2 Week Old Cockatiel Hissing

[Lilly88]

My newborn cockatiel recently started to open his eyes and was able to see. He is around 2-3 weeks of age (18 days) and has shortly has been relocated from the parent cockatiels.

I was hoping and planning on keeping the baby in the nesting box till around a month old however, have seen some very troubling and unfortunate news about the baby. Because the parents aren’t tamed and don’t like being touched, the baby has also gained this instinct and emits the same behaviour when being handled. I removed the baby out of the nesting box as the parents were picking the pin feathers out and as a consequence, caused bleeding on the baby. The bleeds were very small and were dried up. I was unsure of this when first seeing the baby.

It is now living in a safe environment away from the abuse and is being fed regularly every 3 hours with formula as I do have a lot of experience with this. The only major issue is the hissing. The baby will try to be aggressive and will his and attem to bite (even tho the bites obviously don’t do anything).

I would love to know what I can do to get my baby use to me and not afraid as this is just our second day till we removed the baby from the box.
Please help!!

 

[Shezbug]

Bump

 

[Zara]

Welcome to the Avenue,

How long have you been caring for the chick? Sometimes, especially with birds with their eyes open, they can be a little frightened when the human intervenes, but most of the time, by feeding them and interacting with them they will get accustomed to being handled. Once the pin feathers grow back and start to open, you will be able to hold the chick in cupped hands for a few minutes.

 

[Ripshod]

At that age, if it sounds more like static than a hiss he's either begging for food or calling his parents.

 

[Lilly88]

hello, thanks for your response!
It’s been a few days now and it seems to be slowly getting used to us. I have been caring for it for almost a week now since it was removed from the parents.