# Will it be easy to bond with two Cockatiels at the same time?



## bobby1963 (Dec 31, 2013)

I will be bringing my two new babies home soon. They have different parents and are about 10 days apart in age. They have been hand fed and lived together since the beginning. My breeder (Misfit Aviary) spends lots of time interacting with them.

Since they will be coming home together and are very familiar with each other does anyone have any thoughts on how easily they will both bond with me? Their play area I built is right on my desk and they will spend the majority of their day right there with me. I am disabled so will be with them most of the time.

Any thoughts or tips will be so very appreciated. :wf cinnamon:


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Separate training times in a different room away from each other and the cage would be best. They are gonna need one on one time to bond with you, otherwise they'll bond with each other instead.


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## eduardo (Jan 27, 2012)

I am not a fan of separating birds like that and training them in different rooms. I believe that with time, and you spending so much time with them in the same room, they will accept you as part of their flock. Especially since the breeder is already working with them, they should be well used to humans.


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## moonchild (Jul 29, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> Separate training times in a different room away from each other and the cage would be best. They are gonna need one on one time to bond with you, otherwise they'll bond with each other instead.


Not necessarily. If they were hand-raised and human socialized, and you spend lots of time with them, you'll probably be able to bond with them (together) just fine.


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

It's an entirely different story with untamed aviary birds -- Roxy's method would be ideal for those kind of birds. But since these birds have been hand-raised and socialized, it should be much easier to make a bond with both of them, providing you spend a lot of time with them and use positive reinforcement every time they do something you want.


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## shannoncrangasi (Mar 12, 2013)

My two - siblings- came together and were close, are still close, and bonded equally with both me and my partner - we love spending a lot of time with them, and the bonds, i would say , run equally between all four of us in every direction. we never separated them at play times until now that the boy has his heart wings on for his sister... and she likes a break from hissing at him warnings if he comes within 15cm, and he likes the break to sing away without the direct rejection  it will be fine with bonding if you are simply there and reading their behaviour and interacting with them, showing them new things and playing


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Even with handfed birds, one on one training has still worked best for me. While yes, working with both at the same time gets you a flock bond, I have found that spending one on one time with a bird helps it to bond even more to you. When I got my first two, Fuzzy was so in love with me he wanted to be my mate and would chase my hubby away and Cinnamon adored me so much that she learned to fly to me without me having to teach her. Also, not every handfed baby is gonna be sweet and like humans. Snowball was handfed and wanted nothing to do with us. My hubby called him the mean one. It took me months on sitting with him and talking to him and working with him to get him to where he is today. Yes I used the other birds to help me train him, but I also worked with him alone so that he could see I wasn't mean and scary and that good things could come from just interacting with me. While group training is great, the bond I got from one on one training couldn't have been better. And trust me, its easier to keep a tiel's attention, especially if you want to teach it something specific, when there are no other distractions around. This usually helps if you are getting into tricks, but even working on stepping up, it works best if there's no one else around to distract them.


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## Spike182 (Dec 19, 2013)

I got my babies at 3 months old around a month and a half ago. They weren't particularly tame and for the first few weeks they stayed in their cage and got used to their new home and me.

Starting a few weeks ago, when I'm home I leave the cage door open and let them come out whenever they like. They weren't so sure at first but now they're not shy in telling me they want to come out and love to stay out most of the day, only returning inside the cage for food, water and bedtime. At first when they were out, I didn't interact with them much and just went about my normal goings on, so they could learn that they were safe around me. Gradually, they'd be more confident to come closer and closer to me, allowing me to teach them to step up and whatnot at their own pace. Admittedly, some millet was required in the earlier days for bribes :lol: one of the birds will sometimes allow me to stroke her while the other is being a little more rebellious but my point is they're making great progress and I'm letting them go at their own pace. I honestly feel the freedom I introduced them to has helped me a lot to build that trust as I wasn't keen on separating them and working with them individually. They're incredibly bonded and don't like to be apart from one another, and I don't want them to associate their best buddy disappearing with me. They're coming on leaps and bounds and one of them (ironically the rebellious one) sat on my shoulder for the first time today and later had a nap while sitting on my hand.

I was quite worried at the start as I'd only ever kept one cockatiel and had read that taming two at the same time was hard but honestly, just from my experience so far, I don't think it is. You can most definitely tame them together but you need a lot of patience and need to go at their own pace.


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