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So we have 2 cockatiels. The female, Charcoal, we got about a year ago and she was just old enough for us to take her home when we got her. We got her from a proper bird place and were assured she had been hand fed and raised and she is a wonderful bird. We let her wings grow back out (came clipped) as we have a cat and 2 very young children and she is a loving creature. Sits on our shoulders, eats our food (safe food) and likes to sleep on us.
The second cockatiel, car alarm (a male, sounds like a car alarm, yells a lot) we got around 6 months ago. We decided we wanted Charcoal to have a companion despite being out of the cage 90% of the time and because one of the main reasons my other half wanted a bird was for the singing and copying and the females do not do that, just the males. We got him from another place that deals almost exclusively in birds but what we did not know at the time is that the location buys birds from literally anyone who walks in and does not ask any questions. We had the bird for 5.5 months and he was NOT friendly. Hissed if you got within 10 feet, bit and broke skin if you got close enough, is not friendly with Charcoal for the most part but he will yell indefinately if the female leaves his sight while flying around the house until she comes back within sight. We looked up lots of advice and such online but none of it worked, so we finally took him to a vet (we are very tight on money, taking him to the vet literally required us to get a loan from the bank or we would have done so earlier.) and got some answers.
Turns out he is a whole year older than the store told us, and is small for his age because he was terribly abused by the original owner. He was not fed properly and kept malnurished, physically abused and his wings were cut badly. The vet told us that is likely why he hates people so much and also that he may never fly again. We were also told that his growth is likely perma stunted and that he may die in the next few years because, but they could not tell us for sure, his insides may grow faster than his body and kill him. That is fucking horrible. I love car alarm and try hard to have him love me and us back.
I am wondering if anyone here has any good advice to try and get a seriously abused bird to trust humans again. Thanks for reading and for any useful responses.
The second cockatiel, car alarm (a male, sounds like a car alarm, yells a lot) we got around 6 months ago. We decided we wanted Charcoal to have a companion despite being out of the cage 90% of the time and because one of the main reasons my other half wanted a bird was for the singing and copying and the females do not do that, just the males. We got him from another place that deals almost exclusively in birds but what we did not know at the time is that the location buys birds from literally anyone who walks in and does not ask any questions. We had the bird for 5.5 months and he was NOT friendly. Hissed if you got within 10 feet, bit and broke skin if you got close enough, is not friendly with Charcoal for the most part but he will yell indefinately if the female leaves his sight while flying around the house until she comes back within sight. We looked up lots of advice and such online but none of it worked, so we finally took him to a vet (we are very tight on money, taking him to the vet literally required us to get a loan from the bank or we would have done so earlier.) and got some answers.
Turns out he is a whole year older than the store told us, and is small for his age because he was terribly abused by the original owner. He was not fed properly and kept malnurished, physically abused and his wings were cut badly. The vet told us that is likely why he hates people so much and also that he may never fly again. We were also told that his growth is likely perma stunted and that he may die in the next few years because, but they could not tell us for sure, his insides may grow faster than his body and kill him. That is fucking horrible. I love car alarm and try hard to have him love me and us back.
I am wondering if anyone here has any good advice to try and get a seriously abused bird to trust humans again. Thanks for reading and for any useful responses.