Why is my cockatiel scared of me?

Question

I have three of them. Mother, father, and the baby.

The parents both run from me when I put my hand near them, but their baby ( who is fully grown now ) doesn't. The baby was hand fed by me and I basically just took care of it a few weeks after it was with its parents. He jumps right on my hand when I open cage with no problem - but the parents never cooperate.

Answer 1

Well I have a cockatiel and I think I can tell you why the two adults don't want much to do with you. They have bonded as mates and they have no real need for much contact with humans because they have each other. If they were not raised by someone that handled them a lot as a baby, that also has a lot to do with it. They become hand-shy early on if you don't hand feed them and get them out of the cage a lot. The baby is sort of like a 3rd wheel in the cage, and the parents might not actually even act like much of parents to the baby, but might more or less treat it like any other bird. That baby bird has more of a bond built with you. If you want it to be different with the two adults you would maybe have to lure them with treats, but I would think that it is almost a wash at this point. They don't seem to change much once they are set in their ways.

Answer 2

You raised the baby. It knows you and has known you since it can remember.

The parents
1) Are more occupied with each other
2) Are less trusting of you - you didn't raise them, did you?
3) Maybe haven't learned to trust you yet

Spend time by their cage paying specific attention to them. Pairs are generally harder to gain the trust of, but maybe you can try sitting by them and talking to them, feeding them treats through bars of the cage. When the baby comes to you, praise it like it made a world's discovery and give it a treat. Maybe the parents will see it and catch on thinking, "hey, maybe if I do that, I'll get a treat too". If they're totally not used to your hands, put your hand in their cage and if you see them cower back, stop and withdraw. Don't make sudden movements until you take your hand out. Don't force anything and take it slowly with much patience.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Are there a lot of fast movements in your house? Maybe they're scared of that. Maybe the parents were scared at the pet store and since the baby has never been there, it doesn't know the things that it's parents are afraid of.

Answer 4

Birds form bonds...if there is another bird they bond with, they won't bond with you, and thus they don't like you. However the baby has bonded with you because you were it's primary care provider, so it sees you as another bird. The parents have bonded with each other and see each other only and don't care for anything else. You might want to try seperating the parents and spending time with each one individually so they can bond with you instead of each other.

Answer 5

Maybe they just don't like you... it's hard to say. Have they always been like that? Maybe they're just anti-social. Birds are weird like that, if you have 2 of them they're less likely to pay any attention to you. They only bond with 1 thing. They're probably just bonded to each other and don't want you to mess with them. The baby doesn't have a mate, so it bonds with you... and you are its mate.

Answer 6

Mine used to be scared of Oreos. No idea why. He would run away from them and hiss. But if you had a plate of chips on the table, look out!

Answer 7

Because the baby was raised with you.

Answer 8

How would you feel about some 75 foot monster picking YOU up?

Answer 9

maybe you are scaryy