This is a long post, to see direct questions, go to the TLDR section in the end.
I also apologize in case of typos and misspelled words, I'm european.
April 20th, a bit over a month ago, I got my first birds ever.
Two male cockatiels, Topi (10yr old) and Masa (not sure, my guess is 3yrs, since he's a bit more active, has softer feathers and doesn't enjoy baths as much).
The woman who sold them to me informed me that the reason she is giving the birds up is that they are not hand-tame.
Originally, she only had Topi and a girlfriend of his. She had them for 8 years and were really friendly and tame, until one morning the female had passed away.
Ever since then, Topi had become ''bitter'' towards humans and hands. Not once has he ever stepped up after that.
The lady decided to buy him a new female friend, however, she soon came to suspect that the female was in fact male, Masa.
(Both Topi and Masa were purchased from a pet store, however only Masa has a blue ring with an ID-chip on his leg.)
Topi remained bitter towards the lady, and the lady decided to sell them to me.
To me it seems that Topi certainly isn't afraid of humans, as he isn't frightened when hands come near him (i.e when placing their food cups back in their cage, sometimes the birds are near the ''food cup-holder'' and my hand has to go near them to get the food cups back in their place.)
However, he does not like it at all when hands come near him on purpose, like when trying to get him to step up or eat seeds for the palm of my hand or so.
However Masa seems to be afraid.
In a similar situation, when Topi would not be afraid of hands going near by, Masa is very cautious.
He is very easy to get intimidated when a hand comes near, resulting him in opening his mouth, huffing and puffing.
This is odd, for I've made sure to not give them any bad experiences for what comes to my hands.
I've made sure that if they show signs of feeling threatened, I will ether pull my hand away or if my hand is near them to do something i have to do (i.e. remove something from the cage) then I'll move really slowly and talk to them quietly.
I've made sure not to force them in to anything. I am yet to even be bitten for the first time.
Though some youtubers that have cockatiels encourage you to put on gloves and try to get them to step up, even if they tried to bit you, I feel this is not something that seems like a reasonable thing to do?
What are your opinions on this, should one try and force them to step up?
It just sounds so rude, i don't know...
Everyday in the morning i leave their cage door open, for it's okay with me whether they are in the cage or outside of it. I want to offer them as much possibilities to explore and fly around.
Everyday i try to spend at least an hour near the cage, talking to them or being on my phone. Sometimes I give them music to listen to, there hasn't been a song they would've reacted in any way to yet.
I also daily try to place my hand near them, as close as they'll let me until they begin to show signs of dislike, then i hold my hand still until they seem calm and collect, then remove the hand.
I read somewhere that this could be done in order to get them used to hands.
When I'm not near the cage, I'm 2 meters away on the couch. From there I try to talk to them when they seem social in any way.
Although I talk to them quite a lot, spend most of my day in the same room (living room) with them, try to offer them food almost daily from my hand, give them the possibility to come and go as they like, I see very little progress towards taming.
At best, they leave their cage every other day, however the visits are short at longest for an hour, and they only hang around on top of their cage.
They are very picky towards new foods, though I've heard that's normal, zucchinis seems to be a favorite for Topi.
The only actual change I've noticed within the past month is that Masa has become fairly talkative, as he chatters a quite a lot. He daily also makes sounds which, to me, sound like mimicking my laughter.
I like to see this as progress
They are now more active as well than during the first week they got here.
I've also noticed in the past couple weeks that at times Masa comes next to Topi and offer his for head to him, often Topi would preen it.
I don't know, I just feel like I must be doing something wrong here.
TLDR; I have a fair bunch of questions.
-Is the preening normal for two male cockatiels? (I've heard that only couples do it, so perhaps masa is a female after all, even though he's a good singer)
-Why are they still so very shy towards hands? (I've tried to make sure that our household is serene, with no sudden movements or sudden loud noises, no aggressive behaviour etc, as you'd do with a baby.)
-How come they spend such majority of the time in their cage, is it normal?
-Is it normal for them to not explore the home? (I've bird-proofed pretty much everything. However, they've only flied around the home a couple of times to see the place, but they never land anywhere for longer than couple of seconds. They have never been to the tables that are right next to their cage...)
-Is the bitterness Topi has expressed ever since his girlfriend died something that is to be considered normal? (as in, should i try and get them female company? Or would he likely be aggressive towards them? I've never heard of a cockatiel behaving like this after a friend passing away..)
-The back of Masa's head is bald? It has been ever since the first time I went to see them. (neither of the boys pluck themselves or each other, so could this be something he was born with? There hasn't been even a single stub of hair or feather in the past month.)
Sorry for making such a long post. Worried first time bird-owner and all that...
I also apologize in case of typos and misspelled words, I'm european.
April 20th, a bit over a month ago, I got my first birds ever.
Two male cockatiels, Topi (10yr old) and Masa (not sure, my guess is 3yrs, since he's a bit more active, has softer feathers and doesn't enjoy baths as much).
The woman who sold them to me informed me that the reason she is giving the birds up is that they are not hand-tame.
Originally, she only had Topi and a girlfriend of his. She had them for 8 years and were really friendly and tame, until one morning the female had passed away.
Ever since then, Topi had become ''bitter'' towards humans and hands. Not once has he ever stepped up after that.
The lady decided to buy him a new female friend, however, she soon came to suspect that the female was in fact male, Masa.
(Both Topi and Masa were purchased from a pet store, however only Masa has a blue ring with an ID-chip on his leg.)
Topi remained bitter towards the lady, and the lady decided to sell them to me.
To me it seems that Topi certainly isn't afraid of humans, as he isn't frightened when hands come near him (i.e when placing their food cups back in their cage, sometimes the birds are near the ''food cup-holder'' and my hand has to go near them to get the food cups back in their place.)
However, he does not like it at all when hands come near him on purpose, like when trying to get him to step up or eat seeds for the palm of my hand or so.
However Masa seems to be afraid.
In a similar situation, when Topi would not be afraid of hands going near by, Masa is very cautious.
He is very easy to get intimidated when a hand comes near, resulting him in opening his mouth, huffing and puffing.
This is odd, for I've made sure to not give them any bad experiences for what comes to my hands.
I've made sure that if they show signs of feeling threatened, I will ether pull my hand away or if my hand is near them to do something i have to do (i.e. remove something from the cage) then I'll move really slowly and talk to them quietly.
I've made sure not to force them in to anything. I am yet to even be bitten for the first time.
Though some youtubers that have cockatiels encourage you to put on gloves and try to get them to step up, even if they tried to bit you, I feel this is not something that seems like a reasonable thing to do?
What are your opinions on this, should one try and force them to step up?
It just sounds so rude, i don't know...
Everyday in the morning i leave their cage door open, for it's okay with me whether they are in the cage or outside of it. I want to offer them as much possibilities to explore and fly around.
Everyday i try to spend at least an hour near the cage, talking to them or being on my phone. Sometimes I give them music to listen to, there hasn't been a song they would've reacted in any way to yet.
I also daily try to place my hand near them, as close as they'll let me until they begin to show signs of dislike, then i hold my hand still until they seem calm and collect, then remove the hand.
I read somewhere that this could be done in order to get them used to hands.
When I'm not near the cage, I'm 2 meters away on the couch. From there I try to talk to them when they seem social in any way.
Although I talk to them quite a lot, spend most of my day in the same room (living room) with them, try to offer them food almost daily from my hand, give them the possibility to come and go as they like, I see very little progress towards taming.
At best, they leave their cage every other day, however the visits are short at longest for an hour, and they only hang around on top of their cage.
They are very picky towards new foods, though I've heard that's normal, zucchinis seems to be a favorite for Topi.
The only actual change I've noticed within the past month is that Masa has become fairly talkative, as he chatters a quite a lot. He daily also makes sounds which, to me, sound like mimicking my laughter.
I like to see this as progress
They are now more active as well than during the first week they got here.
I've also noticed in the past couple weeks that at times Masa comes next to Topi and offer his for head to him, often Topi would preen it.
I don't know, I just feel like I must be doing something wrong here.
TLDR; I have a fair bunch of questions.
-Is the preening normal for two male cockatiels? (I've heard that only couples do it, so perhaps masa is a female after all, even though he's a good singer)
-Why are they still so very shy towards hands? (I've tried to make sure that our household is serene, with no sudden movements or sudden loud noises, no aggressive behaviour etc, as you'd do with a baby.)
-How come they spend such majority of the time in their cage, is it normal?
-Is it normal for them to not explore the home? (I've bird-proofed pretty much everything. However, they've only flied around the home a couple of times to see the place, but they never land anywhere for longer than couple of seconds. They have never been to the tables that are right next to their cage...)
-Is the bitterness Topi has expressed ever since his girlfriend died something that is to be considered normal? (as in, should i try and get them female company? Or would he likely be aggressive towards them? I've never heard of a cockatiel behaving like this after a friend passing away..)
-The back of Masa's head is bald? It has been ever since the first time I went to see them. (neither of the boys pluck themselves or each other, so could this be something he was born with? There hasn't been even a single stub of hair or feather in the past month.)
Sorry for making such a long post. Worried first time bird-owner and all that...