# Smudge’s Taming Progress



## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Hi Everyone, a few of you may remember that I posted last week about my new baby bird who I purchased and was parent raised anyway just thought I would let you know what’s been going on in his first week.

Well so far he is doing really well, I clipped him as I felt this was necessary to tame him down which was the first thing I did when I got home from the pet shop, then left him be the first few days.

Cleaning his cage out I found to be a bit of a nightmare as he was petrified of me keep putting my hand in the cage and wiping everything down, so thought oh well he is clipped maybe I would be better to let him out while I do the general clean of his cage, I did this and found he could still fly pretty well, so I cleaned the cage out and let him wander around a bit before attempting to put him back now I didn’t want to grab him so tried to push a flat hand under his feet, ok he bit and flew off a few times and drew blood a few times too it hurt to say the least but anyway I held my scream and did get him on my hand to take back to his cage.

Decided he needed to be clipped a little more so did that, still thought it was better for him to be out the cage while I clean it than him getting all this built up aggression to my hand so decided to try the stick taming idea (using a perch instead of my hand, lol) I got him on the perch from the cage and moved him to the top off the cage he did fly off and this time although he did get a little lift he soon started a descend, so I slowly went over to him and got him on the perch using step up method quite easily and sat him back on the top of the cage there he sat watching me clean his cage out before he climbed up onto the open door and continue to watch what I was doing, he stayed there until I got his perch and he stepped up onto it and I put him back in, he also then quite shortly after came and took some millet I was offering through the bars.








Today he came out on his own he did have a little fly, I went over with perch and he hopped up onto it on his own today I took him back to the top of his cage where he assumed his usual position on top of the door to watch what I was doing, after I had finished I decided I would try and offer some millet to him where he was, to my surprise he did eat it, although the picture doesn’t show him actually taking it, he did, the camera distracted him a little.








I also have offered him millet this evening on a flat hand to try and get him used that shape of hand ready for step up, he was a little more wary and banged his beak on my finger but not hard and backed off and then came back and started to eat it, so really impressed.

I am really pleased with his progress so far I never thought he would start to come around this quickly. I will keep you updated on his progress, and I hope you enjoy reading as I enjoy sharing our progress.

Jenny


----------



## Raven2322 (Mar 1, 2008)

That's great to he's doing so well. Congrats on all the progress.  He's a real cutie too, he looks almost exactly like my little Edward.


----------



## seaofdreams (Dec 29, 2009)

You sound like you're doing great. Keep us posted


----------



## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Hi Everyone,

Well this week there’s been quite a few changes, Smudge moved into his new cage, see images below.
















He obviously loves it because the next morning he started singing I mean the real male tuneful singing it was beautiful to hear, never heard a male cockatiel sing before.

What with letting him settle to his new home I didn’t really push him much in the week taming wise, so today I thought I would attempt to push Smudge out of his comfort zone a bit and see if I could get him to step on my hand. I have never really tamed a bird before so guessing in order to tame him I will need to push the relationship a little in order to make progress, because if I didn’t I think Smudge would be quite happy to never go past eating out my hand, lol. Anyway with this goal in mind I attempted to put my hand under his feet at first he flew away squawked at me a bit, bit me a bit but not as hard as when I first got him, and eventually he gave in and sat on my hand, I sat down with him telling him “see it wasn’t so bad was it, your still alive”, he calmed down and then I offered millet which he gladly took, I also did manage to give him a little stroke on his chest.
















So I think I am progressing well with him, I will keep this up for a week and report again next week.

Bye for now

Jenny


----------



## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Thats great that you are bonding so well with him  That is one nice and big cage aswell  I would add a few more toys and some natural/different types of perches to help excersise his feet


----------



## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

The cage is a really good size for a cockatiel, it is 16 ½ inches wide and 25 inches in length and 30 inches in height for the cage part, I want to order another one now for Tira so I have matching cages, lol, maybe next month when I can afford it, although it was a really good price, I paid $145 AUS dollars from e-bay (new boxed) and it was only $12 dollars delivery charge so I think it’s a fantastic price, I have seen smaller cages for over $200 dollars in some pet stores, it did also come in black but I personally prefer the white

Jenny


----------



## Safwah (Mar 3, 2010)

Your on the gold coast too? What are the odds huh  Drop down to petbarn in bundall, i got a boing there and also one of those rope flexi perches for $10 which Tuna just loves. The boing was expensive at $25 for a small one and even that is too small for her cage so she doesnt use it much. Keep up with the training and just be around ur bird as much as you can.


----------



## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Hi Safwah,

Yes I am on the Gold Coast, small world, I will have to have a look down at the Bundall petbarn, I want to get my birds a boing, it is on my next perch to buy list, I do spend a lot of time with smudge he is in the Study but I spend a lot of time in the Study on the PC sending e-mails looking on Talkcockatiel, lol

Jenny


----------



## Safwah (Mar 3, 2010)

I wasnt until the end of the first week that my tiel started to really settle in and show her personality. Just takes patience.


----------



## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Hi Everyone, well what with Easter Smudge’s taming progress got left out last week, well we haven’t really had much more progress from when I last posted, the good news is Smudge has completed his quarantine process now, and I am happy he is perfectly fine, although I think I will still keep him separate from my other two hand reared baby’s until he is also tame, at the moment he is very interested in my other bird Coco who is also in Quarantine (about half way through now) and was hand reared, once Coco has passed quarantine I will move her into the same room with Tira and hopefully Smudge will then be more interested in me again.

I have had to clip Smudge’s wings again has he had adapted to his previous clip and was flying again a little too well for trying to tame him, he would keep flying over to Coco’s cage to see Coco, although Coco wasn’t really that interested in him, in fact he seemed to scare her a little, so with clippings his wings again I have stopped him from doing that, plus with quarantining them they shouldn’t really be in any form of contact with each other, although I am pretty sure there isn’t anything wrong with Coco.

i will report again when I have progress.
:
Jenny


----------



## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

Smudge is such a pretty bird...

I think with how far you were able to get with him at the beginning that there is LOTS of potential for a tame bird in the end. 

Yay for Smudge completing quarrantine


----------

