Moving a cockatiel around

[Boki]

I have 2 adopted Amazons that are bonded. The more I read about cockatiels, the more I am interesting in getting one at a young enough age that it will bond easily with me. The one thing I read was that unlike most parrots, the cockatiels can bond with multiple people. Is that true?

I am assuming that the one thing is that a cockatiel, like other parrots, is a cage that he/she calls home. Is it important that this home cage be stationed in one room or can it be moved around to different rooms or even different houses?

Another question that is sort of related. Does anyone ever use a separate smaller sleeping cage and the larger play cage that where he/she spends most of their time?

These are simply hypothetical questions. I like to do a lot of homework and planning before acquiring a new pet. I love my amazons but sometimes lament that I am the 3rd wheel. But they are happy and that is more important.

 

[noodles123]

Don't get a bird if the thought of it NOT bonding with you is a deal-breaker. No one wants a bird that doesn't bond to them, but it is always a possibility...I don't know a ton about cockatiels, but if you are getting one because you seek a bond, what happens if you don't get what you had hoped for?

 

[Boki]

Don't get a bird if the thought of it NOT bonding with you is a deal-breaker. No one wants a bird that doesn't bond to them, but it is always a possibility...I don't know a ton about cockatiels, but if you are getting one because you seek a bond, what happens if you don't get what you had hoped for?

That is an interesting comment. I guess I assumed that because it is a parrot that it will want to bond with someone because of their need to be in a flock. Now this is why I would only get a single cockatiel as the rule I read is that if you can't spend much time with your bird, get two so they can bond with each other. But one cockatiel will bond with the owner.

If my cockatiel turns out to be the Marlboro Cockatiel who rides the trail alone, I would still take care of it and enjoy the company.

 

[Flboy]

As for your question on double cages, many of us here do indeed use a daytime and a sleeping cage! For by JoJo, he quiets down immediately when I put them into his sleeping cage which is in my room, even though there is a fair amount of light in there still he knows that’s his sleeping cage. He tends to squawk if I wait too late to move him in!

 

[LaManuka]

Marlboro cockatiel, love it, I can see him now, ridin’ tall in the saddle Seriously though they are probably among the easiest of parrots to manage. My boy Fang is pretty much bonded to my husband. He also has a vast repertoire of Broadway show tunes he loves to whistle at top note, he’s a lovely boy.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

I got BB from a local breeder who has been breeding all sorts of birds for almost 40 years. Beebers was 4.5 months old when we met and the breeder said that he and his three other siblings were ready to find forever homes that day.

Beebs was already weaned,eating regular foods ( veggies and fruit) and was also noshing on Zupreem fruiy pellets,akong with their "in-house" brand of cockatiel seeds. BB did not hesitate to hop on my hand and run up my arm and perch on my shoulder. He was still finding his voice and only making soft chirps and he was also still in his baby clothes..hadn't even do his first molt yet and he was wearing short sleeves on his arms ( his wings were clipped )_

I live alone with Amy,but anyone who came to visit he was introduced to.BB absolutely loves his Daddy!:07: He calls for me when he can't see me,He will fly to me when I call him,he makes kissy sounds when I kiss him. I can cup my hand around him and smother his face with kisses and he kisses me back.
BUT because I socialized him at a very young age,he will go to just about ANYONE...as long as they aren't wearing a hat!
He starts with his wolfie whistle the moment he hears his Uncle DJ or Uncle Joe's voiceeven if he hears them on the telephone! He doesn't even have to see them lol.


He'll go to my brother or son and he doesn't see them a lot. I also believe it depends on the bird too. They all have their own "birdonality" just like us humans.




Jim

 

[LaManuka]

I want pictures of your Marlboro cockatiel when you get him/her! :music:"Happy trails to yooooooooooo, till we meet again":music:

 

[EllenD]

Cockatiels are such loving little parrots, and like BB above, I got my female Cockatiel, Duff, from her breeder when she was very young but fully weaned. Duff's breeder has bred Cockatiels for about 15 years, and she did the most wonderful job hand-raising Duff. She was 13 weeks old when I brought her home and she bonded with me almost immediately. She's now 4 years old, and I still tell her every single day that she's the "sweetest birdie in the whole world"...and she is. She wants nothing more than to sit on my shoulder, eat dinner with me, and of course, get infinite head-scritches from anyone who she sees. The first thing she does whenever she sees anyone is to step right up for them and then immediately lower her head! And when whoever is holding her doesn't start scratching her head/face right away, she raises her head and gives them the stink-eye, then puts her head back down again! She would literally sit for a year straight and not move if I kept scratching her head and her face. She actually has a problem with it, lol...Demanding little tiel that she is...

I also use sleeping-cages for all of my guys, which are located in my bedroom. They are small, and each have only one perch, a swing, and a water dish in them. They know when I say "It's bedtime" that they need to head upstairs, and they go right inside their sleepy cages.

I think that if you're looking for a bird to be your companion and bond closely with you, and you are willing to make the commitment to spending ample time with the bird every single day and include them in a lot of the things you do in your life, that a Cockatiel is a really good choice for what you're looking for. I've not ever adopted an adult Cockatiel from a Rescue (though I've worked with many at the Rescue I volunteer at), but it is quite possible to bond closely with an adult as well as a baby Cockatiel...However, if you're really looking to definitely bond-closely with your new bird, and you really want to have this bird be your close companion, as Jim said, you may want to consider getting a hand-raised baby Cockatiel from a reputable breeder, which is fully-weaned (don't EVER bring home an unweaned baby bird, as hand-feeding the baby is not going to gain you anything and only cause you stress and possibly tragedy)...And definitely spend time with all of the available babies that the breeder you choose has in order to see which bird you have a connection with, and which baby actually seems to choose you. That's what I have always done, and it's always worked out very well.

 

[Boki]

Thank you EllenD as I saw one breeder trying me to take on hand feeding and I was on the fence. I am off the fence now. Sort of a follow up question. Can you tell male or female when it has just been weaned? I read somewhere colors are more vibrant with male cockatiels.

 

[LaManuka]

Male and female juvenile cockatiels are very difficult to tell apart just by sight. Once mature it’s easier as females will have a stippling/rippled effect in the colour on the underside of the tail feathers, but juvenile males will show the same effect until they obtain their adult plumage, when they will take on one solid colour. Mind you, I took Fang to her doctor when “she” was a baby, gushing over my “sweet new baby girl”, and our VERY experienced CAV took one look and said “nice little boy bird you have there” so some very knowledgeable people can pick ‘em on sight. Good thing I picked a neutral name!

 

[itzjbean]

Male and female juvenile cockatiels are very difficult to tell apart just by sight. Once mature it’s easier as females will have a stippling/rippled effect in the colour on the underside of the tail feathers, but juvenile males will show the same effect until they obtain their adult plumage, when they will take on one solid colour. Mind you, I took Fang to her doctor when “she” was a baby, gushing over my “sweet new baby girl”, and our VERY experienced CAV took one look and said “nice little boy bird you have there” so some very knowledgeable people can pick ‘em on sight. Good thing I picked a neutral name!

Same with my Ember! He is a big beautiful pearl and I thought he was a female but his DNA came back to male!!! When I took him to my vet, she felt that he had narrow pelvic bones and knew he was a male. I also picked a name that's pretty neutral, lol

In response to the original post....

Yes some people have a sleeping cage and a larger cage. You can move heir cage around a bit but I would NOT move them from house to house. It would cause a lot of stress that way. I have my big flight cage in the living room and it is their sleeping cage also.

 

[EllenD]

No, you cannot visually sex a Cockatiel until they are at least 6 months old, and it can actually take up to a year old, it just depends on at what age they have their first big molt, as after their first big molt you can usually tell the males from the females by the pattern on the underside of their tails (this depends on mutation, but for the most part you can tell the sex by the underside of the tail)...Females keep the stripes on the underside of their tails after their first big molt, while the males do not, they lose the stripes and just have solid colored tails. So if you want a specific sex and you're choosing a hand-fed baby, simply tell the breeder that you want to pay for them to have a DNA-test done; I sent-out for many DNA-tests on the babies I bred over the years for new owners, I'd just have them give me the money for the DNA-test along with their deposit. Most breeders are going to have a particular lab that they use, and if not, then all you have to do is choose one of the many labs online that do parrot DNA-testing, and order a test-kit. They usually cost between $20-$30, and most of them require a few chest feathers to be plucked; some places test blood, and this is easily done by clipping a toenail, putting the blood on a swab or a card that is sent to you in the test kit you order, then you just put Qwik-Stop on the nail for 10 seconds and it's done)...Either way, you want to give the test-kit you order to the breeder so that they are the one to either pluck a few little chest feathers or clip the toenail for the blood. Then they can send the test-kit back in, and in a week or two you'll know the sex. Obviously this will require you to choose a particular bird, or test multiple birds in the clutch that the breeder has, but it is cheap to do, so it just depends on whether or not you're stuck on getting a particular gender.

*****I cannot emphasize strongly enough to you how important it is that you choose a baby bird that is FULLY-WEANED when you bring them home!!!! Seriously, if there's one piece of advice about birds in-general that I could give you that I feel is more important than anything else, it's that you NEVER bring home a baby bird that is not already fully weaned...And there are numerous reasons why this is important, starting-off with the fact that ANY BREEDER who is actually willing to sell or who wants to sell their babies before they are fully weaned is NOT A REPUTABLE BREEDER, NOR ARE THEY RESPONSIBLE BREEDERS, NOR DO THEY HAVE ANY SCRUPLES AT ALL!!! By selling their babies before they are fully weaned, all they are doing is telling you right up-front that they don't give a damn about the welfare of their baby birds, nor do they care whether they live or die, all that they care about is making the highest profit possible, because the sooner the babies leave their care, the less money they spend on formula, pellets/seeds, veggies, etc., the less work they have to do, and the sooner they open-up a Brooder/Weaning Cage for another clutch for them to make money on (**usually they'll sell unweaned babies at a cheaper price, which is just disgusting)...I've not ever seen someone with no breeding, hand-raising, or hand-feeding experience who has decided to buy a baby bird who is still eating formula in order to save some money, or because the unscrupulous, dishonest breeders tell them that they will "bond more closely" with their baby if they hand-feed them, who has not had at the very least numerous health issues, illness, or death of the baby...And the alternative to you having a sick or dead baby bird is that you end-up with a bird who has severe neurological and behavioral issues for the rest of their life, because due to the person's inexperience in "Abundance-Weaning" a baby bird, they actually ALWAYS end-up accidentally Force-Weaning their babies, and all that this does is cause you a lifetime of stress, never-ending Avian Vet Visits, medications, treatments, behavioral therapy, and usually a very early death. Weaning a baby bird is nothing like weaning a puppy, kitten, rat, hamster, etc. It's just not. They are more like human babies in their behaviors, wants, and needs, so just imagine what happens to human babies who are not properly weaned-off of breast feeding, and you'll get a bit of a glimpse of what these baby birds end-up like as adult birds...they never reach adulthood, they are infinite babies...And that's if you don't aspirate them, give them a yeast infection throughout their GI Tract, burn their crop, and then kill them.

***And even more-important than the consequences of buying an unweaned baby bird is the fact that THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT ONE ADVANTAGE TO YOU AS THE OWNER TO DOING SO, EXCEPT THAT THE BREEDER MIGHT SELL THE BABY BIRD TO YOU FOR A FEW BUCKS LESS...THAT'S LITERALLY THE ONLY ADVANTAGE!!! Contrary to what lying, unscrupulous, irresponsible breeders will tell you, hand-feeding a baby bird is NOT WHAT TAMES THEM!!! First of all, it should be obvious to you that hand-feeding a baby bird is not what causes a "bond" to form between you and the bird, because if that was true them no bird would ever bond with anyone except for their breeder!!! But forgetting that popular lie about bonding, again, the act of hand-feeding a baby bird has nothing at all to do with taming them! It's simply the daily handling and personal interaction that the breeders have with the baby birds which tames them. This is why some bird breeders actually choose to NOT hand-feed their baby birds, yet they still sell hand-tamed baby birds...How is that possible? Because hand-feeding is unnecessary, all they have to do is block off the parents from the nest-box while they're out in the cage eating, and then they can sit and spend a good 20-30 minutes handling, petting, and talking to each baby bird, each and every day. That's all it takes to hand-tame a baby bird. It has nothing to do with feeding them formula at all. It's actually becoming more and more common to see bird breeders who advertise their babies as being "Hand-Tamed" or "Hand-Raised", but not "Hand-Fed". This is because they don't want to take the many, many risks that hand-feeding a baby bird naturally brings, nor do they want to feed the babies every 1-2 hours, including overnight, from week 2 until week 4 of age. So they simply wait until the babies are at least 2 weeks old but no older than 3 weeks old, as breeders who hand-feed do (hand-feeders pull their babies from the nest box no younger than 2 weeks old, and no older than 3 weeks old), and they start spending as much one-on-one time as they can with each baby every day, handling them, scratching them, cuddling them, talking to them, feeding them millet from their hands, etc., until the babies are fully weaned. And those babies are every bit as tame, loving, and cuddly as the babies who are hand-fed by their breeders...So when I say that there is no advantage to you buying a baby bird that is not fully weaned and you hand-feeding it, I really do mean it. There is not one advantage, yet there is almost always guaranteed to be tragedy, heartache, and often death, not to mention a lot of expensive Avian Vet bills....So if any Cockatiel breeder tries to sell you an unweaned baby bird, the best thing you can do is not only refuse that offer, but walk away completely and not buy ANY BABY from those breeders, because this is a huge red-flag that they are not good breeders, nor should you support their irresponsibility by giving them money...There are plenty of experienced, ethical, good Cockatiel Breeders who sell hand-raised baby Cockatiels that you can buy a happy, healthy, tame, loving little baby Cockatiel from...that is at least between 8 and 10 weeks old, or older...