Want to see my bird? ... the chicken...

My others:

Beeker:

Simon:

Do you think cockatiels have a good pesonality for being a pet? Better than parrakeets or cckatoos or parrots...? I always thought it would be cool to have a pet bird, except all the ones I actually know are mean.

It really depends on how much time you can spend with them.

All of mine love getting "pets", they know "give me kiss" and run up and put there head down so you can kiss them.

One big thing though is that we have them out from 5pm - 11pm (when they actually fly back to the cage and put themselves to bed lol) and on weekends all day if we're not doing anything.

These three absolutely LOVE people and would never even think of actually biting or anything mean... and they love to play, etc.


EDIT: A cockatoo is like a HUGE version of a cockatiel pretty much.. they are really friendly as well.

Also with parrots it really depends again on how much time you can spend with them. I would really love an African Grey but I can't get one until I get a new house with an aviary room.

My sister had a parakeet some years back. (Boy, this is about seven years ago now.) I distinctly remember the sound she made after taking it out its cage in her room to play with it, and then rolled over and fell asleep on her bed, with the bird still in her grasp. The birdie went bye-bye. [crying]

I hate having mine out when I'm really tired so I put them away or go into the other room. I'm too paranoid that I'll roll on them lol. The thing is that they are completely trusting and wouldn't think twice about what was happening.

Please dont get a cockatiel unless you can really care for it. I have one I love, but he is bonded almost exclusivly to me. Sometimes he tolerates my mom and her friends (sometimes is nice to them even). He can also be annoying if "bored". If you dont have a lot of time to give, dont do it. Just because it is cool is not reason enough. My bird may have a unique personality, but I doubt it. He is probably overbonded with me, but still I dont see a happy cockatiel as an easy pet. Plus their metabolisms are really high. That means a lot of energy and a lot of poop.

I will post pictures of him sometime. He is sleeping now.

Dont get me wrong, I really like him. He is probably distrustful of others because when I was young all my asshole friends would tease him (not in a physical way). There was not much I could do about it. Saying no didnt make them stop. Sometimes he is nice to strangers, mostly with women, he will sing and kiss to them.

Most of the time he is realy sweety. I have him out whenever I am home, from wake til sleep. Or I put him to bed earlier if I stay up late. He will not fly to his cage to sleep. He would just assume sleep on my shoulder.

I think the reason he is mean to my mom sometimes is he would be on my shoulder when she yelled at me on a regular basis. He even developed this useful habit of chasing her out of my room (he found a box in my room he considered his nest. Only I was allowed access). ]

That and she is really bad at picking up on his non verbal communication. She is always sticking her lips in his face making clicking sounds, when based on his feather configuration, I can tell he either wants to preen or just relax on her shoulder. She wonders why he then pecks (not hard) at her lips.

Quote:

Original post by Witchcraven but still I dont see a happy cockatiel as an easy pet.

I completely agree with your post :) It is actually hard taking proper care of these hens!

At first we only had Beeker for quite some time almost two years... then we figured we would get her a friend because I hated thinking she was bored between 9-5 when we work.

So we pre-ordered The Chicken, a Lutino-Pied-Pearl which actually turned out to be hard to find. Finally we got the call that there was one, and she has turned out to be the greatest bird I have ever seen.. she is VERY overbonded to both myself and my girlfriend though, she almost cries if she isn't sitting on one of us.

Then about 3 months later a woman that owned Beekers sister said that she didn't have time for her... so we took her to make sure that she had a good home.

We have them out a good 5 hours a day minimum and try to spend at least 1-2 hours a day of total attention time with them. On the weekend I probably play with them for hours and hours lol. They all love computers and also watching movies, they all just sit in a line and watch the TV.

The hardest thing was getting The Chicken to talk (which she just started doing) because female cockatiels are near impossible to train. Simon can actually say her name and do wolf whistles.. and we make fun of beeker and call her "the mute". Some days I would go to bed barely able to talk from saying "The Chicken" for 4 hours straight in excited voices.


EDIT: hehe it's funny because you really see how they copy each other in a flock when you have a few.

When we had only Beeker she would just stay out and fall asleep on us, and then when we first had the chicken and didn't have her near beeker (month quarantine of a new bird) she did the same thing.

BUT when we got Simon she was trained that she goes to bed at 11pm no matter what, so she would fly back to her cage at 11pm and go to sleep. Well within 2 weeks of having her she taught the other two, which is nice actually because if I need to go do something I can just leave them out and I know they'll put themselves to bed.

Also FYI if your bird has found a "nest box" and allows you near it without being aggressive than the bird actually considers you it's mate :)

I never trained my bird to talk. We just have lots of random changing exchanges of whistle patters. Over time we both sorta figured out a pattern that he likes. What is interesting is when we go out of town and board him at the vets, he comes back with new whistles from other birds.

I dunno if that nest box thing is good. He probably does. Although I shouldn say accepts. He will tolerate my access to the box, but he doesnt like it if Ieave my hand in for long periods. I think he considers my mom his mate. He tries to get it on with her foot :P

At least males aren't that bad with nests.. you should see females.

They turn from your best friend to enraged beasts! Simon doesn't lay eggs, she did her first year than never did again. The Chicken laid eggs for 2 days but didn't really care at all and just left them. We did have to move her to another cage for the time being though because she declared the bottom right of the cage her nest, and whenever another bird went near it she was literally attacking them seriously... she wouldn't attack a human though.

Beeker is the worst though.. ugh. She actually does the full egg cycle of 4-5 eggs and takes 2 weeks. During that time you can't bother her and she has to be seperated from the other birds. Plus she will not for the life of her poop near the eggs, so when I get home from work I have to put my hand in the cage and get her to come out and poop. This is the only time she is vicious (during eggs) and has actually broke my skin a few times with a bite. Beeker is the closest to a pure cockatiel, she is majority just a grey hen with a tiny bit of pied, and went she has eggs she turns into a wild cockatiel for 2 weeks.

The chicken is a triple mutation which is why she is completely different compared to the other birds. She is the wierdest thing I have ever seen.. as she wants you to pet her 24/7 and needs to sit on people and have them talk to her, otherwise she makes these little squeaky crying noises.

I have three parakeets (technically they're budgerigars, which are a type of parakeet). From left to right they're Watermelon, Blueberry, and Banana. Unfortunately they're all a bit afraid of humans. No one in my family has time for them anymore, but this will be fixed once this quarter is over!

Those are very nice looking birds mutex. I originally bought a cockatiel because I thought "that mohawk is cool" heh :)

Damn this thread is about birds.

I'd like a pet crow or a raven.

We have a cockatiel and it is the most miserable, mean, spiteful bird in the entire world. I want to wring it's neck but I don't think it has long to go so I'll let it live out the rest of it's gloomy existence [grin]

The Chicken is like The Cheat, only not as cool.

So, birds get PMS too, eh? Interesting.

Try to teach it this.

Either that bird is a frickin genious, or that ladie spent WAY too much time beating it into its head.

What a cock.