The Daily Cockatiel

Getting cockatiels back into the cage

2012-02-24T02:21:00.002-08:00

I guess you know by now that Tom and I spend our whole day out of the cage. We have a great big cage, which opens at the front and top and we spend our days playing around in, on, and around the cage. We fly around the room and like sitting on the sofa.

At night time, though, we do go back into the cage to sleep.

Here is a video of how good we are! You can see that I go straight into the cage to get the best sleeping perch. Tom is naturally more suspicious so he has to have a bit of a run around before he goes it. Then he tries to get me off the best perch, but he doesn't win!

We can't see very well in the dark and we get a bit scared, so our Man Human has rigged up a night light for us. A very small bulb attached to a solar powered battery. This light makes us feel more secure and we are less likely to get a fright in the night and try flying in the cage. If we did that, we might hurt our wings.

Our humans are very well trained!

Tom cockatiel pretending to have a shower.

2012-02-22T08:02:00.003-08:00

Have I mentioned that Tom is slightly mad? Well, he is! When our humans give us a shower using a gentle spray bottle, he runs away from the water. But, sometimes he randomly decides to have a shower and just.... well, you watch and see! Silly bird! He doesn't seem to notice there is no water!

Do your birds do this?

Cockatiels looking for trouble!

2012-02-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

I think I mentioned before how much we like to break stuff. It's great fun and good for our beaks!
Watch what we do with cork mats...

We love exploring the sofa and running around on the table. In this film you can see Tom heading for the laptop cables, both of us looking for things to chew on the table, chewing curtains, having a sing song, ripping up newspaper, and my personal favourite - having a poop off the edge of the table!

Clever cockatiel!

2012-01-27T00:54:00.000-08:00

I love being outside out cage all day, and sometimes I am too lazy to go back into it for seed. So, I learned to move the seed to me! Watch and see how clever I am...

Brilliant!

Cockatiel dust and preening

2012-01-23T01:22:00.000-08:00

Tom and I are very proud of the fact that we look smart. We spend a large amount of our days preening! My humans complain a bit, they say we make lots of dust. Watch this video and you judge...are we dusty?

Boss cockatiel?

2012-01-18T03:44:00.000-08:00

Tom and I are always bickering over who is boss of the cage, or even the room. It is a common problem and our pet humans try to help us. It is a bit tiring to be always arguing over who is boss so they always say hello to me first and give me more attention, and when giving treats, I get them first! This is supposed to let Tom know that I am the boss and stop him always trying it on. As you can see though, it doesn't always work!

To show who is boss, we like spreading our wings and shouting EAGLE! Our humans taught us this word, they seem to think it is funny.

We just LOVE to show off!

I used to spend more time sitting with my humans, but now I have Tom to keep under control I need to spend more time on the cage, so that he knows who it belongs to.

cockatiel fun and games

2012-01-14T03:23:00.000-08:00

Tom and I love playing up on the bookshelf opposite our cage. We spend hours up there. We like jumping on the curtains, eating and breaking the play gym and most of all, landing on the door. We are slowly picking off all the wood on the top of the door. Fun fun!

Here we are, playing on the book shelf. Tom is so sure there are things down the back of it!

I must admit, I have a bit of an obsession with zips! I can chew on them for hours!

Did I mention how determined I can be? Here is a great film of me trying to get seed out of an egg box. I love playing these games, stimulation is great for my intelligent brain.

Tom the cockatiel and his new girlfriend

2012-01-11T06:32:00.001-08:00

I really shouldn't be tell you this, but Tom has a weird ... girlfriend! You really need to watch this video to believe it. I tried to stop him, but he feels very strongly about this cushion!

Our humans try to discourage mating behaviour by giving us 12 hours of darkness and sleeping time, but as you can see, it doesn't always work!

Cockatiel friends?

2012-01-04T07:49:00.001-08:00

So, do I like having this new bird around? Not sure! I don't get a moment's peace. No matter where I go, Tom will follow me!

We love our play-gym, but we do fight over who gets to sit on the pink block.

Fruit sticks are delicious and fun, but, again, as soon as I go to get some, guess who follows me?

But, I suppose he does always have my back covered... Tom is a useful lookout for potential dangers!

And, as I mentioned before, he can easily be led into trouble! I have been teaching him to chew on the curtain rails.

We both like cuttlefish, and because we fought over it, our humans had to buy us two. Trouble is, that annoying bird Tom will always want the one that I am sat on.

He does make me look good though ;-)

and it is nice to have a friend to nap with after a busy morning.

I guess he is ok to have around.

A new cockatiel settling in

2012-01-02T08:33:00.001-08:00

So, yesterday I was telling you about the new bird that my humans brought home. I really had my work cut out for me, looking after him!

First I had to clearly establish who was BOSS, outside the cage...

...and then we met inside. I was very confident about meeting Tom, but he was still scared. The humans made sure they watched us carefully to check we got on ok.

My human was scratching my head, I love that!

After all that, I had to teach this new bird how to come out of the cage...

how to climb...

... and then how to fly and land. He was (still is) really clumsy. His feet seem a bit small so he found landing tricky.

He could take off easily enough!

But has to brake hard when he is coming into land. I don't think he forward plans his landings very well. Tut tut.

We started to really enjoy flying around the room together and have to fly in careful formation so that we don't crash into eachother. Not always successfully!

The humans tried really hard to train Tom, and this is the ONE time they got him to step up. I love stepping up, I usually get a nice head scratch, but not Tom. He refuses to step up and even now, years later is very wary.

This is his common reaction to any of us when we offer to scratch his head, silly bird!

I guess I will let him stay for now, it's fun teaching him to do naughty things like hang out on the curtain rails!

and at the end of the day, I can still tell my humans all my news.

A new cockatiel

2011-12-30T07:29:00.001-08:00

Well, you would not believe it! My humans thought that I might start getting lonely when they go out to work, so they went and did a terrible thing. They bought another cockatiel! They picked a really scraggly young one and called it Tom. He has no colour in his cheeks, what a state he is in. Sigh.

He is a very messy eater...

This is the moment when we met. Tom was very nervous and I knew I had to show him who was boss straight away.

Look how dominant I am!

Here I am, singing at Tom to make sure he knows who is the boss.

And here is a video of me beak rattling, defending my territory.

Poor Tom was very nervous in his new home. The humans thought he needed to be looked after very carefully.

I think they should send him back! I am sure I will never be friends with this bird!

I suppose I had better keep an eye on him for now.

Cockatiels like...

2011-12-30T05:19:00.000-08:00

A whole bunch of stuff!

I really really like flying, and I do some flying everyday.

I like challenges, and I enjoy climbing a lot, so climbing to get food works well. I love fruit sticks, although my humans now put these in the cage because once I start destroying them I do make a huge mess!

I like being warm and feeling safe, and falling asleep with warm feet.

I spend a lot of my day just sitting and thinking and watching the world go by...

I do like exploring though, and my humans have to be careful that I don't eat things I shouldn't and chew through wires. They have had to buy a few new laptop cables. Oops! I should also mention Important Papers. I like to chew them and perforate the edges. Makes them look much nicer. If you don't want me to do that, then don't leave them lying around!

I love sharing lunch times! We are all part of the flock you know.

I have to mention spider plants again. My humans keep several because I can get pretty fixated with eating them and pulling off all the leaves.

Being up high is GREAT.

Coconut shells are good fun to chew and great seed bowls too.

I am so easy to please. I like lots of things!

Cockatiel expressions

2011-12-28T03:38:00.000-08:00

So, how do humans know what I am thinking? Well, I have to say, I think my face is really expressive and my head crest position will tell you a lot. Look at this picture for example. I am really, really cross in this one and my head crest is lying flat on my head. This tells you I just might bite. I am threatening and frightening! My feathers on my back are raised too, just to show you how big and scary I am. (I will ignore that other bird for now, you will find out all about him later.)

In this picture you can see I am very suspicious about something. My head crest is leaning forward and my head is on the side. This means that I am a little alarmed and not feeling very comfortable about something new. I get this look a lot, normally right before I decide that the new thing is in fact a great new toy! (still ignoring that other bird!)

Ah, FLYING! One of my most favourite things to do. My wings are a little clipped in this photo, to slow me down while I learned about windows. I was not much slower!! I am so good at flying now and love doing acrobatics every morning.

Look at me go!

Now, although my head crest is a back in this one, the rest of my body language tells you that I am comfortable and happy. I am just about to whistle!

Sleepy. Go away...

Curious! What in the world is that out in the garden?

Very contented to just sit here and relax with you.

Boss of the world! I own this room!

In my next post I will put up lots of videos that will show you my different moods. I hope you are enjoying finding out all about me!

Cockatiel Health

2011-12-26T05:24:00.001-08:00

My humans want to be certain that I stay fit and healthy, so they give me a varied diet. They carefully checked some lists to check which foods are poisonous for me. There is a good list on this website.

I love lettuce...

Peppers...

Lots of different types of seed...

spiderplant...

toast...

and lots more!

Here is a little video to prove I like green food!
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Rice and cucumber are my current favourites. They have tried to get me to eat a little caterpillar, but I thought it was too wriggly and squishy so I flicked it away.

My humans know I am a very clever bird and can easily get bored, so they give me lots of great toys to play with. When I first see new toys, I am often terrified and take a long time to get used to them. Once over my nerves I love them, and will spend hours trying to break them. Fun Fun!

I also love games where the humans hide food for me to find!

Cockatiel tricks and looking for trouble

2011-12-23T09:21:00.001-08:00

I settled into my new home very quickly and soon found my voice! I loved sitting on the play gym singing and chatting as loudly as I could. I still do! In this film you can hear me trying to say 'Good boy Pete' and 'Who's a pretty boy!'

I am a total show off.

(in this video my wings are a little clipped to slow me down, while I get used to flying)

I learned to play 'Get the pen,' as I mentioned before, I will learn anything for millet!

My owners played tricks on me - in this one I seem to have forgotten that I could just jump or fly!

And the best thing after a good fun day? A little nap!

Pete's first few weeks

2011-12-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Mike and Tracy bought me in 2006, when I was less that a year old. I was already cute, but not tame, so they had to spend a lot of time training me!

At first I had to stay in my cage while I got used to my new home, and learned how to fly indoors and to avoid windows. At first I was really nervous about coming out of my cage, and had to be encouraged!

The humans used millet to tempt me onto their shoulders. I LOVE millet!

I was soon happily sitting with them on the sofa...

eating spider plants...

looking cute...

and my favourite place to spend my days was on Mike's desk!