# Found cockatiel



## diverdebs (Sep 9, 2009)

Hi! About 3 weeks ago, my husand and I were walking near our house (in the british virgin islands) and to our disbelief we saw a cocktiel waddling down the road, singing its heart out! There are lots of cats around so we decided to try and catch it and bring it home so we could look for the owner (no luck at all after 3 weeks! - We think it may have been blown here with hurricane bill so we have called it Bill!) It must have been tame at one point as I was able to get close enough to grab it and bring it home. Cant have been a nice experience which I am sure has contributed to it being afraid of us! But what else could I do? anyway - it now has a HUGE cage and though still wont let us near, seems happy enough. BUT after 3 weeks we have made no progress in trying to get it to trust us. When I bought the cage (day after we got her) I also got a small budgy mirror - to cut a long story short, Bill is obsessed wit the mirror and if I move it to the other side of the cage it follows. Bill stands in front of it mostof the day and perches with his beak touching at night. I know it finds comfort thinking there is another bird there. we are not in a position to get another cocktiel - we are on an island and there are no bird shops here! anyway - I took the mirror out this morning as I realised perhaps was not healthy for it to get too attahced the mirror - plus perhaps that is what is making it so diffcult to get it to bond with us??? He flipped out whistling and extending his wings and now is sitting there whistling away. Should i put the mirror back? Or see how it goes without the mirror? Maybe just put the mirror in at night and when we are out? We have 2 big dogs so always leave the radio on while we're not there. any tips from bird owners would be very helpful! We are virgin cocktiel owners! I just want him to be our friend and hang out with us! I also thought abut letting him go (his wings are not clipped) but I fear he will just die / get eaten by a cat etc? help!


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

Shame you didn't find the owners, but so long as he's safe and sound that's all that matters. 

There's different opinions on mirrors, most say it causes cage agression and others have different opinions. I would try leaving the mirror out of the cage and see how training goes without it - see if it makes any difference. Just remember, time and patience, some take a lot longer then others to tame down, some take days, some months, even years. But seeming he was probably semi-tame before it shouldn't be too difficult to fully tame him again.

Also, can you get millet? or even sunflower seeds? they work a beaut when it comes to training, food is the best bribery. 

Good luck and let us know how you go. Also, make sure you keep training sessions short, meaning no more then 30 mins a day.


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## diverdebs (Sep 9, 2009)

There are sunflower seeds in his food - he doesnt seem that interested. Didnt even like the monkey nut I put in there. But, he LOVEs "gourmet finch food" which he goes crazy for (little seeds). What is considered a food treat for a cockatiel? What kind if veggies? What is irrisistable? I bought the stciky food thing you can hang in their cage and he LOVES it but doesnt last very long. Should I only feed him a little at a time? Make him hungry so he'll come to me for treats? His food bowl is always full to the brim right now? I have but a bunch of small straight branches in the cage so he loads of room to shimmy around and fly. The cage is a friends old cage - its 5 foot high and about 3 foot wide!!! Bar spacing is slightly more than reccommended - but is the best I can do right now. The only cage I could find on island was so tiny his tail feathers stuck out the end! Thansk for any advice you can give.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

You can use the mirror to bribe him into being your friend. Hold it in your hand and let him look at it that way, and eventually use it to lure him into stepping up onto your hand and doing other brave things.

It's good to give him plenty of food in the cage, especially since he may have been deprived while he was out in the wild. If there's any special item that he's especially fond of (like that gourmet finch food) you can save that as a special treat for when he's interacting with you, instead of putting it in the cage to eat whenever he feels like it. 

Many cockatiels think millet spray is irresistable:


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## allen (Aug 25, 2007)

i,m just glad you were able to cath him most would just fly away be patient when training


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## Di_dee1 (Feb 20, 2009)

Some birds are obsessed with mirrors, some can take them or leave them. My two, one is afraid of it, the other sometimes plays with it but my son's bird is like yours. It was taken out and he was much easier to bond with.

My completed journal on feeding in the nutrition thread may give you some ideas to try with food. It can take a lot of patience and consistency.

3 weeks in bird time is not long. He is still getting used to new surroundings in the new scary place.

There are many great books to help you with training (I buy on line) I can totally recommend the parrot problem solver by Barbara Heidenrich.


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