My new Cockatiel

[od94]

After unfortunately rehousing Mac,a fischer lovebird that was too old to be tamed.I finally decided to get a cockatiel. I got more or less an "adult" male cockatiel.
I succeeded into teaching him to step up today on my hand and he went to my shoulder with no problems and wanted always to go up,but I always took him back down using "up" because he is more or less a bitter so to be safe first let's keep it far from my face.

Actually not always,but when I approach my finger in his cage or his perch he takes position and will make some sound and take an attack position(opening his beak and ready) to bite my finger,but the bite is not painful,maybe he wants to warn me without hurting me? No idea but I am going to work to make him forget the biting thing.. It is not an always response but he does it often.. He still day 1 so there is a lot to work with him Teaching him today to step up and stayed with me for 2 hours on my hand climbing on my shoulders.. I believe it is a good beginning.
One last thing he is clipped but professionally clipped he can take off from my finger and lay beautifully on the floor or on his perch.

Here is a picture of Khan lol I named him like that because with these fins on his head he seems funny .Khan suits him lol

[Wolf]

I think that you are moving a little too fast and that it will come back to haunt you later on. I think that you might want to familiarize yourself with this: http://littlefeatheredbuddies.com/info/ ... guage.html
It is about body language and should help with understanding your bird better.
I think that you should be spending a lot of time with your new bird as he needs to get acquainted with you and learn to trust you but if you approach it too heavily from a training standpoint you might end up with the opposite effect. Just off hand he may just be reaching for your finger or hand to help himself when stepping up, many of my birds readily step up but only after reaching out to grab my finger sort of like using one's hand to help when going up stairs.

[od94]

Hello Wolf!! hehe always here to help and advice!
I might have explained it wrong,I am not in any way looking to train my parrot for anything,I just want each of us to get used to each others,so as you adviced me for the lovebird to spend as much time with him as possible. For the first month and plus,I will stick only to have him on my hand and handfeed him.nothing more .Maybe I rushed a bit maybe into the up command? because I read on the net that if you cockatiel is tamed you can try to teach him the up instruction successfully since the first day.Thanks for the link I will check the link again I remember it from the lovebird time hehe..Do you think it's too much for a tamed bird for his first month?

As for the biting,I am familiar when the bird kind of bite in order to climb on your finger and he does it and I let him that doesn't hurt much. But I am sure he is willing to B-I-T-E he takes position open his beak and if I get closer 0.5mm ATTACKK. He got better but still does it.. What I am doing is when he does it I don't remove my finger I keep it till he stops then I remove it.And I change the tone of my voice to a NO NO.. I hope that will make him understand that biting won't get him anywhere he wants. As you advised me for the lovebird and in your reply above I will spend as much time with him to get to know each others.I read that placing him out of the cage on a perch or something will make it easier to get him dependent on you. What do you think about this point?


Thank you Wolf!!! Have a fantastic weekend!

[Wolf]

I think that you went a little too fast since being only his first day he doesn't know you and has no reason to trust you, but I have no objection to teaching the step up request fairly early on. I just did not want you to get too caught up in the excitement of training as I have seen so many people do and then wonder when their bird stops responding to them or running from them and such.
I don't know that it would make the bird more dependent on you and I had never heard this before. I think that the bird is already dependent on you and while you want this to a degree there are usually more problems when a bird becomes too dependent on its human. What you are aiming for is a balance of dependency and independence. I rarely step my birds up from in the cage, I wait for them to come out and then ask for the step up.

[liz]

I never reach in a cage to step up a bird. That is their space. I did have a few that crawl up my arm when I work in there. (They are now cage free in their own room so basically I walk into their cage.)

[Pajarita]

You are going waaaaay too fast and stressing that poor bird something terrible in the process. Please slow down and allow the poor thing to feel more comfortable with you and his surroundings before you attempt any training.

[od94]

Thank you guys for your advice!
I will slow down,you are right maybe my impatience is controlling me..
But is it okay to take him away from his cage and put him on a perch next to where I am studying? (for my finals) or better keep it in his cage? and take him some tours every day on my hand during the day.Is it okay or it's too much?

I will keep you posted about Khan's evolution

[Wolf]

In my opinion if the bird will come out of the cage on its own and step up when you ask then yes take him with you to the perch.

[liz]

Open the cage and let him come out by himself.

[od94]

Deal thank you!