How to gain my cockatiels trust?

Oh man, I have a cockatiel, and let me tell you, it takes patience. You can’t just expect him/her to like you. (By the way, I’ve heard males cockatiels are the ones you can train to talk) Never stick your hand in their cage, it’s an invasion of their living space and they don’t like it. Try putting your hand out near him/her, and holding it very steady talking in a calm voice for however long your comfortable doing it for. Don’t pull away when it bites. If their cage is above you, move it a little lower so it doesn’t feel bigger then you. I trained mine to go on my finger by putting it down by it’s feet, and if you gently move it closer and push up a little on it’s belly s/he should step up on your finger, either that or bite you and back away. Don’t be too hard on it. A good exercise to try is once you get it on your finger, repeat the process and make it climb on your other finger, and repeat it over and over again like steps. I never taught mine any fancy tricks, just how to whistle certain patterns by repeating them over and over again.

Millet is what I give my cockatiel as a treat, I don’t feed him any seeds, as that makes them live longer, he’s on a pellet diet. Also, before you feed it anything that you haven’t before, check online, some things can kill them. Don’t use any aerosol around them, bad for their lungs and can also kill them, they’re very fragile. I would highly recommend clipping their wings, you don’t want him/her flying into a window and breaking something, but that’s up to you. Same goes for their claws, I’ve never had a problem with those though. I don’t know how to differentiate between a male or a female though, sorry. There are plenty of websites out there that will offer you more help then I can offer, I’m recalling most of this information fro a few years ago, but feel free to message me if you have anymore questions.