Aggressive cockatiel taming advice

Hi fellow bird owners.
First off, this is my first time owning a cockatiel. I've had budgies my whole life and tamed them myself. I'm giving details so maybe you could help me understand what I did wrong.
So, I bought him about 3 weeks ago from a breeder who said the bird was 3 months old although I'm not really sure. I put him in a cage which is not too big nor small for him and he spent the first 3 days hiding in a corner. Every time I approached him he'd just cling to the bars so I didn't really want to intimidate him.
Then he started vocalizing, making different sounds like whistling but mostly just screaming. I have been spending some time in front of his cage talking to him and he didn't seem scared anymore.
Some time later I tried giving him a toothpick (holding it with my hands) and he liked it. He didn't realize those were my hands through the bars though.
We filled his feeder with different fruit bits to find out what he likes, and now we put them them between the bars so he could eat them anytime.
But that's the problem now - he seems so comfortable in his cage he gets angry when we approach him. He lives in my room and sometimes when I look at him he starts screeching angrily (not every time though, but it does happen when I come near his cage, like some days when he's in a bad mood (?) ). When he gets out he sits on top of his cage and rarely, RARELY agrees to pick the toothpick from my hands (he can be chewing it for some time but then he suddenly realizes AAA IT'S HER HANDS!). One time I handfeeded him but it took him a long time to realize that those were my hands. He'd eat some seeds then just stare at my hand, scared, and hiss at it. And run away.
Mostly he just hisses at me. If he's inside he hisses and attacks the bars with his beak. Ofc I don't bother him after he does that, nor do I raise my voice. He just doesn't seem hospitable, never.
When he's outside I bring him his perch and ask to step up, but he just looks at it for a second and then pays no attention to it.
One more thing - he often stretches his wings, sometimes when he's upside down. I've read it's a sign of superiority, like he wants to show it's his territory. I tried taking his cage to another room to check if he feels at home there. I expected him to be scared but he just kept hissing at me and biting the bars. He just acts like he's the king, and seems to be rather aggressive than scared.

Honestly, at this point I don't know how to act around him. Should I not approach him at all to see if he becomes bored/ interested? I feel like the more time he spends in his cage, the more he thinks he doesn't need anything else/ anyone around him.
Please help me with advice - how can I let him know there are other interesting things outside his cage? Is there a way to make him less aggressive towards my hands and myself?

bribery bribery bribery

find his favourite food, the first thing he'll go for and remove it from his diet. Then hold it on your fingertip through the bars. whenever he eats it either use a clicker or just say "good" or something similar, keep things consistent. Essentially you want your hands associated with that treat and nothing else. It can take a while to get them calm but it should eventually work. Not approaching will just make him disassociate more, read to him, move glacial around him and make everything positive.

Now when you bring the perch do you give him incentive to climb? I know I wouldn't bother doing something without some obvious benefit to me, hold his treat just out of his reach when you want him to step up, he'll naturally climb up onto the perch. when he does give the command, you need to associate the action with the word so then he knows that the command means that action and doing that action when hearing that means a treat.

I do have to question if you think the breeder would lie about his age why you would buy from that breeder? Also what does the breeder have to gain from lying about the age? If an older bird that's been around birds they sell for about the same amount as a baby, you'll get breeders buying the older bird and pet owners looking for a baby. the only difference in price really is for a hand-reared baby over a parent reared baby and a proven adult over an adult that's never had young but even then the difference isn't that much

Hi there,

it sounds like your cockatiel may have been parent-raised, or was not socialized very well with people. Most breeders choose to hand-feed the birds by taking them out as babies around the two-week age mark and feeding them formula after that until they are weaned. They learn to trust people and are usually very friendly towards people. Your bird does not sound like it was hand-fed, or was poorly socialized from this breeder.

This is most likely why your young cockatiel is backing up to the cage, hissing, and biting at the bars when you approach. It's also likely he's claimed his cage as his turf and when you approach him, you are invading his space.

This is where the hard work comes in for you. You seem to have been doing all the right things so far, and it's obvious this bird does not trust you (or people at all). So your job is to show your new bird that it can trust you. The more you work with your bird on this, the more likely you are to gaining its trust. Make every single encounter a positive one. However, I will say that some birds that have not been raised around humans may never truly come around and become tame, and may always be afraid of people. Do you know if this baby was handled by the breeder very much as it weaned?

Oh also, with birds no such thing as superiority or dominating or whatever. I've read into exactly that so much and from what I have read and seen and heard it just doesn't exist. They have threat displays like (go away now) and they do get territorial but they don't dominate, it's just not how a flock works socially

mistyday said:

One time I handfeeded him

Click to expand...

oh. handfed. I apologize.

LordTriggs said:

bribery bribery bribery

find his favourite food, the first thing he'll go for and remove it from his diet. Then hold it on your fingertip through the bars. whenever he eats it either use a clicker or just say "good" or something similar, keep things consistent. Essentially you want your hands associated with that treat and nothing else. It can take a while to get them calm but it should eventually work. Not approaching will just make him disassociate more, read to him, move glacial around him and make everything positive.

Now when you bring the perch do you give him incentive to climb? I know I wouldn't bother doing something without some obvious benefit to me, hold his treat just out of his reach when you want him to step up, he'll naturally climb up onto the perch. when he does give the command, you need to associate the action with the word so then he knows that the command means that action and doing that action when hearing that means a treat.

I do have to question if you think the breeder would lie about his age why you would buy from that breeder? Also what does the breeder have to gain from lying about the age? If an older bird that's been around birds they sell for about the same amount as a baby, you'll get breeders buying the older bird and pet owners looking for a baby. the only difference in price really is for a hand-reared baby over a parent reared baby and a proven adult over an adult that's never had young but even then the difference isn't that much

Click to expand...

that's the point. I've figured out he likes grapes & especially the branches, so I attached one to the perch and asked to step up. he recognized it, tried to get it but realized he can't and just became unamused again. he didn't really try to do anything about it, he didn't look like he minded getting nothing.
about the breeder - I honestly have no idea, I thought he looked different from those 2-3 months old cockatiels I had seen before. that's just me, I end up questioning everything.
thank you for your advice! I will remove the treat from his cage now. I thought of doing so but kinda pitied him haha.

itzjbean said:

Hi there,

it sounds like your cockatiel may have been parent-raised, or was not socialized very well with people. Most breeders choose to hand-feed the birds by taking them out as babies around the two-week age mark and feeding them formula after that until they are weaned. They learn to trust people and are usually very friendly towards people. Your bird does not sound like it was hand-fed, or was poorly socialized from this breeder.

This is most likely why your young cockatiel is backing up to the cage, hissing, and biting at the bars when you approach. It's also likely he's claimed his cage as his turf and when you approach him, you are invading his space.

This is where the hard work comes in for you. You seem to have been doing all the right things so far, and it's obvious this bird does not trust you (or people at all). So your job is to show your new bird that it can trust you. The more you work with your bird on this, the more likely you are to gaining its trust. Make every single encounter a positive one. However, I will say that some birds that have not been raised around humans may never truly come around and become tame, and may always be afraid of people. Do you know if this baby was handled by the breeder very much as it weaned?

Click to expand...

the breeder said all their birds were parent-raised, otherwise I don't think he'd act that way now. she also mentioned she didn't bother taming them. my bird lived in a cage that was rather too small for him and was surrounded by other cockatiels (his parents and a few more) but I wouldn't say he looked oppressed or scared, even when I approached him for the first time.
thanks for your advice! yeah, sadly not all of them are tame in the end. but I decided not to give up just yet

mistyday said:

itzjbean said:

Hi there,

it sounds like your cockatiel may have been parent-raised, or was not socialized very well with people. Most breeders choose to hand-feed the birds by taking them out as babies around the two-week age mark and feeding them formula after that until they are weaned. They learn to trust people and are usually very friendly towards people. Your bird does not sound like it was hand-fed, or was poorly socialized from this breeder.

This is most likely why your young cockatiel is backing up to the cage, hissing, and biting at the bars when you approach. It's also likely he's claimed his cage as his turf and when you approach him, you are invading his space.

This is where the hard work comes in for you. You seem to have been doing all the right things so far, and it's obvious this bird does not trust you (or people at all). So your job is to show your new bird that it can trust you. The more you work with your bird on this, the more likely you are to gaining its trust. Make every single encounter a positive one. However, I will say that some birds that have not been raised around humans may never truly come around and become tame, and may always be afraid of people. Do you know if this baby was handled by the breeder very much as it weaned?

Click to expand...

the breeder said all their birds were parent-raised, otherwise I don't think he'd act that way now. she also mentioned she didn't bother taming them. my bird lived in a cage that was rather too small for him and was surrounded by other cockatiels (his parents and a few more) but I wouldn't say he looked oppressed or scared, even when I approached him for the first time.
thanks for your advice! yeah, sadly not all of them are tame in the end. but I decided not to give up just yet

Click to expand...

I can tell you from experience a parent reared bird can be a great companion. It takes a little more time but if they decide to try you the bond they get is for life. My first Conure was parent reared and he was amazing, he just needed time to decide he wanted to be my friend.

What I did was poured a load of seed into my hand and just held it in the cage whilst reading a book out loud, not even watching him. He had the choice to come over at all times and after a couple days of this began enjoying the sight of me. and would come over to the side of the cage I was on. When I started letting him out I actually paid him no attention at all and let him figure things out. A couple days exploring and getting used to things he decided to fly to me. From then on he decided I was a friend.

Try exploring that avenue and like I say just let him choose

Hi sorry to bother you so long after your original post i was just wandering how your cockatiel is now its just that i have exactly the same issue as what you had, ive been trying to look for best ways to tame an aggressive cockatiel and found your post on this forum, i too have had budgies and a singing canary which have been easy to earn their trust however this male cockatiel (as told he was male) which i also got from a breeder who has not had much human contact just hisses at me spits and screams when i change his water and food pots so .... is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Fear and aggression are not the same.

PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE..
It is sometimes hard to tell the difference between fear and aggression, but given the amount of time you have had this bird, I am going to go with fear. Patience will be key. You need to build trust by pairing your hands with things the bird likes--work on giving food from your hand and prior to that, spend time doing quiet activities near the cage without forcing interaction outside of that which is necessary for daily tasks---you must show that you are not a threat and build trust--bird time is slower than SLOW....it could take months, honestly.

If the bird screams, be very careful that your reactions do not reinforce the screaming....For instance, if it screams and you give up/walk off, then you may be teaching it that screaming is a good way to escape its fears (you). This is all speculation, as you would need to do an ABC behavior chart to isolate the function of the behavior. I am just speaking in generalities based on what you said in your post.

noodles123 thank you for your reply i believe it is a bit fearful still. He seems to understand that the water bottle i shake near his cage means shower time and he really does seem to like that he will come over to where im standing and starts bob up and down so i suppose hes slowly but surely learning that im gun and not a threat, ive also been holding a treat stick in my hand inside the cage but he is still very wary but he does seem to look interested but not approached it yet , when he does he will realise what a tasty honey fruit and nut treat hes been missing out on lol.
Once again thank you

Lill, see my response here.

Taming two cockatiels. - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community


Millet can go a long ways, too!

Hi there i just wanted to fill you guys in. So like i mentioned my tiel seemed pretty stressed there was alot of hissing and lunging with his beak, but i learnt that they were warning lunges and that he doesnt really want to bite. Anyway we still have a way to go BUT the hissing has stopped the lunging gone he approached when im near him and ive just managed to get him to trust me enough to walk onto my hand and alk up my arm so really big improvement from when i last posted , perseverance!!!! I couldnt even change his ood bowls but now .....[/ATTACH]

Since you're a new bird owner, and one looking for general info, may I offer you a standard set of links and such which I usually give to new folks? You're getting great personalized input... here are just a few more basics. I'm so glad you're here.

Here we go...

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Here's some reading on bonding for you.
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html
General Parrot Information - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com/2012...n-parrots.html


Most of us swear by our avian vets in the event of health concerns. I don't know where you are, but here are some links. I only have USA info...
Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.

What's the diet? That's critical for health. Too many are kept on seeds or other poor-nutrition things. They need veggies, legumes, grains... pellets are a good staple. Here's what I use.
Harrison's Bird Foods
I feed Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first, and later, my current avian vet recommended it. My bird loves the pellets now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry enough to try new stuff. I presume the same technique could be used to get him to eat other healthy stuff, like fruits and vegetables! My guy was eating pellets in a couple of days, and now I can feed a good variety of other stuff, knowing he has the pellets as a basic. Pellets are out all day... fresh treats a few times a day. I also like Harrison's via mail because I never have to worry about out-of-date products.

Since you're new parront, I'll just drop a note about avoiding teflon pans, which are lethal to birds.