# Question about flying and taming



## Yvese (Aug 4, 2011)

Hey guys. New here.

My parents got a cockatiel about two months ago and in that time we've been playing with it whenever we had time. We never really tried to tame it, but we do leave the cage open at all times and she always goes outside during the day. I'd say she's pretty comfortable with us now since when we first got her she would start flying around her cage in a panic whenever we accidentally wake her up from her sleep ( Usually all it took was a footstep in the other room >< ), but now she just opens her eyes and goes back to sleep.

My question is, can she learn to fly on her own? Whenever she tries to 'fly' ( Usually when she gets startled when I sneeze and she 'flies' from the top of her cage to the floor >< ), she would just float to the ground. She's only 5 months old so I don't think she was old enough to learn to fly from a trainer or her mother.

If she can learn to fly on her own eventually, I'd like to get her tamed and trust me before then so I wont have a nuisance flying all over my house. 

So far what I've been doing is trying to lure her to my fingers/hand with a cracker which she loves. She's still hesitant getting on my fingers/hand but she's getting there. I don't have a clicker or w/e I saw people use on youtube to train their cockatiel, but I always reward her when she gets on my hand to feed on the cracker. Is that good enough?

Also, I'm trying to get her comfortable with singing while I'm sitting next to her. Whenever I'm in the kitchen I would always hear her sing when she's alone in the room, but when I get close she would stop. I've been trying to make her more comfortable by playing youtube clips of cockatiels singing. So far it's gotten her to whistle a few times here and there. 

How would I go about with training her to be comfortable singing around me, and how can I teach her to sing a song?

Sorry for the long post. She's my first pet bird. My first pet was a dog I had when I was like 8 years old.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

welcome 

first, is she clipped? if so that would explain why she cant fly right (are her wing feathers cut)
second, if she really is a girl, she most likely will not whistle. males do that, and 5 months.... well thats an iffy age on telling the difference as usually they all look like females until their first molt around 6 months old. are her whistles just single noted or does it sound like a tune?

can you post a photo? we love photos!


also, note on the crackers, watch them... they have salt and salt in high amounts is NOT good for cockatiels. if you can, try spray millet. its healthier for her and most birds love it. but the method you are using is perfect for taming! keep it up! just buy unsalted crackers or spray millet


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## Yvese (Aug 4, 2011)

I'm not sure if she's clipped or not. My parents got her when she was 3 months old from a friend that had tiels and hatched her. I'll ask them if she was clipped. 

Also when she sings they are kind of broken tunes. Sometimes single notes. Other times just long and short whistles. I just learned that males are the singers so maybe my parents friend got her gender wrong? 

As for the crackers. Unfortunately they are salted. Fortunately though I've only been feeding them to her as treats for 2 days and only small bites. I'll stop now though and get millets like you suggested. Do you by chance have a link to a site I can order them from? I'm really new to this taming thing so I wouldn't know what millets to get if there are different kinds ><.

I wish I could post pics but it's 1:20am atm and she's sleeping lol.

Thanks!

EDIT: Just thought of another question. Am I supposed to shower them? I have a little bowl of water close to her food in her cage but it doesn't look like she uses it since it barely gets drained or moved, while the bowl with her food regularly gets emptied either by her eating it all, or her spilling the bowl over >_<


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

spray millet you can buy at most pet stores 
this is what it looks like. its often sold in a bag. birds LOVE it.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/images/Categoryimages/larger/lg_818500_12962D.jpg

you can tell by looking at the bird if the wings are clipped. are her wing feathers long or short? 

and you often cant tell gender right away with most mutations of cockatiels. what colour is she? what does she look like?


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## Yvese (Aug 4, 2011)

DallyTsuka said:


> spray millet you can buy at most pet stores
> this is what it looks like. its often sold in a bag. birds LOVE it.
> http://www.drsfostersmith.com/images/Categoryimages/larger/lg_818500_12962D.jpg
> 
> ...


She looks like this: http://www.cockatielsociety.org.au/141101.jpg except her beak is white-ish with a slight yellow

And I can't really tell if her wing feathers are long or short since I havn't seen a flying cockatiel in person ( Or another one period for that matter ). I'll try and post a picture tomorrow afternoon.

As for the millets, thanks! I'll definitely pick those up later when I get the chance.


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## Mentha (Jul 11, 2010)

If she is only 5 months old then she could be either gender. When you say yellow beak do you mean the feathers around the beak or the beak itself? If it's the feathers, it could be a male molting it's adult head colors in.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

ok to tell if a bird is clipped or not...

these are partially clipped, notice under the longer wing feathers the feathers are cut









and notice in this photo, the wings are completely short. this is a full clip









and these are of a non-clipped bird. notice they are long and not cut


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## Yvese (Aug 4, 2011)

Just wanted to update with some photos. I'm starting to think she is really a male since she/he likes to whistle a lot. Hopefully with these pics some of you can help me get an idea of her/his gender ><


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Adorable  if you look under the wings http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=18307


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

that is a TERRIBLE clip! you cant even look at the secondaries for the wing spots.... 

she has no wing flights, thats a very dangerous clip, no wonder she is falling to the ground  you will have to wait a long while for those feathers to grow back next molt, which should start soon, but that will take awhile to get them all back in

its not your fault though, so please do not think im accusing you of anything


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## MyCricket (Aug 11, 2011)

I have a quick question, my birdie got his wings clipped today and his wings look like the pictures (where there are no more long feathers on the wings) but he can still fly! He was flying around my room when he escaped not too long ago...


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

sounds like a semi-clip. some birds can still fly with a clip. are both wings clipped? if not, clip the other one, that would be a very dangerous clip.


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