Can you train two old cockatiels?

For Christmas I am getting two 11-12 year old cockatiels, they are coming with a new cage. They have never been handled and currently have lived their entire lives in a smoking home, and they are on a seed only diet; their cage gets cleaned out once a year at the moment. Will they recover from the second hand smoking or will they have respiratory problems for the rest of their lives, and have their lives been cut short because of this? Will it be possible to tame them both or do I just need to let them live out the rest of their lives in the companionship of themselves?

Assuming that they have always been together. i doubt they will tame down much or ever crave human attention. At 12 yrs old they are pretty old as Tiels go. Hard to say about the effects of second hand smoke, obliviously not good for them. Are they 'fearful" of you? I'm sure you could get them to accept treats if not. Being on the seed diet is probably the first thing i would change after they settle into their new home. Loads of good info here about tiels and their diets.
I don't always check this section of the forum but if you need help try PMing me.

Hello and welcome to the forums! It sounds like these two tiels have had a sad life up until now, I'm glad you're giving them a chance at a better life. Eleven and twelve isn't all that old for tiels, many live into their twenties. As henpecked said, the smoke certainly wasn't good for them but it's hard to determine the damage. Getting them into a smoke free environment and clean air is a great thing to do for them. I agree with henpecked, please give them a better diet, that will greatly improve their health and quality of life. All birds are different, but in my experience, cockatiels are very social little birds, they crave human interaction. They are going to love their new life. Good luck and please keep us updated.

Thank you for answering. I will post pictures as soon as I get them, which will be in about two weeks. I will probably post updated pictures for the next few weeks so I can ask and see if others see improvement in feather quality. Will it be okay to bathe them, they've never had a shower before and they are terrified of their owner. I however have walked into the room slowly and they let me get to the cage and change their food without freaking out. Do I need to clip their wings or let them have the freedom of flying about so they don't feel like they are forced to be with me? The doors and windows always stay closed because my budgie's wings aren't clipped. Thank you for your answers and guidence.

Reecemc99 said:

Thank you for answering. I will post pictures as soon as I get them, which will be in about two weeks. I will probably post updated pictures for the next few weeks so I can ask and see if others see improvement in feather quality. Will it be okay to bathe them, they've never had a shower before and they are terrified of their owner. I however have walked into the room slowly and they let me get to the cage and change their food without freaking out. Do I need to clip their wings or let them have the freedom of flying about so they don't feel like they are forced to be with me? The doors and windows always stay closed because my budgie's wings aren't clipped. Thank you for your answers and guidence.

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As to clipping, if they've always been flighted, clipping could possibly be a very bad choice.....and as far as bathing, some 'tiels do & some don't.....in the wild, 'tiels are like many 'keets, prefer shallow dishes as opposed to the full soak tub/dishes my conures prefer.....so offering a separate dish, after they are home & settled should tell you of their preference.....their current flightiness is most likely because you are not flock members...YET.....wait and see how they accept you, clipping can always be done, but if you find you really don't need to clip, once done, you've got to wait around six months for them to become flighted again.....a wait and see attitude might be a good initial approach.....they've had a couple of extra years to get set in their ways and if they're like any of the re-homed birds I've known, they'll be voicing some of their preferred opinions anyway.....

Good luck.....

My Cockatiel, Kiko, came from almost the same conditions as yours. He is about 8 to 10 years old, and for years he lived in a tiny dog kennel that he could [probably] easily slip out olf. He didn't even have a perch, and had to stand on his cuttle bone. Little kids would pull his tail feathers, ect. He was always surrounded by second-hand smoke and was never taken out. He was 'tamed' but not 'hand-tamed'. He wouldn't be extremely afraid as long as we didn't get too close to his cage. He had only eaten seeds.

I have had him for a year and a half. In this amount of time I have transitioned him to eat pellets, birdie bread, broccoli, and a blend of nuts and other healthy related items. He still eats seeds as the main portion to his diet(stubborn little thing), but he also eats other things during the day. Although his wings had never been clipped, I clipped them a month after I adopted him. At first he disliked it, but then he really didn't care. He was actually receiving attention, and could exercise. After all, who wanted un-clipped wings if you were barely ever taken out?

Clipping his wings really helped us bond. He wouldn't try to fly away every time I was near him, and now I can give him a treat with my hand, he will step up on my arm, and I can rub my face against his body. He really hates being touched overall{and never let's me touch him with my hands}, but he loves social interaction.

It took almost a year for him to become fully flighted again, and I don't plan on clipping them again since we have established a bond. If they are too flighty around you, maybe you should consider clipping their wings. Just once. But of course, you do not need to clip them to tame them.

Thank you for your answer, that helped a lot with the decision on clipping. I've read from other sources to let them sit and relax for the first week I have them, and from other sources that I need to play with them away from the cage first to let them know that there are other safe places besides their cage. I have no idea which to do, with my budgie I played with him first and he's everything I could ask for, but he was also a baby not a sexually mature adult that has been in bad conditions for its entire life. What do I do? Last question. Thank you for answering.

If they are bonded it's probably difficult to tame them... But not impossible. I got mine much younger, 2 yo, from sad conditions too (5-6 birds crammed in one little dirty cage outside, parent raised, never handled, etc). He was completely wild and aggressive - he bit me very hard and I let him go in the room when I brought him home, and he smashed into the wall so bad that he was bleeding. He was screaming like crazy driving me nuts. I absolutely had to clip him right away...
Right now, not even 4 month later, he is tame, loving and super cuddly. When it was warm I took him to walks and grocery store with me! He is very silly, but so cute! He still screams, but only if he needs something from me. BTW, he talks too, just a few words. It's amazing what a loving care can do to a bird. So you definitely have a hope.

Kiko did not trust me at all for a while after I got him. For the first week I let him remain in his cage so he could get used to his surroundings, and I sat next to him every day and just talked to him for a while. I was in my room a lot, so that was where I decided to put his cage. Also try eating and sleeping near them. Eating near them encourages them to eat, which they do with their flock, and sleeping usually encouraged Kiko to sleep. And parrots definitely don't sleep next to a predator.

You can tame them without clipping their wings, but in my opinion it's a bit more difficult. Kiko would have nothing to do with me until I clipped his wings. I recommend allowing the feathers to grow out after clipping them the one time.

After Kiko seemed comfortable around me when I sat next to his cage, I opened his cage door and would sit 10 feet away, minding my own business. I learned quickly that he wouldn't step up on anything I held, but a few times I had to force him to by toweling to administer medicine, and then I would place him on his cage. That was occasionally, though. But he realized I wasn't so bad after all, and eventually he would come out on his own. I still can't bring him out, but he will come out to visit me willingly enough if he does it by himself. And this is coming from a bird who was almost never let out of his cage.


He will step up onto his ladder he came with once he's out of the cae, and that's how I move him around. If you respect your parrots boundaries they will love you more for it, and will learn to trust you.

Apart from this, I didn't do much except for spend time with him, reading or using a tablet when he sat next to me. At first he would only eat millet I held{as long as my hand was as far away as it could be}, and gradually he learned to accept a seed or pellet from my finger.

It has been nearly 2 years and the milestones I have accomplished with him has been a large amount. But I still cannot touch him or have my fingers near him, and actually, I'm fine with that. We have a different sort of relationship.

Note~ Taming your Cockatiels might take shorter than this. Just remember to accept the boundaries they are comfortable with at first, and spend a lot of time near them. They will soon learn you are a friend, not a predator.

Thank you, that will help a lot. I have one major concern with bringing these two birds home. I have been researching nicotine addiction in birds and it can cause them to have seizures during the with drawl process. More times than not the bird will die from these seizures, the birds I am getting have been around nicotine their entire lives, their feathers are coated in nicotine, they look greasy and the white face has a yellow tint to white face. Is their anything I can do to help during this process?

This is completely irrelevant to the above topic, but how do you feel about sun conures and apartments?

Kiko had been around smoking for his entire life, and when I brought him home nothing really happened. I don't really know how to solve that so I won't be any help there.

It depends. Sun Conures are extremely loud, and sometimes they scream just for the fun of it. Their screams are very loud, and whenever my Sun Conure screamed on my shoulder, my ears would ring for a while. A Sun Conure scream may bother your neighbors, so you might have to ask them if they mind. I wouldn't recommend a Sun Conure for an apartment, but it has been done and it is possible.

Its a sad story. I would just get the birds to be relaxed near you before doing anything else as has been previously advised. This may take a few days or weeks depending on the birds. Then open the cage door and allow them to leave the cage when they are comfortable. They know where their food is so they will go back into their cage on their own when they're ready, note that this works best in the am before they have eaten. When they are out of their cage you may place a small saucer with water in it in their cage to bath or just have one near their cage. They will bathe when they are feel relaxed and safe. Should they not like bathing (unlikely with Cockatiels) don't fret, the feathers will moult in time and they will have a new set without the nicotine stains. On the odd chance that they refuse to leave their cage, you can try to leave their food 30cm from their cage and leave the door open. An empty stomach is a good motivator. Try a few different things to see what works best for your birds.