Im new here!

[BozidarL]

Hello everyone, nice being a part of this amazing forum. So, Im a 16 yr old from Croatia and I have a cockatiel for almost 2 years now. Its a female Lutino named Sunny. In first few days i let her get used to new home and me and later on, after a few weeks I already trained her to step up and get totally comfortable with my hands, she loved me. She would run around the cage rushing at cage doors when he saw me, she wanted out! But, when she got out she wanted to fly, and she isnt a good flyer. She flyes as close to the ceiling as possible and when she loses strenght she goes down, sometimes even crashes in walls. I was afraid she might get hurt. So, I clipped her wings after months of thinking. Still, I made the worst decision :/. A week ago, I clipped her wings (properly) and now, she doesnt want to go out, I wanna start target training in order for her to know flight recall later on, I dont have a clicker so Im making clicker sound with my mouth . My problem is: shes not motivated to go out of the cage. Im thinking about scheduling her feeding time so she would be hungry when I have time for training her.
Thats it, FOR NOW

[Roonil Wazlib]

Welcome to the forum. Its a great place here

Don't beat yourself up too much about your mistake. The good thing is you have realized it was a mistake, and now we just have to focus on building up her trust in you and confidence in flying again.

Don't cut her wings again. I'm not sure what you'll be able to do if she begins crashing again - the only thing i can suggest is to reward her for flying at a comfortable level, and flying to certain targets around the home - so you have a, b and c perches etc..., reward her with scritches or attention or nuts, etc...when she flys to and lands successfully on the designated perch. If she doesn't, simply don't reward her. Now - this might not help stop her from crashing into things, but she will more likely be motivated to fly to one of the targeted areas in a sensible way to get the reward, over time, you can slowly minimize her rewards until its so engrained that she'll do it automatically.

Shes probably not motivated to come out of the cage because her wings were cut and shes lost some trust in you, and herself.

Start things over with her again. Just the simple things, if she doesn't want to come out of her cage, let her step up on your hand in the cage - if she doesn't want to, don't make her do it, just close the cage and walk away - she learns two things from this - that your not going to force her into doing something she doesn't want to do - you respect her wishes, and she is left alone if she doesn't interact with you. When she does make the decision to get on her hand, you can give her a treat, but don't take her out of the cage unless she's walking up your arm. Do this a couple of times, and maybe after a while you can take her out of the cage doors - but make sure she can get back to her cage with ease - you could rest your hand on the door so she has the option to go back in.

If you have a smart phone, you could probably download an application that will make the sound for you, that way its constantly the same noise.
Target training, and then target flying training will be a fantastic thing for sonny to help build up her confidence in flying again, and help get the strength back in her wings good luck

[BozidarL]

Thanks for the response! Ill try the in cage step up thing.

[Wolf]

Welcome to the forum.
You should have a feeding schedule for Sunny, but not for the reasons that you gave. Parrots are all creatures of habit and since the don't like changes getting up at the same time, eating at the same time interacting with you at the same time and so forth will establish a routine so that she know what to expect to happen at certain times each day and she will adjust to this schedule and start looking forward to these things happening at these times. One of the benefits will be that it will help her to feel more secure and less nervous.
I am sorry to hear that you clipped her wings but this will help to buy her some time to learn to fly, perhaps without crashing so hard as the clipped feathers are replaced. It will take two years for her flight feathers to be fully replace although she will begin to fly some before they are all replaced. Well we all make mistakes, it is what you learn and do once you have made the mistake that matters and you really don't need me to berate you for this so on to bigger and better things.
Lets begin to find out what is happening and going on in Sunny's world. Tell me with as much detail as possible what Sunnys current schedule of events are. Things like the times that she gets up and goes to bed, is she covered at night or not, what times is she fed and what do you feed her at these times, what times do you currently interact with her and what do you do with her during these times. Also it would be valuable to know about her cage, such things as what is the size of the cage what is used for perches, does she have toys in the cage and does she use them or not, placement of the cage especially in relation to human traffic. Are there other animals in the home that we should be aware of?

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum, Bozidart. I hope you like it here and that we can be of service to you and your bird. Yes, clipping her was a mistake. Birds need to fly to be happy and healthy so, please, do let her wings grow back. You can start training for recall but it won't really work much if she cannot fly. As to her crashing, it was either because of bad lighting (birds need good quality and bright light), lack of space (you need to birdproof the room), panic (they all crash when they are spooked) or lack of practice (flying is instinctual but mastering it is a learned skill) so these are all things you can start working on from now so, by the time she grows back some of her feathers, you have everything covered.

[BozidarL]

Hey there guys!
Wolf, I just started thinking about those shedules and school is the mail problem. Here in Croatia, most schools work in 2 shifts, morning one and afternoon one. I go to school one week in the morning and next week afternoon. In the morning I gotta be in school at 7:45 AM and Im home at 2 PM and afternoon I go to school at 1 PM and Im home at 7 PM. The bird wakes up at about 6 AM or so, when my dad wakes up, between 6 and 7 AM, and hes the first one to be at her place, in the living room. She goes to sleep probably in the midnight when everyone goes to sleep. I need to make a schedule so I have 2 training sessions, 1 in the morning and one in the afternoon at 7 PM, but also 3 feeding times like Michael said for parakeets. Thanks for responding both of you! Ill keep in touch.

[Pajarita]

It goes to sleep at midnight and wakes up at 6 am?! OUCH! That's not good at all, my dear.

[BozidarL]

Yeah, I know! This is what i came up with:

7 AM - Waking up
7 - 7:15 - Letting her do wake up rituals
7:15 - 7:25 - first training session
7:25 - 7:55 - first feeding
7:55 - 1:45 PM - no food in the cage
1:45 - 1:55 - second training session
1:55 - 2:25 - second feeding
2:25 - 7- no food in the cage
7 - 7:10 - third training session
7:10 - 7:40 - third feeding
7:40 - taking out the food and moving the cage into sleeping room, sleeping room preparations
8 - letting her go to sleep

I think this is a perfect schedule for Sunny and me because it fits both school shifts.
Let me know what you think about it.

[Wolf]

Very nice work but this may be a great schedule for you but it does little to nothing for your bird. The only thing that is in this schedule that might help your bird is changing the sleeping schedule, none of the birds other needs are even remotely taken into consideration. You don't want there to be any period of time that the bird is without food.
This is not all bad despite what I have just said because it does let us know the scheduling that is best for you and that is a starting point.
You know about you and your family and so you know what will and will not work for you which means that you are the only one that can write out a schedule for this and you do good work. I think that we need to work on the schedule addressing not only your needs but the needs of Sunny. I think that we need to look at what you do know about Sunny, so before we lock this schedule down lets start by you telling me everything you know about cockatiels and we can help you from that point of view by sharing with you what we know that will help you to come up with a better schedule.

[BozidarL]

Alright Wolf, thanks for the feedback. I know that she needs 12 hrs of sleep, its 11 here but it should be okey. I know that they are more of flock type of birds, they stick with their leader rather then looking around the house. I wanted to have 3 of both sessions a day and that when I come back, she is hungry so I could use the millet spray, she loves both m.s. and scrathes but I prefer m.s.. I could leave her the food in those schedules but then my treat woulndt work, right? She wouldnt be hungry and if shes not in cuddling mode she may not want to take that scratch as a treat. I know that training should take max. of 10 min, I read that for training you can leave your bird without the food for 2 - 3 hrs so when you come back you can train it when it is hungrier. If there wasnt school, boy it would be a nice schedule xD
I wanted to to some m.s. training and when done, reward her with food.
Could you tell me what should I change then? Im totally lost and I wanna start training her as soon as possible.