# Young or scared vol 2



## Okas (Jan 21, 2011)

My tiel has been with me for a little more then a month and I was worried at the start and I wrote a topic here with the title "Young or scared?"

And I would say that her behavior has changes some bit.

She eats nicely and everything, even thou she doesn't eat her veggies as she is supposed to, only if I poke around in the veggies or fruits, then she eats them.

She is a lot more vocal then before, now there are many things that she screams back to. Some music that has high tones in it, ambulance sirens (like before), me whistling loud.
She also does this....not really whistling sound,,,but she seems to be falling asleep or,,,relaxing on her one leg and then she talks to herself or something.. It is not whistles,,,it is more like "prrr prr prr prrr" hehehe..

I have kept spraying her with water mist, she doesn't seem to be a fan of it still...and even less a fan of water in her cage (inside a flat bowl). Only once she started washing/catching water by spreading her wings, while I was spraying water on her,,,other times she just stands there and gets soaking wet...

Ok, enough of the "positive" things and time to tell the other side of the story.

First. She has half of her tail feathers now. She has broken (not blood feathers) a lot of them (half exactly) since we first got her. By climbing around her cage, or especially while she is coming down from higher spots,,,her tail gets between a bar and just goes backwards and it tends to break. It is weird,,,she is very clumsy overall...walking on the table and walks over the edge...without looking where she steps, same goes inside the cage. Trying to jump from one bench to something else and she misses it.

Second. When cockatiels are alone (without a 2nd cockatiel) do they bind themselves only to 1 person or can it be 2 also? Because she so far is "nice" only with me and doesn't really give much love to others or for my partner. I am aware that the more time a person spends with them, the more they bond with that person. But still, is there even the chance that they would be same with a 2nd person the same way like with me?

Third. Like I said before, in my 1st post, that she only does really things when she can see me or is close to me (except sleeping, I guess, that's what she does on her own). For example: she starts to preen herself (while I am in sight) and when I go to a different room, she stops doing it and is there standing idle. When I come back, she continues. This "rule" applies to 99% of her actions. Is that normal? Well I guess it is,,,but of course I would love her to do things a bit more on her own also. I don't want her to be bored or depressed just because I went to a different room. Could it change in the future?

Fourth. Lately now, she has gotten more used with everything and while I am with her she wants to explore and everything, as long as she can see me or knows I am near.
Anyways. Then thing is. I don't want her to walk around all the time, every day I wake up. I want her to stay in her cage at some times, do her things (eat, preen, sleep, etc) and then at some point I let her out and make her walk around or whatever.
But the problem is. When I uncover her cage (then she is still a bit sleepy etc) and IF I don't open the cage, for her to get out, she will go CRAZY.
She starts to screech and run in circles, up and down the cage, trying to stick her head between the bars. Totally being like a headless chicken. It is very frustrating to see that. She doesn't do that when she can not see me, then she just sits there somewhere and isn't going nuts.
What is that? is she so desperate to come to me? What should I do? I don't want to spoil her that every time she makes a screech then I let her out and caress her.
Should I put her away, so she can't see me and wont go crazy, when I don't want her to walk around freely?
Or should I ignore her crazy behavior and make her see that going mad doesn't help her to get what she wants...?


And I would like to start training her a bit (not to make her do some fancy tricks, play dead or something). Just to make her more tame and calmer.
I have read all types of suggestions how to do it, but they explain it too technically. A la "Make her do this and give her a treat". Well I know all that, even my wife "trains" me with food and it works, so I know it works on cockatiels also ("Hey honey, you want to go visit blablabla?" ME:"I don't know if I want to :S", SHE: "There is good food! You sure you don't want to?" <---- well it works every time.

So basically I would love to hear few basic ways or sessions that I could do with her to get her into being more tame. 
Maybe putting my finger in front of her and telling "UP" and once she steps up , i'll give her a treat?

Anyways, thanks for reading it all and thanks for replies in advance


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> First. She has half of her tail feathers now.


Baby cockatiels are clumsy and tend to break their tailfeathers. She'll probably do better when she's older. 



> Second. When cockatiels are alone (without a 2nd cockatiel) do they bind themselves only to 1 person or can it be 2 also?


They can bond with more than one person. But if one person spends a lot more time with her then she's likely to have a much stronger bond with that person.



> Third. Like I said before, in my 1st post, that she only does really things when she can see me or is close to me


Maybe she's still nervous and feels more relaxed when you're in the room. Many tiels need a couple of months to really settle down in a new home. You are her flock and birds feel safer with the flock than they do alone. It's likely that she'll eventually relax enough to do things when you're not in the room.



> But the problem is. When I uncover her cage (then she is still a bit sleepy etc) and IF I don't open the cage, for her to get out, she will go CRAZY.


The solution is to never let her out when she's going crazy. Instead, don't pay any attention to her while she's doing this but keep half an eye on her so you know when she calms down. THEN let her out of the cage. It's important to be consistent with this because if you give in sometimes it's like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine to her. When you first start doing this it might make her behave worse at first so you have to be tough.



> Maybe putting my finger in front of her and telling "UP" and once she steps up , i'll give her a treat?


Is she willing to step up on your finger now at least part of the time? If she is then you can do this. If she won't step up at all right now then you have to start at an easier level, for example showing her your outstretched finger at a distance that doesn't scare her, give her a treat, then gradually move your finger closer until you can start working on actual step ups.

Does she already accept treats from you? If she doesn't, you'll need to teach that before you start teaching anything else.


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## Okas (Jan 21, 2011)

*reply*



> > Third. Like I said before, in my 1st post, that she only does really things when she can see me or is close to me
> 
> 
> -Maybe she's still nervous and feels more relaxed when you're in the room. Many tiels need a couple of months to really settle down in a new home. You are her flock and birds feel safer with the flock than they do alone. It's likely that she'll eventually relax enough to do things when you're not in the room.


Now that she is getting more used with her environment, step by step, it is good to see that she is exploring a bit on her own (but still only when I am close)

The thing now is (those last few days)
Her behavior has changed a lot. She is Very aggressive towards me and wants to bite all the time (only those 2 last days).
Right now I am thinking that it might have something to do with 2 things (not sure)
1st: Before those two days, it was exactly the time when she started "going crazy" inside her cage when I didn't let her out and she never before that did that crazy stuff.
2nd: I have been trying to change her diet those last few days also, insisting on more fruits/veggies/pellets and less seeds.

So she has been very aggressive and "mean" those days. It seems like she only would want to starve and not eat any veggi or fruit.



> > But the problem is. When I uncover her cage (then she is still a bit sleepy etc) and IF I don't open the cage, for her to get out, she will go CRAZY.
> 
> 
> The solution is to never let her out when she's going crazy. Instead, don't pay any attention to her while she's doing this but keep half an eye on her so you know when she calms down. THEN let her out of the cage. It's important to be consistent with this because if you give in sometimes it's like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine to her. When you first start doing this it might make her behave worse at first so you have to be tough.


Yes I knew that, any feedback I give her when she does something stupid just makes her do it even more. No matter if it is positive or negative feedback. I just stayed quiet and didn't go to her cage (only once because she got cough with her wing...inside the bars. She was sticking one wing trough the bars and couldn't take it out anymore) At that point I got upset at her and was desperate that she is doing all that for nothing. She was being crazy for 2 or 3 hours at least.



> Maybe putting my finger in front of her and telling "UP" and once she steps up , i'll give her a treat?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


She is willing to step up sometimes. And I have been trying to motivate her to do it naturally and get a treat, but she isn't very good at it yet, because she doesn't really understand that she will earn a treat when she does that. But if I keep going, I am sure she will get the trick.
Second part to this stepping up on my finger thing. Do I have to give her every single time a treat when she steps up? and later in the future, if she has mastered stepping up on the finger. Do I have to give a treat also then? Because I have seen people putting their finger countless of times for the bird and the bird steps up without problems and NOT getting any treat after.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> I have been trying to change her diet those last few days also, insisting on more fruits/veggies/pellets and less seeds. So she has been very aggressive and "mean" those days. It seems like she only would want to starve and not eat any veggi or fruit.


GIVE HER MORE SEEDS RIGHT AWAY! It sound like she might REALLY be starving and that's why she's acting crazy. If she isn't eating the other stuff it means that she doesn't realize it's food, and birds have literally starved to death when their well-meaning owner tried to forcibly convert them to a better diet. It takes time and patience to convert a bird to a better diet, and trying to do it fast can have disastrous results. There's more info on my website at http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.org/info/nutrition-conversion.html

If you're in the US or Canada you can go to the Lafeber website at http://www.lafebercares.com/contact.html and request free samples of cockatiel Nutriberries. Nutriberries are nutritionally equivalent to pellets but they look like seed balls, and most cockatiels LOVE them.

As for the training stuff: she's still getting used to you. She'll eventually learn to step up automatically. You can use the treat to lure her into stepping onto your hand.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Try placing the pellets in front of a mirror, she will notice the "other" tiel with the pellets and possibly try them.


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