Tame Your Cockatiel – Where to Start And Why You Need To Do It.

If you are looking to tame your cockatiel, here is some information you may find useful.

An untrained Cockatiel can be quite the handful, especially if you need to handle them and take them out of their cage for some reason or another.

It is also better to have a tame and trained cockatiel, as they can be quite naughty if not trained. They like to screech, bite, hiss and are even known to pluck out their own feathers if they are not tamed.

A tame cockatiel makes a wonderful pet, even for a child, so it is well worth the effort to get this part right.

Taming these little birds can be a lot of fun.  My cockatiel, as you can see from the picture, is like putty in my hands.  You get to know your bird well, just as you should with any new member of your family, while you are working on taming him which is also a bonus.  Cockatiels have loads of personality, which usually shows out as you start to tame them and give them attention each day.

tame your cockatiel

Tame Your Cockatiel

Here are some cockatiel facts to help you to understand your cockatiel better first.

Most cockatiels are like children with a mild dose of ADHD.  They are energetic and don’t always concentrate as you would like them to.  They love getting attention, and interacting with you, once they get to know you.  If they don’t get their needs met, just like humans, they react in negative ways.

As cockatiels love attention, they often behave badly in order to get it.  If your cockatiel does start behaving badly, for instance – plucking his feathers or biting, do not give him any attention.  Walk away and return once they have stopped the bad behavior.  In this way they learn that they only get attention when they behave well.

Variety

Cockatiels are curious creatures and just love variety.  This is probably because they come from the wild originally where they traveled in flocks and had an active social life.

Toys should be changed occasionally and the cage should be moved to different locations from time to time.

Cockatiels, or most of them, enjoy music.  Watch them perk up when you play music for them, especially the classical variety.

This is just the beginning of understanding how to tame your cockatiel.

Here is a good video I found online on taming your cockatiel.  The video claims that this is a wild cockatiel to start with, but I have seen much wilder ones, who weren’t so quick to learn.

In the video, the gentleman starts with teaching the cockatiel to climb onto his finger.  If you have a particularly difficult cockatiel, working with two perches may work better to start with, as he is already used to standing on a perch.

He then follows on telling you what to do if they want to bite you.

There are many more exciting secrets and tricks to handling cockatiels.  Taming them is fun and easy when you know the right methods. People are actually shocked when they discover these secrets. That also means no more loud chirping, hissing, feather biting etc.

If you want to find more in-depth information on how to tame your cockatiel, click here.

7 Comments

  1. I’ve never owned a cockatiel before so I find this article really interesting. It looks cute but I’m more of a cats and dogs person. I think pets are just like family members and they need our attention and love just like a human being. Is it easier to train them if you’ve had them since they were young?

  2. Hi Mergie,
    Very interesting article! It sounds like they are much like children…and I happen to have one with ADHD. LOL

    I’ve been considering getting a bird for a long time but have trouble deciding on which kind of bird to get. Parrots are rather expensive and a little bigger than I’d like. Perhaps I’ll look into cockatiels instead. Thanks for the information, it’s very helpful!

  3. I’ve never owned a bird before but grew up around a variety of different animals.

    Cockatiels sound very similar to others animals when you start training. And as you pointed out, similar to children haha.

    It’s amazing how animals have different personalities, just like humans. How do you go about choosing a cockatiel, as in what should a future owner be looking for in general when making a choice?

  4. Oh my goodness, where was this article years ago? We had birds for years because my grandma liked them, but then she passed away and we just had these birds that no one really wanted. I recently found a friend to take them, but if I even thought you could tame them I might have at least tried. I felt so bad keeping them in a cage just… alone, but they weren’t friendly…. 🙁

    1. It is doable, but more difficult to train older birds that aren’t used to human company. Once trained, they make awesome pets, as they have such personalities.

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