Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi I'm new to this site and cockatiels, we got 2 cockatiels at the beginging of december. We are having a big problem getting them tame, we had to seperate them last week as they were fighting. Since doing this they are a lot happier but still un tameable i would appriciate any suggestions to try to get them tame, everyone says they are easy to do but ours are proving the opposite please please help me

It can take time, but if you`re persistent they`ll get more and more tame every day. It`s a little easier now that they`ve been seperated.

If they haven`t had their wings clipped yet, that`ll make this a lot easier. Don`t attempt this by yourself, though, unless you`ve done it before. Have someone with experience teach you how.

Then I would recommend getting one of them out of the cage and into another room that it`s unfamiliar with. You can either quickly towel it and carry it out of the room or carry the cage into the other room, take off the top of the cage, and flip it outside so he`ll climb out (and then push the cage out of the room once you have the bird out.)

Once you have the bird out of the cage, offer it its favorite treats (millet spray, sunflower seed, etc) and favorite toys, play music, talk to it, sing, etc... Anything to make it get used to you and enjoy spending time with you. Eventually you will try to get it onto your hand, to teach it to step up from hand to hand, and to step down onto objects, and back up onto your hand.

You can also try gently wrapping the bird with a towel (covering the eyes to keep it calm). Expose only the back of the bird`s neck and gently rub the feathers there. If the bird relaxes and enjoys it you can try to move around to the chin and gently rub there, as well. If the bird doesn`t calm down reasonably fast then this is probably too stressful for this particular bird and don`t try to use this particular technique.

I also recommend taking plenty of time during the day to always stop by the cages and say `hi` briefly, whistle a few tunes, sing a few songs... and drop a small treat into a special treat-dish in the cage. They`ll start to associate your visit with good things.

Goodluck!

Thanks for your advice, i shall try putting one in a different room, i do always talk and whistle with them throughtout the day and give them treats, but this seems to not do anything. Also we had them out last night they both ended up back in one cage so i caught one in a towel to transfer it back to it's own cage, i tried to calm it and stroke the back of it's neck, he went mad so i popped him back in his cage, he soon calmed down once he felt safe again, I contacted the pet shop where i got them from and finally found out there age they are between 6-9 months already and have not been handled much, will this be effecting them? can they be tamed at this age? how long do you think it will take to do it, i have 3 children and they are getting very impatient.

Cockatiels of any age can be tamed. I once tamed a blind cockatiel who was over 10 years old and had never been held in his life. But it took months!
There`s no set time-period on how long it takes a bird to tame. It could happen overnight. It could take more then a year. The two cockatiels I have right now came to me as a bonded pair of adult cockatiels that he never been out of their cage in their life. It took a few months to get them to a state that I would call `tame,` and they`re even learning to do tricks now. But neither of them will tolerate much petting or scritching. There`s no guarantee they`ll EVER like petting or scritching.

The kids just have to learn patience, I`m afraid.