Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
my name is Dustin, and I have been a bird lover for a long time, but have just recently aquired the ability to have my own pet cockatiel. He was given to me by a family who needed to get rid of him because of allergy problems. I believe he was well cared for, but not worked w/ or trained at all. He absolutely despises fingers. My only assumption for this absolute hatred would be the children at his previous home sticking their fingers in his cage and teasing him but I am not sure. I just know that if he sees my hands anywhere near the side of his cage, he gapes his mouth open, hisses at me, and follows my hands, and forget reaching into his cage he goes ballistic screaching and running away from me. I have read a lot about taming cockatiels, and know it will be an involved process, but any firsthand advice would be great. Thanks in advance,
-dustin

I also have a male cockatiel who is still wary of fingers, even after all the time we've spent acclimating him to our home. He's been with us almost a year, yet he still gets feisty when we offer a finger he can step onto. So what we do when we have to get him out of his cage, and there isn't time to let him decide on his own to step out, is give him the back of a hand or a forearm to step onto.

In addition, I also wear gardening gloves--the leather kind, not the soft cloth, because he likes to investigate my rings, and he will sometimes misjudge where the metal ends and where my flesh begins.

Finally, we have discovered a lure to get him out. There is a particular shredder toy that he absolutely LOVES. He gets visibly upset when it breaks, so we can get him to come to us by removing the toy, shaking it vigorously in front of his open cage door so he can see it, and he'll usually come running out of his cage and onto an arm so he can get to the toy. A word of warning if you use a similar tactic.. make sure you're not holding onto it with your fingers when he finally reaches it. My boy once misjudged where the toy was and I now have a small scar where he chomped down on my thumb. I now use a string tied around the top of said toy, so my fingers are well out of his reach.

I hope this helps! =)

Patience is of course the biggest must for taming a cockatiel. There are several methods you can use. One is to just work in a small room with the door shut. Open the cage door and let your bird come out to you. If it is the birds decision to come out and you are patient, calm and talk softly then he/she should not startle and you can begin building trust. This is of course a very slow method and will take lots of patience.

The one I usually like to use is the other method described which is basically a bribing or distraction method. As long as your bird has something else it likes to bite or chomp on while it is out of the cage your hands should be safe. A favorite toy, a treat such as millet etc are usually good things to use. I would still suggest not just reaching in a grabbing out the cockatiel because this will definitely scare him and make him more apt to bite but if you lure him out with the treat or toy and let him perch on your hand while talking gently to him he should begin to trust you. Then you can work up to scritches (although some bird just don't seem to like them as much as others). Also if you have a favorite whistle then use this every time you come around your cockatiel. If it hears a familiar whistle each time you are near it should begin to expect this whistle and may even start doing the whistle to call for your attention.