New 16 year old cockatiel

[Ijistcantsayno]

We just adopted a 16 year old cockatiel, any words of wisdom? He is in the same cage he’s spent his whole life in, but will be getting an upgrade shortly, probably in about a month. He will go to the avian vet their next available appointment, and is currently in our spare room. He came home yesterday, and has been in a 20X20X24 cage his whole life. It’s small, and we already had to replace everything inside. He is flighted (but doesn’t fly that well) and we will not be clipping his flight feathers. I believe he spent most of his time in his cage and very little time flying so we will need to work on that for safety. We do have 3 cats. We have a system in place for minimizing the risk, however, I personally would feel better if I knew he could get to somewhere the cats cannot get him if he ever needs to.

We took out the mirror, and a stuffed toy that he had pecked to the point the fluff was coming out of it. He has 2 wood perches, a rope perch, a swing, a shredder toy, and wooden block toy, and a leather and plastic toy with dangly pieces. His shredder toy he demolished in 1 day, and is well on his way to killing the 2nd one. It was a 2 pack, and obviously I need to get more.

He’s currently eating zupreem pellets and Kaytee fiesta seed mix. I’ve seen him eat the pellets so I’m only giving a tiny amount of the seed mix in the morning and in the afternoon. There are LOTS of sunflower seeds in it and he seems to go for those first. I’ve done little research for foods but have been offering the same veggies to him as I do the budgies. He’s refused them all, so we will need to work on that.

He steps up nicely, loves to hang out on shoulders (to preen himself) and plays peekaboo. His previous home must have taught him that. He even says boo when he plays.

Tips, tricks, things to avoid, and suggestions are all welcome.

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[Aavogaro]

Congratulations!!!! You user name couldn’t suit you better. lol. Thank you for giving an old guy a new chance at a very happy and loved life. I have 2 budgies and one tiel. They are similar in a lot of ways. They like a lot of the same tours and I make one big batch of chop that all 3 eat. So far his favorites are spinach, kale, yellow peppers and chopped fresh jalapeños. To entice all 3 of mine to eat chop I used my fingers to sprinkle millet seeds off the stalk and all over the chop. It worked like a charm. My 3 hang out together but are all young and I acquired them all within a short time of each other. My tiel backs the budgies off of the shared bowl on the tree stand if he’s eating (sometimes he’ll share). But otherwise they are all happy to hang out together. Snoopy the tiel is caged separately from the budgies but their cage is a very wide flight cage with a wire divider so they are very much next to each other.

Good luck and have fun. I love both types of parrots but my bond with my tiel is very special.

 

[LaManuka]

Well sounds to me like this old(er) bloke was due for a lucky break and he sure got one coming home with you! Congratulations on your latest family member - you really just can’t say no can you?

 

[Siobhan]

Tiels are generally pretty happy and easy to get along with. They LOVE millet so that's something you can use as a bribe if necessary. Mine also loves popcorn and will just wade into the bowl and sit there helping himself. If you have foods you want him to try, fix a plate for yourself and sit down and he'll probably come right over and take it.

 

[Laurasea]

He is very cute!

 

[Ijistcantsayno]

I really do struggle to say no at times...okay, fine...to often...but very rarely do I regret it!

I did sneak him some of my snack yesterday , he decided carrots are gross and yelled at me for it. So I felt guilty and gave him 1 almond sliver, which seems to be his junk food of choice.



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[Smerft85]

Hey, I can't say no either! Not long ago we were given a 14 year old male, near as I can tell a similar situation. His cage was an 18x18x24 round top cage, which is now nothing more than a travel cage. He was recently given his own tier of a critter nation cage, making it a triple tower. I have the budgies in the bottom tier, my bonded pair of cockatiels in the center tier, and my 14 year old "mike" in the top. I have it set up so I can turn the tray around and let the cockatiels have a place to get back and fourth to hang out with eachother, or I can turn it around to block the access for sleeping times and such. When I first introduced Mike to the MUCH bigger cage he seemed to freeze on a single perch and just looked around for the first day or two. He stayed very sweet, never has been one to come out every day, but he still accepted head scratches, still sang, still headbanged and still the same bird over all. After a couple weeks now he is back to running around his cage and he seems to have adapted well.

It would appear that both your older boy and mine have other things in common as well, while I believe he didn't have much interaction for a long time, and I suspect he was in his original cage when I got him, I wouldn't call the previous home bad in any way. Both our birds seem to have always known love, and someone put time into both because at bare minimum they aren't hand shy. With older birds like ours they are definitely a bit more set in their ways, but now that you've got him around other birds, I'm taking a shot saying both birds likely didn't have other birds around, larger cages and more attention the only thing I think you will see is improvement in an already good bird.

When you upgrade the cage, let him watch you put his stuff in, and maybe let him check out the new cage a bit, he may walk right in and welcome the extra space, or he may be more like mike, and freak out just a little, but adjust quickly