Hello everyone !
My girlfriend and I have two cockatiels, one male (Rakan
) and one Female (Xayah 
).
Little background on history: We adopted them 1 and a half year ago in a center for birds rehabilitation, so we have no exact clue how old they are, the vet told us that they were young tiels and were raised by hands. Also, we have absolutely no idea what kind of trauma they had before they were with us.
Xayah is usually always around us, as she scream if we let her in a room alone, and has a preference for me as she is always on me if I am in the room. She also go by herself on my girlfriend's shoulder with no problem and no aggressivity. Xayah often asks for scratches and we can usually pet her, but only if the hand is coming from the top and not in front of her. If the hand is like in front of her while petting, she gets mad but no real biting and we directly stop the scratches.
Xayah is always very grouchy as she grumbles very frequently specially towards hand movement and even more towards my girlfriend. Despite these grumbles, she usually steps up. However, from time to time, she becomes very aggressive towards my girlfriend's hands, to the point where she is hussling and hissing, but would still stay on my girlfriend's shoulder.
We read a lot of posts about fear of hands (also in this forum), and tried to apply the advices, such as putting treats in the hand and let the tiel come to gain trust back, but with no real results so far. Sometimes it gets better for a couple of days, and then Xayah is suddently back to her aggressive state towards my girlfriend's hands. To our knowledge, we don't make any sudden movement of hands that could be percieved as aggressive, and never try to force her to do anything.
For the environnement they have, they have a very big cage (60cmx120xcmx2m D23'' x W46'' x H78''), we let them out in the appartment at least 3 to 4 hours in a week day and the whole day if we are home. They have plenty of toys, playgrounds and space to fly and they seem pretty happy with everyting. They also love to fly around the appartment.
How can we decrease these episodes of aggressivity towards hands ?
As I have usually little to no problem of aggressivity with Xayah and I can pet her more easily than my girlfriend, should I do something also specific to encourage Xayah that hands are a good thing ?
Lastly, when I have to take Xayah off my shoulder when we have to cook by instance, I litteraly put my hand below Xayah, and make her step up, she grumbles but still step up. Is it a bad thing ? Could it have an effect on the aggressivity towards hands ?
Happy to add any informations !
Thank you for reading !
And as I am sure you love pictures, here is Xayah and Rakan portraits :
My girlfriend and I have two cockatiels, one male (Rakan
) and one Female (Xayah ).Little background on history: We adopted them 1 and a half year ago in a center for birds rehabilitation, so we have no exact clue how old they are, the vet told us that they were young tiels and were raised by hands. Also, we have absolutely no idea what kind of trauma they had before they were with us.
Xayah is usually always around us, as she scream if we let her in a room alone, and has a preference for me as she is always on me if I am in the room. She also go by herself on my girlfriend's shoulder with no problem and no aggressivity. Xayah often asks for scratches and we can usually pet her, but only if the hand is coming from the top and not in front of her. If the hand is like in front of her while petting, she gets mad but no real biting and we directly stop the scratches.
Xayah is always very grouchy as she grumbles very frequently specially towards hand movement and even more towards my girlfriend. Despite these grumbles, she usually steps up. However, from time to time, she becomes very aggressive towards my girlfriend's hands, to the point where she is hussling and hissing, but would still stay on my girlfriend's shoulder.
We read a lot of posts about fear of hands (also in this forum), and tried to apply the advices, such as putting treats in the hand and let the tiel come to gain trust back, but with no real results so far. Sometimes it gets better for a couple of days, and then Xayah is suddently back to her aggressive state towards my girlfriend's hands. To our knowledge, we don't make any sudden movement of hands that could be percieved as aggressive, and never try to force her to do anything.
For the environnement they have, they have a very big cage (60cmx120xcmx2m D23'' x W46'' x H78''), we let them out in the appartment at least 3 to 4 hours in a week day and the whole day if we are home. They have plenty of toys, playgrounds and space to fly and they seem pretty happy with everyting. They also love to fly around the appartment.
How can we decrease these episodes of aggressivity towards hands ?
As I have usually little to no problem of aggressivity with Xayah and I can pet her more easily than my girlfriend, should I do something also specific to encourage Xayah that hands are a good thing ?
Lastly, when I have to take Xayah off my shoulder when we have to cook by instance, I litteraly put my hand below Xayah, and make her step up, she grumbles but still step up. Is it a bad thing ? Could it have an effect on the aggressivity towards hands ?
Happy to add any informations !
Thank you for reading !
And as I am sure you love pictures, here is Xayah and Rakan portraits :
