# Taming a pair



## siusaidh79 (Jan 11, 2017)

Hi Everyone.
My partner surprised me with a birthday gift of 2 cocktatiels almost 2 months ago. ied:ied: I've kept budgies before but never cockatiels. The pet shop told him they were around a year old (one male, one female), but I'm unsure as to whether this is normal for cockatiels. I'm sure when I've had budgies before they have always been babies and have been pretty easy to hand-train.

Other than putting in food, etc we let them get used to their surroundings for a few weeks but since been trying to hand-tame them. They are still pretty scared. I have got as far as being able to hold a seed bell near them and they have had a peck of it, which is a great improvement on when I first got them, but it seems to have plateaued. They are nowhere near being able to stroke them.

The female (named Puffin) does her little puffing noise when she is alarmed (male doesn't do it). Does anyone have any hints /tips/general timescales when training 2 birds? Female is much more adventurous when it comes to toys, male seems content to hit a bell every so often but seems happier when singing and eating! First post on here and still trying to get the hang of it.

Thanks in advance.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Welcome to the forum! There are a ton of suggestions in our sticky library.

To start off, I'd check out these:
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=22073
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=28661
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=33824

Millet is a great taming treat and really easy to get them to get closer to you!


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## SilverSage (Oct 19, 2014)

In general you do all the things you do with a single bird. One thing I would mention is that a lot of people give the advice that you should separate the pair in order to work with them, and/or take them in different rooms to spend time with them. Having worked with many pairs, I say that is BAD ADVICE. Not only to birds learn by example (your female may inspire your male to bravery) but if you insist on working with them alone you are automatically setting yourself up as something unpleasant; the person who take them away from their mate. So what you do, do while they are together. In my experience this is much more effective. 


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## siusaidh79 (Jan 11, 2017)

Thank you very much for the info 
I also have a question about claws....female's front claws are far longer than male's even though they are in same cage and have same perch covers, cuttlefish etc. I think they will need trimmed soon - any pointers on that? I've never had to trim them (on a bird) before. Do I need to post this on a separate forum?


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## SilverSage (Oct 19, 2014)

You can get them trimmed at a vet or do it yourself; I suggest waiting though until you have a strong bond, or else having someone else do it.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Since they aren't tame it will be harder to trim the nails than if they were tame. You'll have to towel them to keep them from biting. Most vets can trim the nails for you (I'd call and ask before heading in, there are only three of us at my vet that can do it as we don't normally work with birds) but again you would have to catch the tiel to put in a carrier and going to the vet is very stressful in itself. As long as the nails aren't curling in and cutting the tiel's foot, I'd really hold off on doing this until they are more comfortable with you.


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## siusaidh79 (Jan 11, 2017)

Ok thank you I'll keep an eye on them and persevere with the taming


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