# care home cockatiel (lucy)need help pls.



## ilovelucy:) (Dec 17, 2007)

well here is the thing...i work at a speshial care home for seniors and they had a cockatiel named (peeps), no one realy took good care of him and so i tryed too. he died about 1year ago and now they got another cockatiel (lucy) and she was not hand raised. when we fist got her she was hissing and hidding in the cornner. the problem is only me and one resident pay any attenchen to her (she is anoboys bird)but i love her so much!  but i have to work and i do not get much time to be around her (only about 15min at lunch and half hour after work) she loves to show off when me or the resident are around her and makes noises. she has lots of toys(i change them every two weeks and clean her cage every week as part of my work and she has a bird tent thing i got her and she likes to sleep in it. she has two water cantaners and one food and one for treats and two branchs, one real and one a rope one. she loves milit to. she will not eat any vegies or fruit though! mmm... 

how do i tame her? we have had her for about 6 months now and she is better then when we fist got her. BUT she will not let me tuch her or skratch her. she flew out of her cage about 7 times! not good in a care home, she flew into the big kitchen 2 and the window 2and the wall and the silver metal table legs. (i just do not know what to do) i do not want her to get hurt, we cliped her wings and that was ****  she bit hard lots and staff tryed to pull her off and she just clamped on harder and drew blood, but we got it done. now she can fly again and we bought thin leather gloves to hold her, so she will not bite us too much. um the creative director bought nail clipers (at the pet store for birds) and thought they were wing clipers. so we have to use those to clip her wings. i try my best to give her the best care i can but i do not think i am doing a good job  please i need help with lucy. i love lucy 

sorry for the long write up and spelling mistakes, i suck at spelling. 
liz


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## Aly (Jul 30, 2007)

I'm glad to hear someone like you is caring for her. Tiels love and need attention-they tend to bond with one person in particular more then others. I am going to mention a few things-please don't take them the wrong way. If you know she is a girl I would remove the tent thing since it causes them to think it's a nest and she will end up wanting to lay eggs constatly.It's straining on their body and should not be encouraged. As far as her flying away, since the enviroment is not exactly controled (open windows, hot pans, etc..I would keep her clipped. In my experience it'll also help her learn to trust humans alot faster since she will depend on you more. If you want to clip her again and she's biter carefully hold a small towel over her and hold one wing out at a time. Be carefull not to clip too much and not to clip any new feathers since they still have blood in them. It's good that she has toys and everything to entertain herself also. Don't give her millet too often since it's like icecream for them (every week or two weeks is ok). As far as veggies and fruits-most tiels don't like fruits in general so that's ok. They do however need more then seed as their diet. Some people use pellets to give them a more complete diet but I think they are rather overrated and I don't like the idea of them eating proccessed foods daily. Once she sees how good veggies are she will love them guaranteed. Mine's favorites are steamed corn, sweet peas, green beans, carrots-they also love lentils and things like that. Try buying a bag of frozen mixed veggies *(make sure all the veggies in there are safe for birds)* and heat them up in a bit of water-drain, let them cool and put them in her treat container. Keep doing this and she WILL eventually try it. Since she's not bonded with anyone in particular you eating them in front of her might not work but it's worth a try. They tend to be just like kids when it comes to alot of things...I hope that answers it-let me know if I missed anything or if you have any other questions.


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## ilovelucy:) (Dec 17, 2007)

thank you, it is very hard to get her out of her cage, she schreaches and bites so we are going to try leather gloves. i will try the forzen vegies  is there away for her to be confortable on some residents shoulders? how do i train her to come on my hand? thank you for all the help. am i spending enough time with her? and i tryed pelets and she will not eat them,she just eats seed right now.


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## Bea (Jul 26, 2007)

Ideally she should be getting more time with just one or two people everyday, but i can see that's probably not possible in that environment. I would stop feeding her millet entirely except as a training treat, you might be able to bribe her onto your hand using that.


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## kyliesmom07 (Dec 11, 2007)

Could you maybe take her home with you at night if its not to cold where you are to bring her home. A friend of mine has a parrot she takes to the nursing home during the day while working and brings home at night. maybe you could see if they will let you do that.


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## Aly (Jul 30, 2007)

kyliesmom07 said:


> Could you maybe take her home with you at night if its not to cold where you are to bring her home. A friend of mine has a parrot she takes to the nursing home during the day while working and brings home at night. maybe you could see if they will let you do that.


I would have to agree. That is truly the best for her. I don't think I would be wanting to step up for anyone if all I see is different people everyday..not one that I know is "my human". Ideally, as Bea said, a certain person should be the designated person for her.I know it's hard to spend more time with her since you're there to work but the more the better. Will they allow you to bring her home nights and weekends?


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## ilovelucy:) (Dec 17, 2007)

i do not know if that will be aloud  i have a cat and she likes birds...not in a good way and mom i do not think she would let me. i will ask the care home.


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

as for the nail clippers bieng used to clip the wings, I don't think thats such a good idea, I just use normal scissors, I've used my kids school scissors, (blunt end) for our wing clippings, or a pair i bought at the craft store, to cut fabric (they noramlly have orange handles mine have black), they work great you can get a decent pair of scissors at any dollar store, family dollar and i've even seen the orange handles ones at times at the checkout line of walmart for like a dollar or less 

is she/he in a room with a resident at the care home??, if not you may want to see if she could be put in a room with a resident, that way there's always a familar face, and when you need to take her out of the cage, you could close the residents door or take the cage into a bathroom and make sure all the stall doors are shut or toilet lids are down an remove her from the cage to clip her wings./ spend time with her while in there with the main door shut so she cant fly into the kitchen any more


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## ilovelucy:) (Dec 17, 2007)

she is in the main area (lunch/coffee areaandthe sitting area( coutchs) of the care home and in betwen the tv for some noise and fish tank. it is the only place where there are not windows or air vents around her, so she does not get a cold and i will get some siccors from the Dollar store.


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## Laura (Jul 30, 2007)

Nail clippers are ok to use  if you look at the article posted by Aly on wing clipping scissors and nail clippers are listed for nervous people like me ...lol and as Bea said when using nail clippers its a sure fire way of not cutting to much


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Iam glad you are taking care of her  I think if you could take her home at nights that would be best. I have two cats but shut them away for a bit well Spike is out. Here is an article about taming hope this helps http://www.cockatielcottage.net/bite2.html


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## Aly (Jul 30, 2007)

atvchick95 said:


> take the cage into a bathroom


Since it's a multiple resident home and not your home that you cleaned yourself, I would have to disagree with using the bathroom as a training area. They are prone to bacterial infections and that is one sure way to get one.


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## ilovelucy:) (Dec 17, 2007)

mom said i can not take her home. she is a livley little bird  she loves new toys and is very curiose about every thing. i tryed the frozen vegies, she tryed a peice of corn and a pea and that was it.


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## Aly (Jul 30, 2007)

ilovelucy:) said:


> mom said i can not take her home. she is a livley little bird  she loves new toys and is very curiose about every thing. i tryed the frozen vegies, she tryed a peice of corn and a pea and that was it.


Make sure it's room temp-if it's too cold they won't eat it. It's good that she tried it-mine did the same when I started-keep offering it everyday and she'll start to love them.


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## ilovelucy:) (Dec 17, 2007)

well her wings are clipped!!! YAY! umm sorry  well she loves climing on the top of her cage and i tryed to get her so i could put her on my sholder and she tryed to fly away. she glidded down and i picked her up and she hissed and then put her on my sholder and walked around with her for an hour after work! it was awsome. although she hissed the fisrt day and stuff, then the second day she was not hissing only shaking a bit then i gave tryed to give her to the one resident and she tryed to fly away and then got her and gave her to the resident. the resident was so happy! and when we went walking the halls again she found i had earing on. lol she was pulling at them. the next day i took her out again and she did not like it but she was fine with being on the sholder now. she still moves away if some of the residents she does not know come near. oh and she was mouthing my glasses. and when i go realy close to her cage with my nose almost tuching, her head fethers go down and she trys to lick my glasses! i am so happy and i think she likes to get out to. i was showing every one i could (the other staff) and they were all like ya okey, and they backed away. lol. they are scard of her. ^__^


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## Aly (Jul 30, 2007)

ilovelucy:) said:


> well her wings are clipped!!! YAY! umm sorry  well she loves climing on the top of her cage and i tryed to get her so i could put her on my sholder and she tryed to fly away. she glidded down and i picked her up and she hissed and then put her on my sholder and walked around with her for an hour after work! it was awsome. although she hissed the fisrt day and stuff, then the second day she was not hissing only shaking a bit then i gave tryed to give her to the one resident and she tryed to fly away and then got her and gave her to the resident. the resident was so happy! and when we went walking the halls again she found i had earing on. lol she was pulling at them. the next day i took her out again and she did not like it but she was fine with being on the sholder now. she still moves away if some of the residents she does not know come near. oh and she was mouthing my glasses. and when i go realy close to her cage with my nose almost tuching, her head fethers go down and she trys to lick my glasses! i am so happy and i think she likes to get out to. i was showing every one i could (the other staff) and they were all like ya okey, and they backed away. lol. they are scard of her. ^__^




 That's great to hear! I'm sure that she loves it. It's normal for her to be hesitant of some people, esspecially ones she doesn't know but it sounds like she's really bonding with you! Keep it up and now work on teaching her to step up. Just place your finger under her belly and say step. Lightly nudge her up the first time and she'll be stepping up in no time.  I am really glad she gets time out of the cage now. She must love it. Here is a great article on tiel behavior to help you read her.http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/birdinformation/behavior.php


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Glad she is doing well  I bet she loves going outside of her cage or she soon will


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## Laura (Jul 30, 2007)

Sounds like your making some good progress thats great  keep working with her and you will soon have a new best friend


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