# treats.



## singingyamada (May 8, 2010)

hi I am new and I live in australia
We have had a few cockatiels and bred some, but we have never had one like Peter.

I have read about rewarding birds with treats when they do good things.
what is at the top of the treat list as we need to modify behaviour.

he loves potato chips,.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Every bird is different, so just find a treat that he likes a lot and use that as positive reinforcement when training. A few things my birds enjoy are millet spray, corn on the cob, crackers, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, honey treats, things like that. One of the members of this forum has a bird that LOVES mealworms!! Gross I know, but whatever floats their boats! lol 

Potato chips are fine to use when training, as long as you don't feed them in large amounts. Use one potato chip with each session and allow the bird to take a nibble each time he does something right. Chips are loaded in sodium and fat which isn't good for birds in large amounts, but a few nibbles every now and then is completely fine. My birds love crackers so I buy them in the low-sodium variety and give them a cracker once a week, but they would work extremely well if I were training them. Most of my birds are breeders so there isn't much training going on here. The others are older and pretty well mannored so I guess I lucked out. Hope the training goes well!


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## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

Yep MEALWORMS ! Absolutly NUTS for mealworms ! Will do anything for a mealworm !!! 

Maybe millet comes second or carrot. But nothing compares to a fat juicy wriggly mealworm for my cockatiel.

Just find what they love the most and watch the madness and the antics they try to get that reward !


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## singingyamada (May 8, 2010)

Thanks. Peter is very demanding and I think stressed and I actually think he has cockatiel anxiety. He isnt interested in Girlbird which is good as I couldnt cope with babies again. He had two owners before us and I just think he doesnt know he is here forever. It also doesnt help that I dont do paid work and so am home most days.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

You just have to earn his trust and that is not something that happens over night. Once he realizes that you are his friend and not going to hurt him he will warm up to you and calm down. Animals that are bounced around from home to home don't know who in the heck to trust because they don't know if they are going to be there forever or just a short while. Having his wings clipped if you haven't done so already will make him more dependent on you and therefore will develop trust that way. If he has anxiety issues, I would probably let a vet or avian specialist clip him for you that way he doesn't associate that unpleasantry with you. Hope everything goes well! Keep up the hard work because it will pay off in the end!


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

I would not give chips but millet is a great training treat


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## Autumn (Dec 12, 2009)

Millet is a good good bribe.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

You can do some treat testing. You do this by offering several treats that your bird already loves to him at the same time, and watch to see what he goes for first. Do this on several different occasions to see whether he goes for the same thing every time. This will tell you whether he has a favorite treat, and if he does then use that as your training reward. If he goes for one thing on one day and something else on another day, then you won't know for sure which treat will be the most desirable on any given day. But basically all of them will be happily accepted.


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