Cockatiel assistance please

[zzzingbird]

I need a little bit of help with my cockatiels. If anyone could answer, I would greatly appreciate it!

First some background. I have two birds, one named boxy and the other named Rosemary. I have had Boxy longer, almost a year, and I have had Rosemary for about a month. Rosemary was hand raised, and Boxy was not. Boxy is flighted, and Rosemary is not. I keep them in separate cages in my room.

My issues are as follows:
Boxy is still essentially a feathered ball of fear and rage, and I cannot even get close to him without him hissing at me and trying to bite me. My parents want me to just give him back to the pet store, but I don't think that that's right to do. What can I do?

Rosemary was alright with me for the first couple of weeks, but now she is afraid of me. She moves away whenever I get near to her, and won’t let me feed or touch her. She knows how to step up, and will if she cannot get back to her cage, but will launch as soon as her cage is in sight. She will come out of her cage only if I open the door and move away. Any time I talk to her or get near, her crown is always high. How can I remedy this?

Also, just generally, what are some toys and treats that ‘tiels like? I want to spruce up their cages a bit and find treats they’ll get excited about. Rosemary seems to like millet, but not as much as she seems to fear my hand.
I hope you can help me! thanks in advance

[liz]

You are right to keep Boxy. With his fear you don't know how someone else would treat him. I can't even imagine a cockatiel being like that after having him for a while. Have your birds been talking? Do they call to each other? Cockatiels don't like being alone. Have you let them both out at the same time? Do they perch together?
When I bring another cockatiel home the flock starts calling him and he calls back. This continues until the new one is out of quarantine.
That is all I can come up with. Some one else will respond soon.

[zzzingbird]

They call at each other, and Boxy sings a lot. I tried letting them out together a few times, but it didn't really work out. Boxy flew up to the highest place he could immediately, and Rosemary just kind of stayed perched on her cage. Every time I let Boxy out, it's difficult to get him back in. He really fears me. I can't get close to him without him hissing at me. He also bites hard and doesn't let go.

[Wolf]

Thank you for posting about your situation and we will certainly do our best to help your birds and you make things better. The background information that you gave is helpful but we are going to need more information if we are going to be of use to you and them. The easiest way would be for you to give us a detailed rundown of an average day in the life of your birds beginning with when they first get up in the morning including what foods you give them and when you give it to them, how much time out of cage they each get daily, any other animals in the home or people who maybe involved with them all the way to when they go to bed. Also anything you have tried to gain either of their trust. This will hopefully give us an up to date picture of what is happening in their lives. A basic idea of your schedule with emphasis on how much time you have for the birds and when would also help.

[zzzingbird]

Thank you for posting about your situation and we will certainly do our best to help your birds and you make things better. The background information that you gave is helpful but we are going to need more information if we are going to be of use to you and them. The easiest way would be for you to give us a detailed rundown of an average day in the life of your birds beginning with when they first get up in the morning including what foods you give them and when you give it to them, how much time out of cage they each get daily, any other animals in the home or people who maybe involved with them all the way to when they go to bed. Also anything you have tried to gain either of their trust. This will hopefully give us an up to date picture of what is happening in their lives. A basic idea of your schedule with emphasis on how much time you have for the birds and when would also help.

Alright here goes-
The birds wake up at around 700-730, and start singing and sometimes screaming around then. They continue to sing and talk to each other throughout the day. They go to sleep around 2100-2130. I feed them a diet of mostly Zupreem Fruitblend pellets, with some seeds mixed in. I change their food every couple of days, around lunchtime. I change their water every two days. Boxy only gets out of the cage rarely, around every week for about an hour because it is difficult to get him to go back into his cage, especially because he's flighted. I try to let Rosemary out every day for an hour at least. I have a dog, but he doesn't interact with either bird much, and I am the only person in the house who is really involved with them. To gain their trust, I try to talk and sing to them often every day. Rosemary used to step up often, but has recently become fearful of me, although I have no idea why. It is summer right now, so I'm out of school and spend much more time with them, but during school I only interact with them early in the morning and from 1600 until they go to sleep.

[Wolf]

Most people don't use the 24 hour time clock which is primarily just used in the US by the military, but I know that it is common in some parts of the world, so if I may ask, are your parents in the military or do you live in some other place than the USA? Also are you speaking of school as in college or other school? These two question are simply because of my own curiosity and no more.
Alright, part of the reason for Rosemary's change is that both of the birds are talking to and learning things from each other. At present this is working against you but we should be able to help you turn that around so that you can use it to your advantage. All of this is going to take some time to accomplish as there are several things going on at the same time with each of these birds. I will try to explain as I go along.
First thing that is going on is that Boxy is most likely going through puberty and becoming an adult bird and if his schedule for the past year has been similar to the one you just shared with us his endocrine system is out of whack and is most likely causing an increase in his level of aggression which is further amplified by his diet. This is where your level of schooling would be helpful to know.
Rosemary is still a juvenile, if she is less than 8 months to a year of age, but we could be cutting it close because of the same issues, that of diet and their schedule. As I said, I will explain, but before I begin with that, I need you to know that I am going to keep this as simple as I can as I don't know what level of schooling you are at and I do not mean any disrespect.
Ok, parrots are photoperiodic in nature, This is just a fancy word that means that they are affected in several ways by light and the lack of it. But it is not just light, but the different types of light and the strength of the light. Parrots see into the ultraviolet spectrum of light, which is invisible to us, but too much UVA and/ or UVB light can seriously burn them or even cause them to go blind. This is the same type of light that is responsible for sunburns in humans. While right now I am using the UV light as an example it is important for you to know about, we will probably come back to it in due course.
Any way light is used by the bird to trigger breeding cycles among other things, but different light does different things. The twilight periods of light that occur just before dawn and just before dark are used to set and to reset the birds biological clock keeping everything in tune with the seasons, so that the bird goes through puberty at the right time and so that it only goes into breeding condition when it is right for them to do so. The light is used by the pineal and pituitary glands in the birds brain to trigger the hormones to start and stop the reproductive cycle and to signal time for molting of its feathers and nearly all other biological functions of the bird. What this means to us humans is that in order to help the bird to function like nature intended and to help keep them healthy that the bird needs to be exposed to the twilight periods of natural light at dawn and dusk without the interference of artificial lights. This will help to reduce the birds aggressiveness due to an over abundance of hormones in their blood. So the bird should be uncovered just before dawn and wake up as the sun rises in the mornings and that all interaction should be done before dusk in the late afternoon so that the bird has time to eat and go to sleep by the time that it is dark outside. In fact it is the very same light schedule as the wild birds outside your window uses.
The next area of concern is diet. As well as providing nutrition to the birds body to keep it strong and healthy it also acts as a trigger for the reproduction of their young. This is accomplished in primarily two ways, the first of which is having enough food so that it can raise its young, this is the amount of food that the bird has available and there is no humane way to limit this aspect without being cruel to the bird. We can however control the types of food that we feed the bird as well as when it has certain types of food. Foods that are high in fats and proteins are the foods that we need to be most aware of and to limit. In addition to being a trigger to start reproducing offspring, foods that are high in fat and protein increase a birds level of aggression as well as causing them to store excess protein in the form of fat in their liver causing fatty liver disease which is fatal to the bird. These foods can also cause kidney and heart disease in birds. Unfortunately the very foods that you are feeding at this time are the foods that need to be limited to prevent these things from happening to your birds. This is where knowing where you live would be helpful as some foods are easier to get in some places than in others.
Zupreem Fruit Blend is without a doubt the worst pellet that you can feed to a bird, not only because of the fat and protein content, but because of the amount of sugar and chemical dyes and preservatives that it contains. There are other reasons for this as well but these are the worst ones. Seeds are good, but only in limited amounts, even in nature the seeds that they eat are not available all of the time.
All of this is a lot to take in all at once and we haven't even gotten to interaction with your birds or training. It is alright you are new to birds and for some reason breeders and pet store aren't very good at helping new bird keepers with the things that they need to know, so none of this is your fault.
We have a lot to learn about your birds, but I think that it is time for me to take a break and give you a chance to catch your breath, so to speak, and allow you a chance to ask questions.

[zzzingbird]

Ah, terribly sorry about the time thing, I live in the US currently, but I'm from England. It's a habit. I'm currently in high school.
I knew that birds are photoperiodic, but I had no idea about the effects of twilight. That's definitely valuable to know. Both birds are situated right near windows, so I will make sure that they are uncovered and able to see the light at these times.
As for diet, I had no idea about the food issues. Could you recommend a better pellet? I did know that seeds can mess with a bird's liver, so I limit those. The proportions of the food are probably about 95% pellets, 5% seeds. They do each have mineral blocks in their cages, if that helps. Are there any other foods that I should be giving them, like fresh fruits and vegetables?
I'm very grateful for all of this help, and I do want my birds to be happy and healthy. I'm willing to do whatever it takes.

[Wolf]

Consider that pellets are ground up dehydrated seeds with a small amount of other dehydrated things like vegetables, artificial vitamins, preservatives, soy and so on. Adding a mineral block or vitamin suppliments can seriously harm your bird if you are feeding pellets. This is because too much of any vitamin or mineral may be toxic or create a situation where one prevents the utilization of another one again causing a toxic situation. These things need to be in the right balance as birds are rather sensitive to these things. Because of these and other reasons I do not feed any of my birds pellets. But if I had to choose a pellet to feed at this time I think I would choose Tops, which is a totally organic product.
I feed all of my birds the same diet consisting of a fresh raw vegetable or two, a fresh fruit without seeds, and a fresh raw leafy green first thing in the morning followed by a cooked mix of whole grains, mixed vegetables and fully cooked white beans and lentils. All of these things are for breakfast and all day long and then I give them a quality seed mix for dinner and remove that when they go to bed for the night.
Here is a link to a topic here in the nutrition section that will help with toxic and non toxic foods, plants, woods and even household items for your birds the list begins on the second page of the topic. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521
Here is another link that actually has two links with similar information that you might want to look over viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13977
In the interests of helping you to start learning how to understand your bird better so that you can earn their trust a little easier I offer you this link on body language http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww15eii.htm
After thinking about this I think that this would be a good place to start with training for your birds viewtopic.php?f=11&t=227
This last is a basic on target training but I would suggest that you get two clickers that sound different so that you can use a different one for each bird.