could use some advice on general care, etc.

[bug_n_flock]

Hi.

This is my first post here, and I am doing it from my phone so forgive any ignorance of how to post, etc please.

Attached is a photo of my best friend on the entire face of this planet. He is about 15 years old and means the world to me. He is also a grumpy little jerkface lol. Anyway, I just want to see if you guys had any advice for me on how to care for him better.

He eats zupreem fruitblend pellets (canary and finch sized, ridiculous bird), which I know have high sugar and dyes etc in, but he has resisted all efforts to switch to a healthier pellet. He gets table scraps occasionally, granted not as often as he should. He lives in a large cage beside a parakeet in a separate cage. I don't really cycle his toys much anymore as he mostly ignores them(except for stuffed animals).

I've been thinking lately about possibly getting him a cockatiel friend. And of getting him DNA sexed so I can either intentionally get him a friend OR a mate. And then the question becomes, which should I go for?

Any other general advice? I've never even looked at the at large internet bird community to be honest, and have learned everything I know from local mentors and breeders, I'm curious to see what the internet parrot protocol is and how it differs from what I have been taught.

Alex Bird is not my only bird currently, nor is he my first bird or anything like that, but he is special to me.

 

[Terry57]

Hello and welcome to you and Alex!
Does he like any fresh veggies? My Tiels love a leaf of kale attached to their cage bars, and also love their chop. We chop it very small for them. As far as adding a friend, it could go either way. We have 5 tiels, 3 in one cage and 2 in another. The to love each other and are bonded, the three are not bonded but tolerate each other okay. If you are not intending on breeding, I don't think that the sex would matter. Just remember that you may end up with them in two cages if they absolutely don't get along.
Our forum is much like talking to people in real life...we may have different opinions, but we all care about our birds, and other people's birds
I hope you enjoy your stay!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Welcome to you and alex to the best birdie forum around!

My little BB is the first cockatiel I ever had..I am no stranger to parrots tho,having been owned by one or more for 30+ years.

Beeber's was just 4.5 months old when he picked me to come home to. He is now (as of SOMETIME this month,2 y.o,he will be with Amy and I for 2 yrs in May.
He was/still is,VERY picky about his eating When he came home with me,the breeder had him on Zupreem fruity pellets,and a "special" cockatiel seed blend that "they" concocted for their tiels,and said he was eating fruits and veggies..kale and broc and 'nana etc.
Well..he would only try that stuff,if he ate with ME..he'd sample off MY plate,but wouldn't eat them from his nummy bowl by himself.

Now,he is starting to learn to eat from his own plate. I put his goodies on a plate and put the plate on his roof,and he will eat. At first it was a pick here and nibble there,then he'd want to be on MY shoulder,to sing in my ear. It took many times to put him back on the desk and show him his plate and tell him EAT!

Now,he'll at least stay put and do more than just nibble! He'll pic at broc and cauliflower,corn nibs,a piece of 'nana..LOVES mac and cheese and Remen noodles (without the flavor packet of course).

Just the other day,I made him and Amy a batch of birdie muffins I posted in one of the tiel threads) that he just loves! So...it took ALONG time for him to come around,even when he was introduced to all this at a very young age.

All I can say is...don't give up on Alex..try different things...I finally realized that a cockatiel doesn't/won't eat as much as a big 'ol Amazon..like Amy,lol


Jim

 

[GaleriaGila]

Hello, and welcome!
I love cockatiels... they're SO MUCH PARROT in such a great little package!
Lots of cockatiel lovers here to support and guide you.
Meanwhile, there are also some great threads already in action. The SEARCH tab above is really good.
I'm so glad you two are here.

 

[texsize]

I got my first Cockatiel a friend and I was lucky (no pun intended) they got along famously and still do 15 years later. They are both male and can't bear to be out of each others sight.

My opinion is that two female cockatiels are more likely to get along together than two male birds are despite my experience with Lucky and Baby (my first 2 cockatiels).

Getting a second bird of the opposite sex does not mean they will get along either. there is just no way to tell ahead of time. Of course they may get along TOO WELL and you may end up hip deep in cockatiels before you know it.

My first cockatiel was a complete accident but after I had him I wanted to have babies so bad, well I kept buying them in the hops I would end up with a breeding pair. Eventually I did.

It fell under that category of "be carful of what you wish for because you might get it"
Don't get me wrong, it was a wonderful experience that I would not trade for anything but...

I had to separate the breeding pair or my house would be full (even MORE full) of cages to the point I would spend all my time cleaning and feeding.

I sold the second clutch of babies and I felt like I was selling my own child. I could not go through that again.

anyway that's just my $.02 worth.

texsize

 

[LordTriggs]

I will preach what I preach everywhere in regards to adding a new bird.

Do not get a bird for the sake of your bird. Get one if YOU want one and are prepared for the worst case scenario.

A worst case scenario would be either Alex and the new bird want to kill each other meaning your time between them is split, or they get on to the point they shun you and begin turning wild again. Then if they were to mate you could get baby Tiels meaning more mouths to feed, more stress and potentially having to learn quickly how to care for a newborn bird because the parents abandoned the baby. Like I say those are the absolute worst case scenarios but you should be prepared for that, that way things can only go better than planned.

I personally don't find Zupreem pellets to be the worst thing going, sure there's better pellets but they're not the apocalypse. Offer some fruits and veggies at times (maybe eat a little in front of him so he knows they're food. As for toys try finding some new interesting ones for him to try playing with, even play with them yourself to get him interested. My conure had his preferences to toys, he never shredded anything and he didn't care too much for foraging toys but I had a ball tied to a piece of rope in his cage that he went crazy for swinging upside down from it screeching away to himself.

I know a lot of breeders and such often say that the best way to calm a bird is to get a mate for them (another sale for them) but remember that a lot of these people go by what they were told 10 or so years ago when they first started so are going by outdated advice much of which is baloney (such as talking about height dominance which is absolute nonsense) so with a breeder I would smile politely then when home research as much as you can coming to your own opinion

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

"Hip deep in cockatiel's" lol...geez I can see my house hip deep in BB's..it would be complete pandemonium! LOL






Jim

 

[itzjbean]

Hello and welcome to the forums!!

I have two cockatiels at the moment, a mated pair named Boo and Peach. They raised a clutch last spring and I had so much fun helping raise them, they had a variety of colors in their clutch, all different, and all went to loving homes.

I feed a variety to my birds -- the fruit Zupreem pellets you mentioned (cockatiel size), Tropimix, Volkmanns sunflower seed-less mix, and CHOP (mix of fruits, veggies, beans, grains) and they seem to enjoy it. It can be quite hard to convert a bird that's addicted to one kind. I suggest making bird bread, lots of recipes online and its basically corn bread muffin mix with chopped/pureed fruits and veggies in it, lots of birds really like that stuff. You can find tons of recipes online.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Hey guys,

Yeah I know all those tricks about eating in front of your bird, etc. Alex I *can* get to eat most things, by "not letting him have any" :03:

May I ask why you think height dominance is nonsense? I have seen it used as a tool in the rehab of many problem birds, and have used it personally many times quite successfully. Unless we are describing two different things, I would be curious to see why you think that, and if I should revise some of my protocols for rehab. However, in conjunction with other techniques, I have used "height dominance"(if we are talking about the same thing) to successfully rehab birds expressing problem behaviors from plucking to screaming to biting and cage aggression. There are 20 or so birds in my city and the surrounding ones that I personally have used this technique on to rehab and these birds are now happy and healthy in loving homes...

I was asking about a companion due to the gregarious nature of free ranging cockatiels. We do not advise people to keep nearly any such species alone, and it occured to me I have been doing exactly that for 15 years: keeping an extremely social animal without a companion. In such simple-minded creatures as guinea pigs it is literally illegal to keep only one in some parts of the world.. Alex may be a little slow compared to many other birds(He is afraid of heights. Not kidding.), but he far and away is smarter than any guinea pig I've known.

My main pause at the friend v mate debate is if at 15 years old it would be kinder on him not to get him a mate. Placing babies is not an issue, I have done this before. Handfeeding is nothing new. I have been around the block a few times with rehab, medictions, handfeeding, etc etc etc. I have bred birds before, and not just one species either.

 

[bug_n_flock]

And thanks for all the welcomes, advice, and cute stories! Sorry, still getting the hang of things here.

Being hip deep in cockatiels sounds chaotic yet blissfull... Altho, imagine scritching in juuuust the wrong way, or accidentally moving your hand and setting off a fake biting rain chain reaction and its just a sea of grump.

 

[LordTriggs]

my thing with height dominance is that dominance part of it. I agree they're more confident when higher so more likely to get up to mischief but dominance is a predator trait which of course birds are not. I see birds constantly above eye height who are no trouble at all. My own conure would often sit on the balcony room above me playing away but if I wanted him to come down I just needed to call him and he would come flying down. It's just something I've never seen as existing in birds I've met and everything I have read on it has pretty much said that birds don't dominate at a higher level but they just gain the confidence to act out on an already bad behavior

 

[bug_n_flock]

Any social animal has a heirarchy.. Even sheep. I do not agree that dominance is a predator thing. I think that this is a case of a misunderstanding, though. You say yourself that birds have more confidence when higher and this is all it boils down to in practical terms anyway. A scared bird's cage should be moved higher to help the bird gain confidence and a "problem" bird should be moved lower so that it is more open to behavior modification and easier to handle.

Social stature is fluid, but not so fluid as to be instantly affected by height. The more socially "privileged" animals are more likely to inhabit the "better" positions for longer... the higher places. To put it in different but similar terms: In the typical family home social structure humans are "above" household pets like dogs. The best seat in the house is the humans', and so is the best food. Sometimes the dog gets table scraps and sits on the couch, though, so does that mean that when he does so he is temporarily more in charge than the human? Not at all. And the same is true with birds and height. It isn't so much "who is higher" as "who gets to be in the best place for longer and when they choose"

 

[Kentuckienne]

Welcome! If you want to try a different pellet, Harrison's makes great ones. You can probably get a sample for the little monster to try. Our macaw eats them .. he ate the regular Harrison's but didn't seem to relish them. I found out he used to like Harrison's pepper formula and got him some of that - he CHOWS IT DOWN. Parrots seem to love hot pepper. Harrison's also has Power Treats, which seem very tasty. Harrison's has some good information about diet and converting parrots to healthier foods on their website, so it's a good resource even if you don't buy the food.

 

[LordTriggs]

yeah I would agree with that sentiment, I mainly just get annoyed when people say that a bird should never go above a human and cages should never be taller than a human but really it all comes down to training them properly

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

With a flighted bird, it’s pretty hard to keep them off your head

 

[bug_n_flock]

With a flighted bird, it’s pretty hard to keep them off your head

Alex isn't flighted. I am open to the idea, but at 15 I wonder if it is too late to start? He has some really bizzare neuroses around flying, and I do wonder how much of that is my fault. I got him when I was only 12 and I made a few mistakes in raising him. But when he was about a year old we were outside doing something at the local park, and I bent over, he lost his balance and took off. Cockatiels can fly on 1/2 of one feather, I swear! And both of us were shocked when he ended up at the top of a very tall tree just a bit after sunset on a late fall evening in the northeast united states. Some dang how he survived the night and I tracked him tree to tree all through the next day. Alex is afraid of heights, see, and he just kept shreiking at me to come get him (I always had been able to do so with the help of a ladder before, but he was way past ladder height). There was a hawk, it was horrible.

We were so dang lucky and he managed to go lower by degrees over a matter of hours and eventually landed in the hedges of a house a few neighborhoods over. I scooped him up and we rushed to my vet where he was put on baytril just in case (I know better now), and given a thorough look over.

He has had a few other close calls like that, but none so close a call. I mean seriously. The cold, the hawk, all of it. We got *lucky*. I still take him outside, he loves meeting new people and talking to the birds and squirrels, but I always make sure he is tightly clipped before we go. I'd love to have another option. Even by cockatiel standards, though, Alex is absolutely not what I would call a genius. He once was distracted whistling at something and walked straight off a table. One time he got bit through the beak by a pet rat and instead of being upset, he just kept whistling away, blood dripping down his face. Sigh. Alex, he uh... he ain't the smartest critter around. Pretty sturdy, though I will say. And lucky

The parakeet I have been doing some flight training with, but it is the first time I've done anything similar, so any pointers would be appreciated. Also any input on if Alex is smart enough for flight training, lol.

Post from my phone, so please forgive typos and weirdness and such.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Sorry for the double post. My first Amazon loved Harrison's, but the bird store that sold it locally went out of business unfortunately.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

First, you either need to harness train Alex or take him outside only in a carrier. That close call happened not because the bird was flighted, but because you took him outside unrestrained. As you’ve already seen, clipped birds can and do fly away, especially cockatiels and smaller, more aerodynamic birds. I think you should definetly begin flight training. First you need to target train him (there are many posts on this forum about target training) and use that to get him to hop a short distance to your hand. Gradually step back further until he can fly across the room to get to your hand. Make sure he is physically capable of flying that distance before you ask him to fly it, meaning wait until his flight feathers are in and he’s strong enough to fly before expecting him to fly those distances. While you wait for him to molt out the clipped feathers, practice targeting and getting him to walk or hop to your hand when you call him. A flighted bird is a healthier and happier bird, but make sure he has no way of escaping before allowing him to become flighted. Also, if your bird does escape, recall training will help you get him down from a tree. Also, having him fly up and down the stairs (if you live in a two-story house) will give him the flight skills needed to descend from a tall place, instead of shrieking for you to come get him.

 

[bug_n_flock]

I appreciate your input, I'm still not sure yet if I will do flight training with him though. He is harness trained, but really despises the thing so I don't often subject him to it. When we go anywhere more than just the porch, I have a carrier with me for him to use as a safety space. I have heard so many horror stories about flighted birds getting into awful situations, and Alex has never been overweight or anything like that. To be honest, I'm really still not sold on the idea of risking his life like that just for a bit of enrichment. Some of the oldest birds I've had or known were clipped their entire lives( 24 year old parakeet who belonged to a customer, 37 year old cockatiel belonging to a different customer, mystery aged Amazon but 50+ years old who I rescued as the most amazingly wonderfully perfect hospice patient(RIP), 50+ year old African Grey(wild caught, was in my family for over 50 years though)).. I don't know. It is a risk/excersize tradeoff in my eyes, and there are certainly other ways of getting a bird to excersize.

That close call happened more than fourteen years ago when I was a child. Children make mistakes. I'm not saying adults don't either, but the last close call with him taking off was over a decade ago... And there were only ever 2 close calls involving flight. The other event wasn't particularly a close call, either. He flew up a hill and landed on the ground. I understand how my other post was confusing, but by "close calls" I meant like him getting hurt, not necessarily flying off.

Not saying "no" outright, just that I'm really not sold on flighted birds yet. I'm trying it with Fatty, so again, I'm not completely opposed to it. This is going to sound absolutely awful, but I am more OK risking a bird I got only a few months ago than I am risking the bird that has been my best friend for longer than I have been an adult for. :/ I've literally had him for more than half of my life and would not be OK if I lost him right now. Personal info here, sorry, but I only fairly recently and very suddenly lost my dad. Not so recently as to be actively mourning, but recently enough to be only just getting back to "normal", so yeah.... Not sure if risking Alex right now(or ever! haha) is a good idea.

And yes, I am completely aware that I am too protective of that little yellow jerk.

I don't know. I'm torn on a lot over him. The friend, flight training, etc. I want the best life for him, but I also don't want to risk him or the relationship we have.

My friends/family have a joke that not only would I ignore any of them to help that bird, but I would feed them to him in a starvation situation to keep him going. hahaha

 

[bug_n_flock]

Oh jeeze. Not meaning you are a bad bird owner if you fly your birds or anything! Really hope I didn't come across that way. And I've also known some crazy old birds who were flighted their whole lives, too. I had a hospice patient who was a geriatric and deformed ringnecked dove in her late 20's when I got her and she made it another several with me, and she was flighted her whole life. Not tame in the least, and not trained either. She was in a private zoo's collection and then an indoor aviary when I took her. She made the most fantastic babysitter for fledgling parakeets. <3