Cockatiels that are hand fed can make very sweet pets. As a rule only the male will talk and they can be almost impossible to tell apart from the females as babies unless you are dealing with a sex-linked color. An experienced breeder can help you make a good educated guess on which babies are males. My absolute favorite smaller birds are Quaker Parakeets. These guys are two tons of fun packed into those little green bodies and many learn to speak very well. They are not legal to own in every state tho.

Lisa

Totally agree with everything Lisa said!

The males can talk, definitely whistle and also mimic. Just be aware that Cockatiels are more vocal than parakeets. Some can be on the quiet side, but when I was raising them I had a few that LOVED to whistle (loudly) the same sound over and over...........especially during breeding season. As far as females, I found them to be quieter than males (again unless it's breeding season!) and sweet, sweet birds.
If you're wanting a bird that has the potential to be a good talker watch the weaned babies carefully for the most active, vocal bird. Even then, there's no guarantee the bird will ever talk, but he'll be a good whistler. I've heard a lot of talking cockatiels and only a few that could talk clearly. Most have a gravely voice, so don't expect them to sound like an Amazon or Grey.

Both sexes are smart and entertaining. My favorite female lutino love to swing herself. I had a playpen on top of a large cage that had a swing about 2" off the floor. She would take the swing in her beak, back up as far as she could and then jump on the swing. She'd stay on it until it stopped swinging and then she'd do it all over again.

As a reminder: Once your son graduates from HS and possibly moves out of the house, are you willing to continue care of the bird? Cockatiels can easily live into their 20's.

Thank you for your help! You guys are a WEALTH of information! I was (secretly)so happy when my son wanted a cockatiel for Christmas because I want one! Good point about living so long. But, we're all fine with that.He will be much loved and I still have a younger child after my teenagers both leave also. Not to mention ME! The BIG kid at heart that will be thrilled to have it! LOL

I'm an elem. teacher and we did a rainforest unit earlier this fall. A friend brought her African to school for my first graders to see and ask questions about. He was an absolute HIT with my kids!!! He talked sooo much and pretended to cry (newborn sound) and just kept us entertained us all afternoon. Their African is 18 years old and when my friend first got him, their son (now 18 years old) was a newborn, so the bird learned that newborn cry way back then! I absolutely fell in love with him and we got the parakeet shortly there after. We are really looking forward to getting this cockatiel!

Dumb question: but I live in Montana where it is freezing right now! When we get it, will the short trip from buyer to car (of course I'll have car warmed up!) hurt it? Towel or blanket over the cage?

Also, we've never covered our parakeet's cage at night and he's always done fine, but should we be doing that? Is it more comfortable for them? Or is it only to make them be quiet or something? Ours always goes to sleep when all the light are off in the living room.

Thanks again for your help! ~ SportsMom ~

As long as the transport cage is wrapped snugly to block the wind a short little hop to the car shouldn't hurt a healthy bird. As far as covering the cage it's your call. If the bird is in a room where the lights are routinely on until nine or ten then I would probably cover the cage. They need it more for a good sleep period than they do for warmth.

Lisa

I usually don't cover any of my birds, but when I kept pet cockatiels outside the bird room I would cover them. This was only because cockatiels are known to have what is called 'night fright'. Nothing to worry about but they will sometimes thrash around their cage if something suddenly startles them. This can result in broken blood feathers so be prepared to handle this emergency. (see below)
Many a bird show has been ruined for some breeders when their birds would have one of these episodes the night before the show.

I found using a cover and a night light to be helpful in preventing them being startled. Some birds are just more prone to it.

Enjoy..........they're great birds...........as are parakeets. Parakeets can also be great talkers!

Here is a link that might be useful: Bird care

Cockatiels are wonderful pets! Our's has been with us for very nearly 17 years now. You can tell hens from cocks by the the underside of their tail feathers... the females have bars, males do not (don't know if this holds true in mutations). The barring emerges when they are mature, so all babies will look the same.

You want a hand-fed baby. They have learned that humans are GOOD and coupled with an inquisitive personality they will be your "shadow".

Our's is fully flighted; we have 4 cats and a dog and to clip his wings would be setting him up for disaster. We allow him out in the morning and the evening, and "secure the pride". He swoops and dives, screaming, and landing anywhere he wants. He showers with us at least once/wk.; he LOVES the blow dryer. We always blow him dry and he chatters and whistles to it, spreads his wings, tucks his head and generally GROOVES with the steady hum and rush of warm air. He LOVES the shower!

Cautions: cockatiels are vocal; esp. first thing in the morning and at sunset. Our's doesn't talk, but he whistles off-key (like me), and mimics all sorts of things (picked up a car alarm in under 30 minutes... one of MY favorites, NOT). Like any hookbill, they like to chew... be aware of this if you let them out for any period of time; keep an eye on them, they do a real number on mouldings over doors, book bindings (the voice of experience). He had an absolute blast with a callous on my foot one morning... and keep an eye on your earrings, too. He once snatched a pearl stud out of my ear and flew to the top of the door with it. But there is nothing like the affection of a bird who preens your eyebrows tenderly and snuggles under your chin, making the contented grinding noise they make with their beaks.

We do cover our's at night. Annz is dead on, they do occasionally "flip out" at night, flapping and thrashing in their cage for no apparent reason. We simply flip on a light, speak soothingly, and he's fine. We will leave the light on after an episode.

Birds are SO cool. They're so intelligent and so affectionate IF you provide the steady predictable environment that brings it out. I adore Budgies, too. I miss having one of those little guys around... talk about a lot of personality in a little package. They're precious.

Thanks Chelone, for your help too. We are so looking forward to getting ours. We've been really doing a lot of cockatiel reading and homework this last week. I've found some great websites, but it's so helpful to "talk" to real people like you all! Thanks again, I appreciate everyone's insight and advice. ~ SportsMom ~

One thing make sure the one you buy is hand raised and used to being handled. I agree that they make wonderfull pets. They are very people oriented birds.They enjoy being right smack in the middle of the household.
If you purchase one from a pet store often they have not been hand raised as babies and aren't tame. And most of the time if they haven't been tamed, hand raised you have missed the opportunity to tame them. You would be dissapointed in having one that isn't tame. Try and find someone that raises them at home as to buying a pet store one.
Enjoy your feathered addition to your family.

I agree they make great little pets. My little girl Happy must be going on about 4 years old now. I got her from the SPCA a few years ago, she had been well looked after but her owner couldn't keep her in the apartment and hated to give her up. For a tiel mine is very quiet, rarely whistling unless she can hear me coming up the steps, trying to get my attention I suppose. Absolutely loves to come in the shower, she sits on the shower rod and spreads her wings for me to splash her. You can't eat any spaghetti or pasta without her kicking up a fuss to get out and get some off the plate either. I don't cover her, she never liked it from the time I got her, she just goes to sleep regardless if the lights on or not. I have a nightlight plugged in near her cage and that has helped stop any night frights.
Like any budgie I'd advise getting your tiel accustomed to eating veggies asap so they know what they are. Leave it too late and there's the possibility they may never try them. They all need a variety of greens in the diet (not iceberg lettuce though as it contains nothing much and they eat it like candy) Just things like brocolli, carrots, and hot peppers which most birds relish even if you don't.
What I do with all my birds is take a bit of bread and some veggies and puree it in one of those mini electric food processors (about $8 at Walmart). Or you can just puree a few chunks of vegetable and mix it in with a couple of tablespoons of cooked cous cous. To cook that small amount of cous cous,, just heat about 3 tablespoons of water in a cup in the microwave, about 40 seconds, and spoon in 2 tablespoons of cous cous, it softens up almost instantly and absorbs the water, then mix the purreed veggie stuff in it.. quick and easy and I haven't found a bird yet that doesn't love it.

I have a question it seems weird to ask but just wondering i have 2 tiels and the other day i saw blood on one of the perches was wondering where it came from ..... do tiels bleed during sex if not i wonder if they had a little fight i search for blood on them and did not find any kind of wondering where it came from ...

No, they don't bleed during mating.

It's probably from a cut foot/toe, broken blood feather, or injury in the mouth.

Or........if you feed them red fruit of any kind, it could be from that.

I have a parent reared tiel & he's no different to a hand reared.....I think this is just a preference, not one being better than the other. My boy tamed very quickly too.

Everyone has pretty much covered everything except: they can be a naturally nervous bird, very skittish at unknown noises & sights so you do need to be careful there.

Even when clipped, they can still fly to some degree & are experts at learning to fly within 1 week of being clipped. If you choose to clip, you'll need to keep it regular to keep his flying restricted.

Budgies & tiels often do get a along but as a rule need to be supervised together because budgies can be real meanies & have been known to attack & kill tiels.

hi im debz my cockatiel "ozzy" has his own taxi ...us. we carry him to the car he rides the readrest and watches the world go by. gets carried to my work "nursing home" and sits with th old people, hes so tame with a cheeky face that seems to smile, anyone elses bird this pamperd?

Dang I wanna cockatiel, they sound great! We have our finches which we love (althought one passed away a week ago, very sad) but we have 3 left that are doing great. They are so cute and zippy.

Then we have 7 lovebirds- that guy that gave them to us was a liar liar- handtame my butt. They are all aggressive and they hurt when they bite. They have brought many blood wounds on me. He also said they were super quiet-yeah if you're deaf. These things don't shutup, ever. They don't go to sleep until at least midnite and they are up at the crack of dawn. But they are absolutely comical, they have great personalities, they're just not nice. I just let them be their funny little selves and they seem to be content as long as I don't have to touch them, sigh.

We may have to expand our bird family to incorporate a friendly featherbaby,*yay*

groomingal,
Do you have all the Lovebirds togather in one cage or are they seperate??? My mother used to raise Keets, Tiels, Finches, Canaries and Doves, she had them in huge cages and kept them each type togather except for her breeding pairs, she had 2 Lovebirds at the time, never got them to breed. She eventually sold or gave away all of them but she kept some of the Tiels (those were our favorite) I got 7 Lovebirds from some neighbors that were threatening to turn them loose as they were sick and tired of their yapping (if they didn't want so many why have the breeding nest in the cage with their pair?) anyway they would all gang up on one and pick on it not letting it eat and so on, they killed 2 before mom figured out what was going on and got them seperated, and mean, oh lordy were those suckers mean! Not at all the sweet bird the Tiels are, and you are right they are WAY noisier then any other bird I have been around, you think love birds and you think of a sweet docile bird, HAH!
My Tiel liked to sit on the ceiling fan, Dh would turn it gently and the whole time Sebastian is going "Help! Help!" it was very funny! He knew the Wolf whistle and he would do a cute little whistle and end it with "over here!" when he wanted someone to pay attention to him, he also knew how to bark, they are very social little birds, they don't do well if you don't pay a lot of attention to them and that is usually when they will start whistling like crazy making a ton of racket. My mother had some beautiful pearls, she also had a Blonde (named Blondie:) but I still prefer the regular gray's look:)

Micke- I had them together in a cage but there is a wire divider- however, the lovies could scoot a piece at the top over and get in with the finches. We took the finches out and put them in a cage by themselves.

We love the birds but despise the fact they are so mean. I don't think I would mind the noise so much if they were nice :) (they're kind of like bad neighbors)
I think we are going to look into the tiels and maybe we can find one with a rescue or someone that needs to rehome.

Mom originally started out with one pair of each set of birds, but we fell in love with those tiels, she ended up with 4 breeding pairs, it was a lot of fun to hand feed them, but it was also a lot of work! I eventually gave my tiel away, I did not intend too, I had brought Blondie up and another gray to give to some friends, I put Blondie in with my Sebastian as the cage was large, the other cage was not so big and I did not want to crowd them, it took my friend about a month before she was ready for them, I took Blondie out and my tiel stopped eating, it only took 1 whole day of him not eating to make up my mind, I had to take him over and give him to my friend so Blondie could be put back in with him:( as soon as he greeted her he went to the food dish and started eating so I knew I did the right thing, but it sure made me sad, never even thought of him getting attached to her. Mom still has the first one she started out with (Romeo, the bird that started the whole shebang, Sebastian was his offspring) mom has asked me if I would like to bring him up to my house as she does not have as much time to baby him as she used too, but my heart just isn't into it.

Would Romeo miss your mom or are they not partial to humans? You did the best thing for Sebastian and Blondie. Micke- do you read any of James Pattersons books? There is one that made me think of those two- i'll have to find the name of it- it was a two parter book-very good reading!

BTW, I got a baby parakeet!!!! YAY! Her name is Strudel. She is white with very faint blue and yellow markings. She loves to be out of the cage, she tries to open the feeder doors and get out and she hates to go back in.

We are thinking of getting a cockatiel too- I talked to a lady that will have some ready in about 6 weeks- so I have until then to think about it.

Someone suggested to us that we try splitting our lovies and putting them in breeder cages, but I just don't have the time or knowledge to take that on right now. I just really want little feather friends to love on (lovebirds arent liking it so much, mutual feeling though :)