Questions for Bird Owners- Cockatiels Specifically but Any Really

Oh, lucky you! Cockatiels are my favorite birds. They love attention and the more you interact the happier and friendlier your bird will be. Start by placing the bird in a small enclosed area, like a bathroom (toilet seat down). Get a perch from his cage and place it gently in front of his belly near his feet. If you press gently, the bird will step up onto the perch. Make his teaching session short but consistent. When he has mastered stepping onto the perch, you can try your forefinger. Use your forefinger like the perch.

When you and the bird are comfortable with each other, you can try petting him. Always pet from his neck down. If you go the other way (up) you are in the wrong directions of his feathers and he won't like it. My bird loved being scratched behind his neck. He would place his head down so that I could get a better job down for him.

Cockatiels love to be sprayed with water with a water bottle(once they are use to it). They will even lift up their wings to be sprayed under there.

Cockatiels love a variety of foods. They need a seed mixture that has a good variety of choices. The dish needs to be replaced daily as cockatiels will only eat the top layer. Not only do they need seeds but a selection of fruits will make your friend happy too. Cockatiels love to chew so putting orange tree branches and other chew toys are important.

Cockatiels can learn to mimick. They have CDs that play whistling tunes. I always played it while I was gone so the bird would have something to listen to while I was at school.

You want to watch out for drafts but at the same time you need to place his cage in a high interest area. If he is singing and you need him quiet put a blanket over him during this time.

The 'nose' of the cockatiel will tell you the sex when they are matured. Blue ceres are males and brown are females.

Have fun. If your bird is young, you should have a very long time with him, up to 25 years in some cases.

When I had my bird I clipped the wings myself. It's quite easy, you just use scissors and clip off the bottom inch and a half or so. It helps to have one person hold the wing out while you cut.

My great aunt had a cockatiel when I was a kid! He was so very cool! We all just handled him from the moment she got him...and eventually he was so very tame! He used to play cards with us...WAR specifically, we would deal him a hand and he would take his turn and flip over 1 card when it was his turn...so funny! All the cards had lil' bird beak holes in all the corners tho!

I think any vet office should be able to clip his wings...just call around!

For clipping, I think that the vet did that, but that was a good 25 years ago!

As far as taming, you may also want to ask the vet for suggestions, but we didn't do anything special. Just a lot of handling, and if you are wanting to teach them to talk or something, they have CDs for that that repeat the same words over and over.

Our pied cockatiel is now 19 years old. She was very wild when we got her from an outside aviary. She flew upstairs immediately and we had to throw a towel over her to retrieve her. By clipping her wings we were able to start training her to step up and she bonded with my husband since football games were on and he let her sit on his knee during all that time. We don't keep her enclosed and she loves her two story cage. We always thought she was a male but a bird owner told us to look at the stripes under her tail. She is very spoiled and wants whatever we eat: pasta, egg yolk, wheat bread, cheddar cheese, potatoes and corn are her favorites and many other foods. Guess we are doing something right for her to live this long. Enjoy your cockatiel in the many years ahead.

Your vet is the best place for clipping (wings and nails), just make sure your bird is secure in it's cage (we took ours years ago to get her wings clipped at a pet store, and ended up yelling for her to come back when she laneded on top of a grocery store - luckily, she did!)
As far as taming, one on one time is very important. If you have other family members that want to be involved, they need to do so right away - our first cockatiel was trained by my mom and me, and turned out to NOT like my dad (or males in general) because he wasn't involved inthe training. The dish towel is a great idea. Ours ended up loving to be rubbed on its neck and under the wings - a soft spot for birds. Later on they (all three of them) would join us for meals - especially Cheerios as a snack. But, keep regular bird food as a staple - like all animals, not all human foods can be for everyday. Have fun - I loved ours. Our oldest lived to be over 15 years old. My mom's parrot, however, just celebrated her 20th (25th?) birthday. Birds are NOT short term animals!

I would just handle your bird alot with a dish towel to protect your hands. After a while he/she will get used to it. You can go online and look up guides on how to figure out the sex of birds. It may still be too young to figure it out.Typically the males will have a bluish tinge to the nose part and the females will not. Cockatiels eat alot of millet but should not eat black oil seeds, sun flower seeds as they can cause tumors. Fresh fruits and veggies are good too but watch the acidity levels. Romain lettuce is probably one of the best things for them, freshly washed, they love it, the darker green the better.