Try pulling string or shoe lace as the love playing with that, unless you got a feather and you can twirl it my two loves getting the feather lucky mainly


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## Jynxstorm (May 15, 2010)

Rorschach said:


> Poor Chess wants to come out so badly but he can't find the door! He does this everytime Peak is outside but he's not, he makes circles around the top of the cage doing 'bat bird' and crying out. I've tried putting millet in the opening to show him but he ignores it when he's like this.
> 
> I don't want to reach in and grab him when he's like this it's not going to give him a good image of me.
> 
> And no it's not a small door, it is in fact quite a large door, almost half as big as the wall it's in, he's just not very bright I'm afraid.


I'm not sure exatically what I did with my budgies when I let them out for a while is I would leave the door open and let them come out on their own. I do that with some of my tiels too that wants to come out when they want to.


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## Rorschach (Nov 2, 2010)

Jynxstorm said:


> I'm not sure exatically what I did with my budgies when I let them out for a while is I would leave the door open and let them come out on their own. I do that with some of my tiels too that wants to come out when they want to.


I've left him alone before and half an hour later he's still looking for the door haha. I don't force the issue when he wants to stay in he will just sit on his perch and look at me. But it's written all over his face sometimes that he just wants to get out but can't figure out how!

I'll try the shoe string thing, I don't know if they'll play with it or be terrified of it at first, but it's worth a shot.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Here are a couple of things you can try:

1. Put Peak just outside the open doorway. Maybe Chess will come over to join him and will figure out how to leave the cage.

2. Hang millet in the open doorway when Chess is NOT freaking out with desire to join Peak (maybe Peak is still in his own cage). Maybe Chess will be more interested in the millet when he's relaxed. Sooner or later he'll start to remember where the door is lol.


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## KateBascombe (Sep 27, 2010)

Handsome sits on the open door of his cage and flaps his wings and screams to be let out. He doesn't seem to realize that all he has to do is hop and he'd be freeeee. Generally he perches there and flaps his wings until he loses balance and falls out of his cage. Just let Chess be and he'll figure it out for himself... Eventually


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

I used to open the cage straight away first thing i get up but now i wait till lucky jumps on the side looking like this watching me






while cookie jumps all over the cage
If they just sit there i know they want extra 5 mins in bed lol


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## mpayjr (Aug 16, 2010)

Sometimes they aren't interested in coming out. My Amber loves coming out of the cage, but Isaac hates it even though he acts like he wants to. He knows how to come out, but I think he's too scared to come out. Do you think that may be the problem?


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Lucky is like that she wants to come out sometimes but she wont, when she pops onto my hand i try and keep her there until i put her on the table with the others


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## .mpeg (Oct 6, 2010)

i've been really lucky, mister figured it out on his own cos he wanted to get out of the cage. i just opened the door and left him to it- took a while but he did it. he also figured out stepping up on his own, smart boy . 
can he fly, step up, does he like your hands? put your hand/finger in the open door, near your face, and make sure he's looking at you, and call him out or tempt him with millet or something. if he wants to come to you he'll figure out the door. or just leave it open for a few hours and in a spot where he can see you through the right side of the cage and let him experiment.


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## Rorschach (Nov 2, 2010)

.mpeg said:


> i've been really lucky, mister figured it out on his own cos he wanted to get out of the cage. i just opened the door and left him to it- took a while but he did it. he also figured out stepping up on his own, smart boy .
> can he fly, step up, does he like your hands? put your hand/finger in the open door, near your face, and make sure he's looking at you, and call him out or tempt him with millet or something. if he wants to come to you he'll figure out the door. or just leave it open for a few hours and in a spot where he can see you through the right side of the cage and let him experiment.


Unfortunately he isn't hand tamed yet, he's not very scared of me and if he would come out of the cage I'm sure I could train him pretty quick as he seems to learn fast. 

But I can't get him out of the cage because he's afraid of my hands, I can't teach him not to be afraid of my hands because he's not trained, i can't train him because he can't get out of the cage, he can't get out of the cage because he's afraid of my hands, he's afraid of my hands because <mumbles off> 

P.S. he's doing it again, alot of calling and shuffling back and forth on his perch. 

I'm going to be reorganizing the cage soon, maybe if I put some more perches near the door and maybe even when I open it I have perches leading out the door he will figure it out.

EDIT: I'm now 100% convinced that he DOES want to get out but just can't quite figure it out, he was sitting near Peak when Peak when out and he started to get antsy, he walked over to where Peak gets out, looked at it, started to climb out then climbed over the door instead of through it and started getting frustrated haha.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

awww bless is your cage door big


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## Rorschach (Nov 2, 2010)

lperry82 said:


> awww bless is your cage door big


I opened the door while he was climbing on it, and he rode it outside (it swings down like an old castle drawbridge or something). He then looked around, got a little excited, chirped, went over to the side of the cage and....

climbed back inside and couldn't figure out how to get out again.

He'll get it eventually, I think if I rearrange the cage it will help.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Like this one, iv got the door all the way down on here


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## Rorschach (Nov 2, 2010)

lperry82 said:


> Like this one, iv got the door all the way down on here
> 
> View attachment 6185


Your cage is almost identical to mine, he climbs around the top where there is about 6 inches of cage all the way around. I think if I would buy a cage in the future it would have a door that went all the way to the top of the cage, it's instinct for them to climb up to get to the top of something, so if the cage opened at the top (without that 6 inches of cage above the door) if he just climbed up and went around the cage he'd eventually find it.


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