Taming Fearful/Agressive Class Birds

[Malahak]

Hi, I am new to the forum, and I joined because recently it came to my attention that the birds we keep in our classroom need to be trained, or at least tamed. We are located off campus for a college course in pre-vet medicine, and we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 students and staff. In our third classroom, where we house our indoor animals, a couple ferrets, a chinchilla, a rabbit we are babysitting and some fish, we also keep our birds.
We Have four each cocktiels and parakeets, and they need tamed badly. They are fearful of myself, the teachers, and the other students, and while I have been doing some basic work with them, I thought I would post here for some, if not proffesional, experienced help. I will attempt to include all the details I can.
2 Of the tiels are a pair, and the other two are females, housed in seperate cages. One of our female tiels, (Star) will work with me a bit, And I am just now getting her to accept treats from my hand, with her favorite from a dozen choices being strawberry cheerios. The other female prefers in-shell sunflower seeds, but will only accept them once she is out of her cage, a stressful ordeal for me AND the bird. The male-female pair are completely untamed, and only run around in a panic when i reach in to so much as change their water.
As for our keets, only 1 of them is finger trained, and is terrified of everything up to and including his own shadow once i do get him out. He is too scared to accept treats and only takes comfort in the mirror hanging in his cage (he likes to make out with himself) so much as taking the mirror away sends him into nervous shivers. The other three keets are in the same boat as our tiel pair, being completely terrified of people and sometimes resorting to aggression.
If anyone can give me a hand here big or small, it woul be greatly appreciated.

[Kathleen]

If you haven't already seen it, go here: http://www.TrainedParrot.com/Taming

This guide will give you detailed instructions of the steps to train an aggressive or fearful bird, with photos and videos included to illustrate the steps.

Having the birds as a bonded pair will make it more difficult for you to train them. If you want the training to be most successful, they need to start bonding to other people instead of each other. Putting them in separate cages near each other would make it most successful. Mirrors imitate another bird so the one bird who is attached to its mirror is bonded to an image of itself and if you want training to be successful, you probably need to take it out because again, the bird needs to start bonding to other people.

If you don't already use it, a little food management will make the training successful. Cockatiels and parakeets love millet spray so that should work fine as a treat for all of them. I would buy it in a large stick and then cut off smaller sections to train each bird individually.

Go through that guide and feel free to ask any more questions you might have.

[Malahak]

I have already favorited that site and use it for the more responsive tiels and keet, but my main issue is the fact that with the other keets, i could have a three foot long millet spray (Do they make it that long?) and they still would not see that as a reward. And I can't use the "Disappear from sight" as a reward because the birds dont scream or vocalize or anything, they just run. It is mainly my three other keets that I need help with, since we are about to start breeding and hand raising from the pair. (After all this is a pre-vet course.) Did I mention we are all high school students? Most of us are pretty new to birds, (We are having better luck training the chinchilla.)

[GlassOnion]

I'm thinking that the budgies may be too scared/ untrusting of you to try the millet you offer.
How much human presence are they exposed to? Maybe the best thing to do is have them used to human presence around the cage- have people talk to them by their cage and just taking things slow without trying to touch them or anything. Once they feel comfortable with you approaching their cage, then try offering millet through the bars without trying to push anything more.

[captwest]

If your going to breed some of these birds, taming may not be in your best interest. The wilder birds seem to make better breeders and could also be helpful in teaching students how to handle birds ,as many seen in practice won't be "hand tame".Yes taming will give you great insight into pet birds and even tame birds can breed. However you might want to leave the paired birds alone and use as breeders and they won't be stressed with taming. Breeders usually do better with less human interaction. This might give you a better view into the world of pet birds as breeders and companion birds have many different needs,both will be seen in practice. Just my 2 cents worth, where are you located ? I would also suggest separating the unpaired birds that you wish to tame,it's much harder to tame a flock, and separation will make them more open to human companionship.

[Malahak]

The other birds are already seperated. As for location, we are a high school class in a college pre-vet program located near the blank park zoo in Des Moines, Iowa. It is a bit chilly outside right now.

[captwest]

Iowa ? burrr, bet your ready for spring. Let us know if you have any questions and good luck.

[Malahak]

After two twenty minute sessions over the weekend and a single fifteen minute session this morning, I have my favorite tiel Star stepping up after a bit of coaxing. The hardest part for her is the initial step up out of the cage. After that she seems just fine, accepting treats of all kinds from my fingers. She still sees to consider those strawberry cheerios as a favorite though.Still won't let me pet her though. But that can come later, and gradually.
The other birds, however, are still irking me. Our one tame parakeet is still suffering from the loss of his own reflection to make out with, and he is making excurtiatingly slow progress with myself and a few other students. Our second female tiel is starting to fear fingers (at least the ones bearing sunflower seeds and millet) a bit less. Our other three keets however, still blatantly refuse to accept any knid of treat fed through the bars, and are still doing the insane panic flight when i change their food/water. As for the breeders, we have decided to take the given advice and use them as just that, breeders.