I rescued two tiels today

[DeadIrishD]

I rescued two tiels today from a rehab place, and was wondering what to do with some of the problems that I am having.

Problem: it's a bonded pair, the female beats the crap out of the male, but they cannot stand to be apart as i noticed when I accidently let the male out, they cry and cry and cry.

?: Do I seperate them, as I cannot stand to see the male get treated this way?


Problem: They have not been handled enough and due to this problem they dislike human companionship, although when I caught the male, I brought it into the bathroom, and it perched on my finger and relaxed a bit.

?: Should I give up and not stress them out anymore, or continue to work with them, so they can become better pets, and get a happier fuller life by being able to hang out with me?

Problem: They have not flown in so long that when the male was out, he was crashing into everything there was to crash into.

?: I belive that it is wrong to clip their wings, as it's "worse" enough we keep them as pets, so IMO if we do keep them as pets, we should do so on their terms, not ours will they eventually get the hang of it?

I do realise that the ?'s are not ones you can answer 100% and have the right answer too, I just want to see what you'd do in this situation?

[Pigeonpal2002]

Hi Dead Irish,

Congratulations on your adoption of the 'tiels today Sounds pretty stressful however for both you and the birds.

I think you should separate them, especially if the female is too aggressive with the male. Perhaps you can use two cages but keep them side by side so the birds can at least still see each other and talk. If you don't have two cages, then maybe you can divide one in half.

Since you just got them, and they are in new surroundings...it's probably best you let them settle in for today if you can. Get their cage(s) set up, place food and water in there and just let them become accustomed to your place.

Wing clipping...well that is up to you. It *MIGHT* help you to tame them in the long run. Time and patience is needed right now with the birds for taming and it's going to be a lot of work by the sounds of it and going by your description of their current behaviour.

Good luck and keep us posted

[Lady Tarheel]

Hi Dan, congratulations on your 2 new tiels. They are wonderful birds. I have never had mates so I don't know anything about how they get along together. I am listing some web sites I have found useful:

http://www.theperch.net
http://tailfeathersnetwork.com
http://exoticpetvet.net
http://exoticpetvet.net/avian/clip.html

You may not know the conditions they were in before you rescued them and how they were treated so I would give them a few weeks in the cage, keeping them in the area where you plan to permanently keep their cages, and let them get used to their surroundings and you. I would talk to them a lot, give them little treats from your hand and just let them have some stability.

If I ever get another cockatiel, it will have its wings clipped, always. That way they can't get hurt or killed. They get spooked easily and fly really fast.
Don't ever take one outside even if you have their wings clipped - some can still get away according to what I have read. You mention you don't want to clip their wings because its also bad or worse that they're being kept as pets. That may be true but the fact is they are pets and as such we have an obligation to keep them as safe as possible.

You don't mention what they eat. Make sure its nourishing. Ours loved Zupreem Avian Maintenance and as a treat Avi-cakes. There is a lot of info on the web about tiels.

BTW - HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Maggie

[upcd]

On your new birds. They are right seperate them in different cages put side by side. Let them rest for a week. Then if you want to train them, You would trim thier wings and start with 10 min. sessions. Teaching them to walk on sticks. After the master sticks then you can go to fingers. Good luck.

[birdlover000]

Cockatiels are wonderful pets. I own one, his name is Pepper and he is a three year old normal pied. His owners retired to Florida, so he was given to a nice breeder, who gave him to me. He has been living here for about 2 or 3 weeks.

I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible.

Problem: it's a bonded pair, the female beats the crap out of the male, but they cannot stand to be apart as i noticed when I accidently let the male out, they cry and cry and cry.

?: Do I seperate them, as I cannot stand to see the male get treated this way?

This depends on what is happening. What are they fights like, are they life threating, do they hurt the male? How big is their cage?

Problem: They have not been handled enough and due to this problem they dislike human companionship, although when I caught the male, I brought it into the bathroom, and it perched on my finger and relaxed a bit.

?: Should I give up and not stress them out anymore, or continue to work with them, so they can become better pets, and get a happier fuller life by being able to hang out with me?

Do you know how old these birds are? You can decide to try to train them to be pets, but yo uhave to work slowly. In time they sould come around to liking you, but they probly will be more bonded to one another than you.

Problem: They have not flown in so long that when the male was out, he was crashing into everything there was to crash into.

?: I belive that it is wrong to clip their wings, as it's "worse" enough we keep them as pets, so IMO if we do keep them as pets, we should do so on their terms, not ours will they eventually get the hang of it?

You want to make sure your house and birdie proof. Do this, by making sure you do not have open doors, window, have blinds on your windows. No mirrors, things that they could colide into.

As for clipping wings, this issue is a major depate in the bird world. I'll tell you my opinion on wing clipping. I think it is a good thing because if your bird gets out, and it is fully flighted you could have a problem. So many birds are lost everyday, I belond to a lost/found parrot group and last birds are posted mutilple times a day. So, yes, my cockatiel is clipped and will remained clip, I think it's for his saftly. Some people think that wing clipping helps the taming process, but I'm not sure about that.

[Mistifire]

The wing clipping does help with taming, when they flutter away from you they will learn they can rely on you to help them get back up, it makes them more trusting as they see that your not going to hurt them and picking them up lets them get up higher.

My Tiel is very cuddly, she was rescued from Outside and she has limited flight even though she is clipped. I would at least trim them until they are used to their surroundings. I have noticed my Tiels have always frightend more easily than any of the other birds I have had, and they always head straight to where they shouldnt go, into windows, into cactus, into dishwater..ect.

I agree with the seperate cages close to each other or a larger cage for the agression.

Enjoy your tiel's!

[Mistifire]

Originally Posted by Lady Tarheel

If I ever get another cockatiel, it will have its wings clipped, always. That way they can't get hurt or killed. They get spooked easily and fly really fast.
Don't ever take one outside even if you have their wings clipped - some can still get away according to what I have read. You mention you don't want to clip their wings because its also bad or worse that they're being kept as pets. That may be true but the fact is they are pets and as such we have an obligation to keep them as safe as possible.

This is very true! I found my tiel outside (She walked right up to me) and have a few friends who have also seen tiels and keets outside that they were not able to catch.

[naturegirl]

If they are a bonded pair then you probably won't be able to touch them very much at all if not ever as you will get tagged by their beak. The problem is they have no social skills with people. I understand you may not like having their wings clipped but a bird that can fly around like that and crashed into everything will end up getting hurt if not breaking it's own neck and tiels mate for life, if something happens to one then the other one may die of a broken heart. Maybe clip them till you can get them a little more socialized. It is a trust issue with birds they have fantastic memories and it could take months for them to come to trust you as a friend not a foe.

Good Luck

Naturegirl