watterstide

the yahoo board has answers, but it is not current.
they say to leave the cage door open, so they can decide to come out or now..helps with thier fear..
good luck, and keep us posted..

SuzanneG

Another option is to contact veterinarians in your area. Some are avian vets and can be of great help to you. They also would be a good source for helping you find a home for one of your birds as they would know who among their clientele keeps birds and might be able to take in one of yours.

Good luck and let us know how it goes for you. :)

Sadiemae

Looking through some of their ads I am wondering now if they can be separated. Many of the ads say two birds have to be adopted together. They can't be in the same cage because their sizes are so different but they interact all day long. So many decisions. I will just have to take this slowly. If I can find someone to groom their wings it would be a good idea to open their cages. Thanks so much for the support. It helps so much! I was also reading about the health of one of the birds and the illnesses caused by foods, so now I need to research that. I am going back to bed for awhile.

the casual quilter

About 20 years ago, I took in and abused Cockatiel (broken wing never treated by the previous owner) and his mate. I had two at the time, and the abused bird was so afraid of me and my husband that he freaked everytime we got close to him. Over the years, we lost three of the four birds, and the one left is the abused one. He has been a lone bird in our house for about three years, and he is just now getting to the point of tolerating the humans in the house. He will sit on a stick that I'm holding, but will not sit on my finger. He recognizes my voice and calls for me when he hears me. He whistles with me. But I think that for my bird, this is the best it is going to get. As sad as it is, it takes a lot of patience. When your bird becomes an only child, it will respond more quickly but but by no means will it be fast. Help your bird to associate you with food, sweet talk and some attention and your relationship with him will get better.

There is an organization here in Colorado called The Gabriel Foundation that might be able to give some advice. Their website is: http://www.thegabrielfoundation.org

quilter1943

We have a bird rescue here, but you might search on line for the kind of bird it is. Like the AKC has rescue sites for different breeds of dogs, there might be a site for different breeds of birds. Maybe put an ad up on the bulletin boards you have in your area and someone might want one of them. The pet store should have one.

Rhonda

We have had birds most of my life. I had parakeets as a child and cockatiels and parakeets as an adult.

You are right. You need to seperate them and put them in differant rooms. To teach him not to bite you need to start with talking to him for several mins many times through out the day. Try offering him a cracker through the bars of his cage. Set one in the corner where you can wedge it between the bars. I can give you a couple of other ways to offer one later. Continue to offer a cracker every day. Talk to him all the time and never ever put your hand above him. That will frighten him. Move slowly and deliberately when you work with him doing anything for him. He has to learn to trust you. Talk softly and maybe even singsongy like you would a baby.

Keep your hands out of the cage if you can. Do you have a cage where you can push the feed cup in from the outside of the cage? The less you invade his space the more you will minimize his fear. You need to build trust with him first before you can handle him. If some big hand came out of the blue at you wouldn't you be afraid?

You need to take baby steps in reaching out to him. Does he have lots of toys? If he is bored he will be more aggressive. Birds are VERY territorial so you need to learn to read his signs and respond accordingly. A bird who is clicking and hissing is the same as a dog growling. A dog low growls before he will lunge. A bird will make similar sounds before attacking. A bite can be of various strengths depending on what the bird is trying to tell you. You need to learn what your bird is saying. Then you can respond.
If he is warning you sometimes they will pluck the bars of the cage like a quitar string. that means he feels threatened. Soothe him with baby talk and back off for a bit then try again to move slowly toward whatever you were trying to do. Our present cockatiel will still bite but she only nibbles now. But they can really take a chunk out if you don't respect their space.

There is alot more I can tell you if you want more.

Do you keep your fingers tucked in away from him when your hand is in the cage? They generally will not attack the arm but will go for the fingers. so if you protect and hide your fingers he shouldn't bite provided you aren't crowding him.

Sadiemae

Rhonda,
Thank you so much for the great information. They don't hiss or click, they just bite every time I feed them. I usually wear gloves because it just hurts so much. I will try to find a way to feed without putting my hands in the cage. I will have to think about it.

I am on my way to the store to get crackers. I have never given them crackers, but they love potato chips. I stopped giving them chips because Petsmart told me they would die from too much salt.

I will try tucking my fingers in when I feed them tonight and see what happens.

I need to get Simon another toy because he just chewed his rope in half. I will look on-line and see what I can afford. The only store we have is Petsmart in the next town over, and they just don't have very much for him. They have lots of little toys, but he just destroys those in one day.

I will take any information you can give me. I will move one of them into the bathroom tonight. They will still be able to hear each other, but they won't be able to see each other. I am asking everyone I know to see if I can find someone who can groom them. I am reading a book, but I am really scared I will hurt them without someone here with some experience.

Rhonda

What do you mean by groom them? We dont' do anything but clip the nails and I haven't been doing that because I am always afraid I will hurt her. I was having a local dog groomer clip the nails for me. You should be able to take him to a vet to have the nails trimmed. You can have the wings trimmed so if he gets out he can't fly. This is a good thing to do until you have gotten him tamed.

If that doesn't work do you have a breeder in driving distance that would do it for you or a pet store that might do it for a fee.

The best way to relate to him is with a calm voice and babyish talk. if you are scared you are going to tense him up too. He is essentially a wild animal.

I never push my birds any farther than they want to go. It takes a lot of patience and time to build a relationship with him. It isn't a matter of training like you would a dog. They are smart! You just need to learn to speak Bird! and I don't mean tweet tweet! LOL

There are some great bird sites that deal with suggestions on this.

My favorite one is Cockatiel Cottage. They have an excellent site with lots of good advice and ideas.

http://cockatielcottage.net/bite.html

About toys---there are lots of things you can make. I take a toilet paper roll and cut it about 1/4" wide into a curlique and then I poke a hole in the center of crackers and carefully thread the cardboard through the hole. The crackers are easier to create the hole if you use a knife and just punch out the center with the tip of the knife. If you do it gently the cracker won't break. I thread about 4 onto a long strip and spread them out. It gives the bird something to chew on that won't hurt him and the crackers give him something to figure out. They love to drop the crackers so they will work and work to get it off of the cardboard strip.

Look up homemade bird toys and you will find alot of differant good ideas. I found a rawhide shoe that was a dog treat and I hung it in the corner of her cage. She is so funny she gets up under it and hits it with her beak and beats at it and she gets it to spinning. I call it her work out! She can have that thing spinning so hard you wonder how it stays on! I also have a toy I bought that is 4 toothbrushes and some plastic rings. She works and works to pull a toothbrush over the top of her perch.

This cockatiel is the first one I have ever had that can talk. She picked up on my calling her a pretty girl and when she sees me she hollers Pretty Girl Pretty Girl to get my attention. She relates that phrase to me. DH she uses Good Girl. That is the extent of her talking but it is fun to hear. She won't do it very often when anyone else is here.

I'm sure there are lots more I can think of to pass on.

Sadiemae

I was just talking about clipping their nails and wings, but I have only found one vet that will do it and she is really expensive. PetsMart was supposed to get a vet, but they still haven't. They don't let their groomers do it either. My little one mumbles and I think it wouldn't take a whole lot to learn to talk.
I don't know why I am so tired tonight. I have been tired all day long.
I am going to look up the site you posted.
Thanks so much!!!

Sadiemae

Rhonda, I have them separated and the screaming has begun. I think it will be an early night. I gave them each a cracker and they each stuck their beak between the bars and took the cracker before I could put it anywhere, so I think that is a good beginning. Simon gobbled his down immediately, but Pepper dropped his and just kept on screaming.(I don't know for sure if this one is a he or a she.)