Struggling to tame cockatiel

[alexandrag]

I am terrified of not being able to regain my cockatiel’s trust. I gained it and then lost it when I made him feel scared and stressed in attempt to return him to his cage as a matter of urgency. Since then it has been incredibly hard to get him to trust or like me again. He used to take treats out of my hand and sing whenever he saw me, but now he hisses and get scared whenever I try to come near him or his cage. Is it too late to begin the process of taming again? He is 15 weeks old, and is otherwise happy. He loves singing and is eating and playing loads in his cage, and comes out of it quite often, but he never comes near me

 

[Bunchobird]

my budgie is doing the same thing, got her on my finger then all the sudden she was untamed... also, are you using millet?

 

[alexandrag]

my budgie is doing the same thing, got her on my finger then all the sudden she was untamed... also, are you using millet?

Yes! That was the treat that worked best when I first tamed him, but now he won’t eat it from me anymore, unless I leave it in the cage.

 

[Bunchobird]

omg same with bluberry, i wonder what it is..

 

[Bunchobird]

also, cockateils hiss??!

 

[alexandrag]

also, cockateils hiss??!

gigi certainly does

 

[Bunchobird]

do you know if budgies hiss??

 

[Shezbug]

Sounds like you both need to basically start back at the beginning again.
When you build trust you have to continue to build on it, anything you do that scares them or shows them you/your hands can be dangerous (like grabbing at them, ignoring their communications, shooing them away from stuff or back into cages etc) will remove trust- if you don’t have a lot of trust built up with the bird then it won’t take much for you to loose it all and be placed back at the start of your relationship building, if you do anything that the bird feels is threatening or even ignoring its cues/ body language to you then you chance breaking some trust.
Might be helpful for you both to read through some of the threads in the training court

 

[BirbBrain]

gigi certainly does

Yeah, my cockatiel hissed at first