Roughly two weeks ago i bought a cockatiel from a pet store. I am unsure of her exact age but im certain she isn't young and i know she wasnt handled much.

She is very frightened of any contact with me and bites whenever she gets the chance too. I have gotten her to step up onto a perch but i cant get close enough to her to try to get her to step up onto my finger. When i do get close enough, she bites.

I spend at-least 9 hours a day in my room (Cage is in my room) so she has plenty of time to realise im not a threat but...

It seems as if i have made no progress with her, she doesn't accept most treats, the only one she has eaten has been millet spray, even then she only ate it after i left the room. She will eat her seeds and drink while im in the room though.

What would be some good ways to see results? i spend a lot of time with her and have read perhaps every cockatiel site i have found but nothing seems to be working.

mabey if you try talking to her in a calm voice to start out with, then graduly work up to sticking your hand with a treat in to the edge of the open cage. Hold your hand still, be paitient and wait. Over time she should learn to step up.

Its hard to teach an old bird new tricks. I have two older cockatiels and their both VERy stubborn!!!

hope i helped

tell me how it goes

Nothing seems to work with her. I mis-judged how long i've had her, its coming on to four weeks!

She seems to wants to have attention from me because she perches in her cage as close as she can to me. Except she hisses when i go near the cage itself.

I tried the method of me talking calmly by her cage with my hand just in the entrance of her cage but its in an awkward position so i get tired really quickly from it.

One thing i do that she seams to respond to kind of, is get her to step up onto a spare perch then bring her to my computer desk which is only a few steps from the cage. I then put a piece of millet spray and just go about reading my emails and doing other things. I know she loves the millet but im not sure if this will progress to anything.

One thing that i do is play some youtube clips of cockatiels singing or something and she calls out to the sounds but then again i dont know if that will help in any progress.

Speaking of singing this morning (At 7 AM mind you) my cockatiel started to sing some stuff, i was so happy. Other than that i've made barley any progress.

i think....(although you dont think so.) she's made a lot of progress. It's probaly just taking her some time to get used to her, especialy if her prefeous owners never paid attention to her or mistrided her. Cockatiels need lots of attention and if she never got any till now, it may just be a new thing for her..................

keep doing what your doing, (sweet talkiing to her, bringing her to your computer, ect.).

Tell me how it goes.!
; )

(sorry for the misspelling)

Lets hope your right :P. In the pet store she was in a very small cage with 3 other cockies so i assume she would have bonded with them at least.

I know she has made progress because she steps up onto a perch no questions asked, i just put it in front of her and she steps up.

She still does not trust my hands at all but hopefully it will change.

I did slip up once though which i feel very abd about. one morning at about 777 AM she started squawking really loudly over and over and over again and wouldn't stop. i had stayed up until about 3AM that night and i was very grouchy. i stood up really fast and shook my arms around in the air and she freaked... she of course stopped because she was so scared and i went back to sleep. When i woke up again i just felt awful.

Anyway if there anyway to stop her from being really loud in the morning. its best if she dint do it, for her sake and mine :P. i do feel really bad because of that though.

make sure you have alot of toys in her cage that can keep her occupied, so that she might not make so much noice, she might just be bored, also if you cover her cage over with a towel of something (leave some air gaps though) she might sleep longer because it will be darker for her. hope i helped, good luck with that

another thing that i though about to help her get used to you:

Have you tried feeding her treats? you dont have to go out and buy them, but things like wheat toast and bread (plain), plain cooked spagetti noodles, raw patatoes, fruit, Ect. I feed my birds alot of specail food. probily too much cause every morning they squawk till i give some to them. they especail like wheaty things. The other day my dad gave them a little piece of a plain pancake that had a bunch of oats and stuff in it. ThYE LOVED IT!

-keep me posted........
P.S. whats her name?

Her name is "Tuki". For the last two nights i've covered her cage with a towel and i've enjoyed a nice long sleep!, no squawking.

For the treats thing il try it out, problem is she is so afraid of me i cant feed it directly to her. would holding the treat out for 30 seconds then placing it in her bowl work?

im glad to hear the towel thing works

i usaly dont have the pacients to stay there and feed my birds ethier. i had a problem like yours (my male teils wasn't handeld much so he's kinda of scared of me) so i just stick whatever i give them on top of their cage, sticking through, were they can grab ahold of it with out it falling through.
If that doesn't work, i think that putting it in a bowl might work too. Just makesure that it's not brightly colord or she might get scared........

Even if she only takes one treat from your handhold it out there, get an arm rest, whatever it takes. Putting it in the bowl shows her that you will elt her avoid you. Hold it out and sweet talk her. Tell her how pretty she is, how smart, and whatever. Baby talk. Offer the thing she lvoes msot and don't hang it in the cage: use ti only when you are handling her. Reading to birds also helps. Never make eyecontact and the fact you can handle her on a perch is wonderful!

Make she has at least 4toys in ehr cage at a time and switch them out and rotate them every 3-4 weeks. She sounds like she is making progress, birds don't trust things easy so onemonth is really nothing. And yup covering the cageup is agreat way to help prevent yoru birdy from waking up too early, anothe way is to get into a good routine. Usually birds squak because they aren't on a routine and wake up going, "Hey! I'm hungry, get up would ya?!" Putting them on a routine takes away that anxiety and excitement therefore allowing you 30 minutes to an hour of extra sleep time.

Over all jsut be patient! Being patient and using treats works almost everytime. Yes it will be slow, but that's ok. Let her take her time, good thigns come slowly.

I am a member of www.theperch.net

There many members have experienced taming birds and more, and there you can get advice and make new friends. If anything you can read the threads and see if you can pick up any more advice thatiwll help you out.

On a few occasions i've conned her to get onto my hand. What i've done is when i go to put her back in the cage i get her to perch on the spare perch the hold her under the cage where she still cant get to it. she then moves over onto he arm holding the perch and tries to climb up. By that stage i put her back because i feel i've made some progress.

Also for all that i've tried i cant get her off her all seed diet. I've put some apple in there, some bananas and some corn and she never eats them, the food just spoils. Ant tips on making her diet a little healthier?

Seed junkies are tricky, but no worries.

First find a brand of pellets, RoudyBush is my personal favorite but ask your avian vet for any others he think would be best.

First start slow, put jsut a handful of the pellets in the bowl and then the rest seed. Slowly every week or so increase the amount of pellets in there and less seed.

For frutis and veggies just offer them in smaller pieces and if you can eat some beside her and make them sound really good, it's one of the best ways to tempt a birdie.