# Adopted tiels are vicious blood thirsty predators... and I'm the prey!!!



## Rift_Lakes_Rule (Mar 21, 2010)

Hi everyone, I'm new to birds and adopted a couple tiels Friday. I was told they are about a year old and are 1m/1fm. The underside of the tail feathers are dark on both birds, no banding. I'll get some pictures of them up real soon. 

I had read online to get a bird out of the cage, wrap it in a towel and try to get it to calm down by talking softly to it so I tried it... being that these guys are pretty big, they can bite pretty hard  I finally got the bird wrapped up in the towel but not before I was bleeding from several fingers :wacko: I did get them to calm down a bit and the 2nd one finally let me pet it's head after I convinced him my finger couldn't feel his bites (which obviously wasn't the case but I hung in there). I've gotta get some spray millet, I had a bag of it for a parakeet we've got but of course the bag is empty. :blush: 

I don't know what method I should use to try to get them to warm up to me. Not really sure I liked the towel treatment. I've been spending time with them and telling them how pretty they are and how we're friends. "Lucky" the parakeet has also been trying to make friends with them, she flies over and sits atop their cage looking down on them. She gets jealous when I'm sitting by the tiels cage. I don't have a clicker and not sure that I want to have to make a clicking noise everytime I want them to come to me. I watched a video showing how to use a chop stick and treats but there was also a clicker used. 

Let me know what you think, I have no clue what I'm doing  I'm a fish person, but my interest in birds is rising. 

Thanks in advance


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## kab0116 (Mar 17, 2010)

Wow, that sounds rough. Are they hand trained at all? You may have to start with that before really trying to handle them. I've never heard of the towel treatment before but I imagine that might just make them more afraid of you.


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## Rift_Lakes_Rule (Mar 21, 2010)

I'm going to say they haven't been had trained at all but I don't know that for sure. If they've had any kind of training, my guess would be it was Attack Dog Training :lol:


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## pheonixae (Mar 21, 2010)

let me know how it goes i have tried to get my adopted bird out of attack mode for 4 years. He has just gotten crankier with a couple of cool new tunes and tricks that i managed to teach him I am at a loss.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

No towel treatments please, they're psychologically unhealthy for the bird. Toweling teaches the bird that it may as well stop fighting because its helpless to stop you from doing what you want.

Using food bribery to change their attitude is a better technique. Drop a nice treat that isn't too big into the cage every time you approach, and make sure they see you doing it. They'll start to look forward to your arrival. When you think you're ready for it, start offering treats that you're holding in your hand. Something long like millet spray so you can keep your hand out of biting range, or something that you can offer through the cage bars without being bitten.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

I agree no towel, the only towel Spike sees is when he gets a nail trim. I would also towel him if he was not getting in his carrier fast and there was an emergency and we had to leave the house. Here is a interesting video about taming your tiel that might help  http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-magazines/bird-talk/2009-june/taming-of-tiel.aspx


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## Rift_Lakes_Rule (Mar 21, 2010)

I wasn't to impressed with the towel treatment either, that's when I decided it was time to get on a bird forum and get some other ideas. I had also read that they like either fruit or veggies... is this true and if so what would be a good treat for them. I'll pick up a big bag of millet spray tomorrow a well as a few things for the cage. I'm thinking some new toy's might be appreciated as well.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Tiels can eat fruit and veggies but make sure they are on a bird safe list before feeding them. Fruits have more sugar so I give Spike more veggies his favourites are peas and brocolli  New toys are always great  Don't forget that different sized/types of perches are best for their feet aswell


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## Rift_Lakes_Rule (Mar 21, 2010)

Figured I'd update ya, I've got them eating millet spray while I'm holding it. They'll even take a couple steps towards me to eat it. I gradually moved my hand higher and higher up on the millet spray until there was only maybe 2 inches of it showing and they would still come eat it. They were very cautious about approaching each time, but in the end they were eating right next to my fingers so I think that's a good bit of progress. Last time they got that close to my fingers I was bleeding in several places. 

I'll try to get pictures of them tomorrow


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

Well you just need to be patient with them. Taming an animal is no easy task and will not happen overnight. It takes weeks to months for them to trust you. Good for you for realizing the towel treatment doesn't work lol.

But with the millet thing you're on the right track. After a couple more weeks and they're used to eating millet from your hand, start making them work for the food instead of you just offering it to them. Make them come to you for it, and even making them crawl over your hand to get to it. That trick worked for me with my 2 birds I got about 3 months ago. They weren't tame at all and would freak out if my hands came near them lol. 

But yeah just keep being patient, they will warm up to you. Just takes time


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## heatheri004 (Aug 10, 2009)

After my grandmother died some time ago, I took in her 10+ year old cockatiel. All I knew was he was cage bound, and I basically knew NOTHING about birds then. I was determined to make him a good pet bird though. I did sort of the same method you described with the millet. The front of his cage was a door that fell open like a ledge where he could come out on. For a while, I would leave that open wherever I went to watch tv or play on the computer, just to see what he would do. Eventually, he started venturing out and checking out the ledge. I started putting millet on there because that was his all time favorite treat. Soon enough, when he came out, he started to come to my finger and step up. Granted, he never let me really cuddle with him like my tiels now do, he made great progress. For a bird of that age to learn to trust me was huge to me. Sadly, Pretty Boy passed on when he had a stroke about 3 years ago. All I can say was, I tried to give him some time with me and be his friend.


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## Birdlette (Feb 25, 2009)

Just hangin' out next to the cage, reading to them, talking, eating, working on computer helps too...If you pull a chair up to the cage with your back to the cage and sit in it and read out loud(phone book, poetry, whatever!) they will get used to you being there and more comfortable. Eventually they will come over to investigate... Mine found a bowl of cereal irresistable! They got so they would come out and share rice krispies with me in the morning(more food bribery)


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## Rift_Lakes_Rule (Mar 21, 2010)

Thanks for the encouragement  I'm really surprised at how differently they're acting now that they now I got TREATS!!!! 

Here's the pictures


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## heatheri004 (Aug 10, 2009)

sooo cute! I love normal grays!


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## cinnamon (Jul 16, 2009)

Such pretty birds! I watched the clicker video also. I thought why not just click my tongue when using the method they used. It works! I don't need to use this any more but hey it was a free click! Also you want to check the cage for rust spots. Not safe for the birdies. Time for cage shopping? I love cage shopping! If you decide to get a new one spend some time online looking and comparing sizes types and prices. Good luck to you!


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## barb2birds (Mar 23, 2010)

Please don't grab the birds with a towel. They are terrified by this. You need to slowly train them to trust your hands. YOu need much patience. Imagine if you were being picked up in a towel how terrified you would be. Make sure you put them on organic cockatiel pellets, fresh fruits and veggies. Yes you must read the safe fruit and veggie lists for cockatiels. I will tell you Avacodo, onion, fruit seeds, chocolate are *poisonous* to them and more! Please look it up.


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## barb2birds (Mar 23, 2010)

Oh I am so glad you are doing better with them. Very pretty cockatiels  They will warm up to you. You know my birds like to look at Bird Talk magazine. They love to look at cockatiel pictures the best. Then they will look behind the magazine for the bird. They love baby talk all day long.


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## spraymillet (Mar 2, 2010)

If you've ever taken a psychology class, you'd learn that the strongest method of altering a being's behavior is by positive reinforcement. PR is when you give a reward for a behavior that is desirable. The reward can be praise or, more strongly (especially at first), food. The desirable behavior is anything you catch the bird doing that you like and immediately (within 1-2 seconds) reward. As seconds slip away the behavior-reward connection fades away and the bird will not associate the two. There is also negative reinforcement, which is to reinforce a behavior by removing an unpleasant stimuli. For instance, if a bird is afraid of the new toy you've put in his cage and is shrieking, you can take away the toy and if you do this sort of thing enough the bird will realize that shrieking will consistently give him a relief from whatever he dislikes. Or, more dangerously, if you try to handle your bird and it bites you and you remove your hand, the bird learns he can get rid of the undesirable action by the biting response. NR is not as strong as PR. Then there's punishment, which is to respond to a behavior that is undesirable with an undesirable response. So if your bird is shrieking and you don't know why, and you cover his cage, you are doing something he doesn't like and he learns to avoid it by avoiding the behavior that causes your response. This is usually a pretty weak and undesirable method, especially with animals, because unlike humans, they cannot connect their actions with a response beyond a few seconds, so unless the punishment is 1. severe enough 2. quick enough and 3. consistent enough, it will just cause confusion and stress to your animal... it is best to use positive reinforcement. 

First wait til you have gained the trust of your birds, which will take a while- maybe months. There are many posts here about how to do that, but in general you want to spend a lot of time near them, not directly staring, and stay in a calm and soothing mood and talk to them often. They will learn you are not going to hurt them and it will make PR training more effective.

Also, a clicker is something VERY much effective to use for training. It associates the desirable behavior with the food reward much quicker; look up the Pavlov's dog experiments if you'd like to understand more about how it works, along with some of the many articles about clicker training on the internet. You can use a clicky pen if you can't find a clicker.


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