upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Thank you for all the information I really enjoyed reading it all in its entirety. It is so thoughtful of you to take the time to respond so detailed as such. (everyone's response has been greatly appreciated) We came about her from an ad in the paper that said "family relocating need home for very friendly hand tame 6 month old cockatiel." Thought it would be a perfect fit. She is a darling. The previous owner had bought it for her daughter and her daughter became more interested in her new boyfriend so they had bought the bird a parakeet to keep it company. Now they were moving and needed a home for them. She told me it was a female on the phone but it hadn't been sexed. When I took her to an amazing bird store. A lady who worked there and had raised cockatiels for 20 years told right away as well it was a female by her under tail feathers? lolol Then the owner walked up and said "awe its a little female cockatiel." We don't really mind either way. My daughter totes it with her everywhere she goes and we are using the say "no biting" technique and redirecting her chewing with other toys. She doesn't care for her cage she wants people people people! We gave a parakeet away to a family who needed a little buddy for their parakeet so hopefully she will enjoy having her cage to herself. I loved the photos of the cockatiels both mfids and bluebirds exotics. I really think our cockatiel will fit right at our home.

As a general rule, cockatiels are not born to bite. That is a completely "learned" experience. In the wild, a cockatiel will fly off before it comes to the biting stage, so regardless of what the age of the bird is, it has learned that biting will render some kind of results that either reinforce the biting habit or it gives the bird "joy" in the fact that it's done something to render a response, whether good or bad. One way to see what it at the root of the problem would be to take the bird into a closet, or the bathroom where space is limited and (s)he can't fly away or get out of hands reach per-se and do a one on one with the bird. Let it know in no uncertain terms who is boss, and the biting is not going to be tolerated. In the real world, it's best to take a bird that bites for no apparent reason and just put it back in the cage without a word and lock the door. Eventually, the bird associates being locked up with bad behavior or the biting will get him/her in lockdown. It's worked for me with some of my flock, and it's much better going that route than having the puncture marks of a beak all over your hands Ouch....! I know.. I have had my share of bites in the past 3 years.. and they are painful, especially when bitten in the right places. As for the cause of the biting, that's anybody's guess, but as I stated, it's a learned thing, and the only time a 'tiel will bite is either in self defense from a threat or for preservation of life. If all else fails get yourself some poplar or pine dowels and let it bite/chew on them instead of fingers...

HTH

Sam

Bluesbird -- your little yellow tiel really is gorgeous.

Mfids -- what a wealth of information you have, thanks for sharing. So, it seems that Lutino just refers to the yellow color of the birds and they don't necessarily have to have red eyes to be Lutino?

AZ -- I'm glad to hear everything is going well with your new baby and that you found some people at the bird store to talk to. We also have a wonderful "birdlady" at the petstore where we are getting our baby who knows a lot about birds and loves them dearly. My story started in the "Baby Cockatiel Beak problem! Help!" post in this forum. We thought our new baby had something wrong with his/her beak at first, but it seems to have turned out that all is well and really he was just nowhere near to being weaned and ready to come home with us. He has now weaned and we are planning to bring him home on Thursday!!! Thereafter, we hope that our story will continue with a clean bill of health from the vet and no beak problems!! I have already posted quite a few pics of our little "Baby Raisin" on the that other post if you'd like to see them. There are some when we first met him and then some more recent ones where you can see he has grown up quite a bit (not necessarily in size, but just his demeanor and cleanliness -- he was such a dirty little baby!) I look forward to hearing more about how things progress with you and your new cockatiel -- do you have a name for him/her? (sorry if I missed it somewhere in these posts!)

Many people say "Latino" instead of "Lutino". [color=#0000FF]Latino is "a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent." Lutino is, essentially, albinism, with an added yellow gene. All lutinos will have lutino eyes! If you have an all yellow or white bird that has brown eyes, it IS NOT a lutino, but rather probably a heavy pied. Now, I said "lutino eyes" instead of "red eyes", because albinos can have more than one eye color, particularly in humans (albino humans can have red, pink, violet, even blue eyes). All lutinos will have red eyes, although some may appear ruby red, and a few uncommon ones have 'blue' eyes, as depicted in another thread that I believe was linked to...

AZ, the tail feather method only works if your baby has molted out all the baby feathers and is in adult plumage. If she hasn't molted them all out, then no matter what you can't sex this way! I've heard this method does work in lutinos, but may not work in lutino pieds... and you may not even be able to tell if a lutino is a pied if its a white lutino.

A mature males tail feathers...


VS what a female, or immature males tail feathers would look like...



Pieds may not have any bars, stripes, or spots. Male and female pieds can have both clear and 'dull' faces. Pearl cockatiels will have more mottled stripes and spots, due to the extra spots...


However, it's usually easily to "vocally sex" a cockatiel.... females tend to have 2-3 chirps, and that's it... where-as males will sing, do "heart wings" (lifting up elbow part of their wing, while keeping their flight feathers down), and have various types of chirps. Of course, it's not impossible to have a very quiet male or a very vocal female who could outsing the males!


Bluesbird, gorgeous pearl lutino!!! [/color]

MFids wrote:... Bluesbird, gorgeous pearl lutino!!!

But ... I see no hint of any shade of red in her dark eyes. Are you seeing something I'm missing or am I misunderstanding your information

In the real world, it's best to take a bird that bites for no apparent reason and just put it back in the cage without a word and lock the door. Eventually, the bird associates being locked up with bad behavior or the biting will get him/her in lockdown. It's worked for me with some of my flock, and it's much better going that route than having the puncture marks of a beak all over your hands Ouch....! I know.. I have had my share of bites in the past 3 years.. and they are painful, especially when bitten in the right places. As for the cause of the biting, that's anybody's guess, but as I stated, it's a learned thing, and the only time a 'tiel will bite is either in self defense from a threat or for preservation of life. If all else fails get yourself some poplar or pine dowels and let it bite/chew on them instead of fingers...

HTH

Sam[/quote]


Thanks for the response. How long should time out be? We use the tiny cage like bird travel carrier as her time out. I read a site that said to just ignore the behavior. I literally sat and let her tear up my hands until I couldn't take it anymore..lolol Silly me. Needless to say that approach didn't work. lololol

AZ -- I'm glad to hear everything is going well with your new baby and that you found some people at the bird store to talk to. We also have a wonderful "birdlady" at the petstore where we are getting our baby who knows a lot about birds and loves them dearly. My story started in the "Baby Cockatiel Beak problem! Help!" post in this forum. We thought our new baby had something wrong with his/her beak at first, but it seems to have turned out that all is well and really he was just nowhere near to being weaned and ready to come home with us. He has now weaned and we are planning to bring him home on Thursday!!! Thereafter, we hope that our story will continue with a clean bill of health from the vet and no beak problems!! I have already posted quite a few pics of our little "Baby Raisin" on the that other post if you'd like to see them. There are some when we first met him and then some more recent ones where you can see he has grown up quite a bit (not necessarily in size, but just his demeanor and cleanliness -- he was such a dirty little baby!) I look forward to hearing more about how things progress with you and your new cockatiel -- do you have a name for him/her? (sorry if I missed it somewhere in these posts!)[/quote]


He is soooo cute! Looks so simular to our new baby. I read your post. I was so relieved to hear of his clean bill of health. Literally. "bill" haha... When I first saw his face I was thinking that was the beak problem with growths or something..lolol I didn't realize it was food. It will be fun to watch them grow in size and personality. I can't wait. Keep us up to date! Good luck to you!

Time out time can vary, based on the response of the bird. With mine who had a biting or other behavior problem, once I put them in the cage and closed the door, sometimes I'd leave them in for an hour or more, and some as short as 15 minutes. That is just one aspect you will have to experiment with, but in no uncertain terms, it's got to sink in the birds brain that bad behavior will cause them to be placed in lockdown. Some go happily along with that and never even phases them, while others, especially those birds who value their freedom out of the cage, will respond in a positive manner very quickly. Just as in most aspects of the life of anything, different timings for different forms of behavior. I wish I could just say OK, give them 10 minutes to cool down and forget the past behavior but just like people, every birdie has its own personality and can choose to either modify its behavior or not, despite the consequences of its action.

Sam

How long should time out be?

My avian vet recommended "time out" as a training method. Put him in his cage, cover the cage with a towel, & leave him there for 10 minutes. He'll soon learn it's not worth it to do whatever.... OCD person that I am, I "timed" the time outs to exactly 10 minutes. My little darling quickly learned to tell time. After exactly 10 minutes he would start yelling! Happily, he also learned what I intended for him to learn.

Awe that is so good to know. How many times did that take? It seems like this one just likes to chew. She wants to be with us all the time. Can't wait for this stage to pass! It will be nice to look back and it be all over. Whew...lolol Here is a little video of her softer side a little biting in between her snuggles. I am beginning to feel like she is just a baby teething but she literally goes around what you offer and seeks out the skin. Little stinker....

I only saw her bite (nibble) once at the very end. Looked like she was distressed that you stopped preening and was nibbling to get the hand activated again. Very cute! You don't want to spoil her with constant preening. She needs to learn to entertain herself with toys and just watching what's happening around her. Maybe she's still adapting to her new life and insecure away from you, but as the days go by, beware of handling her constantly and creating a monster.

Yea I had to cut the video short it was too long to show all. It was a chew fest. You are so right about her needing to learn how to play with toys and just sit and hang out. Mostly she just likes to sit on your finger and preen herself. After that its all trouble...lolol I found a leaf type strap from the pet store for her to chew on. She went to town on that today. I love reading all your responses on here I have learned so much already. As I said before I cannot wait for this stage to pass. She is so clingy but its hard to enjoy when she is nippy..lolol Thanks again!