How to Tame Frightened or Aggressive Parrots
by Heike Ewing Ott
Taming a frightened or aggressive parrot can be a big challenge. Here are some step-by-step instructions written by an experienced bird owner detailing how she has successfully tamed aggressive birds in the past. If you are searching for a slow, gentle way to approach the training of this type of bird, this article is for you.
My experiences with cockatiels have been that their attitude is at least partly proportional to the length of their flight feathers. Here is how I do intensive taming with a frightened or aggressive bird.
Step 1: Catch the bird in a towel (2 people for this would be good) and clip its wings fairly severely. Put it back in the cage and let it calm down/recover for 24 hours.
Step 2: Open the cage and let the bird walk around on/outside the cage if he will come out. If not, stay with step 2 by leaving the cage door open for an hour or two each day until he is brave enough to emerge. After 4 days go on to step 3 anyway. Have a perch-sized stick handy – if the bird jumps or falls off the cage, get him to step onto the stick and return him to the cage.
Step 3: Approach the cage with the stick (a pencil works for a cockatiel) and try to get the bird to step up onto it, then off, repeatedly. When he will readily get up onto the stick, move to step 4. If the bird will not get on the stick from the cage, towel or catch him gently and and take him to a small, relatively empty room. (Bathroom, closet, utility room type). Close the door, place him on the floor, and sit down near him. Work with him on stepping onto the stick from the floor until he loses his fear of the stick. Then go back to the cage and complete step 3.
Step 4: With the bird on the stick perch at about waist level, try to get him to step onto your other forefinger. If he doesn’t startle at the sound of your voice, start saying Up and Down. If he falls or jumps, pick him up with the stick and try again. When he will readily step onto your finger from the stick, start getting him off the cage with your finger. When he will reliably step on to your finger from the cage, go to step 5.
Step 5: Hopefully by now you know what one or two of the bird’s favorite treats are. Offer one on your palm, or two fingers, so that he only has to reach out to get it. When he is comfortable with that, move the treat so he has to step onto your hand to get it. Then offer it between thumb and forefinger. When he will calmly and easily take the treat from your fingers or hand, go to Step 6.
Step 6: With the bird on your hand or finger, offer a treat. While he is eating it, gently reach up and touch the breast feathers. If he doesn’t jump away, stroke the breast gently for a second or two, then offer another treat. Alternate stroking and treats until he doesn’t pull away from the touch any more. Then slowly progress up the chest to the neck, around to the cheeks, and to the top of the head. Some birds will eventually let you go under the wings, too, some never will.
When step 6 is completed, you have a fairly calm, tame bird that is not really afraid of you any more. From here on, work on your own towards the things that you want the bird to do, such as talking, simple tricks, cuddling, etc. At any time if the bird gets overly stressed or freaks out, go back to the previous step for a day or two, then try to move on again.
Yes, this is a long, time-consuming, frustrating process, but it generally works and minimizes stress to the bird. I have successfully tamed/re-tamed wild-caught and never tamed, hand-fed then neglected, hand-fed then bred, and abused birds including cockatiels, mini-macaws, conures, a mealy amazon, CAGs, a B&G macaw, and cockatoos. The only bird it didn’t work on was Winston the Severe Macaw, and I later found out that was because he hated women. Today he is his (male) owner’s best buddy.
HI, i WHOLE-HEARTEDLY AGREE WITH YOUR WAY OF TAMING YOUR BIRDS. iT IS A GREAT ARTICLE AND VERY WELL EXPLAINED! I recently acquired VERY FRIGHTENED
Cockatiels. Dont know their sex, because they are about 5-8 mo. old, I was told. They are free from a breeder. I LOVE THEM! However, they were with so many other cockatiels they are all bald, maybe from pecking or inbreeding I dont know.
I dont have bet nearby that cuts wings or for that matter even knows about birds at all, they they do fly well, haha. They are in a very large cage , adequate for them.
They were always being chased around when the breeder would go into their cage at his place to catch all the birds he was giving away. Needless to say these poor little guys (girls), are scared to death of hands. Now they are calming down some but one got out when I was changing their water and screaming as he banged into everything in the room , all of them became frantic , screaming and flying around. All that stress of the screaming and fluttering and him or her flying and banging into things scared ALL of them so badly. I dont really want to clip their wings because I love to let my other birds fly around for excersize and them return them to their cage. But these guys, how long will it take for them to trust me and Im pretty good with birds, but never had a severly frightened bird. So will it just take time? or will it EVER happen?
tHANK YOU jEANNE
bIRD LOVER!!
The best way to tame a bird is to clip the wings. If you do not have a local veterinary who specializes in birds you could always bring them to a local pet store to have thier wings clipped. The reason it is best to have the wings clipped when taming is because when they have thier wings and get spooked they are more likely to fly into something(such as a window trying to escape) and it can lead to seriously injuries and in some cases possibly cause a bird to break its neck. As far as this article goes, I think this is a very accurate way of taming birds and in most cases can be very accurate. I have a quaker Parrot whom I rescued from a neglectful environment and she is doing quite well now. She is very aggressive in protecting her home but has now come out of her cage and is even climbing on my shoulder and taking a walk around the house with me. I wish you luck with your birds and hope you have many happy years with them.
Hi, I have two cockatiels and I want them to be tame, one of the cockatiels comes onto my leg or shoulder but only when I am holding our recently weaned lovebird. I can get the one cockatiel to go onto a stick but she (I think) has quite a hard bite and I am frightned that I am going to get bit if I try to get her to go onto my hand.
Thank you, Michael
Hi,
I recently rescued a Quaker, after haveing it seen by a vet. i decided to keep it, he refuses to let me touch him at all. he fights tooth and nail. is there anything anyone can tell me to help me out. don’t know what to do to calm this bird down, he try’s to eat the cage to get out and he just rips every toy i give him.
quinsi, Hi I ‘m in the same boat as you are. I recentley recieved a rescued quaker. Your story is just like mine. I was wondering if you got any information yet that you can share to help me with my quaker. Thank you Sherri
Our quaker bites very hard if we approach him on or in his cage. After he is on the floor or someplace he is more calm. Approaching him/her with a treat or fingers ends in pain and blood on my part. Any suggestions
I got my quaker Guapo last summer, I’m his 4th owner and he’s only 2. He was ABSOTLUTELY VICIOUS whe I got him and the best thing I ever did was to invest in the taming and training tools from birdtricks.com! I thought I was probably getting scammed but I was willing to try anything to stop getting attacked and make Guapo a happy healthy bird….within 3 days of following their advice he was stepping up and learning tricks. He has completely stopped biting, feather plucking and screaming! It works and any parrot owner should do themselves and their kid the favor of purchasing this system!
It’s awesome! And no, I don’t work for them, I’m just a first time parrot owner that got the help that we needed! Try it it’s inexpensive and guaranteed to work…AND IT DOES!!
I am curious if the last post recommending birdtricks.com is one of their staff LOL!
I have in a way tried all this on my cag with failed results. so i’ll step up the steps again and we’ll see.
How Do You Clip Quaker Parrots Wings ?
Please Help me I Need To Tame My Quaker Parrot !
I have a quaker parrot who is scared of everything… I was living in the city while going to school and she flew to my house and was in very bad conditions. I am not a first time bird owner but it was a first time for me with this bird I didn’t know anything about it. I had parakeets my whole life. So I looked up some info about the bird and I was amazed. I didn’t know the sex of the bird till last month “it” started to lay eggs. I was like OMG what to I do now. So it’s a girl. She is very defensive of her cage when anyone is near it. My family cracks jokes that she is sexist because no guy has been able to touch her and girls are no problem even girl strangers she never met.
She is scared of the broom and vaccume. She goes crazy and when strangers pass by my house she goes crazy. I moved back home with my parents upstate and I was thinking maybe she got tramatized when I took her back up? I don’t know what to do?
Keep working with your birds. Stand by their cage a just talk to them. Some birds take longer than others. Hold them close to your chest and try to rub the back of their necks. Talk to them or get a necklace for them to play with when holding them. You can get them at the pet store.
It is a good thing to clip their wings. They can still fly, but let them play on the floor.
i just got a quaker parrot i don;t know much about them but i did own a couple of birds in the past, an african grey and a red lore, i would like to know how males relate to people vs females and which one this is? also he or she seemd to do alot of head bobbing what does this behavior mean? need some help, thanks
I so incredibly do not agree with this article. Maybe it helps for a frightened bird, but it doesn’t work with an aggressive bird. I have an aggressive Quaker Parrot and none of those steps would do anything to help me change his attitude. They’re usually aggressive from being abused, in my case Quakers are just very aggressive all around. I can have him step up on my finger. I don’t see how a stick helps with aggression. My bird feels more intimidated by a stick then a hand. I have a hard time getting him to be nice to anyone other then myself. Giving the bird treats from your hand doesn’t make it a nice bird either. Maybe some bird therapy or prozac will help. This article wont.
I just got a 4 month old quaker parrot and it is very scared of the hand while it is in the cage but when you take it out it is fine it can still fly but not far and we r scared that it will get hurt by our dog if she won’t stay on my finger help!!!!!
we got a parrot the other day and we need HELP!!!! the bird actually was on my moms shoulder and it flew over to me and it bit me on my neck. so we really need help to tame him.
i feel so sorry for you jasmine! I’m having trobles too but not that bad!! It’s gotten so bad with me I’m afraid to get her out!!
i love quaker parrots and i want to know everything about a quaker parrots and how long they live.
I found somthing very intresting with my green quaker parrot today,(bertie), just by chance i put up a mirror in the living-room, as soon as i let him out he tried to attack ,then step on the mirror edging to observe his reflection, i then moved the large mirror onto the floor and now he has spent more time walking than flying and has even got more loving due to this and i feel ive made more contact in the last 48 hours with bertie than the last 12 months ive had him from a baby, he seems to want to be close and groom me and my girlfriend all the time but i still need to get his nipping habits to stop, he enjoys plucking my hairs out of my arms in a gentle way but it still hurts.
We have just recently lost our sun conure due to a very unfortunate accident. We were very lucky to have heard of a quaker parrot that needed a home at the same time that we needed a bird to fill in the hole in out hearts. This female quaker parrot unfortunately came from a abused home She will bite anything that comes near her cage. She does seem okay once she is off of the cage tho. We were told that the 1st owner had children who poked their fingers thru the cage and bother the bird to no end. How can we undo the damage that has already been done. We have worked with her enough where you can pet her on her perch and not try and take a finger off in the process. Yippee!! Thank you for all your help.
As someone who has worked with birds of prey in the past such as bald eagles and great horned owls the one thing that I’ve discovered to be a better bird owner is a good set of gloves!! For anyone who has a parrot and they have a fear of getting it out, I highly recommend getting a pair of leather gloves, let the bird get use to the glove so it doesn’t see it as something to play with that they see it as a training tool. Why is a glove important, because it will give you the confidence to get over your fear, once a parrot or any larger bird perceives fear they use it to their advantage. I recently acquired a neglected Spectacled Parrot (white fronted parrot) and have made huge strides with it by just standing next to it’s cage and talking to it in a soft voice, and putting my hand in the cage with the glove on just to get him used to my hand being in there. The first couple of times he tried to bite the gloved hand but then realized I wasn’t going to pull away not even if he tried to bite and now he’s calm and relaxed and stepping up on to the glove and stepping up on to a small perch in the hand.
As someone who’s trained birds of prey, it’s about patience and repetition and the birds knowing what to expect from you work slowly and methodically step by step and they will learn to trust you, patience is definitely key…if all they see from you is fear then that’s the only repetition they’ll learn is that you are afraid and they can scare the bejesus out of you…so healthy respect for the beak and not fear…just learn to understand the body language!! Be patient and don’t give up.
I’ve just gotten a 3 month old non-tame blue quaker and whenever I leave the door open he has no problem jumping out and flying to the top of the kitchen cupboards. His wings are clipped pretty short but he still manages to fly up there. He really doesn’t seem happy with having been taken from his home.
I totally heard everyones frustratons! I too am at a stand still with a Green Quaker that was left with us two years ago to babysit and she has become a NIGHTMARE! I have 10 other bids I have rescued or purchased and non of them have the problems as this Quaker does!
She will call for you to come over to the cage..talk to you and when you try to either go closer to the cage or even switch her food she tries to violently attack you and then laughs in a evil laugh at you like your an idiot!
It has come to the point we can not let her outbecause she bites, ruins clothes and anything she can get her beak on! Our fun with her is OVER! Anyone want to babysit for the next year for these people?? I cant lose anymore skin or blood! It is soooo beyond my expertise!`
Any one know what to do with a frightened nippy lovebird?