Oh dear Moses is a stud!

[MikeyTN]

The males would try to do it year round but usually only during the mating period. Which is now. But yes they would do it anytime. From what your describing he's telling her to back off right now cause she's getting too close. Yes Budgies can get fascinated with Cockatiels too, I have a male Budgie that feeds a male Cockatiel. I used to have a Budgie male that helps raise baby Cockatiels too. He goes in the nest box to feed the babies cause he thinks the male is his mate. Strange I know.....

 

[SpotsandSally]

If you handle them daily they can be hand able.. Not as affectionate, but hand able.

Ooh, it'd be fun to see some tiel babies. If you let them be very diligent about pictures!

 

[lisascannell]

Oh yes cockatiel babies would be a dream! But I spent so much time getting these ones tame and affectionate, I just don't think I want to give that up! Maybe one day I will buy a breeding pair that I'm not attached to...

 

[jenphilly]

Lisa,

I am surprised my daughter has not commented on this thread... she has cockatiels, the two girls Rin and Ryner were 'surprise' babies... A major word of caution, while it may not be common or normal, what we experienced could happen to you as well.

Victoria's first cockatiel was Rukia, a female pearl. We fostered kittens for a humane league and during one visit my daughter met a surrendered cockatiel, which was thought to be a normal female. We adopted her as a friend for Rukia.... only problem, 'she' wasn't a normal female, she was a male pearl. We ended up with the two of them getting romantic and Rukia laid two eggs, both of which hatched. Things were fine for about a week, but then Renji decided he wanted to breed again and he started plucking the pin feathers from the babies. Apparently its not unknown for the male cockatiel to kill the current babies so mom will be interested in breeding again, tho not normal, that was what we unfortunately experienced.

We were very lucky that Victoria happened to check on the babies before they were too far gone. But when she opened the lid to the next box, it took a few seconds to realize what we were looking at, there were little spots everywhere... those spots were little dots of blood from the feathers being pulled out. Both babies were laying on the bottom of the nest box, not moving. She pulled them out immediately and thankfully both were still alive, tho barely. The recommendation was to pull them permanently and handraise the babies and pull the nestbox. They were maybe 10 days old.

The reason I share this, while having baby birds may sound wonderful, the outside chance that you are faced with the challenge we experienced can be daunting. Victoria was still on break from college, so she was home and able to cater to the babies, literally 24 hours a day... every couple hours there was preparing formula and feeding babies, cleaning and sterilizing and getting ready to repeat the process, including during the night.

I am not suggesting our experience is what will happen to you, but we never imagined when we gave them the nestbox that things would work out the way they did. And to make the story even worse, Rukia turned out to be a chronic egg layer and even with multiple trips to the vet, we lost her to what may have been a slight cold, tho no one else was sick. She had finally stopped laying eggs, but the vet (wonderful avian vet), said the stress on her body and how depleted her system was, she was not able to survive...

While the girls still see Victoria as mom and are really bonded to her, the whole story and loss of Rukia is not something we would ever want to repeat.

Sorry to sound all negative and pessimistic, I only wanted to share our experience of what happened to us.

Best of luck with your new man and best of luck with whatever decision you make!!

Jen

 

[TessieB]

Boys will be boys!

 

[riddick07]

Okay, daughter of Jenphilly. While it is true I lost Rukia to a cold after she laid over 30 eggs (she had finally stopped when she caught the cold) I think she would have lived if I had followed my instincts when I thought something was wrong. Instead when I asked others if they noticed the weight loss and her change of attitude and was told they didn't notice anything which I followed. It was a harsh lesson in the fact that I knew my own birds best and to follow my instincts.

If you believe that you can handle hand raising, if a problem with the parents occurs, and the problems that can follow then go for it. I do not regret Ryner and Rin hatching. The only thing I regret is not following my own instincts and observation of my birds. Also, my babies hatched the week before I started my fall freshman semester I was not on break. That was an exhausting semester and one of my feeding alarms went off in the middle of class....my teacher was not impressed lol. Also, they were a lot of work to hand raise and that is something you need to consider. If you have the time or ability to hand raise a baby if you need to...Ryner and Rin took trips to the Renaissance Fair, Hershey Park, and Tennessee before they were even 13 weeks old... they make good car birds now though and vet visits aren't an issue

This is something me and my mother do not agree 100 percent on so our opinions differ here....:54:

Some pics in the car at the Renaissance Fair

 

[SpotsandSally]

Lisa, one thing you're forgetting is that you'll get babies who are ~super~ tame from the get go (if you plan on keeping them). Just pointing that you'll get some more tame 'tiels.

Do what you think is right.

Riddick - OMG those are SO cute! Cockatiels always remind me of little dinosaurs! Do you have more pics?

 

[riddick07]

Mine actually aren't super tame even with all the socializing that occurred. I think part of if it is because they've had each other all their lives. They talk to me and come to me all the time but its not like their mother was before she had a mate. On the other hand they trust me the most out of all my birds. Ryner just let me put on aviator harness one her the first time I tried (just got it in the mail today!).

I have lots of pics SpotsandSally! I'll create another thread so I don't take over this one!