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Mabel and Jeff - Progress

Khizz

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I thought it would be nice to share the progress I am making with Jeff and Mabel, my two beautiful tiels:

IMG_20190811_174707.jpg

First the adventure so far:

After a year odd of obsessing over tiels over the internet, in March 2019 my husband eventually persuaded me to get one. I obsessively checked forums like this, and hesitated for so long because I feared I would be a terrible bird mum!

After a bad initial experience (bad hobby breeder let me down) my husband found the name of another breeder. Lo and behold one who lived nearby! And as a bizarre coincidence a former student of mine who is now retired! So I went to visit his incredible garden which is birdy paradise. He let me see his babies (he wasn't selling them and did not actually have them out for people to see) and his peacock which sits on his shoulder.

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Anyway, I knew I wanted a "bananatiel" and an average gray, and I picked these two cuties. I chose "people names" Jeff and Mabel (also the sister from Gravity Falls).

They were already 2 when I got them so they were frankly terrified for a while, and would constantly scuttle from one side of the cage to another.

Cut to about 5 months later:

My big development is Mabel coming out of the cage. She is so used to it now she just scoots straight out and over the top! Expert! My next step is target training, which I hope will be easier when she's confident out of the cage.

IMG_20190811_120610.jpg

Jeff is still a bit wary of me, and scoots away when I get too close. However, he will eat a millet spray from my hand on occasion, and is starting to show interest in joining Mabel in the big wide world (edging close to the open door, standing on a perch close by etc.) Plus he likes to sing little tunes and seems happy enough.
IMG_20190804_080710.jpg

I'm trying to keep this short-ish, so any further developments I'll post here instead of making new threads each time something exciting happens ;)

Hope people find this interesting :lol:
 

Tiel Feathers

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Great update on your too precious tiels. Look at Jeff’s crest, it’s huge!:heart:
 

Fuzzy

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Love the update. You have achieved lots already! How funny to end up getting them from an ex-student. It's a small world. I am also in awe of Jeff's crest! :heart::hehe:
 

Cat The Great

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Great update! I am glad that Mabel and Jeff are becoming more confident! :)
 

Zara

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Great progress! I will watch the thread for future updates! :)

The pictures are fantastic, so clear and perfect. Your birds are so beautiful and photogenic.

Also, I kinda wanna see your ex-student with his peacock sat on his shoulder...... :lol:
 

Khizz

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So cute! (Jeff looks a lot like my foster tiel Scooter.)
Ooh I would love to see pics!

How funny to end up getting them from an ex-student.
It was such a strange coincidence (I'm an English teacher to adults), because my husband found the name and I was sat there thinking "hmmm I know this name somehow...?". I remember he would always come to conversation class and talk about his birds :hehe:

Also, I kinda wanna see your ex-student with his peacock sat on his shoulder......
Wish I had a pic! Also the peacock liked to roam near Jeff's aviary, so for ages I was expecting to hear a peacock's cry from him!
 

Khizz

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The pictures are fantastic, so clear and perfect. Your birds are so beautiful and photogenic.
Oh and I put the picture quality down to my phone camera. It's a Huawei P20 Pro I think you once posted a screenshot and it looks like you have the same? I love it because I can't get too close to the birds (the phone camera freaks them out) and with the zoom mode I can zoom in a little and still have decent quality.
 

Yoshi&Raphi

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That’s awesome! Hopefully soon they will be riding around on your shoulders like that peacock!
 

Khizz

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That’s awesome! Hopefully soon they will be riding around on your shoulders like that peacock!
That would be the dream! My husband is quite attached to Jeff (apparently he's the underdog :hehe:) and he just wants him to sit on his finger and bob his head to tunes! He needs to put the work in now for that dream to happen :lol:
 

Zara

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. It's a Huawei P20 Pro I think you once posted a screenshot and it looks like you have the same?
Stalker! :eek: :lol:

I´m just kidding :laugh:. I have the Mate 10. I looked at a P20 when I bought mine, the P20 pro didn´t exist. And I chose the Mate 10 because there was one spec that was better on the Mate 10, it would have been either storage space, or maybe SD slot? I´m not too sure.
I really enjoy my Huawei. Much better than my Note 4 ever was, and I bloomin´ loved that phone. My mums friend recently bought the P20 because she saw how good my phone takes photos and she wanted it :)

I actually thought you used a real camera for those pics they´re so good. Just like your Ig pics.
 

Khizz

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This is Scooter, my foster tiel. The pic doesn't do justice to his crest. He has a really beautiful crest like Jeff's.

View attachment 312750
Oh wow he really does! The only difference is in the beak, Jeff's is fully dark grey whereas Scooter's has patches of white/light greyit seems?
 

sunnysmom

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Oh wow he really does! The only difference is in the beak, Jeff's is fully dark grey whereas Scooter's has patches of white/light greyit seems?
Yes, it's kind of half and half. And he's an old guy. 20. :)
 

Hjarta5

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Thank you for sharing Jeff and Mabel's origin story! Love your photos :)
 

Tara81

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What beautiful tiels ! Thanks for sharing :) You are making great progress, 2 year old petstore tiels are very hard to tame!
 

Khizz

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What beautiful tiels ! Thanks for sharing :) You are making great progress, 2 year old petstore tiels are very hard to tame!
Happy to share! They aren't from the pet shop, but as he does provide birds for the pet shop it's not too far off. I went into the whole thing knowing it would be work, but I am patient and not in a rush to 'make them love me'.
 
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Khizz

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Today we've had a BIG cage exploration. Mabel flew around 2 laps, went to the other side of the cage (on the outside) and Jeff edged closer to the entrance (the door is still open and I can always hope he changes his mind).

He is also most certainly picking up one of the songs I keep whistling, but I can't figure out which one! I can definitely pick up a funky rhythm!
 
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