It'll be best to start out in the vicinity of her cage, since that's the area that she's most familiar with and will feel safest in. She might enjoy the conure's cage later on, if the conure doesn't object. Conures have much bigger beaks than cockatiels so they have a natural advantage in a fight.

BTW I want everyone who buys my babies to be happy with their bird, so the bird can be happy with them. After a month or so if you feel like it's not working out, you do have the option to return her or trade her in for a different baby. Some of the younger chicks are total love sponges right now, although they do go through a lot of stages at this age and a predictable "I'll fly if you try to touch me" stage is coming up.

I would feel bad if I had to give her up, but if I can't seem to get much further than where we are now...



Well I actually managed to get her out of the cage the other night. I tried the gentally scooping method Carolyn talked about.

Well at first, she kept trying to fly away, but with clipped wings, she didn't go very far. I tried doing it "dove style" (the method mentioned on several websites about taming doves. I remembered them because I was actually looking for a diamond dove, when I got Lucy), where I simply wait until she's tired of flying, and getting her to step up onto my hand. I was slow and calm, to try and seem non threatening. It worked... For a few seconds. I lift my hand and then she would fly to the highest platform she could get to.

I tried your method as well parrotwhisperer. I put some sunflower seeds near her, and she ate one of them. She didn't have any more interest in them after that. I did get her to eat one out of my hand... But just the one.

After a while, she somehow got the strength to fly high enough to get on top of the buffet in the kitchen (that's really high up). I managed to get her down, and decided to sit down with her on my chest, and pet her for a bit, while humming a few tunes really softly. She seemed to really enjoy it. However, if I stopped, she would immediately start panicking and try to break free from the hand I was using to hold her down, as if she forgot about enjoying the head scritches she was getting, literally a few seconds ago. I decided to lift my hand off her body, and she climbed up me, and sat on the back of the chair. She didn't object to stepping up, so I got her to step up, and decided to put her back in her cage. Well, I was on my way there, and then she flew on top of my pionus' cage. Finally, I just decided to pick her up and put her back in her cage.



Something good did come out of it, though... She stepped up onto my finger this morning, and while she wasn't willing to go more than few inches from her perch, it's still a "step up" from not stepping onto my finger at all.

Carolyn, the "conure" (aka white capped pionus) cage is actually right next to her cage. They're practically neighbors. Dudley (My pionus) is not the kind that really enjoys the company of another bird, but he doesn't mind them. He used to have a cockatiel best friend, when he was much younger. I've sat cockatiels on top of his cage before, and he doesn't mind them up there (most likely because he can't see them).

I just now noticed that I've still yet to actually show you guys what Dudley looks like. Here's a picture of him. Unlike Lucy, he doesn't mind the camera. He'll actually pose for it.

Sorry for the slight blur. My hands tremble a lot. It's not nervousness. They've always been like that. I'm able to take some really good pictures on good days. Doesn't seem to be one of them, today.

My hands shake too. I wear a wrist brace when I paint so I can actually do it.

I love pionus parrots. They're one of my top 5 favorite birds.

I once fell in love with a bronzed wing pionus at a pet shop who had tons of personality.

If you keep up with what you're doing I think she'll come along nicely. She's learning in little bits and pieces that nothing bad happens to her when she's with you, and the amount of time that she's willing to linger will gradually increase. Cockatiels have an emotional need for a flock, and you are her flock now but she hasn't quite figured that out yet.

So basically everything I did last night? I didn't know that was working. I'm so relieved that it is though. I was afraid that picking her up and taking her out of the cage would make her associate my hand as a bad thing, since it seems like I'm forcing her out. If this is helping her get used to me though, I guess I should keep it up.

Dudley is a grumpy old man that my parents have had for almost 30 years. He is sweet though, just in different ways. He's a bird of few words, but he'll talk. He'll say goodmorning to whoever wakes up first, and he'll make some funny chatter noises. He's also a total goof. Sometimes he'll laugh when certain things happen. I'll sometimes hear him walking on the bottom of the cage, cackling like he's planning something. He has a tendency to drop food when the dog's around (on purpose), or when we're trying to sweep up around his cage. We call it "feeding the land mammals".

A lot of training sites will tell you to not force the bird to do anything and let everything be their own free choice. I can see some merit to this, but on the other hand it can be extremely slow. The bird will have a happier, more interesting life once it's learned that it's safe to come out of the cage and socialize with the humans, so I think there's merit to speeding up the process too as long as you do it gently.

Wild birds don't get to have things their own way all the time, their flockmates will squabble with them and push them away from something that they want like a nice perching place or some desirable food. So they're equipped by nature to cope with minor stresses like this, and a bird isn't likely to be traumatized for life because you made it step up when it didn't really want to. She isn't a wild bird who is trying to flee in panic at the very sight of you, she's just not too sure of whether you're safe or not, and life will be better for both of you once she learns that you are.

When I'm dealing with a new cockatiel that's out of the cage, I find that they step up much better after they've literally been backed into a corner. The bird will keep walking away from me as long as there's open space in front of it, but if I gently herd it toward the corner of the room it will usually step up pretty easily once it gets there, rather than making the extra effort of trying to dodge past me and get out of the corner.

I see. Last time I did that to a bird, he didn't care for my hands being close to him. He was a strange cockatiel, though. Only liked being pet when I held him to my chest. Take my hand off his body, and he was back to biting me.

Well, I actually let Lucy out this morning. I decided to hold and pet her right off the bat, so I sat down with her to my chest. After a while of her "biting" my shirt, she calmed down, and began to enjoy it. I know she's not one for cuddling and head scritches, but I think I've found some of her favorite spots.

I stopped and let her go, and she climbed up to my shoulder. This time though, she was a bit calmer, and started playing with my hair. When I tried to get her to step up onto my hand though, she flew on top of the entertainment center in the living room.

I had to get my dad to get her down, and she flew into the dining room and landed on a bar stool. I got her to step up onto my hand again, and set her on my shoulder. I walked slowly back to her cage, and this time I just squatted down a bit so she could step off on her own. She seemed comfortable up there.

But unfortunately, my mom was about to start cooking, and I didn't want her to fly to the stove while it was being used.



After dinner, maybe I can let her hang out there again. She seemed to enjoy herself.

Shes' definitely starting to feel comfortable with you! If her flying skills are more than you want you can always take another feather on each wing. Cockatiels are very strong flyers and she's had lots of practice to help build up her muscles.

I'd don't find it necessary to clip them more, yet. I usually let her out when it's slightly darker, so she's less likely to look to the windows to flee. We have a window in almost every room, and in the one place where there isn't a window, there is a giant mirror, as well as two smaller mirrors (bathroom), so I try and do it more towards the evening, until she's more familiar with the house. She's actually done pretty well to avoid the windows. When my mom clipped her wings, she didn't clip them enough, and Lucy was still able to fly. When it looked like she was about to hit the window, she turned and flew elsewhere, and ended up perching on the rod that hangs the curtains. I still worry about her possibly flying into them.

I want to try and train her flight recall, once she's more used to me. Having her fly to me when called will serve to be quite convenient. I'll definitely have to start with target training, as well as doing some other tricks.

Well, I let her out of her cage again today. I pet her for a while. She seems to enjoy it for a few minutes, then tries to focus on escaping my (gentle) grip, then rinse and repeat. She's a strange girl... I let her on my shoulder. She played with my hair for a while, and then decided to fly into the kitchen and roost on top of the refrigerator. I was so scared, because the light was on, and there was a ceiling fan. How she avoided it, I don't know (since she had to fly over it), but I'm so grateful she did. I'm usually conscious about that light (the picture of her on the cage earlier today was lit by natural light with the windows in the other rooms), but for some reason I wasn't thinking. I turned the light of after that.

My mom wanted to hold Lucy, so I let her. She's really good with handling birds, specifically smaller ones from cockatiel size and down. Well, Lucy was more bent on trying to get away from her than she was me. Lucy must be getting more used to me.

Later, I decided to give her another chance and let her sit on my shoulder once again (this time the kitchen light was off). She luckily doesn't share her mother's dream of being a cosmic surgeon. However, she does seem to be an aspiring barber, since she decided to climb onto my head and give me a new style. However since I didn't quite agree with her choice of shampoo, I tried to get her to step up, but she decided to fly on top of the entertainment center... Again. I managed to get her off, and she flew to a corner, where I got her to actually step up.

I sat her on top of the couch, and decided to get some fresh millet spray for her. She didn't want me to see her let her guard down, but I know she was going for it, because it fell off the couch.

I got her to step up once more, and put her on my shoulder, then I walked to her cage, and let her sit on the top of it again. I put her millet spray there, and a couple of plastic balls that were originally a part of a hanging toy, but broke off from intense playing with some of our past birds, and became good for foot toys (or throwing toys for birds like cockatiels). She seemed to have no interest with them whatsoever. Better than Dudley's reaction though, which was run away from them and complain (with his bird jibberish). I wonder if she'll eventually become curious at least, and try to mess with them. I've been looking to find use for them. Maybe sticking some millet spray (or just shredded paper for chewing) in them will peak her interest.


(it's dark because of the ceiling fan light, by the way. The little bit of light is coming from the other rooms)

Her beak doesn't do much damage. One bite from Dudley in the past seems to have desensitized me from bites from a beak as small as a cockatiel (Dudley bites HARD). Her talons though, are a different story. I could feel them through the shirt while she was on my shoulder. Also made it uncomfortable when she was on my head.

She is definitely getting more use to you....
Obi is still learning... I take him out of the cage with a soft glove on now... my hands wont always do what I want them too... he's getting more use to us... he says his name and roars like a motor bike... they race along the main road, he's heard them and does the sound.. makes me lol...
he's enriched my life no end..