New baby lovebird, fearful of humans - how to proceed?

[thesilversakura]

He's getting nearly all of his time out of cage, literally. Apart from a couple hours when we have to be doing things, we have to stay up there all the time or he's not happy at all. Good news, we put a halti (anti pull harness) on Ruby, our dog, because she absolutely loathes it and stands there looking depressed even though it's just a bit of fabric. She hasn't barked once!

There is a child gate at the bottom of the stairs, so there's no possibility of her getting up, it's just Rocky going down. The ceiling is very tall and irregular, and it's like an open bannister all the way around the stairs so covering it would be impossible unfortunately. We are managing though, it's just a little impractical. But he comes first of course. He's also eating his seedy mash slowly but surely, we made a big deal of pretend eating and it's been two hours and he's finally eating with mum in the room. I think he likes her

[Pajarita]

You need to handfeed this baby and pronto! You can't allow it not to eat enough for days, my dear. It will get weak and/or develop an eating disorder.

[thesilversakura]

Don't worry, I wasn't going to let it go on for any longer. Even Peach didn't go on hunger strike this long when she went through her Millet Hound phase. I got a spoon and went up there for two hours with the seedy gloop and very slowly he started eating it from the spoon when I held it out to him, then the food bowl itself. When my mother went up he was tucking into regular seed and about a quarter to a half of the gloop is gone. He was calling because he was so darn hungry, he's a lot lot quieter now. Poor baby. He loves sitting on your shoulder or on your finger right next to your face as you talk to him, such a cutie. I'll have to do another round of photos

(it's so strange having a bird in the house with so many different calls, I'm used to the warbling, tweeting and the occasional scream from Peach, but he's already mimicking the dog barking a little bit. When she barks he tweets back loudly in the same rhythm, it sounds completely different to his other calls. It's so much fun!)

[thesilversakura]

Well, Rocky has decided his main interest in life is food. He eats non stop, and I mean non stop. He's started getting loud and calling constantly again, even when we're in the room sometimes. He gets hours and hours out of his cage, and loves to fly. But it's never enough! He's complaining and letting us know

Since he's started eating properly (both seed mix and non gloopy gloop; he just mouthed at the mushy version and wouldn't actually eat it, but he will have the grains mixed without any water so that's a plus) we've started giving him millet occasionally again, he willingly flies to you and goes straight for it. He's doing a lot of lunging and biting though, he's not interested in us whatsoever despite him getting better with trusting.

I've started making him work for the millet; he has to fly to my finger or step up before he gets some as a reward with lots of praise, which he hates. He grumbles at you and lunges for your hand when you try and get him to step up, which he'll only do for millet or he'll move away (I don't force him) - it really does look like annoyance, haha. Do I just continue with the positive reinforcement, getting him more used to us and building trust and hope the biting will stop? He absolutely will not let you touch him, but that's his boundaries at the moment. Doesn't care about anything but food and flying, haha. It's unusual for me because I've heard how Parrotlets can be with bonding and nippyness, but Peach and I bonded very quickly and has very rarely showed any aggression or bite behaviour. It was about a week before she would sit on me for scritches and cuddles, and clamber all over me. I figured cockatiels would be less inclined to bite and lunge, but I was wrong....Every bird is different!

[Pajarita]

Well, tiels are usually parent-raised while plets are hand-raised and that's the difference you are seeing in their behaviors. Parent-raised birds do not see humans as part of their family while hand-raised ones do because of the imprinting. So, with parent-raised birds you need to take your time and put some work into taming them while, with hand-raised, it's just a matter of been there and been kind.

Personally, I would much rather have a parent-raised aviary bird and allow it to be a bird by giving it a companion of its own species than insist on taming a single one into been a companion to me. The reason for my preferences is because the taming process only benefits the human, never the bird (it's highly stressful to them as they are all alone and we are asking them for something that is not in their nature to give) and I never do anything for my benefit, only theirs. Now, I do this out of principle but I have also found that this makes it easier on me on the long run as I end up with healthy, non-aggressive, happy birds with very little effort on my part.

[thesilversakura]

I am so glad it's only a few weeks before quarantine ends and we move, Rocky is much, much more dependent on us than Peach was. We can't go downstairs and leave him for more than 3 hours each day before he starts crying again, it's heartbreaking to hear so we literally spend all day with him out of his cage apart from that time. This morning my mother went out before I was up, he woke me up with his crying. I sat with him and handfed him to make sure he wasn't hungry, he was quiet for half an hour before he sat on top of his cage and called loudly, refusing to come to me and not stepping up (he doesn't step up on me unless I have something he wants, and I didn't want to give him more millet) so I couldn't do a thing except talk to him, which helped but not much. When my mother came home several hours after she left, he was much happier. He flies to her much more readily and loves sitting with her, although he still sits on top of his cage and cries for a while even if she's with him. I think he just wanted to her to come back to be honest.

Is it usual for baby (he's about 12, 13 weeks now) cockatiels to be so attached, is that the right word? It might be because I'm just not used to the loud calls, Peach was mute compared to this but seemed much more content, which is probably due to the way she was reared right? He's eating properly, I made sure of that, so it's not hunger. It's almost like separation anxiety, he has to have someone with him or he's in distress if he's not tired or has a full stomach. He calls to us when we're downstairs, and we talk back to him to reassure him but he doesn't stop crying half the time. I realise it's not reinforcing bad behaviour like it might be for an adult bird, it's obvious he's a baby and needs that attention and companionship. But it is all day long, and my mother can't spend all day in her room like she has been. I can't stay in there for long either as I have to spend time with Peach, and I'm struggling to get the hours of one to one in for each bird because of my studies (I study at home, lots of exams coming up) as well.

I just want nothing more than to make him happy, he's going to have a big bird room and Peach to keep him company when we move house at the end of the month. Thankfully he's settled down now because of the low light, I don't think he had a nap today. I realise it's a very unusual environment for him still, the first 10 or so weeks of his life he had lots of birds to socialise with 24 hours a day. Are we not doing enough, or is there something we're missing?

[Pajarita]

Tiels are highly flock-oriented and normally feel lost without a flock around them. This little one was parent-raised so he knows what it is to have his bird family around him and calls for company because he needs it to feel safe. I don't know what else to tell you except what I already did: regardless of what many people say out there, tiels do better with other tiels.

[thesilversakura]

We are definitely considering getting another cockatiel, in fact it's almost a certainty. The only problem is, he is not DNA sexed, and I would not be comfortable with distressing him and plucking a feather. I'm assuming sexing is necessary before getting another tiel, we do not really want eggs if we can help it . When we find the money, we'll probably take him to the vet if need be and ask them to sex him for us. Are there any rules regarding keeping tiels together, two boys, two girls etc, or do they usually get along regardless of sex? I wouldn't mind keeping a male and female together, if they eventually bond I imagine it would be very beneficial for them. The only problem is eggs, I'm not well versed on it beyond switching real eggs for fake ones....but that's all in good time I guess

[Pajarita]

Well, lutinos are harder to visually sex (same as high pied)... It can be done but you have to wait until after the juvenile molt and better still if you wait until after the full one and they become sexually mature because vocalizations is another factor to take into consideration. Vets can take a bit of the blood they draw for testing and use it for DNAd them so it's just a matter of asking for it when you take him for his first check-up. But, although it is always best for them to have a companion of the opposite gender, tiels are so highly flock oriented and sweet-tempered that they get along with the same gender without a problem. Avoiding reproduction is easy. All you have to do is be prepared and have fake eggs ready and, when you find an egg in the nest, switch it with a fake one. Birds are happy because they are doing what comes natural to them and owners are happy because they don't have to worry about babies. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!