Hello there!

[Hannerz]

Hi everybody! I am a first-time cockatiel owner, a little earlier than expected. I decided I wanted to get one in the near future and did a bunch of research on them. A few weeks later, a cockatiel simply appeared in our yard. We've searched high and low for the owners both out in the world and online, but it's been a couple weeks and we haven't found any leads. We're continuing to keep an eye out, and I will absolutely return the bird to the owners of we manage to find them, but at least for now I have a cockatiel! A cockatiel that only likes to eat junk food, is extremely scared of everybody, and got violent on the handful of occasions when we had to handle it. Which makes me think the owners may not want to find it, sadly.

I'm here to soak up as much knowledge as I can so that I can care for the cockatiel to the best of my ability. And to do bird-related things that can help me to be patient while I work on getting this cockatiel tamed... Right now I'm ignoring it as much as is possible to let it get used to me. It's too stressed out by me being around to do much else yet.

[Wolf]

Well first thing is that I would like to thank you for taking this bird in, as well as for trying to find its owners. I would also like to welcome you to the forum.
Would you tell me more about the birds junk food preferences as well as what you are trying to feed it now.
Instead of ignoring the bird try entering the room and stopping for a minute, watch the bird from the corner of your eye so as to not appear like a predator to it and see if you can tell if it is nervous or relaxed with you just inside the room. Read this to help you understand its body language http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww15eii.htm
It the bird is relaxed slowly move towards the cage, while talking to the bird. Do not go straight towards the cage, use some round about way of approaching it and stop when the bird gets nervous. Keep talking to the bird, the whole time you are in the room, watch for it to relax again and then move closer again, stopping when the bird shows that it is nervous and approaching when it relaxes. Spend about 15 minutes doing this, up to 3 or four times a day until you are finally at the cage and then offer it a couple of bites from a sprig of millet, and keep on talking.
This will help to calm the bird while showing it that you are listening to it, which is very important to a bird. It will also help the bird to get used to your presence and your voice will help to get the bird accustomed to you and to reassure it that you mean it no harm.
Also in addition to this try to just hang out with the bird in the same room with you while you watch TV or listen to radio( they like music). It may take some time to earn its trust.
Post pictures when you can and keep us updated about the bird and we will try to help you with this. I do not know how much you do or do not know about birds so I am approaching this as if you have no experience, I mean no disrespect by doing this.

[Jhaynes1230]

I second everything said by Wolf. Thanks so much for attempting to find the owner and for trying to learn as much as you can. Based on what you have told us you are probably right about the owners. It looks as if the bird may have unknowingly founds itself a better home. Good luck and let us know how you and the bird are progressing.

Jeff

[Hannerz]

Thank you for the welcome and advice!

As far as food preferences, it only eats seeds and bread (which I have now read is actually ok in moderation if it is whole wheat). I have pellets in there but it hasn't tried any yet. I've offered it a few veggies that it hasn't touched and I had to take out. I got some treats that are basically bits of fruit rolled in seeds and put some of those with its food in hopes that it would be "tricked" into eating something different. I found one at the bottom of the cage later on. It looked like that cockatiel dropped it as soon as it got to the fruit beyond the seed layer of the part it started eating first. It hasn't touched any of the others. It will eat some millet if I put it in, but doesn't get particularly excited about it. It seems most interested in bread, which is the only food it has even considered coming close to me to get. I've been giving it a mix of pellets and seeds in its food bowl, sometimes with a treat ball thrown in, sometimes not. I haven't been offering veggies the last two or three days because I need to make a trip to the grocery store... Any recommendations for what I could get that would be most enticing? I've only offered bread twice.

I've done plenty of observing, I don't think I'm capable of ignoring the cockatiel 100%! It seems to be marginally more relaxed the past two days. I'll start with behavior until now and then say what's improved/changed.

Until yesterday its crest has almost always been straight up. That only changed when it would flatten it aggressively and flutter all over in a screaming panic when we had to reach in to change bowls, clean the cage, or handle it. Two days ago we moved it into a proper birdcage with doors for the bowls and a tray, so I don't need to reach inside anymore. When I would walk by, even if it wasn't very close, it would usually shuffle to the far end of the cage from me. Sometimes my walking by would send it into a panic and it would instead go flapping and screaming to the other end of the cage. Once there it often did a slight swaying motion. It frequently made itself skinny when people were around. It seemed to always be trembling, but I supposed that could be breathing? I haven't been able to find any solid answers on that so far. It does seem to like eating when I eat, which I think is promising. One thing I haven't been able to find much info on is a weird repetitive motion it would do for several minutes at a time. It would take a step towards the wall, put a foot on it, turn around on the perch, take a step away from the wall, and repeat over and over. It hasn't done that at all in the new cage though.

As of yesterday, the cockatiel is opting to hiss at me when I walk by instead of getting as far away as it can. I have also caught it with its crest in a slightly more relaxed position a couple times (still mostly up, but not maxed out), but it goes straight back up a moment later when it realizes I'm glancing from across the room. It has panicked once, but that's it. It is starting to show some interest in its surroundings, mostly the window and the tv. I caught it craning its neck all around to get a good view of the tv when I spied on it through my phone's camera earlier today, and it spends a good deal of time looking out the window. It chirps sometimes when I am not in the room. It stands by its food bowl 98% of the time and pretty much only moves to get to its water.

I have been hanging out in the same room a lot, which seems to be helping. I'm not entirely sure how to go about the gradually moving closer thing though. In that context, does relaxed mean "comfortable" or "not on red alert"? I have yet to see it ever get comfortably relaxed, but it does leave red alert state now.

Wolf, I am not offended at all. Personalized and detailed advice like you gave is exactly what I need right now. I have a good deal of experience with chickens, and while I reckon that helps to some small extent, this is my first "pet" bird and they are extremely different. Beyond that, all I've done is hold friendly birds on a handful of occasions years ago, which also doesn't mean much of anything.

Here's a photo of it from today:

Not the best, but I don't have much else and I didn't want to freak it out by lingering to get a better shot.

Sorry this is so long! I wanted to include as many details as I could so you all could get the best impression of the situation I could give you. Thanks so much for your thoughts!

[Wolf]

I don't want any of this to sound like I am trying to find fault, although in a way that is exactly what I am doing as I am trying to find the things that need to be changed to make it better for the bird as quickly as possible, but I don't mean it badly. I also look for ways to encourage you with what you are doing.
I know that you just got this cage, but I am not convinced that if you had help at the pet store or where you bought it at that they gave you the right information and for that reason could you tell me the size of the cage? In the photo it looks a bit small for this bird, so I am just checking on this. The perches are basically dowel rods with a slit in the end and due to the fact that they are perfectly round, they are bad for the birds feet. There are several ways to deal with this such as replacing them with new perches from online or from the pet store and we can help you with choosing the right type of them, or you could whittle some scallops all over the current perches to change the shape. Not a big rush on this but it does need to be addressed. A perfectly round perch always puts the pressure in the same spot of the birds feet and can cause bumblefoot, which can cripple the birds feet. Since I only have the one picture to go by the cage size may be an optical illusion.
Diet for your new friend. I think that the best way to approach this is to tell you what I feed my birds and when I feed them and then we can go from there.
When my birds wake up around sun rise I first give them a fresh raw vegetable, a fresh fruit and a leafy green. You can try sweet corn, sweet peas, carrots but stay away from avocado and rhubarb for vegetables, most any green leafy vegetable except for spinach and iceburg lettuce. I would try blueberries, apple without the seeds, maybe cantelope or watermelon. Here is a vey good list of foods and other items that are toxic and non toxic for your bird, the list begins on the second page of the link viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521
I, then give them a cooked mixture of whole grains ( 40%), cooked mixed vegetable (40%) from freezer section and cooked white beans and lentils ( 20%). I give this about an hour after I give the fresh foods and I give enough of both this food and fresh foods to last until dinner. Dinner is given around dusk or at this time of the year about 6 pm and it is a mix of seeds without sunflower seeds. The seed mix for yours could be a budgie mix and is removed after the bird goes to sleep for the night. Although there is some controversity over pellets I don't use them at all.
The reason for the fresh foods first is because it is the time that the bird is the hungriest so it is more likely to try some. Birds don't eat when they are sleeping so I remove the seeds at night so that the first food that it has is the fresh foods.
Ok, I have things going on at the moment so I will have to return to finish with this in a little while.

[Hannerz]

The cage is 30 1/2" wide x 18" deep x 34" tall. I think it does look a bit smaller than that in the photo.

The dowels certainly aren't great, they're just what came with the cage. I only just decided that the bird will be mine until further notice, so the set-up is not complete by any means. I would love to hear your recommendations if it isn't too much trouble, and if you can think of any other things I should pick up while I'm at it, feel free to let me know. You won't offend me, I know I'm not anywhere close to done here and that I have a lot I need to learn.

Sounds like I need to do more reading up on diet and nutrition so I can form an educated opinion on pellets. I'll get some of the veggies you mentioned and see if the cockatiel will give any of them a try. I've been leaving the bowl of food in the cage around the clock, so that's another thing I'll change. I had a big "duh" moment when you described that. It makes a lot of sense to feed on a schedule and not make it possible to always choose seeds over everything else.

[Pajarita]

And I join the chorus of thank yous for taking it in and also welcome you to the forum.

You have a very pretty little girl there, Hannerz, and although I worry that she is so skittish, it's nothing that cannot be taken care of. Now, as to her been so scared... how high is the cage and where is it placed? These two things go a looooong way in making them feel safe and not scared so, please, make sure the middle of the cage is at your eye level when you are standing up and that it's against a wall (a corner is even better). Birds that are not tame see men as predators so height and 'walls' that would prevent the predator from reaching it will make her feel safe. This does not need to be a permanent placement but, for now, it's necessary. Wolf is correct in the manner of approach, never stare, never go straight for the bird, these are predator behaviors so look at her out of the corner of your eye and, when you see she tenses up (and this will happen way before she starts to hiss, mind you), stop immediately and take a step back. This will be the distance from which you will talk/sing/whistle to her so as to get her used to your presence and make her realize that you present no danger whatsoever to her. Give her time to get used to her new home, new routines (VERY important to have daily routines that are always the same and at the same time, it relieves them of the stress of the unknown) and you. This is obviously a cockatiel that was parent-raised and lived with much contact with people so you will have to start from scratch and that means A LOT of patience. The good news? Tiels are the sweetest birds and the most mild-mannered and very easy to tame.

As to diet, try cooking some whole grains for her. Whole Foods sells them in bulk but regular supermarkets have a nice selection nowadays (brown/black/red rice, barley, wheat, oatgroats or steel cut oats, if you can't find the whole oats, quinoa, millet, etc) and start offering her the grains on a white paper plate at the bottom of the cage (tiels are ground foragers and granivores so this is right up her alley). Once you see she is eating the grains, you can start adding veggies to them -start with sweet corn, they love it! They are also great eaters of leafy greens so a selection as large as possible is good for them (lettuce, chicory, escarole, celery, broccoli, dandelion greens, kale, etc but no spinach or collard greens -too high in oxalates). Getting a seed junkie used to a good diet takes time but tiels are easy compared to other species.

[Hannerz]

Thank you, Pajarita, for jumping in with your welcome and thoughts on the situation! I'm so surprised to see and grateful for all the thoughtfully written pieces of advice I've been given here.

Do you think it's a girl? Or were you just using "she" in place of "it" of "he"? I kept going back and forth between male and female and finally concluded I just wouldn't know for sure until I had the results of a blood test or it laid an egg. Somehow I didn't even think to ask the opinion of people here.

The cage is in a corner and the top of it is at about eye level. I can only safely raise it about 6" at the moment, but that would involve moving it to a place where I would have to walk by it more often than I have to now. Earlier today I rearranged some furniture so I could also put it in a different corner that I don't have to walk past, allowing me to start respecting the bird's space more than room and furniture arrangements have permitted so far. At the moment, I have no way to safely elevate it over there. Finding a way might take a few days, but I could probably do it. The cage just doesn't lend itself to easy height changes... It sits on a stand that only holds it up at the corners and the stand itself is on wheels. So elevating the stand with the cage or the cage above the stand are not very safe options. As unlikely as it is for the stand to roll off of whatever I put it on if I am very careful, I would rather not risk it. The poor bird has been through more than enough stress and trauma lately. I haven't moved the cage yet, and I would really appreciate it if any of you weighed in on what course of action you think is best, if any stood out to you.

I definitely have to work on forming a routine. What with it being summer and my work hours being "eh, whatever, so long as things get done," even my own routine has been total garbage lately. This is great motivation to get it more structured and back on track!

I'm glad to hear that cockatiels are easier than many other species, as this is my first bird. I've worked with enough fearful and needy animals that I don't think patience will be a big problem for me, just the little blunders that go along with figuring out a new kind of animal. I aim to dodge as many of them as I can, of course, but I know I'm not perfect.

I wasn't able to make a grocery run today, so first thing tomorrow I will be taking a trip to get some food for the bird. Thank you for the tips on getting the diet started, Pajarita. Fingers crossed that they help my very picky eater expand their horizons! Wolf, I read through the food list you linked and it was fantastically thorough. I'll probably end up wandering the produce section with that page up on my phone many times in the future. Thank you!

[Pajarita]

If the cage is already almost at your eye level, it should be fine. And, although when it comes to pied tiels, nobody can be 100% sure of the gender, I would say that I am 99% sure it's a girl because she has pearls, the position of her body when she perches, the face yellow patch ends with her orange spot and the orange spot has grey mixed in, all female characteristics. She is absolutely beautiful, by the way!

[Wolf]

I apologise for just leaving you hanging for so long, it was not intentional. I had company arrive for an impromptu BBQ on the patio, since id was a bit blustery and then after it was over I had a reaction to my meds that put me out of commission until this morning. Good thing this is a forum and there are others here willing to jump right in and help.