Cockatiels?

[shoreset]

I've wanted one for ages and I will eventually get one or two lol.

I've got lots of different books on them that I'm working my way through etc, but there are somethings books dont cover.

What are yours like?
What's the best cage for a 'tiel? (will be given lots of out of cage flight time)

How much roughly does your tiel cost you a month?


and anything else you want to share


thanks

[Myjb23]

I have two tiels, a lutino female (Sweet Pea) and a grey male (James). Both were parent reared in an aviary and they are SO different. Sweet Pea has tamed down so well and is as sweet and loving as any hand reared baby. James is evil, wont tolerate any handling and will attack if i try to catch him If I just owned James i'd be put off tiels for life, but i absolutely adore Sweet Pea If you want a pet its best to pay a bit more for a hand reared one I think.

I have mine in a Montana San Remo cage. They do need a fairly large cage as they are very active, but its important to make sure the bar spacing isnt too wide.

Mine cost very little per month, never had any vets visits with either of them. I buy a bag of good quality tiel mix from my local parrot shop (about £10 worth) and that lasts about 2 months. Neither will take any fruit and veg but I do offer them some each day in the hopes they will They have calcium supplement (calivet) but that only costs about £10 a bottle and lasts forever!

Here's mine:



Sweet Pea

[shoreset]

Originally Posted by Myjb23

I have two tiels, a lutino female (Sweet Pea) and a grey male (James). Both were parent reared in an aviary and they are SO different. Sweet Pea has tamed down so well and is as sweet and loving as any hand reared baby. James is evil, wont tolerate any handling and will attack if i try to catch him If I just owned James i'd be put off tiels for life, but i absolutely adore Sweet Pea If you want a pet its best to pay a bit more for a hand reared one I think.

I have mine in a Montana San Remo cage. They do need a fairly large cage as they are very active, but its important to make sure the bar spacing isnt too wide.

Mine cost very little per month, never had any vets visits with either of them. I buy a bag of good quality tiel mix from my local parrot shop (about £10 worth) and that lasts about 2 months. Neither will take any fruit and veg but I do offer them some each day in the hopes they will They have calcium supplement (calivet) but that only costs about £10 a bottle and lasts forever!

Here's mine:

image

Sweet Pea

image

image

Your birdies are stunning

What is the ideal bar spacing? I've read different sizes at different places, I will be getting the largest cage I can afford (and I will be saving up to get a good one) but all the large parrot cages I've seen have wide bar spacing

I'll be waiting untill I find a good breeder and probably want a handreared one. I know that I want a male as I hopefully want to teach my future birdy to whistle a happy little tune

[Zoo-Man]

Certainly DO NOT buy a Cockatiel that has been wing-clipped, & DO NOT wing-clip a Cockatiel! Many books still recommend this barbaric practice. Cockatiels are very strong flyers & in the wild would fly many miles daily in search of food. They need to fly in order to exercise & they will become obese & get lipomas if they are fed a fatty diet & not allowed to behave naturally.

[shoreset]

Originally Posted by Zoo-Man

Certainly DO NOT buy a Cockatiel that has been wing-clipped, & DO NOT wing-clip a Cockatiel! Many books still recommend this barbaric practice. Cockatiels are very strong flyers & in the wild would fly many miles daily in search of food. They need to fly in order to exercise & they will become obese & get lipomas if they are fed a fatty diet & not allowed to behave naturally.

I'm of the opinion that if you want a pet that cant fly......... dont get a bird.

one of the books I have it cockatiels for dummies and it says in there that if you dont clip their wings they'll turn nasty and untame, and that you must clip their wings so they rely on you for transport and so will be nice to you . If someone chopped my legs of (to stop my primary mode of transport I wouldn't like them very much at all)

[Tomcat]

Originally Posted by Zoo-Man

Certainly DO NOT buy a Cockatiel that has been wing-clipped, & DO NOT wing-clip a Cockatiel! Many books still recommend this barbaric practice. Cockatiels are very strong flyers & in the wild would fly many miles daily in search of food. They need to fly in order to exercise & they will become obese & get lipomas if they are fed a fatty diet & not allowed to behave naturally.

Agree'd...

[Darklas]

I don't think it's necessary to get a hand-reared cockatiel. As long as you get it while he is still youngish and spend lots of time on him he should calm down just fine. Obv some birds have different personalities but it's not too difficult.
Hand-reared birds are hard to come by unless they are parrots and I think aviary raised birds are just as great.

Up to you of course.
Also just want to say I think cockatiels make great pets! But once you teach that bird to whistle a tune it may be difficult to get him to shut up! lol.

[annsimpson1]

if you want a really tame bird then go for a hand reared the only problem I've found is that they are human bonded and will not usually relate to another bird whether its male or female. However I have two handreared and they are happy to live together just don't preen eaxh other etc they wait for us to do that, when we picked our first bird he was about 12 weeks old and the breeder said that he would pick us and he did. Of all the youngsters he had this particular one came straight over and sat on my shoulder, twice he did this and the others never bothered so that was the one for us. They only seem to learn words/songs etc when they are young and it becomes harder to teach them when they are older, ours come out every evening after dinner and they know the time to come out and go back in when they are ready again usually the same time when they are covered up to sleep. Have a good look at the various foods that they can have as there's a very wide variety not just seed and if you want to feed pellets I suggest you do so from the start as its hard to get them to change later, my male is the more playfull one and the females don't whistle or talk or at least thats what i've found, its the male that like the toys particulary bells which he sits with his head in (like a hat). Do look for a hand reared youngster though its far easier to bond with and you won't be disapointed and get the biggest cage you have room for, they love to rummage around on the floor so make sure the floor isn't cage bars.

[Myjb23]

I would always advised hand reared as a pet as you know for sure that it will accept people. Like with my two, both had a very similar start but James just will not tolerate me handling him at all, whereas Sweet Pea loves to come out with me. If you go for parent reared, you could end up with one like James, not good for a pet you want to handle

I've never found that my hand reared birds have trouble with bonding with other birds at all though. I have a hand reared conure who I recently paired up with a parent reared conure and they are inseperable

[Zoo-Man]

Originally Posted by shoreset

I'm of the opinion that if you want a pet that cant fly......... dont get a bird.

one of the books I have it cockatiels for dummies and it says in there that if you dont clip their wings they'll turn nasty and untame, and that you must clip their wings so they rely on you for transport and so will be nice to you . If someone chopped my legs of (to stop my primary mode of transport I wouldn't like them very much at all)

Jees, it should have been called "Cockatiels BY Dummies!"