# Help with new young bird



## grumblebum (Sep 25, 2009)

Hi there, i recently bought home a young yellow male tiel. I got him from a breeder and he is a picture of perfect health. However, he is not hand tame at all and is extremely skittish and aggressive. My first tiel was already hand tame when i got him so training was easy. Ive had this one home for three days, the first day in a quiet room of the house with a cover over 3 sides, and the second day hung him up under the patio with a cover so he could talk to my tiel. Ive been approaching the cage slowly and keeping a bit of a distance and just talking softly to him, he flaps down to the bottom of the cage and sits there and hisses at me and shows off his chomper. 

he is fully feathered, eating seeds and from what the breeder told me, a few weeks out of the nest.

Am i on the right track here? Any tips for training and bonding with a skittish aggressive bird would be greatly appreciated.


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## RallyNugget (Oct 20, 2009)

Congrats on your new friend! In time he will learn to trust you and will eventually bond with you. Here's my tip sheet I have created that I recommend you trying to help your tiel get closer to you.

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Tips For Taming Your Bird​
- Are his wings clipped? This will make your tiel a lot more dependent on you, and usually helps training go by a lot quicker. It is also a lot safer for the bird. Clipping a birds wings does not completely take the birds ability to fly away completely; they can still glide if the need to (without any kind of flight, the bird risks injury due to the lack of the ability to properly land, damaging or even breaking bones, usually their chest or legs). Your avian vet should do it for a very small fee, or sometimes even free. 
- Spend as much time next to his cage talking to him every day as you can. Soon enough he will get used to you and won't flee at your presence.
- Once you feel he is calm enough with you around his cage, now is when I would start opening the cage door and trying to get him to "step up". Don't rush him, as this will only deplete the trust you have gained with him. Try offering pieces of food; he will associate your hand with the goodies and will be waiting for it to come again!
- When he is comfortable with taking food from your hand, start to challenge him a little, making it so that in order to get to if he has to step onto your hand. Place food in your palm and make it so he has to walk onto you. This may take awhile for him to get used to, but once he's fearless of stepping up on you, command training will be a breeze.
- Now that he's used to your hand completely, start command training by putting your finger on his lower chest (and gently give a little push) and say something you want your tiel to lean. The most common and advised phrase is "step up". If he doesn't; don't worry, things take a few tries. When he does get it right praise him and give him a treat. You could also probably start scritching his head and ears too.

Remember, this won't happen within a few days. Some tiels learn faster than others, and it's not uncommon for this to take a month or two (or more) before trust is established.

_© 2009 RallyNugget; do not copy or alter without permission._
_Have doubts on any of the information or want to suggest something? Please let RallyNugget know!_

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On another note, is your tiels diet made up entirely of seeds? Seeds are actually very bad for birds if they are the mane staple. They are very high in fatty acids, and if they make up a large portion of your tiels diet, you will likely end up with a tiel with fatty liver disease.

Hope your training goes well, keep us updated and post lots of pics of your boy =]


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

One of the first things you must establish in your relationship with your Cockatiel is that_ you are the boss, the bird is not_. You also cannot react when your bird bites or screams at you. If you let the bird think it's the boss, you've already lost the Cockatiel training war.

Consistency and patience are required when Cockatiel training. Just as your Cockatiel didn't learn these habits overnight, they are not going to be trained out of them overnight either. In fact, be prepared to spend several days to a couple of weeks training your bird.

Routines are important when training your Cockatiel. In fact, set a routine for when you remove the cover from your bird's cage, when you having training sessions, and specific times that the bird is allowed out of its cage once training and behavior issues are no longer a problem. Repetition is the name of the game if you want to be successful at Cockatiel training.

How do you establish the routine? Start working with your Cockatiel daily for at least 15 minutes each time, two to three times each day. Make sure that you include them in your day even when you aren't actively training them. Talk to them first the first thing you walk into the room.

If they are able, let them out of the cage so that they can be a part of the family's daily life. They are social animals, so they will enjoy the opportunity to go with you into different rooms and just be with you. Don't forget that they are still wild creatures at heart. They need freedom to roam, and allowing them out of their cage will give them this freedom.

Let your feathered friend know what's going on. Give it a consistent cue when you leave the room for a few minutes, and a different one when you plan to be gone for a while. Tell your bird, each time you leave the room, "I'll be right back." Use a different cue, such as "Be good today" when you're leaving for several hours or for the day.

Remember this important point when Cockatiel training, you can't give up. You may have some setbacks before you have success, but you must persevere. Stay focused on the goal of training your bird.


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