Where Do I Start With My My Bird?

Chappie

Chappie

Regular Member
Hi I bought a 6 month old male Cockatiel last Saturday, He already Talks and Lets me tickle his head through the bars when I give the "Tickles" command which he must have already knew. I can feed him Seed bar from my hand but he wont take seed from my hand. I made the mistake of letting him out before learning him to step up first but when i did let him out he flew straight to my knee and let me tickle him and feed him from my hand. Everytime I put my finger out to step up he bites me which i can handle and i ignore it but having read  the steps of training him I am a bit confused as he has jumped some steps already and missed others. where do I start with his training as I need him to be able to step up to enable me to get him back in his cage. 
 
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Hi, lovely to hear you have a young cockatiel.


It may be best not to feed him outside of the cage so that he goes in to his dish of  seeds & fruit & water.


You can give him 'treat's when training him though.


Have a look at  some of the posted in this Training thread, there's lots of good advice on there and I am sure our members will be along with some more too.  @Leo1983


Keep us up to date and can we have a photo  and name of your tiel :thumbsup:


I will link in our member who has Stinkie a beautiful tiel.


@Stinkie
 
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To me it sounds more like he doesn't want to go back in the cage rather than fear of fingers. You might have to coax him with treats and train him so that he's in the cage only for short periods of time rather than locked in for hours. Can't say I've ever had this problem so other members may be more useful.


This is the absolute best video I've seen for taming birds - music is super annoying but you can mute it. I would start right here.

 
Roz's posts on the step up are a good reference...and it may be a good idea to start from the beginning...as you aren't sure what he has already been taught or picked up...also have you tried a perch rather than a finger to step up onto?
 
When he's on the perch put your finger in front of him, a little higher than the perch, and he will step up. Don't go pushing into his belly or anything, just in front.


I still think your bird just doesn't want to go in the cage. If you only ever ask him to step up so you can shut him back in, and he doesn't like it, he's either going to fly off, bite you or both.


Another thing, if he starts flying off don't go chasing him around and going into predator-prey dynamics with him. Just get a long perch, approach him calmly and train him to step up on it. My bird is tame as can be and I still have a long dowel rod so I can get to him when he's being a git and perching on the door frames or kitchen cabinets.
 
Sorry I don't mean to sound preachy, I'm trying to help but it's not coming across right :(
 
He also has a missing nail at the back of his foot which looks like its mother must have nibbled it off as a baby as its a clean healthy stump and he gets around fine but his nails are really long, how can i get them shorted while he is untame? I have nail cutters for small,l animals and a file and he has plenty to sand them in his cage. should i leave them for now or do something about it? I dont want it to cause him injury. 
 
I'd leave it unless he's getting stuck on fabrics, a nice pedicure perch should do the trick - not the sandpaper covers!. If they're still too long in a couple of weeks then I'd reassess the situation :)
 
Also you may like to get a perch that helps to keep the nails trim, you can get ideas from Scarletts website she sells a variety of them.
 
It so lovely that he is so friendly from the start.  Like Stinky has said he has most likely associated the hand with being put in his cage so I would not do this without him getting to know your hand can be a good place to go.  he will have to go to his cage to eat and drink
 
Hello and welcome! Chappie is gorgeous and can't really add much more than has already been said.


Find a certain treat he likes and only use it for training. That will make he work for it. For example mine go mad for pine nuts but they only get them when I'm training or want them to do something lol


Sarah-Jane
 
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