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The paint is coming off already??!! it looks like a nice cage, but...
where is the cage made?
My tiel cages are made by a company called Hagen. They were made in Canada.
I am glad you decided to adopt Raisen . I always worry about what happens to birds that aren't 100% "perfect"

Yeah, I think it is his imperfections that made us love him best!! Apparently, he is the one that gets the most attention from people in the store because everyone thinks he's so cute.

I bought the cage at Petland, and there weren't any tags on it that I recall. I have searched on the internet for one just like it and I found one that is exactly like it on a web site called birdcages4less.com ( http://birdcages4less.com/page/B/PROD/S ... ges/PA5705 ). It is called a Hana Hut Dometop. I can't seem to find much about "Hana Hut" , but it says it is trademarked. I don't know if this is a good brand or not. The paint is fine generally, but I just noticed where the cage door opens and the metal rubs together in a couple of places it is starting to chip and peel just a little. Hopefully this won't start happening all over! Ever heard of Hana Hut? I don't know where it is made.

Hmm..never heard of hana hut.
"Raisen" looks like a lutino
My "Button" is also a lutino and she is bit "special needs". Despite her urge to still tear at her skin/feathers she is doing OK. She takes her regular baths, takes her milk thistle (for her liver) and is a good eater (she likes Harrison's mash). She loves veggies and brown rice. I try to sneak in ground flax seed (omega-3s) for her skin.
Keep us updated on Raisen

Raisen is a cutie! You're lucky to have each other. I noticed a lot of people were posting thier favorite cages. I got one about a month ago that I almost couldn't believe when I found it. I have seen this cage on other sites for about $300. It is $149 at bird.com. It is roughly 30x40x70 on legs with a seed catcher. The other GREAT thing about this cage is the bars are ALL horizontal. It is also powder coated. I ordered grey but it looks almost white. The colors are limited (I think it's some kind of closeout). I didn't know how to include it as a link so I just copied and pasted the address. It's well worth a look. Shipping was free!!! https://www.bird.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=502906+WHT

Well, since you asked I would use the chipped paint as my excuse to exchange the cage while the Petland staff KNOW you have no bird at home to have contaminated it. I would trade it for several reasons. First, a brand new cage should NOT be chipped. Second, most of the cages by unknown manufacturers were made recently in China and contain a dangerous amount of lead. Also, a cage is much safer for tiny talons when the bars all meet at 90 degree angles. The design of your cage is prettier unless your baby gets a toe caught and bloodied in it. Then you'll rush to replace it. Better now than then! It's possible Petland would give you a refund on the chipped cage, and then you could buy a larger, safer, better made cage online. We could probably give you plenty of good sites to check out.

Since you're learning so much and loving that baby more every day, you might want to buy a slightly larger cage, especially if the baby will be in her cage while your daughter is at school all day and you are working. Watch the bar space though. It's often very hard to find a larger cage with safe bar spacing for small birds. If you cannot, the size of your cage is not bad. I just much prefer larger cages for all my birds and hear other experienced parronts say the same thing.

Cockatiels do not usually do much bar chewing. I almost never see mine do so except -- YUCK -- when one is going after poop that has caught and dried in the welds. Cockatiels are baaad about eating poop That habit is great inspiration to keep their cage sparkly clean at all times! But, in summation, cockatiels usually do not chew at bars enough to worry about paint chips. It is the ease with which your cage has chipped that is most worrisome. And that chip gives you good excuse to request a refund or replacement that is better made -- and has only 90 degree angles.

Thanks for all the input on cages and little tidbits of info on other things like feeding them etc..! I'm sure once we bring Baby Raisin home, I'll be driving everyone even more nuts with questions on real life with a cockatiel since everything will be a first for us!

Sweetrsue,
That's a nice cage but did you notice that it is is for amazons and african greys? the bar spacing may be too wide for a tiel.
I would sometimes put my budgies in my tiel cages and the little boogers would (sometimes) squeeze through the bars!Betty (she had passed away a year ago) tried numerous times to squeeze out and she woud get stuck because she was so fat! So you got to think of the bar spacing because the birds certainly do!

MFids, I realize now that there are much better cages out there for much better prices. I really didn't care about having a pretty cage either, but this was all they had at Petland and I didn't know any better at the time. Baby Raisin is still weaning and we are visiting him whenever we can, so I will have to remember to ask them what their return policy is. what are flight cages?

Thanks also for the positive input on Baby Raisin's beak. When we visit him we now always try to go when Amy (the experienced person) is there and she recently told us that she did not think that there was anything wrong with his beak either and that the other girl just thought that perhaps his beak had been damaged when the babies were trying to feed each other. I'm not sure if it is possible to know whether or not a bird has a fungal or yeast infection by looking at them, but Amy maintains that Baby raisin is just way behind the others due to being so small and being the runt of the litter! He does behave differently from the others. We were there today and all the others were on the perches looking sleepy. Baby Raisin was in the food dish and appeared to be eating which was a good sign. But when we came over, he soon came running over to the glass sides of the bird area and was crying and thinking we were there to give him his formula. My daughter held him and distracted him from crying for a while and got him to nibble on some millet, then we left him back in the food dish. He just remains very babyish compared to the three other cockatiels there.

How can not acting like the other cockatiels lead to a health problem?

The other lutino cockatiel at the store has not been sold yet and I am starting to like it a lot! We are just spending so much time at the petstore it is hard not to get to know the other birds. My daughter wants her baby raisin to be her special bird. If we got two cockatiels, would it only be fair to have them in the same cage or can you have two birds in different cages each with their own special person or the same person? If they are in the same cage, will they bond with my daughter or mainly just with each other or will we all bond together? Just wondering about the dynamics of it all!

Did you get Raisen yet?

What are flight cages?
A flight cage is usually a cage that is wider than tall, although there's quite a few flight cages that are tall and wide... basically, large cages made for small birds. These cages are usually big enough for a medium to large parrot to fit in, but are designed for the smaller species due to the bar spacing and bar size.

13221 HQ Flight Cage $99


CF-3221 Flight Cage $169.00


CF-3422 FLIGHT $269


AE 13221 $129.00


And comes in double!





There's also a larger flight cage for about the same price as the single flight cages above ($100-$130). The only downside that I can see, other than small doors (i.e. the inside reach around the cage - don't know what it's like), would be that it's under 5' high so the bird would be lower than you rather than about eye level, such as is with the cages above....

Large Flight Cage



I'm not sure if it is possible to know whether or not a bird has a fungal or yeast infection by looking at them, but Amy maintains that Baby raisin is just way behind the others due to being so small and being the runt of the litter! He does behave differently from the others.
Chicks who have a bacterial or fungal infection may refuse to wean, may grow slower than their siblings, and may be more inactive than others. There's other possible signs as well such as a red/raw throat, and the crop not emptying as it should.... Here's some articles...
SOUR CROP IN COCKATIEL CHICKS
The Responsible Breeding of Cockatiels Part IV
Candida
DETECTING AND DEALING WITH CROP PROBLEMS
Bacterial Infections
Bird Health

I'm not trying to alarm you, as Baby Raisin may be perfectly healthy and have no health problems, but if he's slow to wean it's something that should be looked into.

If we got two cockatiels, would it only be fair to have them in the same cage or can you have two birds in different cages each with their own special person or the same person? If they are in the same cage, will they bond with my daughter or mainly just with each other or will we all bond together?
There's no telling in this type of situation. My first cockatiel, Casey, was handraised from day one of hatching so she's "naturally" sweet and tame. She's bonded to Noel and see's the other birds (tiels and budgies) as parts of her flock even though she's not real close to any of them. She's 7 years old, cage-free, and to this day flies to me and demands scritches! All other cockatiels, from my knowledge, are parent raised. Other than Pistachio and Kiwi, none of them are friendly with eachother. They more or less tolerate eachothers presence, or accept them, but nothing beyond that... Tomi Girl doesn't like any other birds in her "bubble". Sunshine (daughter of Pistachio and Kiwi) was tame but not friendly with me. I didn't try to handle her, as I'm in the opinion that so long as the birds are happy they don't need to be tame. Well, after being cage-free for some months, she decided she wanted human interaction... All it was, was feeding her from my hand each morning! She made that decision on her own! (took me a while to figure it out, too!). I did adopt Sunshine out to a family, and before she went I clipped her wings. She knew what the wing clip was, and "instantly" calmed down, and the family says she's a great and very friendly pet! The rest of the tiels don't care for any interaction (Faye did at one point but I got busy and didn't have as much time to work with her - she watched Sunshine eat from my hand and kinda picked up the habit for a short bit) so I usually don't bother them.

I've had a total of 8 cockatiels (Casey, Clyde, Pistachio, Kiwi, Sunshine, Kirby, Tomi Girl, Faye) and have adopted out three (Clyde, Kirby, Sunshine). Even though Casey has bonded with Noel (Casey being cage-free, Noel being caged... now they are usually together only when Noel starts to look "scruffy" and full of pins... put them together and Casey will preen Noel's feathers for her... but not the other way around! Did this recently, and poor Casey is full of pins but Noel's looking much better! ) and has been around 7 other cockatiels, she's still my little sweety! Of course I also interact with her almost every day! And then there's Sunshine who grew up with her family, was handraised (if not handfed), and decided on her own to have human interaction!

Now I also have two conures... Noel, a cherry head, and Charlie a mitred. They are, literally, complete opposites, other than both being conures and special needs birds. I had to tame Noel (got her when I was 13 - I estimate her to be 20+ now) but Charlie was tame when I got him (got him when I was 18 - he's now about 14 years old). To say the least, they live in separate rooms! They don't like eachother (mostly Noel doesn't like Charlie) and Charlie stresses out the other birds, so they are kept separate.... although Charlie does have a sleeping cage in the bird room for at night!

Point being, you never know until you do it... meaning you could end up with two tame cockatiels, two unfriendly tiels, or even one tame, one untame. Generally speaking, if you work with both birds daily, whether or not they are caged together, they'll remain tame.

Bostonbudgie -- thanks for asking. We still don't have Raisin home yet, but it looks like it will be very soon. All this time has really been a blessing as it has given us time to learn so many things and watch him really grow up! It looks like he will be ready very soon. In fact, I think Amy would let him go later this week, but my daughter is going on vacation with her Dad on Friday, so even if Amy is sure he is ready this week, she will keep him until my daughter gets back. We are hoping to bring him home July 24th. Amy (the Petland person) is even going to try and get him used to being in a cage some of the time over this next week so that he won't be completely surprised to be in one when we get him home.

A week ago this past Sunday, we visited him and he was still walking around with a messy beak and still being such a baby. We were told he was still on one feeding. A week went by and we had a lot going on and no time to visit until this past Sunday. Well, we almost thought our baby Raisin was gone! There had been two lutino cockatiels left including Raisin (and we knew them both well, their personalities etc... from spending literally hours each time at Petland visiting), and now there was one and it didn't act like either of the cockatiels we knew, so we were very confused at first! Raisin had a black mark on his foot (to indicate that he was sold) and that was still there, but his personality seemed changed and he wasn't crying and acting like such a baby. His beak was clean and he was much more lively, curious and cheeky! Ofcourse we realized it was him after spending some more time and seeing many familiar things that he did do, but for a while I felt like they had whisked Raisin off and replaced him with someone new! Well, we went back Monday (yesterday) and spoke with Amy and apparently yesterday was the third day that he had shown no interest in feeding and she was going from there and was going to see how things went by not offering him formula. While we were there, some other baby birds in another area were fed and he didn't seem to notice. With the way he has grown up and is acting, I feel like this time he really is going to be weaned. So, we're really excited and I will definitely keep you posted and let you know of our grand homecoming!

MFids, thanks for all the great info on the cages and also on the great differences that you have seen amongst your birds and their interactions with one another and with you. It's all very interesting. As it turns out, that other little cockatiel was sold before we visited last Sunday. I really thought that if he was still there on the day that we bring Raisin home, that I would have to bring him too, he was such a sweetie. But I'm sure it's for the best because we have a dog too and someone has to give the dog attention! It sounds like you have a house full of birds! And a room just for birds? I am interested to know about your cage free birds. Do you just let them live and fly around the house? I know that we will have Raisin out and about, but I've wondered what people do about them pooping everywhere! I've told my daughter, she will just have to keep a roll of paper towels and windex in her bedroom, but I'm not sure that I want bird poop all over the house! I still haven't asked about taking our cage back, but I know that I paid a lot more for it than for those cages that you have shown here which look so much better!

I can't believe it has been about a month now since we first found Raisin and we've learned so much, both from this forum and from talking with Amy (the birdlady!) and from seeing Raisin grow and change. Plus yesterday Amy showed us the brand new babies that she is handfeeding, they were tiny and still with pin feathers. She has them in the back of the store, but takes them home all night because she has to feed them every four hours! It's amazing how delicate they look, especially their beaks. Amy mentioned again how the other girl (who is still learning) had just made this assumption about Raisin's beak because she had seen how delicate they were when they were very little and feeding each other. So, hopefully all is well and Raisin will be home soon and get a certificate of good health from the Vet!

Wonderful update and an exciting time. Please let us hear more as Raisin comes home and takes over his domain

Amy sounds like she is doing a good job with Raisen by not letting her go until she is completely weaned. Some birds wean faster than others. When I look back in retrospect I do not think Button was ready to go home with me at the time. I wished I had known. Maybe if she was hand-fed longer she might not have had all the problems she has now
Keep us updated on Raisen