UPDATED :It's happening...this thursday!!

[Elizebird]

EDIT
So out of the blue the father of the girl who owns the bird cancelled all plans through a voicemail to me. It was too much of a hassle, even though I was picking up dropping off and paying for the bird. He said that even though the bird was annoying as hell it was perfectly fine. he also called that a pain in his a** and said that he hated it, but kept around for his kid.
UGHHH so upset.





I can barely remember how this started! But let me see..

I was out to dinner with my cousin, who also owns a tiel, but doesn't know much about birds, and we started talking about plucking. She mentioned she had a friend whose bird self-mutilates. It's ANOTHER cockatiel, and the family found it in a garbage can. They apparently hate it because it's terrified of people. From the photos I saw (it only plucks patches from its chest and wings) its in a small cage with a toy and two round perches. I started going on about how awful the situation was and how it was terrible not to be able to do anything, espcially because the people haven't had any bird experience! But one thing led to another and now the girl and her family are actually loaning me their tiel for a week and a half to see if I can't do anyting for it.

It's coming Thursday. I'll update you guys with photos soon.

If I can make any impact in this week and a half, they've told me I can work with the tiel through August as well (when i'm home.) Its just so little time ... but I figure it's worth a try, right? Am I right...?

Any people with experience with plucking / hand-fearing birds? Any advice? I've been doing a lot of research on my own as well. I didn't really expect this to happen...do you think its worth it? Will I even make an impact?

-Elize

[liz]

Any thing you can do to help is well worth the effort. Bless you for trying to help the little guy. It sounds like he has suffered a really rough life.

[pennyandrocky]

mya was a plucker when i adopted her last. it takes longer than a week to fix if it can be. have they taken it to the vet to rule out medical reasons? if it's not medical keep it so busy with toys,and play it's too tierd to pluck.if you see it plucking don't react ignore the bird leave the room or turn your head away.to get rid of the fear of hands don't reach for the bird let it out and sit with your hand out maybe put it's favorite treat in there and let it take it out on it's own without movig it toward the bird so it learns hands are a good thing.

[liz]

It was found in a garbage can. Then it was put in a small cage with one toy. It had nothing to do. Not only was it trashed but then ignored. (like if you were left in a waiting room for many months with only one magazine - you would be biting your nails and twisting your hair just to have something to do) Therefore you can consider that poor bird as abused and neglected. It needs love and enrichment.

Give it a bigger cage or let it out with new stuff around the cage. Even a paper wad is something new to investigate.

[marie83]

Good on you for trying I'm so pleased there are people like you in the world and I feel really horrible now that this next part is going to sound a bit, or possibly alot, negative.
Can I ask whats going to happen to the bird if your successful? or what if your not successful? Does he go back to them once you've tamed him or do you get to keep him?

From my own experiences of taming several rescue birds, most of them 'tiels, with some of them being terrified to the point that me even being in the same room as them sent them in a wild panic around their cage that a week and a half is not enough to make much impact in most circumstances.
On a more positive note though it is possible to do 'something', but it very much depends on the bird, it's age, if it's been tame in the past but went wild, if it's been abused, if it's just been neglected, its own individual personality, how much time your willing to put in without overdoing it and of course the person working with the bird and what methods they use as to how much your going to achieve.

If the birds very wild, grab a chair and sit as close to the cage as the bird is comfortable without him freaking out, just sit there a while, talk to him but limit eye contact, read out loud to him if you don't know what to say. Edge your chair closer and repeat but don't move forwards until he is completely comfortable with you being there, keep doing it until your right by his cage, but if he freaks out at any point go back a stage or two until he is comfortable again.

Once you can get to his cage and he is completely comfortable then you can start offering him food through the bars. I suggest you use sunflowers given your limited time to succeed with him but if he has a different favorite use that instead. Don't give him this treat at any other time. Usually I wouldn't recommend using such a high fat treat as the only thing he gets rewarded with but in this case one week isn't going to harm him as long as you don't give him too much for too long.
When he is taking treats through the bars do the same but with the door open, don't stick your hand into the cage, let him come to the front. The next step after that is to put a perch on the outside of his cage, right next to the door and lure him with treats outside onto it. Eventually you will be able to lure the bird to step up onto your hand..

It may take a few days or a few years to get to that point where you can get him to step onto you unfortunately. Harlie is the one who has taken longest, it's taken years of patience and hard work to get her to come onto me (about 5 so far), all my others have taken a few months- roughly a year. The important thing to do is never to force anything, everything must be the birds own choice to do to establish trust. record a log for the birds owners to see progress, its ok saying on day 1 he wouldn't let me pick him up and on day 10 he still wouldn't let me pick him up. You need to say actually on day 1 he wouldn't let me in the room but now he lets me sit by his cage and he is really calm. It doesn't seem a big deal but you can say its progress, especially if you explain how you did it.


Sorry this is so long but I really hope you find it useful.

[Elizebird]

Thank you so much everyone. I know that a week and a half is like no time at all - but I will be definitely spending mornings and every second from 3:30 until the night with the bird if I can help it

Pennyandrocky - Thank you so much for the advice. As for the vet trip, I don't think they actually (at this point) care enough for the bird to spend the money / waste the time. I'm thinking it might be boredom. Both parents work often.

Liz - I was sort of thinking along the same lines. Since it's a tiel and the plucking, compared to some, is minimal, I think that a good cage, perches for sore feet, toys (slowly introduced in case the bird is fearful) and a less sugary food (i read this somewhere) would probably be a good start! Thank you so much. (P.S. your amazons sound amazing! )

Marie83 - To answer your first question, which isn't negative at all but very reasonable , is that I am going to give the bird back. The people who own the bird are, as far as I can tell, good people. I mean, the rescued a bird from a garbage can and still have it - and they don't know anything about birds! I'm just hoping to mostly educate them, maybe find some methods that I can pass on, and if I can help the bird in anyway, show them what an awesome animal it is that is worth the time. The only reason the girl 'doesn't like' the bird is because it 'hates' her and won't come out of the cage. Thank you so much for the advice, it is so helpful, and amazing job with your birds, too!