New Cockatiels 102
By Eleanor McCaffrey,
Copyright. No portion of this text may be copied,
printed, or reproduced
without owner's written permission.
Welcome to the beginning of the advanced courses about Cockatiels. Bringing a
new cockatiel into your family is always exciting, but along with the excitement comes a
lifetime of commitment and responsibility to your bird. By first educating yourself, you can be sure that
both you and your new pet will be compatible and happy together. To avoid problems in the future,
it is important to select a breed that is compatible
with your lifestyle and your expectations. Impulse buying can also result in you
getting a bird that has health problems.
Life With Cockatiels
Do the children want a bird?
Although getting a new pet can be a joyful family oriented activity,
this alone is not a good enough reason to get any pet, especially a bird.
You have to want one too. You must have the time, enthusiasm, patience, money and a
sense of humor to share your life with a bird. When the novelty of a bird wears off because
a new puppy becomes a member of the family, you child's bird may
suddenly become your bird. Ask any bird owner and he/she will tell you
that keeping a cockatiel healthy and happy can be
more work, more time consuming and more expensive than owning a
dog or cat. Fresh foods, pellets, toys,
other cage supplies and a bird's medical
expenses are expensive. Birds should have yearly
check ups which include
blood tests and other lab tests
Birds also get
sick and injured. The types of diagnostic tools,
medical procedures and treatments that
are available to help sick birds are remarkable but expensive. Fees from one visit
to the emergency clinic
in the middle of the night can add up quickly. A child can not be expected
to pay all of a bird's medical
expenses.
This is your responsibility, not your child's.
Understanding this before buying a bird
will help to prevent your child's heart from getting broken by you someday.
Cockatiels are wonderful pets for families
with children. They tame easily and they love to spend
time out of the cage with their humans. Cockatiels are like small children
themselves and they need an
adult to monitor
their daily care and supervise their out of cage time activities.
Purchasing a cockatiel as a family pet
is more appropriate. Daily care of your new bird can be a family
responsibility. Older children and parents can wash and fill food/water dishes and change
cage papers. Younger children can help by checking the water dish a
few times a day or bringing you the bag of pellets or vegetables from the refrigerator.
Tweety
is much less likely to become a one person bird when all family members participate
in daily care. Cockatiels will also thrive on attention from all family
members. If you don't have time to monitor the daily care of your children's
pets, don't
get your children a pet.
Maybe you want to breed cockatiels
for profit. Small scale breeding with a few pairs of birds is not very profitable. When you add in the cost of supplies and avian vet fees, you will be lucky if
you break even. Mother Nature can be very cruel and one trip to an avian vet with a baby that
has crop stasis or splayed legs or a hen that is egg bound and you may end up at the
bank withdrawing money out of you child's college fund.
Breeding is also time consuming. Cleaning nest boxes and brooders, sterilizing
feeding implements, cleaning babies, preparing soft foods for the parents then
hand feeding and weaning chicks is a lot of work. Most good breeders breed
birds because they get an enormous amount of satisfaction from hand raising babies.
Breeding is also a very
emotional process.
Would you be able to bear seeing a chick die? What about saying goodbye to
the babies when you send them off to new homes? You will also need a
reliable source to purchase your birds. Purchasing a pair of
cockatiels for
investment purposes
will probably lead to a pair of
neglected, unwanted
cockatiels when you realize that you've lost money after all of that work.
This will only add to the tragic plight of so many abused, neglected and
unwanted birds.
Cockatiels as starter birds can be an excellent way of initially entering the world of birds. First be
honest with yourself. Do your interests become
short lived and do they change as you move on to more exciting ones? If the answer is yes and
you have your heart and mind set on a larger parrot like an African Gray or an Amazon, then
don't get a cockatiel. It may be better for you to wait until you can afford the
larger parrot. Cockatiels do not talk or perform like the big guys and you may be disappointed. A dissatisfied bird
owner will most likely have a neglected and unhappy bird that is not receiving the
love and attention it deserve. Unwanted birds will be resented, ignored, left alone
in their cages or given away. Birds of all species are abandoned at shelters and rescue
centers. Previously owned birds can be passed on from owner to owner until the poor bird has so many problems that nobody wants them. This isn't fair to any
bird. Cockatiels are intelligent birds that bond with their human
"Flock". Rejecting a bird like this is heartless. On the other hand,
if you expand your interests but retain previous ones, then a cockatiel is a
great first bird for you.
Previously owned birds
can make excellent pets. However, it's not a good idea to take on a
problem bird
that is
offered free
at a rescue shelter because you
think it's a bargain.
Applicants are
carefully screened to find neglected, abused and
unwanted birds a permanent, loving home. Some birds are only adopted out to people who have had
previous experience
working with birds. You may not have success rehabilitating
a bird with behavioral problems because of the bird's past history.
Ultimately the bird will end up back at the shelter worse off than before.
You must truly love birds and have patience, knowledge and time to work with
rescue birds . It is a
very
good idea to adopt a rescue or previously owned bird
if you are willing
to put in the time needed to rehabilitate a bird that is screaming, feather
plucking,
biting, has possible health problems or needs to be tamed. A bird that had behavioral problems with a past owner may respond
very well to you. In most cases, the reason
the bird has problems to begin with is from years of being abused, ignored
or neglected by the previous owner. Birds in shelters desperately need good homes and
somebody to love them. When you bring a previously owned bird into your life, do
it with the promise of unconditional love and with an understanding that rehabilitation can be a long,
frustrating and very costly process for you. There are rescue birds available at shelters.
Please consider
giving an
older,
previously owned bird a home.
They can make
wonderful companions if you work with them and they and deserve to be loved too.
.
Your Time:
Do you have time for a cockatiel or is your life too hectic and busy?
Cockatiels can not be left home alone while you go on vacation or if you frequently travel.
Leaving a cockatiel home alone for an extended period of time is both a dangerous and a lonely situation for your bird.
Taking care of a cockatiel's physical needs is also very time consuming.
A variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and other nutritious table foods should be served daily.
Food and water dishes must be washed daily. Cage papers should to be changed every day or at least every other day. The entire
cage needs to be periodically washed and disinfected. Cockatiels also
need a great deal of your personal attention while in and out of the cage to stay happy and healthy.
Do you have time to do all of these things?
Neglected cockatiels are unhappy and they under a great deal of stress.
Stress
will have negative effects on your bird's health and personality.
Hand-fed baby parrots are friendly and trusting birds when you buy them. These
qualities have been documented in a study
conducted by Stephanie Myers at the
University of California-Davis.
In order
to maintain the endearing personality of your bird, you must spend time with your
bird. If you don't, your bird will revert back to the wild, untamed bird
it was before it was tamed.
You are responsible for nurturing the development of your bird's personality.
The Mess, Noise &
Expenses
1.
Cockatiels drop food,
pellets and seeds all over the floor. You would be surprised at how far mashed potatoes can travel
and what they will stick to when a bird shakes to clean off it's beak. Loose feathers are shed
and feather dust is cast off after preening.
When a bird, "Shakes it all out", there can be enough feather dust to make you as well as your bird
sneeze. Birds also make droppings about every 20 minutes
when they are insides and
when they are outside of their cages. Are you going to be
upset when you find droppings on the floor, furniture or your clothes? If
you find this disgusting, consider another pet. Birds love to chew on just about
anything that captures their interest, even if their cage is well stocked with
toys to chew on. Will you be upset if your bird knaws off a piece of wood from
furniture or puts a hole in the curtains? As for noise, the scream of a cockatiel
is a mere whimper compared to that of a larger parrot. However,
persistent chirping,
singing or loud ear piercing screaming can get
on some people's nerves so much that they have either given the birds away or resorted to inhumane treatment of
their bird.
2. Prices to consider
include a good, sturdy cage large enough for the bird to flap its wings, a play
gym for out of cage time, pellets, fresh fruits and vegetables each week, treat foods,
seeds, perches, feeding dishes, new toys (toys need to be rotated), cuttlebones, mineral blocks, cage covers,
seed guards etc. The most important issue is can you afford the services of an
avian vet? Medical
expenses can be high when your bird is sick or injured
and a yearly healthy bird check up which includes blood work and gram stains are
costly as well? Pet
health Care Insurance
is now available for birds too and it may be wise for you to enroll in a plan if
money is an issue. For more information on this, contact your veterinarian.
Commitment:
With proper care, nutrition, yearly check ups and medical
attention, cockatiels can live up to 20 years of age. According
to a recent article in Bird Talk
Magazine, 2005, avian vets have reported more cockatiels are now
living well into their mid to late twenties. This is attributed to better
nutrition, better care and advances in avian medicine. When you bring
a cockatiel into your life, you are making a long term commitment to meet all of
your new companion's physical, social and psychological needs for a long time. Cockatiels are sociable and affectionate companion birds
and they
need to interact with you or another bird to thrive.
Companion birds
will get
lonely if ignored
and left alone. They will become depressed, stop singing, playing, eating and
will spend most of the time
hiding in a corner of the cage. Cockatiels also need to be taken out of
the cage each day, played with and talked too. Health
and behavioral problems
like screaming, biting and feather plucking are common when a cockatiel's physical, social and psychological
needs are not being met. Your bird is
totally dependant
upon you for all of its needs, a nourishing diet, water, shelter,
companionship and socialization.
A pet bird is
literally a
prisoner behind bars.
You can either make life in captivity miserable
or very enjoyable for your bird.
Do you want to make
a 20 year commitment to give a companion bird a very healthy, happy and
long life?
Get Some Books:
If you think that you
want a cockatiel as a companion bird and want to make a 20 year commitment, read some books and learn as much as
you can about the breed. Some recommended books can be found on our
Bibliography Page.
Look at pictures
of the many different
color mutations of cockatiels that are available that you may not see in pet shops.
Visit a few pet shops and aviaries to learn about other breeds of birds
too. It's better
to have knowledge and be prepared before purchasing your bird. No matter how
endearing or captivating a bird may seem in the
store, you better know exactly what it is that you are bringing into your life. You may even learn that a different
breed is more appealing to you. Take your time and don't ever buy a bird on a whim.
Life With Cockatiels
