# Cockatiel Journey (not sure what to call the title)



## Darksonic22 (May 31, 2017)

My partner wanted a Cockatiel for a very long time after having one when she was younger so I took the plunge and got one from a pet shop. His name is Roach, named after the horse in The Witcher 3. He's a white and grey mix and fairly young. We've had him around 2 months I'd say now. When we first got him our first dog didn't like it so we had to move him into our room and our second dog loves him, Roach really doesn't mind either dog he is just chill with it. Anyway, he has started singing about 3 weeks ago, wolf whistles, some strange tune we have no idea where he got it from, he started singing along to The Sound of Silence by disturbed and seems to like metal, he will chirp along to it and what not. He also does this thing where he stretches his neck into the air and shakes his head with his beak open, not sure what that is, I'm an owl guy, not a small bird guy . 2 months in though he is quite nervous of hands and obviously at night when you go near the cage he will hiss and lunge but I think that is just fear really as I don't think he was hand reared at all and had no socialisation with people in the pet shop. I can feed him millet spray fairly close but he is fairly cautious about it, he calms down when you talk to him if he is alarmed, he does tend to alarm call around 9 am so I shut the window and curtains till lunch then he's fine with it. Millet, he is still cautious taking it and scared of hands still. Am I doing the right thing? I can imagine it will take a while to tame him but I just want to know if I am doing the right thing and see if there are other things I can do?

:wf cinnamon:


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## Janalee (Jul 25, 2012)

*journey*

It sounds to me as if you are doing great! It may take him a while to respond to hands, but he will come around. Something you can try if he's eating millet from your hand is to slowly gently lift up on the millet while he's eating. He'll have to stretch up to eat it and just may step up on your hand. The talking and whistling are normal for male birds; females do not mimic as much but will whistle. He may start to imitate words if you repeat them to him. Try something simple like "Pretty bird". (Yeah, I know every parrot says that, but it easy for them to learn!) Enjoy your new little friend. Having a cockatiel is indeed a great journey!


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## Darksonic22 (May 31, 2017)

Sorry I thought thought I had replied, I guess not. Yeah we love having him we've just been chilling with him and stuff. Problem is you put your hand near the cage when he's on his food bowl he hisses and lunges, I try to calmly tell him it's okay and he's being a silly boy but gently as a joke just to soothe him. It's been a few months and I hope we can get to the point of letting him out, I want him to be able to stretch his wings and explore a bit.


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## graybird (Apr 26, 2017)

Have you looked into stick training at all? It's where you use a short stick or perch to train them slowly to step up onto your hand. There might be resources about that on here somewhere or I could find some for you, though it probably isn't too hard to find on your own! 
Also, the head shaking + yawning thing -- he's probably popping his ears or adjusting his crop! It's silly but nothing to worry about


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## Darksonic22 (May 31, 2017)

I saw somewhere that due to him just being in the cafe it may cause issues? I'd let him out I'd love to but he's terrified of hands. He will take millet spray from me with hand close but if I put my hand to close he lunges and freaks out. I feel bad that he's stuck inside, we do talk a lot and listen to music and he does mimic us but hands are an issue.


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## Darksonic22 (May 31, 2017)

Would letting him out unclipped be a good idea? I don't want to clip his wings.


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## Darksonic22 (May 31, 2017)

Okay I let him out, tried stick training, he panicked, went on top of a wardrobe and started doing little happy chirps, I think he was loving it up there. Tried getting him with millet no luck he went on top of his cage. I then did what I do wth my owl but used stick to rub the back of his feet and he hopped on happily and let me put him away. I hope to god. Haven't screwed up bus littke but of trust


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## frozengirl (Nov 26, 2016)

Teach him to step up on a perch then you can let him out and return him with the perch until he is more comfortable with your hands  he sounds very sweet. He is young and will come around in time  feed him seeds and millet constantly from your hand while he's in the cage so he will get more used to your hand .i would attempt it at least 4 times a day. If he doesn't go near the hand for millet , try longer millet sticks, and look away from him. 

To get a flighted bird on a perch is usually easy. Hold the perch in front of them but a little higher then they are. They usually will step up to be higher, if he does not gently move it towards his belly.

In your first post, his head shake and neck stretch sounds like crop adjusting. It's normal , sort of looks like a yawn.

My cockatiel and former cockatiel both get grumpy when they are tired also, I think it's a cockatiel thing, because my budgies don't seem that way as much. Try covering the cage when it's his bed time , but make sure to leave the bottom of the cage with some light so that if he gets a night fright he can see where he is. A night fright is when a bird is startled, maybe from a nightmare, or a sound, and starts flying in their cage to get away from danger. If it's pitch black in the cage they will keep flying and hurt theirselves because they cannot see they are safe


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