Owning cockatiels is a fun and exciting experience, but they aren’t like dogs who will come to you automatically when you call them.
This article looks into how to train a cockatiel to come to you.
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How to train a cockatiel to come to you:
Training birds is similar to training any other pet, you’ll usually need treats, a game plan, and, a lot of patience.
You can train your bird a using a method called “train and recall”. This method involves training the bird to do something and giving it treats as a form of positive reinforcement.
This is how to train the bird to come to you:
Start off by placing the bird on your lap or on a table and then holding a treat a few centimeters away from the bird’s beak.
Use a command like “come” and allow the bird to come to you. Give the bird the treat when it gets to you. You can give the bird additional positive reinforcement, like saying “good” when it gets to you
Keep doing this and the bird will eventually confidently march toward you when you command it to.
Once the above is achieved you can increase the distance between you and the bird. You can, for example, leave the bird at the top of the stairs or across the room and call the bird.
Once the bird can successfully fly to you from further you can make things more difficult for the bird by saying the command while in a closed room or across your yard and have the bird fly to you to get a treat from there.
Tips:
Start young:
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, this isn’t true for cockatiels but is still recommended that you teach your bird tricks when it is young.
This is recommended because you will have an easier time teaching a younger bird new tricks and the bird will learn new tricks easier when it is young.
This is because younger birds are more malleable at this age and it is easy to get their attention.
Earn its trust:
If you want to get your bird to do something and learn new tricks you would need to earn the bird’s trust and form a bond with the bird beforehand so that it wants to learn and is actually receptive to you.
You can do this by sitting by your bird and softly talking to it at eye level to get it to grow comfortable with you. Doing this consistently will get it to like you more.
Avoid overtraining:
You don’t have to overtrain your bird for it to get the hang of this, infact, overtraining your bird may cause it to tire out.
Training the bird for 15 or 20 minutes at a time will be fine. Also, don’t try to rush the process. You’ll need patience if you want this to work.
If the bird becomes aggressive during training then you should cut the training short.
Use a harness:
If you think that your bird will fly away during the training then you can use a small bird harness on your cockatiel to keep it from flying away.
When using the harness, make sure to allow the bird to still be free, do not tug at the harness when you don’t need to, tugging unnecessarily will only make the bird feel restricted.
Train indoors:
Training your bird indoors is another way of keeping the bird from flying away.
If you do choose to do this, make sure that all the doors and windows are closed, make sure that the toilet seat is closed, your stove is switched off, and that the ceiling fan is off.
You wouldn’t want any accidents happening while the bird is flying around.
Avoid latency:
If you call the bird, and there is a delay from the bird, more than a few seconds, and the bird only moves after a few minutes, then turn your back to the bird or leave the room.
A slow reaction must equal no treat for the bird.
If you feed the bird after it comes after being called repeatedly and after minutes of being called then the bird will learn to wait before it comes to you.
The desired reaction from your bird should be that it moves toward you within a few seconds of being called.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Budgie Behavior In Pairs, How To Catch A Budgie In The House, Female Budgies Fighting, Bird Tilting Head Back