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Hello so I am a new bird owner and I decided to get a cockateil. I found a breeder and bought a handfed female cockatiel. My birds name is Cinnamon as soon as I took her home I felt kind of bad. She had an environment with over a dozen other cokatiels and I took her home byherself. So automatically I felt guilty for taking her by herself. She does the "preening" thing alot to me and I feed her with my hands. I taught her how to step up and etc. so I think I did a good job for a new bird owner. But recently she has been very quiet. She usually peeps a bit which i dont mind...but she has been very quiet. I bought her about 3 toys that she plays with but she still seems weird. Usually she cuddles with me but now she didn't even want to step up unless I come close enough. I don't know if the Florida (I live in Tampa) weather is the reason she is asking like this...because it has been raining for awhile and she was acting weird since then. I built a connection but now I feel like its falling apart. I don't know if this is normal for female Cockatiels but please help me. Its getting me quite worried and im starting to get concerned. She is spending quite a pit of time on the side of the cage and she is a young cockatiel. Give me your input
Birds are a whole thing. They like company. They have illnesses that are unusual to the average cat and dog person like me. But I have friends who love these larger type of birds, who are advocates for them and only take them to rescue since these birds are taken, trapped, shot, etc from more exotic areas for people to sell. The birds have rooms to fly in...not the tropical jungles they were taken from but they seem happy.
They are tropical so you'd have the weather for it when it's warm enough. Something as simple as a/c can be an issue.
did you take the bird for a vet appt once you got her, for an evaluation???
I never took her to the vet due to the fact the breeder told me that she was already fully checked at the vet before I got her. I guess I will set a vet appointment just in case.
I never took her to the vet due to the fact the breeder told me that she was already fully checked at the vet before I got her. I guess I will set a vet appointment just in case.
I hope this is not worthy of a "that's the ticket". All the best on this. These are not the 2 year birds as I have been told, say, finches can be. These are serious birds. You might find a tag on yours. If it's left on, it would indicate a caught or shipping date. Date could be in the US style or European style. They come in through a very few ports that they can get in.
That said, this could be one that was saved. Good bird advocates will find them on auctions or online or in ads. Their idea is to gladly accept in order to save one more. These birds are such wonderful creatures. I hope yours works out.
There are certain vets that are very good with birds. Special training. You should try to get one of these in your general area.
I hope this is not worthy of a "that's the ticket". All the best on this. These are not the 2 year birds as I have been told, say, finches can be. These are serious birds. You might find a tag on yours. If it's left on, it would indicate a caught or shipping date. Date could be in the US style or European style. They come in through a very few ports that they can get in.
That said, this could be one that was saved. Good bird advocates will find them on auctions or online or in ads. Their idea is to gladly accept in order to save one more. These birds are such wonderful creatures. I hope yours works out.
There are certain vets that are very good with birds. Special training. You should try to get one of these in your general area.
Keep us updated. You're doing well already.
Finches should live from 7 to 10 years. Anyone whose finches only live 2 years is doing something very very wrong. Sure, you can occasionally lose a younger bird to egg-binding or, as recently happened to one of my birds, a brain tumor - but in general they should be living much MUCH longer than a mere 2 years.
Parakeets (more properly termed "budgerigars" or "budgies"), are another much abused bird. If you google, google will tell you the average lifespan for a budgie is 5 to 7 years. Uh-uh. These birds will EASILY live to be 15 or 20 IF they are being fed properly - which means 80% of their diet in fresh fruits and veggies, with the emphasis on the "veggie" part of that. Budgies and all other parakeets are small parrots and should live pretty nearly as long as any other small parrot. The fact that they don't is down to overfeeding on fatty dry seed mixes.
I used to keep cockatiels but no longer do as at this point they are far more likely to outlive me than I them. I'm pushing it with the parakeets as it is.
Call the aviary owner who you bought her from, she'll know a lot more than than most of us. I had a pied cockatiel way back in the 70's and I was crazy about her.
We spent a lot of time interacting. I would leave her cage door open, so she could come find me when she woke up.....they can be so very social and playful. I hope the person you bought her from can help you.
I hate to say this but something tells me she bought a sick bird , I hope not but it sure sounds odd to me the behavior . I used to have big parrots but when someone broke into my home and stole them and destroyed the bird room doing such I said I would have no more big parrots and really don't want anymore birds they are a lot of work even the small ones like parakeets are work with all the cage cleaning and etc . Nope never again and them outliving me thing kind of got to me as well .I hope all is well with the Op and the cockatiel .Plus the bird room setup costs me well over a thousand dollars to have it done right and I said never again .
I hate to say this but something tells me she bought a sick bird , I hope not but it sure sounds odd to me the behavior . I used to have big parrots but when someone broke into my home and stole them and destroyed the bird room doing such I said I would have no more big parrots and really don't want anymore birds they are a lot of work even the small ones like parakeets are work with all the cage cleaning and etc . Nope never again and them outliving me thing kind of got to me as well .I hope all is well with the Op and the cockatiel .Plus the bird room setup costs me well over a thousand dollars to have it done right and I said never again .
That's terrible and so sad about the break in. Had not thought about the parrots being another higher end thing to steal. So sorry this happened with you. Sounds like you made a wonderful place for them.
Yes, birds are a whole thing. To me, with the rest of life and being used to cats and dogs, I just couldn't imagine the time to take care of birds. And, like you say, at some point their life expectancy vis a vis yours looms. Eventually, the same with dogs and cats. I figure I might concentrate on older dogs and cats then.
Again, so sorry for your experience.
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