| Hi, Your starting out right with a hand raised bird. I had two budgies,
Tweety and Rita ,that I put a lot of time into training. After months
they will eat from my hand and allow minimal handling. But my new hand
raised baby, Buddie, can't wait to get out of the cage and be with us.
He especially like to helps with the jigsaw puzzles, although he is much
better at taking the puzzle apart and turning the peices upsidedown.
I tried different methods of training Rita and Tweety and had some
success, but with Buddie there really isn't anything to it. He knows
how to fly, and now I am have him fly short distances so he
can land without hurting himself. If he is any indication of the
way hand raised birds behave, you don't need to train them just keep
handling and enjoying them.
I am still hand feeding him two times a day, but he is starting
to eat seeds from my hand now. He also picks at his millett trees
during the day.
There are a multitude of toys out there to choose from. I reccomend
that you do not get him a mirror if you want to keep him as a real
pet as he may like the mirror better than people. You also want
to make sure that there is nothing he can get his toes stuck in,
such as small links in chain, as he could rip his toenails.
Doug
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| Congradulations!
Now for my first piece of advise ...
They multiply! I'm not talking about the lay an egg multiply, I'm
talking about the "I just have to have one more!". Once you buy
one, you gotta watch it... you will want to buy another and another
and another and so on..... (I'm sure your daughter will for sure!)
Your breeder sounds like a great place to get some good advice.
Personally I like Topper's Cockatiel seed. I feed it to my Quakers
and Conures. Make sure that you use a vitamin supplement in the
food (fruite and veggies), not the water. Nekton and Super Preen
are good ones to name a few. The water thing has really lost
popularity because of studies showing that the vitamin content is
gone in a matter of hours and because of the base the vitamins
come in; the residue will grow bacteria rapidly in the water.
Your cage seems to be a good size for a cockatiel. My feeling is
the bigger the better. Soaking the cage in bleach for that long
has surely left the cage free of any bacteria or fungus.
I have found that with fruits and veggies, every bird is different.
You will need to keep trying different types until you find what
your bird will eat. Broccoli and sweat potatoes are an excellent
source of vitamins and minerals for birds. Chili Peppers are also
good. I have some birds that love the pepers and others that won't
touch them. Corn seems to be the big winner, I haven't met a bird
yet that wouldn't eat corn. They can get fat on the stuff though
so feed in moderation. There are several good receipes for veggie
food that your daughter might enjoy preparing for her new baby under
the feeding topic.
If your bird will be alone during the day, then toys in the cage
will be important. He will need something to keep him busy until
you guys can come home and play.
Well I hope I didn't leave anything out, but I'm sure I did. There
are bunches of good books on bird care. One that I have that is
real good is called Bird Owner's HOME HEALTH AND CARE Handbook written
by Gary A. Gallerstein, D.V.M. It covers all the important stuff.
It even has a section in the back on taming and training.
I hope others in this file can add more. Welcome to Pet_birds and
I know you will enjoy your bird so much, you will want ANOTHER!
Karen from Colorado.
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