# Feeling defeated with finger-aggressive tiels



## flyfightwinetc (Mar 13, 2013)

Hi all!
I joined not too long ago, but I've since acquired another bird. This is gonna be a little tl;dr but I'm desperate.

I have two tiels I brought home who had been sitting at a local pet shop in a tiny cage for upwards of nine months, so it was understandable that they were aggressive, skittish, bit like crazy and were generally afraid of everything. I feel like my husband and I have made some progress with them since we got them almost six months ago. They don't bite hard anymore, they're pretty much silent, they love their toys and if they're out of their cage, they usually let me scoop them up. Since they've learned they can coast back to their cage from anywhere on the first floor of the apartment, they don't want anything to do with us if we take them out, and if they're hanging out outside of their cage and see us coming to pick them up, they run back in and climb up a wall. 

I'm saying this because I just rescued a male Lutino from the SPCA which I volunteer at, and he's a whole different ballgame. For starters, after he got acquainted with my other two, I now know they're females, to put it bluntly, haha. He wasted no time turning my reserved birds into displaying maniacs. I'm keeping them separated most of the time for now.

The male is so cheerful and cute. He was exposed to tons of other birds and saw people daily. He whistles back at me and shakes his toys around, and when I managed to get him out of the cage, he likes to play with any of my jewelry and tug at my hair. I've just never seen a bird so... bitey. He yanked my earring out of my ear and I went to put it back in and he attacked my hand so violently it was bleeding in several places. He just keeps going, too, and will keep attacking and not give up. It hurts so much, but I know better than to throw him or bop him or scream and flail, so I try to stay calm but the only thing that seems to get him to let up is if I blow air on the finger he's attacking, which probably isn't very good for trust-gaining, either.

All three of my birds attack my fingers, even the ones I've had for half a year. I don't know what kind of trust-building activities I can do with them. They eat millet out of my hand, but the second they see a moving finger, I've got a new bruise. They don't step up (I have to transfer them around forearm-to-forearm, and even then I usually get bit). I'd basically just like to be a better bird owner, but it seems like I didn't start with the most cooperative of birds, haha. I scour the internet for information about everything cockatiel, but it seems like it's of the philosophy that within a short while you should be able to get your birds to step up and hang out with you, but so far that hasn't been the case. Trust takes time, I know, but it seems like I'm not doing all I could be to earn it.

I'm off to find more threads on this topic, but if anybody has any insight, I would be SO grateful! It's not a fun feeling to be so strongly rejected by an animal, ha.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Sounds like the new male is hormonal and you can curb that. See here: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=32330

For the other two birds try this training method, its for aggressive/skittish birds: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=33824

And remember to go at their pace. Are they clipped? Clipping does make training slightly easier and the wings DO grow back, but that is a totally personal choice on your part. Good Luck!


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## sunnysmom (Sep 23, 2011)

My tiel doesn't do the traditional "step up". I keep my hand flat and he steps on the back of my hand. It seems to work well for us. I read an article once that was very against the normal step up, putting your finger against their belly, etc. It kind of made sense to me that a tiel wouldn't like it. Anyway, it may be worth trying. Sunny just walks on my hand and it avoids the scary fingers.


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## wandalee (Feb 17, 2013)

I got my 1st tiel in Feb at 10 weeks old.. he learned step up no worries, but he is still scared of my fingers. About a month ago we got to the stage where he would stand on my chest and let me rub his head with my chin.. We have just now progressed to me sneaking my finger under my chin and giving him head head scratches with my hand. He still sometimes freaks out when he realizes its my finger, but not as much as he did in the start and he will just give a little nibble and tell me off lol.. not bite really hard. Its a time consuming process!! He's my first bird, so I was a bit discouraged originally by how long everything takes, but we are slowly but surely getting there.

If yours will happily sit under your chin, maybe give rubbing his head a try in the hope of progressing to your finger? I guess you just have to keep at it, slowly but surely and hopefully it works out for you! Good luck


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