Narky Cockatiel

[karent0510]

Hey everyone...after some adjusting to not having one of my cockatiels, the other male bird has been getting alot more attention :) The only problem is, hes sooo narky (the exact opposite to my other bird) he attacks our hands (but not if we are putting our hand in his cage) but he has no problems of being scared of us coz he is continually sitting around us. Does anyone have any similar cases? Does he ever get any better? When we first got him he let us pat him and everything but now he swoops us and wont let us pat him. Is clipping his names the way to go? He is about 2 years old now.

[karent0510]

This is butters my narky lil boy! soo cute, but cant get near him without him biting us so hard we bleed :( Petree the white one was the exact opposite. she wouldnt hurt a fly and would always want scratches

[tielfan]

A little food bribery might help you change his attitude toward hands. Hold a piece of millet spray (or something else that's long enough to keep your hands out of biting range) and let him nibble on it. Don't do anything that he might interpret as an attempt to touch him. Gradually progress to holding shorter pieces of the treat but any time he looks like he's thinking of biting, you need to stop and back off! You do NOT want to let him bite you because this reinforces a bad habit.

[Monica]

Has anything changed rather than loosing the cinnamon whiteface tiel? Or has Butter always been that way? Clipping may help but it wont solve the problem.... it may be that Butter isn't used to extra handling, or has become more hands off since not being handled as much as before, and now all of a sudden you are handling him more again?

It may just take time and food bribery as well as working with him constantly enough to get used to being handled again.