Ask Lafeber

Will they not be hand tame?

Hi,so basically I have a cockatiel . And I have he/she for a month already. I try to put my hand inside the cage every day and treat he/she. My goal was to make the bird perch on my hand. So I lure the bird with the treat to come to my hand which actually happen. But whenever I lift the bird up slowly the bird notice that it was on my hand so it fly away. Is there anyway I could do so that the bird will get confident of not flying away after I lift the bird up?

Hi Yuji,

You have actually made a lot of progress with your cockatiel!  One month is a very short time when you are taming or training a bird. With some birds, it can take months to get to the point where you are. Keep being patient and working with him. If he can fly, you might consider taking him to a professional to have his wings trimmed. This can make it much easier to train a bird initially. The feathers will molt and grown back in a few months, so this is not permanent but it can give you an advantage while training him. I’ll give you the links to our pages on training and behavior to give you some more tips.

Teaching Your Bird

Pet Bird and Parrot Behavior

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda