# taming/training a handreared cockatiel



## devilangel09 (Feb 5, 2008)

ok well last year i hand reared 2 cockatiels kept 1 and gave 1 to my sister.
well my tiel billy is ok behaved hardly bites though if hes near this female cockatiel he would bite really hard which inc a while after seperating them but hes all good now still noisy though.
1 thing i need a hand with is that he gets spooked easil.when i have my brothers here he seems to fear them and i dont understand why. any ideas?

as for the next question this is about my sisters cockatiel shes given him to me to train. how can i show him that im boss. hes in the aviary at the moment but will have him in a cage soon any way he has an aggression problem say you go to stroke him he will go mental and really shake his head when trying to bite. and when my dad took him to his gfs to stay there for a while the tiel started jumping at peoples faces and attacking them so my dad ended up bringing him back. how can i sort this out? cause my sister is pregnant and really loves this tiel but doesnt want him to harm the baby when it arrives.


hope someone can help


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## Plukie (Aug 26, 2007)

Wow, it seems to me like you might need to start from scratch. How old is he? If she wanted him for a pet, how come he is in an aviary? I would have thought that being in an aviary would make him revert to being untamed, rather than after you taking the time to hand rear them, him keeping tame. Anyway, if you want to tame him, then you are going to have to put him in a cage and start at the very beginning. Talking to him quietly and moving slowly around him, gradually over a few days, put your hand in the cage, if he goes to bite you, stand your ground, let him see that biting isn't going to work and that you won't stop putting your hand in the cage. It sounds to me that this is going to be a long, painful process for you, but if you want him tame then you are going to have to go through it. It should only take a couple of days for him to realise that biting doesn't work. As for having the bird with a baby, I wouldn't trust any animal or bird with a baby without closely monitoring. For instance, I wouldn't let the bird fly around with the baby in the room. It's not fair on the bird to be told no, or shooed away from the baby all the time and it certainly isn't fair to the baby to have a tiel puffing itself up and sending off loads of dust to get into the baby's lungs. It's something that you or rather your sister, will have to be very aware of.


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## devilangel09 (Feb 5, 2008)

hes in the aviary only temperarily. he doesnt like being with the other birds when in there he just keeps sitting in the front waiting for a person to pay attention to him.


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## elijahfan (Jul 28, 2008)

i am not sure if this will work, but use the space clicker training, basically get you hand as close as possible before they start the behavior once they do stay there till they stop/calm then click and step away then go back in, keep doing this till you can get closer and closer this should help 

i mena it might not it was a method suggested by a parrot trainer cant think of his name


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

It sounds to me like your brothers scare him. Bird people just naturally without a concious thought announce their movements around their birds. Like saying "Hello babies" when you head in their direction. I think we are also a little more careful about out movments and don't do anything to quickly that would startle them. You may not even notice the difference in your own behaviour but try to observe how your brothers are when they walk by the aviary. Do they move more slowly? do they talk to the birds? I'd guess it is quite different from the way you are around them without even realizing it. I personally like to get in the aviary. to keep contact with my tame baby. I find that all the other birds are more relaxed with my presence just because I visit their enviroment. I don't try to grab them or demand anything from them. I just sit in there, talk to them, hold and pet my little boy (Monkey), and yes... I've been pooped on. but only a couple of times. I'm sure they weren't aiming for me. I used to feed Monkey in there when he was weening. All the other birds watched with great interest. Once he had his fill a few of them got bold enough to come down to where I was and beg for the spoon. So I guess I have hand fed adults.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Parrots (including cockatiels) don't understand the idea of having a boss because wild flocks don't operate that way. So trying to dominate a cockatiel is NOT the best way to go - you might be able to force it into submission but this isn't mentally healthy for the bird. 

The best and most effective way to tame and train a bird is to develop a trust-based relationship with it, and positive reinforcement training (with or without a clicker) is an excellent way to do this. The basic idea is that you reward the bird with a treat for behavior that's a step in the right direction, and after that behavior is learned you start rewarding behavior that's another step in the right direction. You also avoid scaring the bird, and ignore undesirable behavior. To learn about all the little nuances, there's an excellent book at http://www.amazon.com/Clicker-Training-Birds-Getting-Started/dp/1890948152/ and also a clicker training group at http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click/ 

It sounds like your tiel is afraid of your brothers, and the best cure for that is to teach your brothers to stop scaring the bird. Have them move slowly around the bird and not be too loud. If the bird will tolerate it when they approach closely, have them offer the bird a piece of millet spray that they're holding in their hand. This is positive reinforcement - the bird will like them a lot better if they're a source of treats!

Don't force unwanted contact on the other bird - if he doesn't want his head stroked then you have to work on gaining a level of trust where he's ready for it. It isn't normal for cockatiels to jump at people's faces to attack them, and if this bird is doing that then it must be pretty desperate. The humans need to back off and give it some space until the bird learns to trust them more. Are you sure that it's really an attack? Is the bird just trying to escape and the faces are in the way? My baby tiels attempted to land on my face many times before they figured out that it didn't work, and I got a few claw scratches in the process.

Try to avoid getting bitten. Biting habits are easy to establish and hard to break, and bites tend to be self-rewarding even if you manage not to flinch. You don't want the bird to think that biting is an effective way to make you back off, so the best technique is to not provoke the bird into wanting to bite you in the first place. Example: if the bird bites when you put your hand in the cage, you can probably prevent this behavior by having a treat in your hand when you put it in the cage. By giving this treat to the bird, your hand becomes a welcome friend instead of an unwanted intruder.

In other words: birds have feelings, and you'll get better behavior from the bird if you try to understand those feelings and have a little respect for them. Aim for cooperation instead of domination.

Birds and babies need to be kept apart because it isn't safe for either one of them. It doesn't mean that they can't live in the same house, just that there needs to be a safe physical distance between them until the child is old enough to be taught how to handle a bird.


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

Taming your sisters bird Prob. won't do much for your sister, it needs to be the person who the bird is going to be around all the time doing the Training/ Taming 

your going to have to start from Square one, by speaking to the bird while he's in the cage, and slowly getting him used to your hand in the cage, etc.


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## susan20f0 (Oct 23, 2008)

problem is is traind a bit he loves people but protective of his food completely hates his cage i dont think i can cope with a noisy agressive and a baby as much as i love him geting him out of his cage is easy hard parts getting him in and he just very spoilt and changing his food y he in cage he doesnt like and ones he near a computer he will go for the wires


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