[Allison]

My cockatiel loves to play on the top of his cage and whenever I'm home and I have him out all the time. I currently live in a studio apartment (so basically one big room) so I can watch him no matter what I am doing. Whenever it comes time for me to put him back into his cage for the night or because I need to leave my house. He gets mad at me and when I put my finger up he nips me to tell me no because he doesn't want to go back into his cage. Normally I wait about 30 seconds then try again and eventually he will get on my finger and let me put him up. One time I left my finger there even though he was nipping me and eventually he stepped up and let me put him in his cage. Is there any better way to handle this? he is completely fine with coming on my hand and interacting with me but he knows when he is about to go back in his cage and that is when he nips.

 

[Teodorp99]

Mine flies up to my shoulder every time i try. The way i counter this is that i put my thumb on his wings as to stop him from flying upto my shoulder. this usually works well

 

[Janalee]

saying "no" to bedtime

It sounds like your bird is being like a child who doesn't want to go to bed! It seems to me like you're doing fine. He's just nipping, right? Not biting really hard? It's good that you just keep trying and he'll eventually get up and let you put him in his cage. Bennie is a good boy when it comes to bedtime. He usually goes in his cage by himself. I have a "full spectrum" light over his cage. It's on a timer and goes off at about 7:30 PM. Once his light goes out, he usually goes in his cage. It's like he knows the "sun"has gone down and it's time to roost. I usually don't cover his cage right away, but wait about 1/2 hour (like sunset-dusk-dark in the wild).