Is a hissing baby cockatiel normal?

[IfBoolean]

Hello everyone!

I’m fairly new to the world of owning baby cockatiels. I’ve only ever owned adult conures. My husband just bought me a 15 day old cockatiel baby who has been hand fed since birth, and is now being hand fed by me.

I absolutely adore him, but I noticed he’s very hissy and scream-y when I try to interact with him. This makes me wonder if he naturally doesn’t like humans, or if he’s just young and always hungry/wary of his surroundings.

He’s great at being fed! Takes the syringe in really well, and after feeding, he doesn’t hiss. It’s when I put him away for a while, then come back to check on him, he starts hissing and screaming at me. Is this normal? Is he still afraid of me? Can someone explain this behavior, and if he’ll be fearful of me when he’s older even with hand feeding?

 

[Zara]

Welcome to the Avenue Sophie,

if he naturally doesn’t like humans

No.

Is he still afraid of me?

That is very likely.

the syringe

I recommend you use a spoon as you have no experience with handfeeding. This will significantly reduce the risk of aspirating the chick.

Your birds eyes are open and he recognizes that you are not his mum (the person feeding before, either his biological hen mum or the human ¨breeder¨).
This is a huge change for him. He has been taken from everything he knows and he´s in this strange place and new faces. It´s scary enough for adult birds, and this guy is just a little baby.

Be sure to weigh him daily and keep a log. As well as amount of food eaten, and times.
If he stops eating, or loses weight, or stops gaining weight, return him to the ¨breeder¨ to complete the handraising and weaning process.
This little bird still has 8-10 weeks of handfeeding to go, so it´s important he´s as calm and happy as possible, not stressed and scared.

A thread with lots of posts incl. hand feeding tips; Some helpful links about hand feeding and weaning:)
A great site for articles RE cockatiel chicks; Ask Noodles