Joined
·
1 Posts
Hello! :wf pied:
Just over a week ago we brought home a very sweet 9 year old cockatiel from a local parrot sanctuary. His story is that he had an owner and he was fully hand tamed, but then when her husband got cancer, she ran out of time to continue working with him, so his progress with hands has regressed. Being that his situation is rather unique, I am hoping to get some advice on taming him.
Right now he is is scared of hands, primarily inside of the cage. Though he really hesitates and nips at me, he will step up to come out and loves to sit on shoulders. Once out he is very comfortable with faces and his fear of hands subdues. He will very easily step up from one hand to another, but will still be a little resilient if I try to take him off my shoulder, where he feels most comfortable.
When I’m not trying to make him step up (outside of the cage) he’s okay with hands. I can present him toys to play with, he’ll eat out of my hand, and I can scratch his head and cheeks.
I have mainly been working with him outside of the cage, just because the woman who I adopted him from showed me how comfortable he was sitting on shoulders and I knew that would be a good place to start so he would get to know me and come to trust me. I offer him lots of millet from my hand when he’s on my shoulder and he’s been slowly warming up to my scary fingers. I intend to now start working more on getting him comfortable with hands inside the cage, with food and toy prompts.
Just let me know if I’m on the right track, and if you have any additional tips for me. Thanks!
Just over a week ago we brought home a very sweet 9 year old cockatiel from a local parrot sanctuary. His story is that he had an owner and he was fully hand tamed, but then when her husband got cancer, she ran out of time to continue working with him, so his progress with hands has regressed. Being that his situation is rather unique, I am hoping to get some advice on taming him.
Right now he is is scared of hands, primarily inside of the cage. Though he really hesitates and nips at me, he will step up to come out and loves to sit on shoulders. Once out he is very comfortable with faces and his fear of hands subdues. He will very easily step up from one hand to another, but will still be a little resilient if I try to take him off my shoulder, where he feels most comfortable.
When I’m not trying to make him step up (outside of the cage) he’s okay with hands. I can present him toys to play with, he’ll eat out of my hand, and I can scratch his head and cheeks.
I have mainly been working with him outside of the cage, just because the woman who I adopted him from showed me how comfortable he was sitting on shoulders and I knew that would be a good place to start so he would get to know me and come to trust me. I offer him lots of millet from my hand when he’s on my shoulder and he’s been slowly warming up to my scary fingers. I intend to now start working more on getting him comfortable with hands inside the cage, with food and toy prompts.
Just let me know if I’m on the right track, and if you have any additional tips for me. Thanks!
