***QUESTION***
I have always want a cockateil. My freind’s cockateil had babies and I received my “Precious boy” He is so cute. I recently have been able to feed him some seeds by placing them on a little stand in his cage. You see precious bites and I don’t know what to do to get him to stop. In order for me to give him the seeds on the stand, I tell him to go away and then I will give him the seed. He goes over to another perch and allows me to put the seed down on the stand and then I tell him to come and get his seeds and he does. We do this every day about three or four times. He also says hello. However when I go to touch him or get him to step up, he hisses and goes to bite me. Why?
I have Cerebral Palsy and sometimes my hand shakes could that be frightening him. Any suggestions, I certainly would appreciate them. Thanks, I love my “Precious” so much, he is such great company and we spent a lot of time together, I just want to be able to touch him without getting bite.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Judy Waller
***ANSWER***
I have yet to see a young baby bird that doesn’t bite or nibble, this is a much different reason to why older birds bite.
Baby birds remind me of puppies because they like to chew and nibble, they don’t know that it may hurt someone’s finger, but they are learning about the owner by taste and smell.
Now the actions of hisses and trying to bite sounds like the owner is putting her hand in his cage and that is a very normal reaction that most birds will do to their owners unless they trust their owner. A bird’s cage is their safety zone, and anything or anyone the intrudes into the cage will get that reaction.
If you could work with your bird in another room away from the cage you should be able to teach it not to bite, but it is also important to have the wings clipped so you would have better control of training the bird.
As for her Cerebral Palsy I don’t feel that is a major concern, because many birds and even other animals can sense health issues in people and they seem to undertand the person’s special needs.
The shakiness to the bird would be no different then the bird sitting on a rope perch or the wild birds that sit on power lines that can get shaky from the wind blowing.
I have taken many of my birds to special needs groups and it seems the birds just knew these people where special and there was a lot of TLC given to the people by my birds.
RSS