Kelstiel
Moving in
Hey there!
So I guess I'd better start by telling you the story of how I got my cockatiel.
I work at Petland, and naturally, being an animal lover I tend to fall in love with everything that enters the store. But it was the kind of love where it was like, "I plan on finding you the best home possible!" except for this one little cockatiel. She came in with another baby, about 2-3 months old I think. She was hand raised, and VERY friendly. I started carrying her and her brother around on my shoulder in turns, people always stopped and asked if they were my birds and I always responded "Sadly, no. They're for sale, but I want to keep them social." Which was true, we had a batch of other babies in that were super handtame but they're all in the same pen so they started bonding more to each other than to people. And with kids and everyone and their dog sticking their grubby hands in all the time trying to catch one, they all lost the interest in human contact.
But these two were kept in a different pen, we were a little overstocked on cockatiels so we had to start another one. Anyway, somewhere along the line I fell in love with them both. The kind of love that's like, "I don't want to let you go." Which I didn't realize until one of my co-workers sold the boy. I was devastated. I absolutely couldn't let the girl go to someone else now, so I called up my landlord and begged for her, and it was an easier call that I anticipated. With my landlord's okay, I bought her. I got her a used cage from a thrift store, which I cleaned up all nice for her, bought heer as many toys and perches as I could afford and brought her home the next day.
This is her:
She's not my first cockatiel, I had three when I was a kid, so I know a lot of their basic care needs and I've been doing research on what I don't know. But there's some things that the internet isn't providing me answers to. For instance, she's really quiet.
She occasionally chirps at me or squawks if she's mad. But other than that, she's very quiet. she's been home about five days now, is this normal?
I'm also not sure about her sex, I mean, given her behaviour and what my boss determined she's female, and I've been calling her as such and gave her a feminine name (Nova). But her colouring is apparently close to that of a male's? Thoughts? I'm still going to call her a she and keep her name, I think, because birds don't really have a sense of gender identity in the same regard that we do, but I'd like to know for medical purposes.
I've heard you can take cockatiels in the shower with you, if this is true, what is the best way to introduce her to it?
Wing clipping... I hear so much from different sides, and they all seem valid. While clipping your birds wings forces them to be dependant on you it also helps to keep them safe, but not clipping gives them freedom and trust so here's my question, how do I determine which is right? I'm not worried about her being difficcult to catch, she hardly leaves my shoulder and she's fully flighted right now, but the other day something scared her and she flew into the window, luckily she wasn't hurt but I'm thinking I might want to clip them to prevent it from happening again, will that damage her relationship to me?
I'm in school, and I have to work at least three shifts a week, so she's often alone for a few hours at a time (but she gets a good 6-8 hours out of her cage every day). My question about that is how do I keep her entetained enough without me that she doesn't look like a sad little puppy whenever I leave? I want her to be comfortable in her cage and I don't want to create a needy toddler type personality in her. She has a rope perch, a ladder, some different textured toys, a cuttle bone, a mirror, a few different textured perches, a treat stick, and if I'm going to be gone more than eight hours I give her a salad.
Speaking of salad... she used to get them every day in the pet store, and she loved them. She'd eat everything, but she won't even touch any fruit or veggie I give her. I've tried carrots, bananas, oranges, romaine lettuce, apples, even kiwi. She won't eat it from a bowl in or out of her cage, and she won't eat it from my hand. Thoughts about how to coax her to eat? She eats her seeds just fine, and she loves her fruitblend pellets that I mix with the seeds...
I think that's all I've got for questions right now... (Though there will probably be more down the road) but can anyone offer some insight? It would be much appreciated, thank you!
So I guess I'd better start by telling you the story of how I got my cockatiel.
I work at Petland, and naturally, being an animal lover I tend to fall in love with everything that enters the store. But it was the kind of love where it was like, "I plan on finding you the best home possible!" except for this one little cockatiel. She came in with another baby, about 2-3 months old I think. She was hand raised, and VERY friendly. I started carrying her and her brother around on my shoulder in turns, people always stopped and asked if they were my birds and I always responded "Sadly, no. They're for sale, but I want to keep them social." Which was true, we had a batch of other babies in that were super handtame but they're all in the same pen so they started bonding more to each other than to people. And with kids and everyone and their dog sticking their grubby hands in all the time trying to catch one, they all lost the interest in human contact.
But these two were kept in a different pen, we were a little overstocked on cockatiels so we had to start another one. Anyway, somewhere along the line I fell in love with them both. The kind of love that's like, "I don't want to let you go." Which I didn't realize until one of my co-workers sold the boy. I was devastated. I absolutely couldn't let the girl go to someone else now, so I called up my landlord and begged for her, and it was an easier call that I anticipated. With my landlord's okay, I bought her. I got her a used cage from a thrift store, which I cleaned up all nice for her, bought heer as many toys and perches as I could afford and brought her home the next day.
This is her:
She's not my first cockatiel, I had three when I was a kid, so I know a lot of their basic care needs and I've been doing research on what I don't know. But there's some things that the internet isn't providing me answers to. For instance, she's really quiet.
She occasionally chirps at me or squawks if she's mad. But other than that, she's very quiet. she's been home about five days now, is this normal?
I'm also not sure about her sex, I mean, given her behaviour and what my boss determined she's female, and I've been calling her as such and gave her a feminine name (Nova). But her colouring is apparently close to that of a male's? Thoughts? I'm still going to call her a she and keep her name, I think, because birds don't really have a sense of gender identity in the same regard that we do, but I'd like to know for medical purposes.
I've heard you can take cockatiels in the shower with you, if this is true, what is the best way to introduce her to it?
Wing clipping... I hear so much from different sides, and they all seem valid. While clipping your birds wings forces them to be dependant on you it also helps to keep them safe, but not clipping gives them freedom and trust so here's my question, how do I determine which is right? I'm not worried about her being difficcult to catch, she hardly leaves my shoulder and she's fully flighted right now, but the other day something scared her and she flew into the window, luckily she wasn't hurt but I'm thinking I might want to clip them to prevent it from happening again, will that damage her relationship to me?
I'm in school, and I have to work at least three shifts a week, so she's often alone for a few hours at a time (but she gets a good 6-8 hours out of her cage every day). My question about that is how do I keep her entetained enough without me that she doesn't look like a sad little puppy whenever I leave? I want her to be comfortable in her cage and I don't want to create a needy toddler type personality in her. She has a rope perch, a ladder, some different textured toys, a cuttle bone, a mirror, a few different textured perches, a treat stick, and if I'm going to be gone more than eight hours I give her a salad.
Speaking of salad... she used to get them every day in the pet store, and she loved them. She'd eat everything, but she won't even touch any fruit or veggie I give her. I've tried carrots, bananas, oranges, romaine lettuce, apples, even kiwi. She won't eat it from a bowl in or out of her cage, and she won't eat it from my hand. Thoughts about how to coax her to eat? She eats her seeds just fine, and she loves her fruitblend pellets that I mix with the seeds...
I think that's all I've got for questions right now... (Though there will probably be more down the road) but can anyone offer some insight? It would be much appreciated, thank you!
's mom
