My birds don't trust me! :(

Mamatiel

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Feb 5, 2020
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Hello! I am new to this forum, and I am having trouble with my bird. I have a 5-year-old cockatiel who still doesn't seem to trust me. He really loves attention, but he doesn't like for me to put my hand by him to get him to step up. I try to get him out when I can, but honestly, I'm working and going to school full time so it's very hard to make time to get him our during hours that won't make my neighbors crazy since he can get pretty loud. When I do get him out of his cage he will usually just sit on the couch with me and explore. He loves to give kisses and sing. He will jump on to me, but he will not let me pick him up typically. He usually never has a problem with getting on my finger when I take him out of his cage. As soon as he's out of his cage he gives me kisses, then the flies around the room in circles once or twice before he lands on the couch. I'll usually just sit down and he will climb on my shoulder. He doesn't have a problem with being on me, but he has a big problem with hands. He has a love-hate relationship with hands though. He will walk up to my hand and bow because he wants me to pet him, so I will, then after a few minutes of being pet he is biting me. The biggest problem I have with him though is trying to put him back in his cage. I feel so bad when I have to put him in the cage. As mentioned, he will try to bite and lunge at me when I get my hands near him. So when it's time to put him back in his cage, I have no other way to get him then to use my hands. He will fly around the room and run from me and hiss. I know that chasing him around the room when he doesn't want my hands around him is probably doing nothing but make him hate hands more, but I don't know how else to get him in his cage. Before I found this page I had just had this happen. I have 2 other birds, a parakeet, and a green cheek conure. I was able to get them into their cages fairly easy, but my cockatiel had me chasing him around my living room for 10 minutes. Finally, he flew into an empty crate we had laying around and so I was able to pick that up and angle the opening towards his cage door and he actually got in. I'm not having very much luck with the conure either because he bites a lot. When I try to put his food in his cage he will bite me. He doesn't let me hold him or put my hands near him either. He is pretty difficult to get back in his cage too. So, I know that it's me not training my birds correctly and not getting them to trust me, I'm just very lost on how to get them where they need to be. I feel so terrible that I have created an environment that these birds are possibly scared in or have just made them not trust me. I'm not sure what I'm doing that is making them act this way. They get very loud and I'm sure that is because they want to get out and have more attention. I'm going to work on getting them out every day, but any other advice would be helpful too. I'm wondering if the reason my cockatiel isn't wanting to get back in his cage could be because I'm not getting him out enough and he wants to stay out, or if maybe it's just that he doesn't want on my hands. Because there have been times where I'm trying to get him on my hand to put him in his cage and while he's flying around the room he'll fly into his cage. So I feel like it has to be that he doesn't trust my hands. Being that he's five years old and I can get him out of his cage I don't know how to go about getting him to trust me. Our conure is less than a year old so I think it will be easier to start getting him to trust me. I want to give my birds the best life possible and I feel like I'm failing them. :( I realize this is very long and rambly, and I appreciate whoever reads all of this. Any advice is very much appreciated!!!:yellow1::gcc::whiteblue:
 

wrench13

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We read a lot of cockatiels are hand shy. Try using a perch to see if he will step up and stay on that when its time for the cage. That might take some training though. If both of them have a fav treat, use that in training only, no other times. A lot of parrots can be effectively trained with treats. Really try to avoid the chasing around, as that is a big trust buster for any parrot. They are prey animals, and by chasing you become the predator.

Parrots who bite when a hand is stuck in their cage are defending their home turf. Try to change and clean it when they are out of the cage.

Lots of time spent sitting quietly next to the cage, with your hand in evidence close to the cage may reduce the hand shyness. Also if you offer a treat, try to put it on your finger when you offer it. The idea is to convince your 'tiel that hands are good and bring good stuff. THe fact he lets you scratch him could mean he is partially convinced already.

Parrots can be stubborn cusses sometimes, so discard your expectations of change and work at your parrots pace. Expect 1 step forward, and sometimes 3 steps back.
 

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