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Hello everyone, first post here, thank you so much for having me!!
This is definitely a question that has been asked before but I'm at a crossroads with my boy Mojo here. He's a latino cockatiel (not sexed, but acts like a male in pretty much every way) born on March 24th, 2020 and me and my boyfriend bought him from the breeder about four months ago (so he's still very much a baby). He was hand-tamed when we bought him but wouldn't accept any affection at first. After about a month he started stepping up for both of us like a pro, and became obsessed with head scratches and still accepts both happily. But he's grown so attached to us that he wails whenever we leave the room. He gets at least three or four hours out of the cage every day, if not more, and loves to sit on my shoulder while I do stuff around the house. And I don't reward him and take him out of the cage when he starts wailing, I usually ignore him until he stops and then take him out when he's quiet. This has not helped. As soon as I put him back in his cage he's not even content when he can see us in the room, he needs to be OUT OF HIS CAGE even if he doesn't actually want to receive any physical attention from us. I've even gone so far as to place him in his miniature carry-cage and move him into the bedroom with the door shut to quiet him down. This works sometimes. I don't know what to do because he's not consistent with his demands. And he's way more partial to me than my boyfriend no matter what we do. Even if he's sitting on his shoulder or talking to him, I'll leave the room and Mojo will start wailing AGAIN. The only problem I can think of is that he doesn't have enough toys (I haven't been able to afford many and haven't rotated the ones he has now in a while). I guess my question is...is there any way I can actually, physically TRAIN this bird to be less clingy, or do I just instigate a routine with toys and out-of-cage time that actually shuts him up eventually? He's my first bird and I'll admit sometimes I forget that he doesn't respond to training the way a dog would, and that they're certainly not man's best friend in the same way and sometimes they just won't be pleased.
This is definitely a question that has been asked before but I'm at a crossroads with my boy Mojo here. He's a latino cockatiel (not sexed, but acts like a male in pretty much every way) born on March 24th, 2020 and me and my boyfriend bought him from the breeder about four months ago (so he's still very much a baby). He was hand-tamed when we bought him but wouldn't accept any affection at first. After about a month he started stepping up for both of us like a pro, and became obsessed with head scratches and still accepts both happily. But he's grown so attached to us that he wails whenever we leave the room. He gets at least three or four hours out of the cage every day, if not more, and loves to sit on my shoulder while I do stuff around the house. And I don't reward him and take him out of the cage when he starts wailing, I usually ignore him until he stops and then take him out when he's quiet. This has not helped. As soon as I put him back in his cage he's not even content when he can see us in the room, he needs to be OUT OF HIS CAGE even if he doesn't actually want to receive any physical attention from us. I've even gone so far as to place him in his miniature carry-cage and move him into the bedroom with the door shut to quiet him down. This works sometimes. I don't know what to do because he's not consistent with his demands. And he's way more partial to me than my boyfriend no matter what we do. Even if he's sitting on his shoulder or talking to him, I'll leave the room and Mojo will start wailing AGAIN. The only problem I can think of is that he doesn't have enough toys (I haven't been able to afford many and haven't rotated the ones he has now in a while). I guess my question is...is there any way I can actually, physically TRAIN this bird to be less clingy, or do I just instigate a routine with toys and out-of-cage time that actually shuts him up eventually? He's my first bird and I'll admit sometimes I forget that he doesn't respond to training the way a dog would, and that they're certainly not man's best friend in the same way and sometimes they just won't be pleased.
