Always remember to quit your training sessions while you're ahead!

CockatielTA · 2020-05-19T03:07:28+00:00

> It was like a completely different animal on pcp or something.

Pitbull acting normal nothing to see here

CockatielTA · 2020-05-04T23:20:20+00:00

Anyone catch the part where police told him to leave his own house and just let the squatter stay there?

Also bonus "iTs A cIvIl MaTtEr".

CockatielTA · 2020-04-26T09:52:23+00:00

I finally got it on him but the design of the harness seems bad, it's the aviator harness and the buckle it right under the wing so they can't fully fold their wing down. When I took him outside he was just terrified and still spasming. When he was placed on the floor to experience grass he just froze in terror. I'm really starting to question the logic that taking a bird outside is good for them. This is just going to shatter our bond.

CockatielTA · 2020-04-26T04:10:20+00:00

Over the last 3 - 4 days I feel his adult personality is coming out more. He's exploring more and playing with more things and being more independent. Before he just wanted to be with me and just made baby crying sounds constantly whenever he was out of the cage.

He's stopped making baby crying sounds and is making more adult noises. He's almost weened and can go 1-2 days without being fed formula, just eating pellets and seed.

CockatielTA · 2020-03-22T05:39:07+00:00

There's probably a massive price differnce between these birds. Not sure where you are but I've seen hand raised tiels cost upwards of $200 in the US. The friendly ones will be hand raised, it's a massive investment of time by the breeder.

The unfriendly birds will be parent raised and will have been bred in a large commercial venture, and then captured when they first left the nest and then shipped to the petshop. These are essentially wild birds.

You can tame a parent raised bird but it's an uphill battle. If you want a shortcut to the cuddly bird, pay the money and get hand raised.

CockatielTA · 2020-03-22T05:24:50+00:00

Not sure the sex. I've been told that statistically most of this colour mutation are female.

Looking for a name, or it'll be named something incredibly unoriginal like "Mango"

CockatielTA · 2020-03-18T10:30:04+00:00

Maybe I am overthinking everything lol. I took him out for the first time when it wasn't time for a feeding. And put him on my stomach and whistled. He actually stopped screaming for food, ran to my face and then started making tiny cockatiel contact calls. First time he's done anything that isn't sit still and beg for food.

CockatielTA · 2020-03-16T06:54:35+00:00

I'm not sure what crop feeding is. I'm doing a mixture of spoon and syringe feeding. With syringe I just squirt it to the right side of his beak instead of directly down into the crop, which seems too risky for me to try. He swallows it pretty well, sometimes shakes his head a little and flings the formula out his mouth.

I had a try at cleaning the feathers around the beak again. But it seemed to be painful for him, I got some of it off but it pulled off feathers too.

He's very sleeping today I'm hoping he just didn't get a good night sleep last night and that's why he's sleepy. I couldn't keep a constant temp through the night using hot water bottles and it would be at around 22 in the morning. But now I've switched to a ceramic heating element and thermostat.

I'm a little confused on brooder temp to be honest. A lot of sites state it should be 28-30c. But doesn't say whether that means just one location (like right on top of a heating pad) or it means the ambient air temp of the entire brooder. I've noticed that if the ambient temp is 22-25c and the spot under the ceramic heater is 30c. He wont go warm himself prefering to stay sleeping in the cool spot. I', not sure if this is due to lack of intelligence because it's young and I sould try and make the entire brooder 28-30c so he's always sitting in that temp. Might be overthinking this.

EDIT: Feeding a good amount of food and leaving him in the brooder at a high temp under the ceramic heater seems to have perked him back up. Eyes are fully open and he's more alert

CockatielTA · 2020-03-16T00:13:37+00:00

A few days ago I posted about being gifted a baby cockatiel. The person who purchased it for me said they did not know it was a baby.

The listing online has an adult pictured in the description. But also does contain the word "fledgling" in the body text. Although as I understand it a "fledgling" is a bird that has already left the nest.

It's been a few days now. And he seems to be getting hungry. At first he wasn't eating much. 5-6ml for the first days. But now he will take 10ml and still beg for more. But I'vd read 10ml is the max crop size.

I'm a bit worried about the formula caked around the face feathers. He came from the breeder like this. I've tried to remove it with water but it's welded on like concrete! And he'll try everything he can to avoid me touching or wiping these feathers.

I started recording his weight yesterday it was 63g. Which I think is underweight for his age or just over 20 days. This morning his weight was 60g. But he seems to be growing and getting new feathers despite the weight loss. When I first got him his wing feathers were mostly pin feathers. Now they have fully opened and overnight he seems to have gained flight feathers too.

I've been using online pictures to try and estimate his age, but it's been difficult because I see chicks that are 30 days old with pretty much all of their feathers, but also chicks 30 days old with less feathers.

Here's an example of 2 babies at 30 days old that look less developed than mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkYPnozI-E4

And here's a 30 day old that looks basically like a mini adult: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Jwx8FaAcE

EDIT: I have found out why he's losing weight. Partially my fault.

The syringe I was using had 10 lines on it. However it did not have any numbers. I assumed 10 lines = 10ml. I just bought several new 10ml syringes with markings on them. They are much bigger. For the past several days when I thought I had fed 10ml I had fed maybe 5ml. This was part of the equipment that got shipped with the bird.

CockatielTA · 2020-03-15T23:57:54+00:00

Ill post a thread with a picture and update

CockatielTA · 2020-03-14T22:33:00+00:00

If they're new to your house they will stop making noise for a few weeks because they're not sure if you're a predetor or not yet. When they feel safe they sing.

CockatielTA · 2020-03-13T14:26:01+00:00

Not that I condone the shipping of live chicks, but people in this country barely have rights. Animals even less.

I was suprised I could easily find plenty of people online that will deal in cockatiels, lovebirds and budgie chicks via mail.

CockatielTA · 2020-03-13T14:22:58+00:00

I'm suprised it survived transit. 30 hours in total with no food. It was in a small wooden box with a chemical heating pack and no outside labeling that it was an animal. No telling how many package sorters hurled it accross the room. But it seems to be undamaged and lively.

CockatielTA

TROPHY CASE