# Am I doing enough?



## juniper (Sep 18, 2010)

Juniper has been with us just about a month. He is about 11 mos and was hand raised tho has spent the last several months in either an aviary and following this in a pet shop cage with his sister. He took a very long time to adjust, several days before he'd even eat. 

Fast forward a few weeks and he is now hopping onto my flat palm to accept millet. I can take him out of his cage like this and when I remove the millet he remains on my hand, sometimes playing with my gold chain, laddering nicely for me and allowing me to gently nuzzle his head. I'm doing this all right in front of his cage so that he knows he has the option of hopping back onto it when he pleases. I alternate this with putting him back into his cage a few minutes after he's been standing on my palm so he associates my palm with safety as well as food. 

The few times I've walked away from the cage with him on my palm he's fluttered and flapped a bit and tried to immediately get back to his cage. I've followed his lead on this and put him back in. But now I'm feeling like perhaps I should have a short session with him just sitting on my shoulder in another room. Unlike our previous tiel he doesn't seem that interested in sitting on us so I'm not sure how to proceed here, follow his timid lead or expand his comfort level just a bit to further the bonding process?


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

I always bonded away from the cage and i used my small hallway with doors closed and sit on the floor with them with a few toys


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

There are different ways you can proceed. One way is to move away from the cage slowly and gradually with him - give him a treat while you're standing right next to the cage, then take a small step and give him another treat, and keep repeating this. At some point he'll probably get too nervous and will fly back toward the cage, but with enough repetition he'll get used to it.

You could also take him to another room against his will. This is obviously not the most comfortable option for him, but it does have one benefit: once the two of you are in the other room, you will be the only familiar thing there and it's likely that he'll cling to you for safety. The downside of course is that you are also the one who made him go somewhere that he didn't want to go, so it's a mixed bag as far as the trust issue is concerned.


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## juniper (Sep 18, 2010)

tielfan said:


> There are different ways you can proceed. One way is to move away from the cage slowly and gradually with him - give him a treat while you're standing right next to the cage, then take a small step and give him another treat, and keep repeating this. At some point he'll probably get too nervous and will fly back toward the cage, but with enough repetition he'll get used to it.


This is what I've been doing but he only lets me get so far and as you said, he tries to fly and flap back to his cage. It's good to know that with enough repetition he'll get used to. That's the hope anyway. I guess I just have to really readjust my patience level with him. It's hard tho when all I want to do is give him scritches and nuzzles.



tielfan said:


> You could also take him to another room against his will. This is obviously not the most comfortable option for him, but it does have one benefit: once the two of you are in the other room, you will be the only familiar thing there and it's likely that he'll cling to you for safety. The downside of course is that you are also the one who made him go somewhere that he didn't want to go, so it's a mixed bag as far as the trust issue is concerned.


With our other bird this would be fine to do but I feel that with Juniper it would just be too difficult for him. I don't know enough about tiels to know whether he would eventually come round with enough of this. The goal for me is to get him to really enjoy being on us not just tolerate it.

It's amazing to me how different these little creatures are from one another, each with his own personality.


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## norfendz (Oct 11, 2010)

my young one kept flying on top of his cage when i was walking away with his hand and then he jus kind of got used to me, n hes uite happy to just come outby himself when i open his cage door and fly over to me or my girlfriend, got a little habit of landing on landing on heads instead of shoulders, hands or were ever we are sat lol


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

You've had Juniper for about a month, right? That isn't really very long - many cockatiels need a couple of months to really get comfortable in a new home, and some need even longer than that. It sounds like you're doing pretty well with him.


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## juniper (Sep 18, 2010)

I guess I'm wondering whether time and patience will eventually bring Juniper round to being bird who's comfortable on us or whether he will always be somewhat reserved and nervous due simply to personality. We got him so late, almost a year old and I worry that the pattern has already been set for not being a people bird but I don't know if that's how it works, if time, patience etc will always be able to bring a bird round.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Some individuals never warm up to humans completely, but if you treat them well they will see you as a member of their flock. Juniper might warm up more if he sees Hermes really enjoying your company. You have only two birds so Hermes will have quite a lot of influence!


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