# He won't let me give him scritches!



## Hecken

Woodstock won't let me scratch his head, even though he begs for his toys to do it to him and gets angry when they don't.
Any tips for teaching him that fingers are nice and will scratch him? He steps up etc fine, just hates them touching his head!


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## Loopy Lou

I'd be interested in replies for this. My Smokey is exactly the same! Mind you, he has a terrible fear of hands which i've been working on. He'll tilt his head and ask his toy bell for scratches but doesn't like me going near him.


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## Bird Junky

Hecken said:


> Woodstock won't let me scratch his head, even though he begs for his toys to do it to him and gets angry when they don't.
> Any tips for teaching him that fingers are nice and will scratch him? He steps up etc fine, just hates them touching his head!


*Hello. 
Use a small piece of millet spray or favourite food during the 
training process. When working inside the cage use a hanky fixed 
to the door bar to act as a safety curtain to prevent escapes.

Offer a few pecks of a treat food, held in your fingers. If 
the bird shows fear, remove your hand & the treat for a count 
of 10. Use a teaspoon if the birds are really afraid. Moving your
fingers nearer the food gradually till you can dispense with 
the spoon at each feed..Do this as often as necessary. 

Give them a treat little & often, so your visits mean nice things 
to eat. After a day or so of successful feeding. Hold the treat 
close to the perch so they can eat. After a few feeds your birds 
should be happy to step-up onto your hand to eat..

Now you can take your birds from the cage for a fly round, knowing 
you can return them with a treat in the cage & a small treat in hand 
to get them to step-up
Many birds have a dislike of being touched in certain places. You just
have to respect this or ruin any bond you build between you...BJ. 
*


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## moonchild

I think some birds just won't accept being touched or pet, even on the head. Moon trusts me, has no fear of my hands, but will not let me scratch his head. He watches me scritcg Juju and Freya, and asks for scritches from the others but never from me. Once or twice he did allow me to do it with my chin, though! If he likes to sit near your neck or chest, you could try this. Or maybe try using your nose. If he likes being close to you, it might work. But I wouldn't push it


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## roxy culver

Will they let you preen them with your mouth? If so, do it that way and sneak a finger in when you can. They'll get upset when they realize its a finger but eventually may accept it. But as echolalia said, not all tiels will accept head scratches, its a hit or miss thing.


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## Hecken

BJ - That is good advice, but Woodstock steps up fine lol
Echolalia - I guess you're right, I just hope Woody isn't one of them!
Roxy - Thanks, I might give that a try  At the moment, I put my finger as close to his head as I can without him moving away and don't remove it until he stops shouting/nipping in the hope he'll learn that those behaviours don't get him what he wants...


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## bjknight93

Bird Junky said:


> *Hello.
> Use a small piece of millet spray or favourite food during the
> training process. When working inside the cage use a hanky fixed
> to the door bar to act as a safety curtain to prevent escapes.
> 
> Offer a few pecks of a treat food, held in your fingers. If
> the bird shows fear, remove your hand & the treat for a count
> of 10. Use a teaspoon if the birds are really afraid. Moving your
> fingers nearer the food gradually till you can dispense with
> the spoon at each feed..Do this as often as necessary.
> 
> Give them a treat little & often, so your visits mean nice things
> to eat. After a day or so of successful feeding. Hold the treat
> close to the perch so they can eat. After a few feeds your birds
> should be happy to step-up onto your hand to eat..
> 
> Now you can take your birds from the cage for a fly round, knowing
> you can return them with a treat in the cage & a small treat in hand
> to get them to step-up
> Many birds have a dislike of being touched in certain places. You just
> have to respect this or ruin any bond you build between you...BJ.
> *


Bird Junky--can you *please*, rather than posting your info in every single training thread no matter what the topic is, make your posts relative to the poster's questions?

The way you post your info in threads when your info is not relative is not helping the poster and is just filling the threads with more unhelpful chatter. Unrelated posts will be deleted in the future.


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## hanna

Joe doesn't like fingers either, he does exactly the same as mentioned above, asks his bell for scritches, gets his head inside and chirps too and yes, I sometimes manage to rub his head with my chin too, and I enjoy this so much. Sometimes ( but rare ) he puts his head under my nose though


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## Renae

Mishka went through a stage where he went from letting me give him scritches all the time, to not letting me touch him AT ALL. I am assuming Woodstock has never allowed scritches though? So it would be different. Mishka was the same, he would try get scritches from the toys, but god help me if I tried! I kind of tricked him, whenever he was trying to get scritches from the toys, I would start talking to him and then put my hand near him while he had his head down and scritched him and quite a lot of the time he thought it was the toy, LOL! Now he has gone back to letting me give him scritches all the time again. 

Like it has been said, some birds just don’t like being touched full stop, but you can try earn his trust physical contact wise, it will just take time and patience. Cockatiel cottage has a few ideas on what you could do: http://www.cockatielcottage.net/bite2.html scroll down right to the bottom of the page and you should see “Scritches”. Also remember to reward him when it does happen.


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## Hecken

Is a happy voice a reward for cockatiels? Because food treats don't work on Woodstock, he's still too picky. But when he stops shouting at my finger for being near his head, I tell him he's a good boy in a very happy voice... Does this work?


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## hanna

It may work, it works for Joe sometimes I think ( not with letting me scritch him, because he doesn't ) but with other things he is/was scared off and I say to him: ALL GOOD JOE, ALL GOOD and when he stayed calm and quiet I say GOOD BOY JOE, SUCH A GOOD BOY and give him a kiss


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