new baby cockatiel

hi every 1

well my grandad has just breed his first 2 baby cockatiels and sure enough i had 1.he fledged 4 days ago and ive just been to pick him up,had a trip to the lps as i was bringing him home and his settleing into his new home nicely.ive named him cooper as i liked the name and thought it suited him well (i think his male by the way).at the moment his tearing up the sand paper on the bottem of his cage,ive been able to put my hand in the cage so he gets used to me and ive been talking and whistleing to him.also i need a few tips on how to tame him,get him on to my finger etc.i will be getting his wings clipped so it will be easyer to tame him,i know some of you may be against it but i think its the best way to be able to bond with him, without him flying away when i go near him.

o ye and another thing,does any body know any good cockatiel forums.thx a lot.

b.c.f.c

In order to tame our cockatiel we clipped her wings when we first got her. But now shes 7 years old, and comes to us when we call her or whistle to her. She flies now, and infact we rarely leave her in the cage. She always flies downstairs and sits with us when we are watching tv, or when we're eating dinner she sits on mine or my dads shoulder, and occasionally steals food from our plates.

ye i think im going to get his wings clipped in the next couple of weeks,do normal vets clip wings or do i have to go to a avian vet?hes letting me stroke him now after just 1 day with me so i think im off to a good start,im just giving him time and when he looks to have had enough i slowly take my hand out the cage so not to startle him.any more info would be great thx.

We have a local pet store do it, only because we know the owner/trust the owner, plus we got Spudnik our cockatiel from him too. He's the only one that does it for our birds.

We found out that the petting the bird/stroking of the face is actual sexual simulation, thats why they like it so much. Make sure you have avian vet close by though. When birds get sick, they need to go to the vet right away. Warning now though, its expensive. Just for the future, if Cooper ever gets sick, heat works miracles. Just make sure it isn't a draft, they kill. What we do when Spudnik gets sick, is we put a heating pad under her cage, just make sure your bird doesnt stand directly on the bottom of the cage, don't want it to get burnt. I know my bird is a fatty, so food wins her over. It may work for you too, try some millet spray, most birds LOOOOVE it. Also what I did when we first got her is I just laid in my bed and let her sit on my stomach/arm/anywhere for an hour or more when I watched tv. Actually shes on me right now. Sorry if I just rambled on, I tend to do that.

thx for that,i am going to my lps later to pick a few things up for his cage ,toys etc so il ask if they do it or if they know of any body that does.i got him to sit on my finger aqbout half an hour ago but he quickly got off.anyway thx for that bit of advice and if i have any more questions il be quick to post.

o ye i almost forgot do you know any good cockatiel forums.thx

If you go to a petstore to get the wings clipped make sure it's a good one.

A lot of places to hack jobs on them. You know, just open the wing and slice all the way across the wing. This is bad for a few reasons.

1 is if the bird has any feathers in blood (still growing) and they cut one, the bird will bleed and wont stop unless they pull that feather out, which is painful.

Another is if they cut them low they can poke into the birds sides which encourages the birds to start feather picking and pull out their feathers on their wings.

Last thing is if a bird has even 1 or 2 of their outer flight feathers, they can still go a pretty good distance. I find the best way to trim a birds wings is go high up on the wing and take the first seven outer feathers, making sure they aren't in blood. This means someone has to hold the bird and someone has to cut. Most petstores just do a quick job and slice all the feathers on the wing... usually unevenly too. Looks really tacky imo. Try to find a vet that will do it. Even some vet's do a bad job too though.

Heh got a little carried away there

How exciting! Baby cockatiels are the sweetest little things. Make sure not to feed it seeds as it's main diet because they are almost like ice-cream to humans. If we eat too much, we get fat and unhealthy! A good diet for a cockatiel is Roudybush small pellets plus seeds and treats every once in a while. Here is the website for the product: http/www.roudybush.com/index.cfm?C8C%3E%...A%3E4%20%0Aurle (It's the daily maintanence food.) While it may be kind of expensive, your bird will live a longer and happier life because of it!

As a side-note... I recommend clipping your birds wings yourself. While it may take a while to learn, I believe that it helps your bird to trust you to hold it down without hurting it. (Which is a good thing if you need to hold it down for other reasons later on in it's life.) The best thing to do is to take the bird to an avian vet for a "physical" and to let the vet teach you right there how to clip your birds wings.

I lost my Spudnik today

ohhh. what happened?

Shes been having problems with her uterus for the past 2 years, every so often fluid built up inside of her and we had to get her drained. Well we had an appt today at 4 45 to get her drained and at 3 she died. The fluid was too much and it came out of both ends, poor girl. It burst out of her mouth she drowned.

sorry this may be a bit late as i havnt been on here for a couple of days,but im so sorry for the loss of Spudnik spudnik