# Hissing



## Merlin (Jan 17, 2012)

So I have read that Tiels hissing is sometimes a sign of fear. How do you get them to stop???
I have had Merlin for about 3 months now. He came from a home where, while loved, didnt get enough attention. The lady who used to own Merlin is a student who also works full time. That is why she decided to find him a new home.
At our house Merlin's cage is beside my daughters budgie. I leave for work at 
7am, my girls leave at 9am. I am home by 3pm and then Merlin is allowed to come out of her cage for the evening. She usually sticks close to her cage (clipped wings) and tends to jump up onto the budgie's cage. 

So, now that you have the background issues...
Merlin will hiss and backup when I try to get her up on my finger. If I persist by leaving my finger there, she will get up on my finger on her own. She has never even attempted to bite me. 
When she is in her cage and I come up to it, she will come to see me...but then as soon as I open my mouth she will fan her tail feathers and kinda fling her head backwards and hiss.

So...will she eventually stop doing this? She seems to have an interest in me seeing as she comes to the side of the cage if I am close to it. Is there anything I should be doing to help make her more comfortable???


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## meaggiedear (Nov 20, 2011)

You might find this thread helpful:

http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=25302&highlight=hissing

LPerry82's sig has the best info on this kind of stuff.

I've just made it a habit too that when I get close to the cage, I have millet at hand. Grey thinks of me as "oohh. that's the millet girl." and he comes running. talking sweetly helps too. If I approach the cage, I usually get a "open mouth" warning from Grey. It gets better everyday. Just takes time.


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## LeopardPrintBee (Nov 22, 2011)

I don't know if what we did was right, but this is what we did and it helped us :]

Gertie came to us already knowing the "step up" command, but VERY stroppy. She also came scared of hands, but now (after a week and a big bag of sunflower seeds) she loooooves hands and runs to them for scritches lol

Some times she would step up OK but a lot of the time she would hiss and do this rapid, but not painful biting. What we did was just keep out hand still and leave it there. If she then came up, she was rewarded. If she moved away, we went near her again and said "up" and so on and so forth.

This was only when she was out of the cage, by the way  Now, she doesn't hiss at all when we get her up, and hops on merrily 

(We didn't shout, but we didn't move.)

Also, she would hiss and attack when we came near her cage. And once she was used to hands we started to put our fingers on the outside, which she would try and attack. But we didn't move them. and then put a finger in, which she would try and attack but we didn't back off, just let her, showing her that fingers were not hurting her, but actually trying to give her scritches  Now we can put fingers in, and she steps up or has head rubs from them.

So basically, what we did was when she freaked out we didn't back down, or move quickly, merely stayed still showing her we weren't a threat, and when she calmed down and she got a treat 

Like I said though, I have no idea if this is the best thing to do, but she is such a lovely cuddly bird (unless you stop cuddling her, then she's a diva) and seems perfectly happy  x


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