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Possible to trains tiel to hold food in foot?

Tara81

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just wondering, as I saw one video of a tiel holding its treat in its foot, and my tiel is young and she uses her feet a lot and climbs a lot on toys that aren't very easy to climb up, so I figure she could hold her food but she doesn't realize it's possible? Lol. So can this behaviour be learned?
 

finchly

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Neither of my tiels does it. I don't know if you can teach it!
 

Mizzely

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It's not as instinctive for them to eat with their feet since they eat on the ground where things are already stationary. In the trees where other birds primarily are eating, this isn't the case!
 

JLcribber

@cockatoojohn
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Cockatiels are not known for holding stuff in their feet. I don’t even know how you would teach something like that.
 

Tiel Feathers

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I have one tiel that eats all her pellets by holding them in her feet, I have another who eats some things with his feet, one who rarely ever holds things in her feet, and one who never holds things in her feet. I read somewhere that playing a lot with foot toys with your bird when they are young will help develop that skill, and one of my birds who frequently uses his feet used to love foot toys when he was little.
 

Tara81

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Now if only I could find a foot toy small enough for a cockatiel :) when I hold raffia or bamboo in my hand she tries to hold on to it to "kill it" lol.
 
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