Hi Naomi,
Please don’t do anything else with this bird for now. You have had the bird for a day, and you have crammed at least 6 months’ worth of taming and diet conversion methods into it. I have to be honest so you can understand how misguided you are with how to handle a new bird. For now, leave the bird alone except for basic care – food, water and keeping the cage clean. You can talk softly to him while doing these things, but keep your movements slow and make no movements towards the bird. Feed him what he is used to eating, regardless of whether it is a poor diet. This little guy is terrified at this point. He could also be injured from flying into things. You should make no attempt to let him out of the cage or to handle him until he has settled into your home and is no longer scared of you. This could be days, weeks or months. It could be never. Cockatiels are an exotic pet and in the wild, they are a prey animal. When you grab a bird like you had to do, the bird decides you are a predator that wants to catch him. You did nearly everything a predator would do by chasing him and grabbing him – you just didn’t kill and eat him. Please understand that this is all his perspective. Anything that chases or grabs him is a potential predator.
Now he has to learn to trust you, but to do that, he needs to be convinced that you are not out to get him. If you are this frustrated after only one day, and you aren’t willing to wait for an indefinite amount of time before you can handle him, the best option would be to return him or place him with a rescue, and find a hand fed, recently weaned baby that you can handle before you take it home. Even then, you can never know for sure that any hand fed bird will be a good pet, or will remain a good pet throughout their lifetime. Being captive bred and hand fed does not change the fact that they are a wild, exotic species. Unlike a domesticated pet like a cat or dog, exotic birds are driven by instinct and not by a desire to please you. With some birds, none of the training methods work. And as a bird gets older, you have to deal with issues like hormonal behavior or other changes as it ages. Cockatiels can be great pets, but it is up to each individual bird’s personality. If your new bird was not hand fed and has never been tame, he will probably be very challenging to work with. He may never be tame. If he was hand fed and tame, but then not handled and was allowed to revert to being wild, he is more likely to be tamed if you are very patient and take thing very slowly. This means progress is more likely to be measured in weeks, or longer. If someone promises they can fast track this, then they are lying to you and will only manage to make this bird even more fearful of people.
I’m going to give you our links to bird behavior and taming and training. Also, our nutrition section. You shouldn’t even consider changing his diet until he is comfortable in his new home. This would mean he is eating well, he is calm, active, plays with his toys and vocalizes, and shows interest in what is going on around him. Then you need to gradually convert him to a better diet. As for taming, all you should do for now is sit near his cage, with your hands in your lap, and talk gently to him, sing to him if he likes that. Make no movements towards him – he needs to approach you. If he starts moving closer to you, watches you with interest & curiosity, maybe vocalizes, then you can sit closer, gradually rest your hand next to the cage. If he retreats, you do the same and put your hand back in your lap. As long as this bird hisses at you, he does not trust you. This is just how you can get started. Getting him out of the cage right now is not an option. He can die from hitting a wall or object too hard. It is going to be some time before he can come out, so hopefully he has a nice, large cage. If all of this sounds like too much work for not much progress, again, you are probably better off with a young bird that is already tame. Wild parrots of any species can be hard if not impossible to tame. And generally they are never going to be as tame or interactive as a hand fed bird. There is nothing wrong with realizing you are in over your head. If you bought this bird, you were misled, or maybe he came from someone you know who had already given up on taming him. Please read the pages using the links below and consider your goals and the time you want to spend with this little guy.
Pet Bird and Parrot Behavior
Teaching Your Bird
Bird Food Guide
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
