Cages without grates on the bottom need to be cleaned more often as birds should not be allowed to walk in their droppings. This is especially important as cockatiels, by nature, are ground feeders.
Tiels tend to give off a lot of white dander. You can reduce this by purchasing a new spray bottle and use this for plain water only. They like to have a bath often and believe it or not, they like the water really cold.
Birds can carry a very harmful disease to humans called Salmonella and psittacosis. Make sure you wash your hands each time after handling the bird before preparing or eating food.
The best diet for a cockatiel is a pellet diet with seed once a day. This way they cannot pick out the more nutritious pieces of their meal. My cockatiels have KayteeŽ pellets available at all times and they receive seed once a day in the evening, just enough so that it is pretty much gone in about an hour. Other low-fat wonderful treats are fruits and vegetables, cheerios and millet spray.
Easy to do Tiel treat: Mix one small bag frozen vegetables, 1 cup cooked rice, ˝ cup oatmeal, ˝ cup seed. Mix together throuroughly. Spray mini-muffin tins with Crisco or Pam spray. Mush mixture into muffin cups. Freeze for one to two hours until solid. Take out of muffin tins and place in Ziploc bag and return to freezer. Once a day or whenever you like put one in a microwavable bird dish for about 30 seconds and give to your bird. It is a great way to keep fresh veggies on hand for them to eat. I use the bottoms of terracotta pots for extra food dishes. These are microwavable, dishwasher safe and very inexpensive at Meijer at about $1-$2 each. Give plenty of fresh water daily.
Never give your cockatiel chocolate or avocado as these are fatal to all birds. Also, be aware of any NEW Teflon pans or burning anything in a Teflon pan. Also, some light bulbs give off this deadly-to-birds gas.
Cockatiels are flock birds and you are now their flock. If a time in your life comes when you cannot be their companion, please get another cockatiel to keep them company. Two female cockatiels and/or two male cockatiels get along just fine together so you do not necessarily have to have one male and one female.
When you first bring your bird home, keep the playing to a minimum. They need to be acclimated slowly to your lifestyle. If noise becomes a problem, cover them with a sheet or towel so they think it is night and time for a nap. I do not cover my birds at night so the choice is yours.
Blood feathers: New feathers coming in have a blood source at the base. Sometimes, in normal daily life, these will break and bleed. The only way to stop the bleeding is to pull out the feather.
Please email me at mbkromer@attbi.com with any questions. Keep in touch!
*best book for Tiels: The Complete Book of Cockatiels - Diane Grindol. You can purchase at www.amazon.com or any other bookstore can order it. I just saw that she has a new book out called Cockatiels for Dummies - same author.
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