What to do?

[ang77]

My tiel is 3 months old. I have him/her finger trained, but as soon as I get him on my finger he flies off to his cage. If I do get him on a shoulder, he preens me and my daughters hair! I would like to go a little futher, but don't know how. We have noticed that he tries the wolf wistle.
I say him/her because he/she has all the markings of a female, but I read somewhere that they generally look like females before the first molt and my mom (has 2 tiels herself, where my Mo came from) says she thinks it's a male. Idk!!!

[BeakerLuvsBunsen]

Originally Posted by ang77

My tiel is 3 months old. I have him/her finger trained, but as soon as I get him on my finger he flies off to his cage. If I do get him on a shoulder, he preens me and my daughters hair! I would like to go a little futher, but don't know how. We have noticed that he tries the wolf wistle.
I say him/her because he/she has all the markings of a female, but I read somewhere that they generally look like females before the first molt and my mom (has 2 tiels herself, where my Mo came from) says she thinks it's a male. Idk!!!

I heard it is best to do any sort of training away from the cage.
Take him/her to another room where (s)he can't see the cage and be
tempted to fly back to it. I do this with my parrotlets because sometimes
they dont pay attention as much with the cage nearby

[ang77]

Thank you!! He does seem very distracted by his cage! He looks for it the whole time.

[tielfan]

It sounds like you haven't had him very long. New birds can take a couple of months to really settle down in a new home. The cage is the place he knows best and that's where he feels safest. Coming out is kind of scary so he tries to go back to the cage.

So working away from the cage is a good idea, but you also have to make the out-of-cage time a good experience for him so he starts liking it. Special food treats are a great way to do this - make sure he knows how delicious millet spray is, and only give it to him when he's out of the cage.

[ang77]

I actually did try that today. We went in the bathroom with the millet and it went pretty well. I also have the cage right next to my computer and when I'm sitting here I drop the door. It acts like a perch when opened and he will come out and sit on it and climb the outside of the cage.