SleepyTiel
Moving in
- Joined
- 1/31/20
- Messages
- 9
Hello all! Today is my first day with Delilah, a two year old rescue cockatiel! The people I spoke to at her rescue organization told me they expect she was hand-tamed at some point but has since lived with other 'tiels and is flighty around people.
We brought her home last night at 6pm and let her adjust to her new space by mostly leaving her alone. Her wings are clipped for now because she is not hand-tamed anymore so as we work on getting her comfortable with us, we would like the peace of mind that she won't hurt herself flying away in a new home. I was expecting for her to be alert and shy for at least the first few days but this morning she has been chirping up a storm (very loudly haha) and has been sort of zooming around her cage, climbing on the bars and walking across the bottom. She has also been going at one of her toys sort of aggressively, although she has not tried to bite me at all. She has hissed a few times, mostly after we first removed the cover from her cage and as I was trying to change her food. Is this typical first-day behaviour?
I am worried that she is afraid about being in a new cage and space and this energetic chirping and climbing is how she is expressing that.
I have tried to give her lots of space and have been playing music and talking in the room with her but have not tried to touch her at all. She did eat millet that I has holding in my fingers through the cage bars which I feel is a good sign that she isn't totally terrified of my hand (especially for being a mostly-untamed bird on her first day in a new space), but I haven't seen her drink any water or eat from her food dish, which is making me concerned. I remember with my first bird, a budgie, that he wouldn't eat in front of me for the first few days so I have been leaving the room occasionally to see if she'll eat or drink more but so far no luck. I strung up millet in a couple places in her cage so that if she doesn't feel comfortable moving towards her food dish, at least she knows there is a tasty treat closer to her so she has that as a food option for now.
Any advice on making my girl more comfortable or on why she has had these bouts of loud chirps and racing around?
We brought her home last night at 6pm and let her adjust to her new space by mostly leaving her alone. Her wings are clipped for now because she is not hand-tamed anymore so as we work on getting her comfortable with us, we would like the peace of mind that she won't hurt herself flying away in a new home. I was expecting for her to be alert and shy for at least the first few days but this morning she has been chirping up a storm (very loudly haha) and has been sort of zooming around her cage, climbing on the bars and walking across the bottom. She has also been going at one of her toys sort of aggressively, although she has not tried to bite me at all. She has hissed a few times, mostly after we first removed the cover from her cage and as I was trying to change her food. Is this typical first-day behaviour?
I am worried that she is afraid about being in a new cage and space and this energetic chirping and climbing is how she is expressing that.
I have tried to give her lots of space and have been playing music and talking in the room with her but have not tried to touch her at all. She did eat millet that I has holding in my fingers through the cage bars which I feel is a good sign that she isn't totally terrified of my hand (especially for being a mostly-untamed bird on her first day in a new space), but I haven't seen her drink any water or eat from her food dish, which is making me concerned. I remember with my first bird, a budgie, that he wouldn't eat in front of me for the first few days so I have been leaving the room occasionally to see if she'll eat or drink more but so far no luck. I strung up millet in a couple places in her cage so that if she doesn't feel comfortable moving towards her food dish, at least she knows there is a tasty treat closer to her so she has that as a food option for now.
Any advice on making my girl more comfortable or on why she has had these bouts of loud chirps and racing around?