# Taming Two Cockatiel Mates



## claypokemon (Sep 5, 2017)

Hi there, first time poster desperate for some advice.

Like most people I didn't do enough research before getting my birds. Me and my boyfriend really wanted a cockatiel, since his grand mother had one that was very friendly, we spend months waiting for someone to sell them as we had no pet shop or rescue centres close to us, and then we saw a post of two with a cage for a very good price. BUT they were mates and probably there only interaction to humans was of them taking there baby bird away.

I simply didn't ask the enough questions, as all the taming videos online seemed to make it look very simple, and I had no idea that the birds being partners would make it a million times harder for them to be tamed. I had no idea I was buying them from breeders who only used them so they could get a baby bird to hand tame from birth inside. while the parents stayed outside in a shed in a small cage.

But anyway, I got them when they where about a year and a half old and I've had them for about 9 or 10 months and progress has been VERY slow. They got a nice big cage, lots of toys, they both play and sing, they're out the cage every single day and fly too. And they're gorgeous.

But still no progress with being able to pet or stand on my finger. And I'm worried that I will never be able to touch them which would be very disappointing. I start by putting my hand on the cage and tried to keep to a schedule but it never worked out I found it better to just do a bit when ever I can everyday. I make sure not to stare directly at them. I've now began holding mullet up to them and most of the time they'll eat it, I've tried holding it in a way that makes them have to get quite close to my hand, and even if they accidentally touch me they'll get startled and immediately move away. They never freak out and fly around the room, they're thankfully very comfortable out of the cage. But I seem to only be able to feed them mullet and nothing else. And I've been doing so for a very long time and they just don't seem to want to bond any further with me. Is there any hope? I was so disappointed I even researched flooding or separating them but that just seems far too cruel.

Thank you very much for reading and any advice would really be appreciated.


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## albinosilver (Aug 26, 2017)

Untamed bonded pairs can be incredibly hard to tame. It is possible, but you may have to face that they will never be as tame as you want them to be. People usually sell these pairs for breeding purposes only. You can probably tame them to perch on your finger but they may not ever allow/enjoy you touching them. It is also much harder to tame adult birds. Separating them may help individual training but I feel like it is too traumatizing and is like forcing the training on them.

I recently brought home a completely untamed 3 month old bird. She wanted nothing to do with me but bonded really quickly with my 1 year old tame bird. I feel like she learns a lot from him. She'll eat what he eats and follow him where he goes. It's only been 1 week and she'll already eat from my hand and step up on my finger.


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