I have had my tiel quietly sitting next to me on my desk everyday for about a week or so. I must use his cloth pineapple hut/toy to get him out of his cage, in his cage, to come to me, etc. I thought it was pretty neat at first, but the past couple days my cockatiel has been extra mean.
He is more frequently biting me. He has been running up just to bite me if I get close to him. In the beginning he would get on my finger sometimes and climb up my shoulder, but he has slowly gotten worse and worse about it. He could be perfectly fine, Crest up, grinding his beak, but if i so much as twitch my hand next to him its instantly flat crest open beak, speed walking at me.
I could only get him to cooperate with me if he sees his pineapple. Then he sees my fingers holding his pineapple and chomps down..hard. Today I decided to take the pineapple away and stop using it. He isn't tame, he just wants his love-toy. I'm so frustrated. He drew blood for the first time today. I tried using gloves, but hes really terrified of them and goes wide eyed and does the panicked little squeaks.
I saw a video on youtube of someone using a long perch and trying over and over to get their budgie to stand on it, rewarding her when she does, then slowly making her hand go closer and closer down the perch as the bird gets used to it. I tried that, but he just runs in circles around his cage because of my hand holding it at the far end. I have tried the "setting my hand in the cage" thing many times already since we got him and nothing changed.
It's driving me nuts and I feel like i'm just wasting my time. I don't want to let him out of his cage until he is tame, but he isn't cooperating with anything! He doesn't like toys or treats, I offer him a millet, he attacks it and knocks the seeds off, he avoids any perches near his toys. Bird really aren't my forte I suppose.
He is more frequently biting me. He has been running up just to bite me if I get close to him. In the beginning he would get on my finger sometimes and climb up my shoulder, but he has slowly gotten worse and worse about it. He could be perfectly fine, Crest up, grinding his beak, but if i so much as twitch my hand next to him its instantly flat crest open beak, speed walking at me.
I could only get him to cooperate with me if he sees his pineapple. Then he sees my fingers holding his pineapple and chomps down..hard. Today I decided to take the pineapple away and stop using it. He isn't tame, he just wants his love-toy. I'm so frustrated. He drew blood for the first time today. I tried using gloves, but hes really terrified of them and goes wide eyed and does the panicked little squeaks.
I saw a video on youtube of someone using a long perch and trying over and over to get their budgie to stand on it, rewarding her when she does, then slowly making her hand go closer and closer down the perch as the bird gets used to it. I tried that, but he just runs in circles around his cage because of my hand holding it at the far end. I have tried the "setting my hand in the cage" thing many times already since we got him and nothing changed.
It's driving me nuts and I feel like i'm just wasting my time. I don't want to let him out of his cage until he is tame, but he isn't cooperating with anything! He doesn't like toys or treats, I offer him a millet, he attacks it and knocks the seeds off, he avoids any perches near his toys. Bird really aren't my forte I suppose.