I am almost afraid to ask, but I really do need help. Please be kind. I have two birds in separate cages and they are definitely naughty birds. I am in the process of trying to figure out how to rehome one of them. We don't have any rescue type organizations and the place where you can adopt dogs and cats doesn't take birds. I can't remember the name of it because it is a private organization. We don't have anything else. Anyway, I think they need to be separated before either one of them can be tamed. Also I can't afford to buy food for both, and I can't afford to have them both groomed. I have a book that I am reading so that I will be able to take care of the grooming. I think they don't see any need for human contact because they have each other. My question is, once I am able to rehome one, What is the best procedure to follow in order to tame the one I keep? I don't appreciate the biting, and I know there has to be a way to show him that he doesn't need to bite. Any ideas and advice you can give me I would appreciate more than you will ever know. Our Cockatiel, Fred, was hand fed and I loved him so much, but he mourned himself to death right after my husband passed. Now I have two that bite, and it is kind of hard to love them when they reach out and cause that much pain. And they scream as loud as they can when the phone rings. I don't know the reason for this, unless it is because it rarely rings.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Oh bless your heart....I don't know a thing about birds. Have you searched the net for forums for bird lovers? That's how I found this site....I was just searching for help on a question and found all these great people!
Give it a shot. Also, talk to a vet and even a pet store or zoo. Good luck :D

Could you put them in seperate rooms?

The only pet store we have is Petsmart and they weren't any help. We don't have a zoo.

I can put them in separate rooms, but I still can't afford to buy food for both of them. I am hoping someone has trained a bird to stop biting, they are fast and it hurts.

Check this out
http://birds.about.com/od/behavioran...ssivebirds.htm

You might get a phone nbr of someone to talk to about rehoming/training from one of these locations -

http://bird.rescueshelter.com/Idaho

Thanks Emerald46. The one close to me only takes in dogs. I feel so guilty, but I didn't expect my husband to die and leave me with all of the bills. I just can't afford anything I want.

I will read the article in the morning. It is almost 2:30, time to see if my foot will stop hurting long enough to fall asleep. Have a gread night.

we had a cherry head conure for years,she had a stroke when she was about 15 ..but never had 2 birds at once. i feel for you. have you looked for a bird message board? maybe i-village?
what about putting a sign up at a vet place?

pet finder has a section for putting your bird up for adoption, and lists bird rescues
http://www.petfinder.com/pet-search?...location=48180

the link above,is under my zip code, so you have to put in your own..
my "peanut" was very tame,she liked my son the best..she used to preen his hair,nd let us wrap her up in a tea towel, and carry her like a baby..! very unusual for a bird to be on it's back.
i hope this helps you some..blessings! Kim

http://www.petfinder.com/pet-adoption/

My parakeet Toby lived to be 8 years old was always a biter. He was never nice but I loved him anyway.

Thank you Kim! I think I am too close to the problem I didn't think of a bird message board.

Darlene, I love them both-but they bite so hard I can't even touch them. I have to wear leather gloves to feed them or I have huge bruises. I did a bunch of searches last night and it said that birds bite when they are afraid. I don't have any idea what they are afraid of when I put food in their bowls. That just doesn't make sense.
Then it said to give them a treat, and I have never found anything they go crazy over. I will just keep trying.

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..

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. :)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.)

Sadiemae, I never had a bird but when you said your one bird died of sadness when your husband passed it just melted my heart.

It was so sad, he was such a sweet bird.

there is a africangreyparrotforum.com you can go to and ask them questions to there is alot of people on there that are looking for birds to rehome...May I ask what kind of birds you have..I just had a senegal parrot gave to me and I have an african grey parrot.

Do you have them in a darkened place or have a dark cloth over each cage at night? That might help the screaming at least so you can sleep. You might try playing a recording of other birds to slow down the screaming.

I think they can probably hear each other, hence the screaming. The bedroom doesn't have heat, so I can't put one in there until it warms up some more. I will cover them in a couple of minutes when I go to bed.

Simon is a Mini-McCaw. Piper(I changed it from Pickle) is a Green Cheek Conure. I was told the Conure was a boy, but the cheeks aren't really very bright green, so I wonder if it is a girl.

Do you have any idea what the bobbing of the head conveys? It does not seem aggressive, but they both just bob their heads up and down at times kind of like you were saying yes.

I am not a bird person. I inherited a bird. A cockatiel. No idea how old she was, but she was a mean one. So mean no one would take the time to deal with her, so I got her. I named her Tisha, after Mortisha, she was evil. Bit me at every chance. I was determined to win her over. I did as someone has suggested. I started leaving her door open, since I wasn't allowed in. It took a LONG time, and a lot of patients. But eventually she "liked" us, she would come out and walk on the floor with the dog, chase the cat. She didn't like being handled, but would let me pick her up. She is the only bird I ever had.
I woudln't give up on them, They need time. Tisha would bob her head when she was excited or happy. Don't know if that is of any help.

Am I correct is assuming that the two birds you have now are cockatiels? Were they hand reared or raised by their parents?

As suggested, a local vet that is an avian vet may know of a way of placing one of your birds with a good family. It sounds like the two of them may have bonded with each other so they are not receptive to you. I'm not sure what separating them will do. I would hope that in time the remaining bird would bond with you because they are very social and need attention. You might ask the vet about what to expect if you separate them.

I've always had only one bird at a time. I would hope that with time you can earn the bird's trust, and the biting behavior will cease. I wish I could be of more help.

p.s. Our cockatiel really feared some ringtones. When the phone rang he would fly away in a panic, and he actually hurt himself quite seriously one time. We finally found a phone that had a ringer he would tolerate. I don't know if it was the pitch that bothered him. He also hated the warning sound for the emergency broadcast system that would come up on the TV .

p.s.s. Try offering your birds cooked rice, scrambled eggs, cooked pasta, cheese, cereal like cheerios, any type of cracker (but watch the salt), bread, cooked cereal like oatmeal, fruits, and nuts. Avoid avocado and chocolate.

You could put an add in Craigs list too!

It takes along time to get a bird to accept new foods. We have tried several but she refuses to try them. I keep trying and so does DH from time to time. He gives her apple and crackers most days.

I had a green headed conure for awhile but it came to me mean and I think it had been mistreated. I found it a better home.

You do want to watch your two Sadie as when I had two cockatiels who were brother and sister and they bonded as mates - I tried to seperate them and I came home one day to find Petey( who became Petra when we found he was a she) had pulled out blood feathers and she had blood all over the place. I had to put them back together. So go slowly and watch to see if they will both be alright apart.

No these are a Mini-McCaw and a Green Cheek Conure. We had a hand fed Cockatiel, but he died right after my husbad died. It was really hard. The vet said that he mourned himself to death and I couldn't have done anything to help him. He was the opposite of yours, he loved ringtones. He would learn to mimick them. The first time I ran to answer the phone and it wasn't ringing it took a minute to figure out it was Fred. He would learn all kinds of whistles and sounds from the tv. It was really neat.

Simon and Piper are bonded in that they want to be near each other, but they can't be together or they bite each other and Simon is so much bigger he would hurt Piper. I am watching to be sure they eat. If they stop eating I will put them back beside each other. It is strange because they don't really act like they are scared, it is more like they just don't want to be touched so they look at me as to say "bug off!" I will go slow now that I have a place to start. I appreciate everyone's ideas. I just didn't kow where to start. I think I will put a radio near each one and I think I have some extra toys somewhere, I will look tomorrow. I know that you should move the toys around every 5 or 6 weeks, so I will do that also.

I was going to suggest you slowly separate them by moving the cage of one a little closer to the door every day or so. Once it is out the door continue moving it to another room. It may take some time, but it may also lessen the separation anxiety. You could also put a note on the bulletin board at your local grocery store once it is totally separated.

If they seem too upset today, I will try this. It seems as though as long as they can hear each other they are okay, but I won't know for sure yet. Thanks for the idea.

I could not tell from your post if the birds are cockatiels or another breed of bird. There ar emany sites on line you can check for help. I have an on line friend who might be able to help you. She lives in the Black Hills part of S D and might know of some organizations that could help you. Let me know and I will get in touch with her, also I can send you some sites if interested.

I inherited one that didn't like women bites at me every time I walk past. Started out giving it two peanuts one for claws one for beak took it a while to let go to bite me. Gave me enough time to fill dishes. Some said it was because it missed the boy it belonged to. After a while got to the point it would climb on a dowel to come out of cage so I could clean. You have to just keep trying and be watchful you can wear them down. Sorry for the lose of DH put an ad in paper and sell the one you don't want it will give you a little break on the funds front. good luck

Asking one more time what kind of birds are they? I have never met a mean cockatiel, but I am sure there are some. But when you said one destroyed a toy in a day, it sounds more like a bigger parrot. I give my cockatoo a box with smaller boxes filled with treats in it. He spends a day destroying the box and it did not cost me anything other than the treats or peanuts etc I put in the small boxes. There are on line toy making groups where you learn to make your own toys which are much cheaper than bought ones. You can email me at [email protected] and I will send you info on groups that will help you and keep costs down on food and toys. Take care.
Linda

Sorry, I didn't get to answer before. I tried. My computer only wants to post when it wants to posts today.

I think I have figured out how to get their wings and nails clipped. My doctor has birds. I don't know if they clip their birds' wings or not, but I am positive that they would help me. I helped his wife with the tension on her HQ 16, so I know where she lives. lol

Thanks everyone! I am feeling so much better about being able to make the best choice for them.

Here's a website for a bird rescue in Idaho. Maybe they can help.

http://www.pamperedparrots.org

Good luck placing your birds if that's what you want to do. I used to have cockatiels, but I'm in Florida and can't adopt yours from this distance.

If these 2 birds are bonded to each other it may not be wise to seperate. More problems could arise, more aggresion, feather plucking, nosier. ect. Maybe best to let them go to some one that would keep them together, and start with a single bird.

Sadiemae, I have heard the best way to gain a bird's trust is to hand feed it special treats, just like you mentioned earlier. I have an umbrella cockatoo, and two of her favorite treats are chicken (cooked of course) and toast with a little peanut butter. She nibbles on ALOT of what we eat. Our breeder told us the only things she absolutely couldn't have were: chocolate,rhubarb,onion, and avocado. He said anything else was okay in moderation along with her daily seed mixture. Hope this helps a little!