A New Start:UPDATE!

So the Cockatiels are now moved out of my bedroom and are now downstairs.It will take time for them to be comfortable down there and they are now ready for bed and I put a blanket on the cage to keep them warm.Its just me and Mango now upstairs and I hope he will bond to me now that there is no distractions.He now has to sit on his own cage when out no Cockatiels cage to perch on lol.Mango is ok with the change and is his happy little self.And no there is a lot more room in my bedroom.This is a great New Start.

My "aviary" birds tend to benefit from monkey see, monkey do.... including a wild caught african ringneck that I have. Although I haven't worked with her enough to actually gain any amount of trust (I stopped once I found out she was wild caught ), I have noticed that the last few times I offered food to my cockatiels by hand (ranging from hand raised and lovable to parent raised, skittish ex-breeder!), she (Sylphie, the ARN) was also interested in eating from my hands. The only issue though, is that she'd scream at the cockatiels, scaring them off. Once the cockatiels were gone (the sole reason she came over in the *FIRST* place!), she was "alone" and would freak out and fly off.


My hand is less scary as long as there are cockatiels eating from my hand... but the moment there are no cockatiels and she's inches away, it's pretty dang scary!

I didn't really get what your talking about.

Would it help if I showed in videos????


I once had 5 adult, flighted budgies. None of them were tame. As an "experiment", I started feeding them by hand first thing in the morning, every morning.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUx81WHTUwk"]1 Bird in hand Leads to Many - YouTube[/ame]


A month later, they had gotten to the point where they were flying out of their cage and to my hand for food. After they ate all the food in my hand, I would always replenish their food dishes inside their cages, where-in they would scramble back inside the cage and I could shut it.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSm4uFZzVU"]More Budgies!!!! - YouTube[/ame]



Well, a second hand cockatiel that was hand raised but not handled in years was watching us. She decided she wanted me to feed her by hand, too! (only took me two weeks to figure this out!)


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q88bN30qOjo"]Sunshine in the Morning - YouTube[/ame]


During the process of feeding that cockatiel by hand (and before I rehomed her), I took in another second hand (well, she had been in 3 homes prior to mine) cockatiel. She was watching what I was doing with the first cockatiel.... and then she wanted that same behavior. As you can see in this first video, she's very hesitant, very unsure and on alert.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9w9w8nMRmw"]Hesitant Faye - YouTube[/ame]


I kept this behavior up, and over time, her confidence grew and her trust in me also grew. It got to the point that she would demand this behavior between us! Even if I didn't do it for a few weeks, she would still demand it! Look at how different her behavior is in this clip!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH9ZWxhCSAE"]Not So Hesitant Faye - YouTube[/ame]




Which lead me to feeding the entire cockatiel flock by hand.... including Sunshine's father, Pistachio. When I first started working with Pistachio, he was over 9 years old. I don't know his exact age as he came from an animal shelter in 1998, and was a breeder in his previous home. He was a very skittish bird and would avoid human contact at all costs. In the following video, he is the second bird (slightly bald head) that shows up. Notice how he's not acting skittish or afraid?

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjKmHswgiHs"]Cockatiel Feeding - April 24th - YouTube[/ame]




Although my goal was not to make these birds hand tamed and friendly, it was to get them to be more comfortable with me and not completely afraid of me. I've since stopped feeding the birds by hand on a daily basis. Heck, I hardly ever feed them by hand! Pistachio is over 18 years old now, heck for all I know he could be in his mid twenties or older! However, he is one of the first birds, if not *THE* first bird to fly to my hand to eat from it whenever I do offer food by hand! The most skittish, rehomed bird has the most "trust" in me! (not counting Casey, who's not a rehome!)



And the ARN has watched the very few feeding interactions I have had with the cockatiels. And guess what? She wants to participate, too! But she's too afraid to, if the cockatiels aren't eating from my hands! If she got along with the cockatiels, it wouldn't be an issue, but when the cockatiels are eating from my hands, she'll come over and scare them off, which in turn scares her because she feels alone and vulnerable!

What I meant was what are you trying to tell me because I didn't ask any questions.Both my cockatiels are tame.

My posts were actually geared towards Mango.... not your cockatiels.... as in, Mango may learn to trust you more if he can see you interacting with other birds that are already tame.

I found the same thing Monica, but with fresh foods. My darling old tiel lived on seed and there was NOTHING I could do about it....of course, a week after Henry's arrival I realised I hadn't tried hard enough, she was straight into anything he was :O

Mango it's great you are working so hard at this, good on you for strategising! Is Mango clipped?

MonicaMc said:

My posts were actually geared towards Mango.... not your cockatiels.... as in, Mango may learn to trust you more if he can see you interacting with other birds that are already tame.

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Oh I dont think he cares lol Rocko is the most cuddliest of my tiels and Loki likes to keep to herself and I give him scratches in front of Mango and show him how Rocko steps up,but he just doesn't care.

itchyfeet said:

I found the same thing Monica, but with fresh foods. My darling old tiel lived on seed and there was NOTHING I could do about it....of course, a week after Henry's arrival I realised I hadn't tried hard enough, she was straight into anything he was :O

Mango it's great you are working so hard at this, good on you for strategising! Is Mango clipped?

Click to expand...

Yes Mango's wings are clipped and I think if he was flighted he would probably actually have more confidence and fly to me by his own choice.

Birds can be slow learners and very stubborn! I know it can feel like Mango isn't learning a thing from watching your relationship with your other birds but I bet that's not really the case. Allowing Mango to see your cockatiels interact with you will leave an impression on him even if it takes time. He might not instantly start asking for the same level of interaction, but it shows him that you are trustworthy and safe to interact with. He might also have enjoyed the company of your cockatiels - I know my birds enjoy sharing a room and vocalizing with each other especially when I am out of the house. Consider that Alex the African Grey - Irene Pepperberg's bird who essentially proved non-primate animals can have higher reasoning skills - learned through a model/rival technique. In other words, he learned through watching how human students answered questions and communicated and was able to pick up language skills by modeling. If Alex could learn language from watching others, I'm sure your Mango could pick up a thing or two from your interactions with your cockatiels in the same way!

I gave you some good information in another post about how you might start using positive reinforcement to shape the behavior you wanted - stepping up onto your hand - and you didn't seem too interested. I hope you will reconsider some of the advice everyone has given you because while not everything will work for every bird, I've seen others give you some really great ideas! Monica's idea could work for you by training your cockatiels to fly (or step up) to your hand every morning for food before adding anything to their bowls. You could then start offering Mango food by hand before filling his bowl, and the security of knowing the cockatiels are eagerly eating from your hand might help him feel comfortable. If you could get Mango to eat from your hand, that would be an amazing first step towards getting him to step up and spend longer periods of time with you. Sure, maybe you keep your bowls full or there is another reason that specific idea won't work in your case but it at least gives you a foundation from which to build your own strategy.

The cockatiels already do step up they are tame and Rocko is learning Recall and is flying from far distances and he can also wave.The thing is Mango wont eat from my hand thats why im getting him to trust my hand first and that is my key to teaching him to step up using positive reinforcement.And Monica agrees with my idea.