16 Month old Cockatiel

Hiya!

I have 2 cockatiels that are both about 16 months old, male and female. They aren't finger trained but I really would like to finger train them. Is it possible when they are this old or can it only be done when they are really young? Also if anyone has any good tips on training them that would be really helpful!!

Thanks -

Lottie xXxXx[/i]

 

Its best to train birds when they are young but you can also train them (maybe with less success) when they are older. Also you say you have two; if you want to seriously train a bird (talking, do tricks) then you should really only keep one so it can bond with only you. When you have two birds they usually bond more with each other and so are harder to train. Since you only mention finger taming, this shouldnt be a prob.
My advice comes from recent months training my own rescued cockateil Mika. Do your teils take food from your hand? If so, good! If not just hold you hand in the cage/avairy/whatever with a treat. Eventually their hunger will overcome their fear of your hand and they will come over to you to get the treat. After they learn to recognise that your hand means food they will automatically come over when you hand enters the cage, treat or no treat! This stage may take a while to get to so just keep persisting with their favourite treats each day, with each bird separately. When they are comfortable with sitting on your hand inside their cage, you can carefully lift them out and straight away, when they are outside of their cage, give them another treat. If they fly away during the lifting process do not worry. You just have to persist. After they have finished there treat put the back in the cage or let them have a fly around or whatever. When they learn that being lifted out of the cage means food; then they will let themselves be lifted and stay perched whether they recieve their treat or not.
Mika, my bird, is perfectly hand tamed and although in his case it took months, the procedure was well worth the effort at the end of it all.

 

Yeah I argue. I don't wanna be discouraging when I say this even though I have never had tiels but I just might me slightly arder to train them because of age and they are together, but other than thank it shouldn't really be much of an impossible task. Post back if you are getting any success!

 

Hi cockatiels are much easier to tame and train than lets say budgies ( parakeets) As with all animals training takes time and patience.

Start off with simple things like talking calmly to the birds while holding your hand inside the cage do this a few times a day slowly moving closer to them once they are ok with your hand being in the cage and near them then you can move your hand to there chest and hopefully they will step onto your finger dont expect this to happen over night.

Once the hand taming is over and they are comftable coming to you then you can train them to come out of the cage when called mine come out and go in when i tell them to this is a little harder.

But start of with getting them used to your hands the food technique works in some cases but not all so give that a go aswell.

Meeko my baby cockatiel which i hand raised from 3days old will come out of the cage fly straight to me and will sit and watch whatever i am doing which can be annoying at times especially when watching a movie and i have him his parents and 3 other cockatiels sitting on my head and shoulders hehehehehe

Good luck

mike

 

Sorry, I was basing it my personal as well all others experiences with training older budgies, so I guess I can't draw that parrallel between to two species. I was just trying to help.

 

Hi unknown you did nothing wrong you answered to the best of your knownledge and yes you are absolutley correct it is hard work when taming and training any animal.

Glad to see you back hope you have all your computer problems sorted out now.

mike

 

Thnx!!

Ello pplz,

Tnx 4 ya help, i'll try all yr suggestions nd hopefully soon dey wil b sittin on my head too...lol :S, doubt tht sumhow!! O wel u neva no!

Lv Lottie xXxXxXx

 

Training Cockatiels

I have owned and bred Cockatiels for 15 years, and they are still my first recommendation when people ask what kind of parrot to get for a pet. I hope you do not think I am too extreme, but my pet cockatiels and parrots I keep clipped, for safety factors and also taming factors. I clip the first seven or so flight feathers back to be the same length as the secondaries. Those are the feathers that give them the altitude when they flap their wings. It is painless to the bird, and they grow back when they molt out. My cockatiels are more tame and more dependent on me when I clip them. They need you to carry them around, and get almost nowhere when they try to fly. Contact an avian expert that knows how to clip wings, and find a good avian vet. Good luck with trying to be their friend and taming them, but I agree with everyone else that it will be very hard since they are already bonded to each other. Good Luck, Lynelle