Taming of the Tiel

Day 1 Sat 28th July

I bought Lea home today, she was a very scared and timid little tiel, confused about the journey that she had to go through over the past 2 days, she had been bought into the pet shop the day before, so in 2 days she went from her parents, aviary, into a small cage with her sister, then a car ride in my little travel cage and into my home.
I didn't want her cage to be her protective environment, I wanted it to be me, and I wanted to be her comfort, so instead of putting her straight into her cage, I picked her up (copping an extremely hard bite in the process - my finger bled for ages ) I cupped her in my hands and held her close to my body, quietly talking to her, calling her name and stroking her back and comforting her. She sat there but struggled a bit, so I wrapped her up in a little hand towel and zipped her up under my jacket, leaving her head poking out.

I laid on the couch for about half an hour, and we both had a little nap. The whole time she was tucked in my jacket, and I cupped my hand around her and held her protectively. She would occasionally say a little peep or squeak and I fell in love! I got up and walked around and did some chores, still with Lea tucked into my jacket warm and protected.

When I felt she had been in there long enough, I took her out of my jacket and sat on the couch with her sitting on my chest. I slowly took away my hand and she sat there, still wrapped in her towel. I loosened the towel and she still sat there, all the time I was talking to her and stroking her and of course scritching her head A short time later I took the towel away and let her sit there, unheld to see if she would stay there of her own accord. She did. She was quite happy to sit there!!

I let her explore then. She walked up my chest and sat on my shoulder for a while, then she walked across the back of the couch, just checking out her environment. I offered her my finger to teach her to step up, at first she attacked it, biting me but nowhere near as hard as the first bite, and I constantly ignored it and pressed my finger against her belly - eventually, she stepped up and I praised her with lots of cheering!

For the rest of the day she rode around on my fingers and shoulder, I stopped every now and again and put her down to let her explore, then to practice stepping up. She would still attack my finger when I offered to her to step up. Everytime I put my finger to her I would say up! When she would actually step up I praised her heaps! She seemed to enjoy this! I put her in her cage for the first time once I had it set up properly so she could get used to it. She sat in the corner and wouldn't move She looked so confused. I hadn't bought any tiel seed at this stage so I put some budgie seed in but she didn't touch it. She didn't explore, chew or sit on her perch.

When I decided to let her out again I put my hand in the cage and she freaked out, hissed and bit at my hand (again not hard) and she wouldn't step up. I picked her up and carried her out of the cage, then sat her on my finger and praised her. I sat her on my shoulder and carried her around. I spent most of the day just carrying her and trying to scratch her head. When I put her to bed I still hadn't seen her eat her food or drink any water, but I felt as a whole I had made some progress, mainly with her occasionally letting me scratch her head and her riding around on my shoulders and head!