First Time- Baby Tiel. Help?

[Maqpie]

Haha, I love how birds all have their own personalities.
This evening I successfully had him on my palm again with no fuss. When I come to the entrance of the cage he usually gets on the front perch and knows what's up.
Though afterwards he crawled onto the open cage door and somehow swung himself on the other side. The cage has a siding large enough for him to stand on, so he was walking around on that, glancing around and staring at my bed. I luckily lured him with some millet onto my hand and got him safely back in the cage. (His wings are clipped).
He still attempts to bite and "squeals" ( not sure how else to describe his angry noises) if my hand is too close to him. So I'm assuming the best thing to do is to just repeat the millet process of getting him on my palm to eat.
Will he learn to be comfortable around my hand? I've never owned a bird before so I'm very new to all of this. I just wish to teach him to step up so he can really begin bonding with my family and I.

 

[finchly]

Yes he will learn. It will take time. Not one day or one week but some months possibly.

Hehe I know that squeal you are talking about. I ask mine "pet the baby?" And they stop squealing and bow their head for pets. Maybe you could have a word, like "treat" when you offer him a treat from your hand. He might learn to stop squealing at you.

 

[Maqpie]

I see
This morning I repeated the new method of having him step onto my hand to eat the seed and it went well. Sometimes he gets rough and bites real hard when trying to find seed though. At the end of his eating he turned around and faced me, kind of stared at me then looked around, so I lifted him up and he got back on his perch. As soon as he stepped on it he did let out a tiny angry squeal and slowly lunged at me (not really lunging but like slowly lowering his head, beak open in a threatening manner) when he saw my hand which I was carefully pulling out of the cage.
Yesterday he whistled and clicked a little bit and sung for a minute. He usually only gets vocal after he gets upset at a toy.

 

[Maqpie]

Him singing this morning...he's not the best but he's trying! Lol.

 

[Maqpie]

He's developed a habit; after he's done eating from your hand (and he's sitting on it) he will spin around and face me, and grind his beak a little and look around. After that I usually lift him up and he gets back on his perch but today he was a bit more reluctant to get off my hand. He even drank from his water while still on my hand. Hoping he is becoming much more comfortable with my hands as the days go on.

 

[finchly]

Aww that is great!

Beak grinding means happy.

 

[Maqpie]

That's good
Today he almost refused to get off my arm, and attempted to get out of his cage (not in a spazzy escape kind of way, but more of a curious way where he tried to go from my hand to the outside of the cage after looking around. It gets confusing though. I was holding him Right next to his perch when I was expecting him to get off and he just stood on me while squealing angrily at my hand. I had to lure him with my second hand to get him on his perch. He's crazy and sometimes I'm not sure what to do to be honest. I'm doing my very best but its hard sometimes. I'm not very good at it ;p

 

[finchly]

Yes they are sort of silly, like yelling at your hand or getting angry with their toys. You are doing fine, just relax and enjoy getting to know him. In a few months you'll know what he wants even before he squeals.

One of my girls was squealing at my hand today and at the same time bowed her head for pets. It's like they are saying yes and no both!

He's a pretty good singer in the video, do you whistle songs for him?

 

[Tiel Feathers]

Great progress do far! Has he come out yet? Sounds like he was ready to venture outside his cage and was getting frustrated with your hand for not doing so.

 

[Maqpie]

Yes they are sort of silly, like yelling at your hand or getting angry with their toys. You are doing fine, just relax and enjoy getting to know him. In a few months you'll know what he wants even before he squeals.

One of my girls was squealing at my hand today and at the same time bowed her head for pets. It's like they are saying yes and no both!

He's a pretty good singer in the video, do you whistle songs for him?

I played one instrumental on repeat for a while for him and whistled along to it once or twice, and played a cockatiel whistle training video on loop for an hour. I'm not sure what he was singing but I was guessing he might have been combining something or other. He sings that same tune every day and has ever since the second day of him living here. He will only do it for a few minutes though, he's not too vocal . he will chirp and sing and make noises for a few minutes everyday then he will stop and be quiet. Its funny he usually only becomes vocal after having a tantrum with his toy and stops after having another sometimes.

 

[Maqpie]

Great progress do far! Has he come out yet? Sounds like he was ready to venture outside his cage and was getting frustrated with your hand for not doing so.

Yesterday and today he made attempts to. He seems interested in my bed. I was afraid to let him out though (as much as I want to!!) considering he is still pretty handshy and gets angry at my hands a lot. I wasn't sure if I was able to get him out , that I would be able to get him back in since he hates my hands , lol. But he seems to really wanna come out.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

If he does come out, maybe if he's hungry enough he will go back for some millet.

 

[finchly]

I played one instrumental on repeat for a while for him and whistled along to it once or twice, and played a cockatiel whistle training video on loop for an hour. I'm not sure what he was singing but I was guessing he might have been combining something or other. He sings that same tune every day and has ever since the second day of him living here. He will only do it for a few minutes though, he's not too vocal . he will chirp and sing and make noises for a few minutes everyday then he will stop and be quiet. Its funny he usually only becomes vocal after having a tantrum with his toy and stops after having another sometimes.

Good! Yep they are great at improv, creating one song from two. He'll get more confident/vocal.

Are you sitting nearby and reading to him? They like that a lot.

My parrotlet is hand shy. I tap the cage door and tell him to go in, then feed him (letting hhim see me put the food in there). Then I get out of the way. He goes in, if not he will at bed time.

 

[Maqpie]

Yeah his cage is next to my bed so I hang out in here most of the time lately just doing random things and talking to him and such. Ill try to mimic his noises sometimes like his whistle or clicking noises too.

 

[finchly]

I do that too. So I was being silly and taught my parrotlet this lonnnnnnng kissing noise. He loves to use it if he isn't getting enough attention. It's pretty quiet so most people don't notice it. Now I have a caique so HE HAS LEARNED IT. Now the visitors stop, stare, and say "What was that????"

Umm you know. A big kiss.

 

[Maqpie]

That's hilarious! Sounds so cute

 

[Maqpie]

Oh my goodness.. Quite the crazy update today.
So I was getting ready to hand feed him again right, he ate for a second but quickly got disinterested. He looked around so I pulled my hand from the cage (with him still sitting on it) and put it on my lap. He looked everywhere and eventually crawled up my arm, where he then proceeded to chew on my hair for a second before he started grinding his beak. I moved around a bit and he didn't seem to mind, and refused to go back in his cage or on top of it when I offered him to. He crawled around on my arm until I offered again a few moments later for him to check out the top of his cage where some millet spray sat. He went on and I put a scrap news paper down on the side of the cage and he got spooked and fluttered (he can't really fly, he is clipped) to my bed. I offered him my arm and he crawled up but shortly after flew o to the ground. He looked at the mirror and hissed at it before chewing on my jacket and a paper on the floor. I put millet in my palm and offered it to him and he finally crawled onto it with no fuss and I was able to put him back inside his cage .
Hopefully I can teach him to step up so this could all be easier! My my.
I'm also not sure if he pooped anywhere or even on me so I'm looking around.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

Sounds like he is really starting to trust you and likes to be with you! Really great update!

 

[Maqpie]

He seems super comfortable with my shoulders back and arms but he is still pretty iffy with hands. Today I tried it again and he sat on me and preened and grinded his beak for a while. He was hardly interested in the treats I had for him. I lowered myself to the floor to see if he wanted to go on the beanbag next to me and he walked around for a minute before he chirped a few times. So I offered my hand flat on the floor with seeds but he didn't care. So I lowered my arm and shoulder and he jumped on that instead.
If I could just teach him to step up it would be perfect

 

[finchly]

He's doing great!

He'll step up in time. There are lots of us here who have had birds a LOT longer that don't step up. Skittles parrotlet is ...gosh is he one or two? Can't remember but he doesn't step up. He does go on a perch on command. He hates hands, due to the way he was treated as a (hand fed) baby.

Do you have millet? Put about a 1" piece on your hand and lay it flat. Be very still. If he never takes it, put away and try again tomorrow. Eventually he will take it. Millet is like crack for tiels. Then you can go from there with the hands.