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Advice for a 20yr old (Pearl) that wasnt trained and is now with us

AmyR

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I think so :) slow, but I expected that. Tonight he came out and went to the top of the cage. Now he's gazing down through the bars longingly at his favorite toy but has not yet decided it is worth getting on my hand for the trip in. So we wait ;)
 

AmyR

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Nothing had been sadder than watching him put his head down and against his toy for scritches with his eyes closed making little chirpy noises waiting for the love. He's even trying to preen/groom the toy :( heartbroken
 

sunnysmom

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Nothing had been sadder than watching him put his head down and against his toy for scritches with his eyes closed making little chirpy noises waiting for the love. He's even trying to preen/groom the toy :( heartbroken
My tiel had lots of love and scritches and would still sometimes ask his toys for scritches. LOL. It's normal. Don't be sad about it. You are doing great with him. Just give him some time.
 

AmyR

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My tiel had lots of love and scritches and would still sometimes ask his toys for scritches. LOL. It's normal. Don't be sad about it. You are doing great with him. Just give him some time.
That helps me feel better :) Thank you. He's still molting.. Oh my lord, he's covered in all the little white pin feathers on his head and back so I'm hoping he's a little more stand-offish right now from that I love trying to see where the new feathers are have gotten big enough to se :). Otherwise, he's made his way up to the top of his cage for the first time twice now and put himself back in. Still won't let me get him other than rescue situations but I'm respecting the angry look. Though if I'm feeding him something and he gets angry (my hand is too close, I moved, he perceives my other hand as a threat), I stop the treat. I'm seeing an improvement in his interactions since that. The new pellets arrived tonight (roudybush california blend) going to try and switch him over to a more pellet diet sloooooooooowly....going to use the method that replaces the seed mixture with pellets 10% at a time. Wish me luck! :)
 

finchly

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Amy, all my fids are grouchy when pin feathers are coming in. I'm sure that's at least part of it.

If he won't eat the roudybush, try mixing a little (moistened) with some chop. That usually gets them going for me.

Baby steps! good luck :)
 

AmyR

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so, tell me if Im OCD: Counted poops from yesterday (day one) and tried to look at what was left from our 1st day ratio of 10% pellet mix:90% seed cockatiel mix. Dumped everything left and started fresh this morning. Yesterday you could see the seed buffet he had picked out..the cage bottom was a pile of empty seed husks. Today doesnt look as bad and currently he's eating again, so just before he goes to bed I'll change the liner and make a guesstimate of seed to pellet possibly eaten today. He definitely has a stubborn streak so im trying to make sure he doesnt go starvation mode on me since I cant weigh him. School starts for my son next week and Pearl will be home with just the cat & dog (in his cage of course) but essentially without human contact for 8 hours since we got him in June. Im a little nervous... we basically never turn off the radio in the house so there's always something for the furbabies to listen to. thank you again for all the very helpful feedback!
 

Monica

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If you can get him eating pellets, I wouldn't recommend feeding more than 50% of his dry food as pellets. That is, 50/50 ratio of seeds to pellets, with as much fresh food as you can get him to eat.
 

AmyR

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So far so good. He really only likes hard boiled eggs and is obviously eating all the seed out first so I'm just hoping he's getting enough but he looks good and he's acting normal for him. He's always napped a lot but I figured he's 20yr old..I would too ;) poops look normal. I'm at 50/50 now.. I guess I'll start here for awhile. He eats the pellet if I hold them for him :laugh:
 

AmyR

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lol! yes he does ;) But he's over there as I type digging something out and eating so he's not starving (heehee) bought him some new toys and switched things around today- he gets so excited when new toys go in now! Its fun to hear him get excited about the new toys and old favorites coming back. We also accidentally discovered that my son's whistle must sound like a flock call! That was a bit of a shock! He started blowing it when he found it in his bedroom while we cleaned. Suddenly Pearl goes crazy with his flock call and leaps out of the cage trying to fly to someone :omg: Crash Bandicoot isnt very coordinated or strong (and lacking some key feathers due to his molt) so in trying he ended up crashing into our recliner. I went to rescue him and as usual of lately, he willingly jumped up on my hand so he came to clean with us :) He flew to some window sills to lookout and various furniture in the room so its good to see him working those wing muscles:dance4: He's making strides and I see him acting more and more like cockatiels that Ive read about (stretching his wings in the cage and getting a personality, etc.) slow steps....hoping to keep him healthy and growing old with us:hug8:
 

AmyR

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So tonight's very interesting installment: I took a shower with a bird on my shoulder (where is the shower emoji? lol) . First day with everyone away the whole day and he was a little frantic when we got home but as usual, fearful of coming out of the cage. So I was going to close it up for the night, and did, then opened it up again to put a treat in and then was going to walk to the shower. I was wandering through the kitchen/hallway and he went flock call crazy and next thing I know he flies out and tries to fly to me. I put up my hand to let him land but this time he veered away from it..and crashed. SO I rescued him but now I have a bird and I dont want to stuff him back in the cage so I basically threw caution to the wolves and headed for the shower. He didnt like the clothing change but once it was done he was fine. At first he was a little annoyed but I think he enjoyed it. He went silent and just kept moving around on my shoulders to be on one side or the other. I washed my hair over my face so he wouldnt get shampoo near him and he seemed to be "oh I got this" with the PJs back on part. He didnt even fuss at the towel...That was surprising! Now he is singing to the dog who is steadfastly bathing my husband :lol:
 

hellen

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your doing a wonderful job, well done!:) we all make mistakes, that's how we learn, and sometimes it may or may not set us back a little bit. time will help gain the trust of your birdy, so do not worry. cant rush these things. its good to know another bird has found a lovely caring home.
 

AmyR

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Tonight we had tiny chicken tortellini, homemade mashed potatoes and applesauce. I made a tiny little bowl for Pearl so we all had the same dinner. Apparently, our cockatiel is Italian, :laugh: he has spent the better part of an hour at the bowl with small breaks for cleaning, water and seeds. At one point he had a ring of pasta/potatoes around his beak! Now he's preening like his life depends on it :) he's been very cranky since we're gone more with school starting (lots of fussing and eye pinning at attempts to be social and offer him my hands). At least he has a full happy belly tonight <3
 

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hellen

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:tiel:I'm sure if he could he'd say gracia for your kindness and feeding him yummy food
 

AmyR

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No, she is a he ;) originally the previous owners thought he was a she and we discovered differently. We still go back and forth.. Pearl is gender fluid in this family ;)
This morning is egg and corn bread. He wasn't coming to the bowl so I dropped a little in his seeds in front of him. He realized what it was, snarfed it down and when I again encouraged him to come to the bowl of food it was like he said "you got more egg in there? I love egg.. Mmmm" as he slowly scooted over. After some beak cleaning and happy beak grinding he is in full sleep mode with head tucked. Aahh, nothing like the warm feeling of a tummy/crop full of good home cooked food:heart:
 

hellen

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thats really sweet, my kakariki likes egg and a little bit of grated cheese. i wish she'd eat more veggies. sounds like pearl is really settling in, good stuff. wont be long and it'll feel that you've always her/him. when i took on my friends cockatiel his name was cara, i've changed it to flynn (flynny)! he's on my head ringing like a telephone and i feel i will soon be:shrug3: the mad bird lady from muswell hill
 

AmyR

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well backward steps :( sigh-- we had an unfortunate episode where we had to get him back in the cage and he was resisting. I tried several times and gave him as many breaks as I could but finally I used the perch because I could tell he was going to bite me hard otherwise. He attacked the perch but finally got on it. But that and us being away more for work/school he has started acting very angry at me if I make any attempts to put a hand or arm near him. we leave the cage open and he goes in and out on his own and up to the top of the cage and then back in but usually stays on the cage. Could it just be a lot of cage aggression? its rare he gets off the cage by himself.
 

Lady Jane

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Love your writing. Are you keeping a journal? Suggest you look into getting him a play stand. Hang toys on it and fill up the feed dish that usually comes with them. That way he has a place to go that is not the cage.
 

blewin

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well backward steps :( sigh-- we had an unfortunate episode where we had to get him back in the cage and he was resisting. I tried several times and gave him as many breaks as I could but finally I used the perch because I could tell he was going to bite me hard otherwise. He attacked the perch but finally got on it. But that and us being away more for work/school he has started acting very angry at me if I make any attempts to put a hand or arm near him. we leave the cage open and he goes in and out on his own and up to the top of the cage and then back in but usually stays on the cage. Could it just be a lot of cage aggression? its rare he gets off the cage by himself.
His routine is changed and he's pissed. Buddy goes through the same thing every September when I'm back at work. Extra bribes might help. Otherwise, just time and patience.
 
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