Tate
New member
Hi all, new here. i have a few questions to ask about my cockatiel Pippa, but first want to share the whole story oh how we got to where are are so you can better understand it all. Hope you dont mind the extremely long novel im about to write 
My parents bought me Pippa (he's a male, didnt know this when naming him) when i was 8, he was handreared and very tame always rushing to the side of his cage for a scritch on the head when anyway walked past.
Unfortunatly i was never really allowed to take him out of his cage, maybe once or twice i cant remember well (this was 18 years ago), so i never got to play with him much.
About 6 months later my parents bought another one so he could have a friend. We named it Charlie and well she turned out to be female so we had our names backwards lol. They then built a small aviary in the front yard for them and thats where our relationship with them started to take a turn.
They received less and less attention from us over the years, i would go in to feed and change their water daily and chat with them for a while but that was really all. They went wild, became very aggressive at any hands that invaded their personal space. They became the opposite of the cute little cuddlebugs young me had loved as pets. i was jealous all all the kids who had 'cool' pets (cats and dogs) that they could play with while all i could do with mine was look at them. as i didn't know anyone else with cuddly pet birds (small town) i grew up to believe that that sort of relationship couldn't exist. Just recently ive come to realise i couldnt have been more wrong.
As wild as they were, Pippa and Charlie had a good life together, they bonded really well together and we had 6 babies from them that we successfully handraised.
Pippa always was and still is a great talker. his best lines are 'pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pippa, gorgeous bird pippa, im a treasure, you're a real sweety, whatcha doing ey', as well as wolf whistles and a little tune my mum taught him, and alot of random jumbles of words we havent been able to work out.
Charlie hated when he talked and it was always fun to watch her trying to get as far away from pippa when he was trying to sing to her, and he would just follow her around, much to her disgust
Charlie never talked but she was still a real sweety, loved having the hose on the aviary, hanging upside down fanning out her wings to enjoy the shower (pippa would be hiding somewhere else), and was a massive guts, would eat anything put in front of her, and sadly i think this may have been her downfall.
Charlie fell ill earlier this year, possibly from something she ate, and by the time my mum realised something was seriously wrong it was too late. The vet was called out but when trying to tend to her she passed from the stress of human contact.
Even though they were both my birds, when i moved out of home some 5 years ago, mum continued looked after them in their aviary. Shortly after Charlie passed, my parents went on a 5 month holiday, so i brought Pippa home to live with me for that 5 months, and in that time he has become the much loved 'child' of my household (myself and my housemate, who is a little afraid of him).
No one can touch him, his fear of hands is very strong, and he gets extremely aggressive when they are in or around the sides of his cage. But socially he very much wants to be a part of any conversation going on around him, we have great little chats when i get ready for work in the morning, often wolf whistling back and forth amongst other chatter. whenever im having a conversation with my housemate he always has to put in his 5 cents, and if we are trying to watch a movie, of course he feels the need to start singing or wolf whistling as LOUD as he possibly can to be heard over the tv (bless his little soul). Even now as i type we are chatting back and forth
I never let him out of his cage as i was afraid of how he'd react and worried i wouldn't be able to get him back in because of how aggressive he can be but as the weeks wore on and we became closer and i realised just how much i love my little featherball, aggression and all, i became determined to see if there were ways i could improve his life, and also decided i wanted another, bigger bird, one i could raise from a young age to be a lifetime companion.
im currently on a waiting list for an eclectus, but wont be bringing him home for another 4-5 months or so (not sure if he's even hatched yet), but thats another story.
Now ill get down to the questions. In the past couple of months ive been doing a TON of research into eclectus and raising/training parrots in general, and have come to learn so much and also realise myself and my family have been doing alot wrong by Pippa, as none of us really knew much at the time we first got him or Charlie, and never looked up anything in all these years, and from our ignorance he's missed out on so much and i feel really horrible, but im determined to fix up everything i can to ensure his remaining years are the best they can be (he's 18 this year i think, not sure how long they live in captivity but im amazed he's done so well with all im about to follow with).
So their entire lives out birds have been fed a seed only diet, the general cockatiel seed mix we'd buy from our local produce store. very rarely were they offered anything else, the occasional fruit, which only Charlie would really take too, and thats about it. Only recently have i come to learn i should be offering all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables, and pellets (i didnt even know pellets existed until 2 months ago) as well as seed, and in smaller amounts.
How Do i go about introducing this better diet to him, and in what amounts is recommended each daily. he doesnt take well to new foods so i know it will take him a few days, maybe weeks before he'd actually want to eat something new so i cant just go cold turkey with the seed.
Next is his cage. Im going to be ordering in a new cage hopefully tomorrow. His current cage is really not acceptable at all. its really old and dodgy with wide bars that he can easily fit his head through and im not even sure what its made from but its probably not safe. The door is really tiny (about 20cm high), im not sure the entire cage is an acceptable size for a cockatiel, probably the smallest anyone would want for one, so i'll be getting something alot bigger.
I had a big fright coming home from work the other day to find Pippa sitting on the back of my couch and his cage door still locked closed, after a brief inspection found one of the bars on top of the cage became caught on the handle and pulled back making a gap about 3-4cms wide, i have no idea how he managed to squeeze his way through it but its the only place he would have been able to get out. so definately need to invest in a safer cage.
and onto toys. He's never had toys, ever.. In the aviary it wasn't a big deal as he had Charlie and alot more room and things to climb around/chew on. His perches are all small branches from gum trees found in the bushes around where i live, and he loves to chew/shred the ones that have the flakier bark on them.
What kind of toys would he enjoy? it'd probably take him a good while to get used to anything new being in his cage, he doesnt take well to change.
someone in the family recommended giving him a mirror when we first transferred him out of the aviary into the cage to keep him company since he became rather lonely after losing Charlie, so he has a little one in the corner. Been reading alot on how this is not recommended as it can be confusing and can show aggression towards the reflection, however this hasnt been the case with Pippa. at first he was afraid of it and wouldnt go near it but after a day or 2 its become his best friend. he sleeps next to his mirror, loves to talk to his mirror. on occasion he will look at it then attack it for about 2 seconds, then usually starts talking to it right after.
Should i still remove it?
He discovered the big mirror i have on a wall in my lounge room on one time out of his cage, and sat in front of it fro a good 2hrs, first half hr was chatting and singing to it, doing his best to impress himself, then sat there in silent companionship for the next hr or 2. once he did try to fly into it though. If mirrors are bad for his health then i want to remove them but at the moment its his only companion, especially when no one is home and i feel bad taking that away from him.
All he does when he's not talking/eating/chewing perches is sit around sit around or sleep. i want to be able to provide him with things to keep him busy and not bored
I considered getting another cockatiel but im not sure how that would go seeing as he's 18 and id be bringing in a very young bird. its still something i may do down the track but probably not something ill seriously consider until next year, and until i get Pippa's needs fully met he's my first priority.
I also intend to get Pippa checked over by a vet soonish just to guage his general health, he's probably lacking alot of vitamins and things diet related. i dont think he's ever been vet checked in his life, and if im brigning another bird home i want to make sure both are 100% healthy before they are in the same room together.
Sorry for the massive post, its alot longer than i thought it would be and i have probably missed a few things too, but i wanted to share the whole story, and hope you guys can help me achieve the life my little guy deserves as he really is such a wonderful bundle of feathers with a huge personality.
My parents bought me Pippa (he's a male, didnt know this when naming him
) when i was 8, he was handreared and very tame always rushing to the side of his cage for a scritch on the head when anyway walked past.Unfortunatly i was never really allowed to take him out of his cage, maybe once or twice i cant remember well (this was 18 years ago), so i never got to play with him much.
About 6 months later my parents bought another one so he could have a friend. We named it Charlie and well she turned out to be female so we had our names backwards lol. They then built a small aviary in the front yard for them and thats where our relationship with them started to take a turn.
They received less and less attention from us over the years, i would go in to feed and change their water daily and chat with them for a while but that was really all. They went wild, became very aggressive at any hands that invaded their personal space. They became the opposite of the cute little cuddlebugs young me had loved as pets. i was jealous all all the kids who had 'cool' pets (cats and dogs) that they could play with while all i could do with mine was look at them. as i didn't know anyone else with cuddly pet birds (small town) i grew up to believe that that sort of relationship couldn't exist. Just recently ive come to realise i couldnt have been more wrong.
As wild as they were, Pippa and Charlie had a good life together, they bonded really well together and we had 6 babies from them that we successfully handraised.
Pippa always was and still is a great talker. his best lines are 'pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pippa, gorgeous bird pippa, im a treasure, you're a real sweety, whatcha doing ey', as well as wolf whistles and a little tune my mum taught him, and alot of random jumbles of words we havent been able to work out.
Charlie hated when he talked and it was always fun to watch her trying to get as far away from pippa when he was trying to sing to her, and he would just follow her around, much to her disgust
Charlie never talked but she was still a real sweety, loved having the hose on the aviary, hanging upside down fanning out her wings to enjoy the shower (pippa would be hiding somewhere else), and was a massive guts, would eat anything put in front of her, and sadly i think this may have been her downfall.
Charlie fell ill earlier this year, possibly from something she ate, and by the time my mum realised something was seriously wrong it was too late. The vet was called out but when trying to tend to her she passed from the stress of human contact
. Even though they were both my birds, when i moved out of home some 5 years ago, mum continued looked after them in their aviary. Shortly after Charlie passed, my parents went on a 5 month holiday, so i brought Pippa home to live with me for that 5 months, and in that time he has become the much loved 'child' of my household (myself and my housemate, who is a little afraid of him).
No one can touch him, his fear of hands is very strong, and he gets extremely aggressive when they are in or around the sides of his cage. But socially he very much wants to be a part of any conversation going on around him, we have great little chats when i get ready for work in the morning, often wolf whistling back and forth amongst other chatter. whenever im having a conversation with my housemate he always has to put in his 5 cents
, and if we are trying to watch a movie, of course he feels the need to start singing or wolf whistling as LOUD as he possibly can to be heard over the tv (bless his little soul). Even now as i type we are chatting back and forthI never let him out of his cage as i was afraid of how he'd react and worried i wouldn't be able to get him back in because of how aggressive he can be but as the weeks wore on and we became closer and i realised just how much i love my little featherball, aggression and all, i became determined to see if there were ways i could improve his life, and also decided i wanted another, bigger bird, one i could raise from a young age to be a lifetime companion.
im currently on a waiting list for an eclectus, but wont be bringing him home for another 4-5 months or so (not sure if he's even hatched yet), but thats another story.
Now ill get down to the questions. In the past couple of months ive been doing a TON of research into eclectus and raising/training parrots in general, and have come to learn so much and also realise myself and my family have been doing alot wrong by Pippa, as none of us really knew much at the time we first got him or Charlie, and never looked up anything in all these years, and from our ignorance he's missed out on so much and i feel really horrible, but im determined to fix up everything i can to ensure his remaining years are the best they can be (he's 18 this year i think, not sure how long they live in captivity but im amazed he's done so well with all im about to follow with).
So their entire lives out birds have been fed a seed only diet, the general cockatiel seed mix we'd buy from our local produce store. very rarely were they offered anything else, the occasional fruit, which only Charlie would really take too, and thats about it. Only recently have i come to learn i should be offering all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables, and pellets (i didnt even know pellets existed until 2 months ago) as well as seed, and in smaller amounts.
How Do i go about introducing this better diet to him, and in what amounts is recommended each daily. he doesnt take well to new foods so i know it will take him a few days, maybe weeks before he'd actually want to eat something new so i cant just go cold turkey with the seed.
Next is his cage. Im going to be ordering in a new cage hopefully tomorrow. His current cage is really not acceptable at all. its really old and dodgy with wide bars that he can easily fit his head through and im not even sure what its made from but its probably not safe. The door is really tiny (about 20cm high), im not sure the entire cage is an acceptable size for a cockatiel, probably the smallest anyone would want for one, so i'll be getting something alot bigger.
I had a big fright coming home from work the other day to find Pippa sitting on the back of my couch and his cage door still locked closed, after a brief inspection found one of the bars on top of the cage became caught on the handle and pulled back making a gap about 3-4cms wide, i have no idea how he managed to squeeze his way through it but its the only place he would have been able to get out. so definately need to invest in a safer cage.
and onto toys. He's never had toys, ever.. In the aviary it wasn't a big deal as he had Charlie and alot more room and things to climb around/chew on. His perches are all small branches from gum trees found in the bushes around where i live, and he loves to chew/shred the ones that have the flakier bark on them.
What kind of toys would he enjoy? it'd probably take him a good while to get used to anything new being in his cage, he doesnt take well to change.
someone in the family recommended giving him a mirror when we first transferred him out of the aviary into the cage to keep him company since he became rather lonely after losing Charlie, so he has a little one in the corner. Been reading alot on how this is not recommended as it can be confusing and can show aggression towards the reflection, however this hasnt been the case with Pippa. at first he was afraid of it and wouldnt go near it but after a day or 2 its become his best friend. he sleeps next to his mirror, loves to talk to his mirror. on occasion he will look at it then attack it for about 2 seconds, then usually starts talking to it right after.
Should i still remove it?
He discovered the big mirror i have on a wall in my lounge room on one time out of his cage, and sat in front of it fro a good 2hrs, first half hr was chatting and singing to it, doing his best to impress himself, then sat there in silent companionship for the next hr or 2. once he did try to fly into it though. If mirrors are bad for his health then i want to remove them but at the moment its his only companion, especially when no one is home and i feel bad taking that away from him.
All he does when he's not talking/eating/chewing perches is sit around sit around or sleep. i want to be able to provide him with things to keep him busy and not bored
I considered getting another cockatiel but im not sure how that would go seeing as he's 18 and id be bringing in a very young bird. its still something i may do down the track but probably not something ill seriously consider until next year, and until i get Pippa's needs fully met he's my first priority.
I also intend to get Pippa checked over by a vet soonish just to guage his general health, he's probably lacking alot of vitamins and things diet related. i dont think he's ever been vet checked in his life, and if im brigning another bird home i want to make sure both are 100% healthy before they are in the same room together.
Sorry for the massive post, its alot longer than i thought it would be
and i have probably missed a few things too, but i wanted to share the whole story, and hope you guys can help me achieve the life my little guy deserves as he really is such a wonderful bundle of feathers with a huge personality.
