Taming Cockatiels

[madeline.thibault]

Hello all,
This is my first post here and hopefully I get some good advice. It may end up being a long one in order to get all the details.
My husband and I recently adopted 2 cockatiels, (we'll call them Grey and White, because they currently don't have official names) and it really wound up being more of a rescue situation than the "adoption" I thought it was going to be. I did not realize until we got them to our house how badly these birds had been traumatized by the previous owners and if I had I would have still taken them but been better prepared. I've had cockatiels in the past and loved them, so I felt pretty confident taking these two in, but I really need some help here.
The previous owner got these birds for his young daughter (first red flag), admitted that she got bored with them after a week (second red flag) and when my husband asked him some basic questions about the birds' backgrounds, the guy actually said "you have to wear gloves to reach in and grab them" (the biggest red flag of all).
The birds were also being caged together, which obviously wasn't working out because they were starting to beat up on each other (I was pretty shocked the guy had just allowed this to continue). Grey wound up being the worst off and has had quite a few feathers ripped out, and she seems to be the most traumatized and insecure out of the two. White has had his share though, because when the previous owner brought these birds over, it was obvious the poor thing had blood feathers broken and we wound up having to pull about five of them immediately. It probably happened during transportation, but the old owner seemed completely oblivious to it, even though the bird was dripping blood.
Its been about a week now, and both of them are still pretty hesitant when it comes to us and they get upset easily.
We sit next to their cages and talk and whistle to them, and we've started opening the doors and just sitting there, but progress is pretty slow.
One of the issues I've run in to is giving them treats. I've never had a bird that isn't motivated by food, but these guys seem to have no idea what treats even are. My plan was to eventually use millet as an exclusive training treat, but they won't even touch it. They won't take anything but regular food. Everything I've read about hand taming says to find a treat they love and use just that for training, but they won't even look at treats and even move them out of the way to get to regular seed. Is there some other type of food/treat that would work? What else can I offer them to get their trust?
Overall, I thing Grey will be the hardest to tame, because she even throws a fit when I go to feed her. As long as I don't touch the cage, she's very sweet and likes to be talked to, but cleaning and feeding times have turned into a freak-out session. What else can I do to calm her and get both birds to trust us?
I really want them to be part of the family and I feel bad that they just sit in cages all day.

[marie83]

I'll try reply properly tomorrow but I've had some pretty hard battles trying to tame traumatized cockatiels. Harlie was by far the hardest though, her story is here if you want to read it viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9596&hilit=harlies+progress I hope it will encourage you to realise nothing is impossible and actually you have only had yours a very short space of time so they will still be settling in. I wish you the best of luck but take your time with them, the fastest progress made is unrushed.

[Dave & Karen]

I fully agree... let them get settled in before you try to work with them, especially if they were pulled out of a bad situation, you will have your work cut out for you but they will come around eventually, it could take weeks or months, just don't try to force progress and let the birds work at their own pace. For the treats and such, for now, just place it in their cage where they can get to it and leave them alone, they should get curious and begin to eat some of it after it's been in there for a while. Maybe place it in a few separate bowls or clip it to the cage bars so you can see what they're eating and what they're not interested in, this can take days or weeks too, just be patient.
If they do start to prefer one of the treat foods, you can use it to get them to the point where you can hand it to them, they'll shyly snatch it out of your hand and run at first, but if everytime you aproach them you offer them the treat they'll slowly get used to you and associate you with the treats. This can take a lot of time but don't give up.
Once they associate you with good things, you can work on stepping them up etc, but take it slow and take a step back or 2 if they get scared when you try anything with them. Talking to them or singing to them will help in the meantime, and they love to be whistled to and will learn to whistle songs pretty easily once they settle in and get used to you being there.
Just take your time tho whatever you do.

[madeline.thibault]

Thanks for the replies. I know it will take time, and that's fine- I just want to know what else I can do to help them out.
I've been leaving millet sprays clipped to the cage for a few days now. Grey actually rips it off and throws it on the floor, White just ignores it so far.
I can actually see some small progress though, so I'm pretty excited. Grey ate next to the open door with me sitting there the other day and White has already picked up on this funny little tune my husband whistles constantly.
Thanks for the advice!