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Getting my bird a friend!

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Getting my bird a friend!

Postby Cede » Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:34 pm

Hello! I want to get my Female cockatiel of a few months old a friend! I want to hand raise another female cockatiel for her to have as a friend. I’d prefer to get her a female as a friend because I’ve seen the difficulties that female cockatiels have when laying eggs. They seem to be more susceptible to egg binding. So my questions lay around whether the hormone interaction between 2 females is still at the same level as with a male? Which would then cause both my females to lay non fertile eggs. I don’t want them to waste their bodies nutrients and potential by laying those eggs. If I do get 2 females do I keep them separate at night? Are they more prone to fighting one another? Do they get possessive and fight over attention, objects, toys, or food? Can it escalate to the point they actually harm each other? Or does me hand feeding and raising the other female around her build a bond that makes all these questions pointless? I just want a general grasp on the best possible friend for my female cockatiel that hopefully won’t have to great of a strain on her longevity from egg laying! Thank you!
Cede
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Cockatiel
Flight: No

Re: Getting my bird a friend!

Postby Pajarita » Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:45 am

Welcome to the forum and thank you so much for planning to get your bird a companion! Kudos to you for that! :thumbsup:

Now, in my personal experience and opinion, there is no species that has a milder temper than cockatiels. They are naturally sweet and intensely flock oriented and I have never, ever seen a tiel fight with another. Not once! And I had lots and lots of tiels. They won't fight for food, toys, attention or get possessive about anything - tiels are not like that at all. Most aviary species are not fighters and will not mind sharing you (they are aviary so they don't bond as deeply as the companion species - no deep bond = no jealousy) the only exceptions are two female lovebirds kept together under bad light schedule, bad diet and too small housing or having three budgies together (budgies are natural bullies).

But let me clarify an apparent misconception you have. It's not cohabiting with another bird that makes hens lay eggs out of season or become chronic layers - and that is the only thing that is not healthy for them. Laying eggs on season is not 'difficult' for them, it's the most natural thing in the world! It's procreation and survival of the species. Problems only arise when they get the wrong light schedule and diet and, because tiels are VERY opportunistic breeders, you will need to be super duper extra careful and keep a super strict solar schedule and a very good diet (and that means never free-feeding protein food -pellets, seeds, nuts, avicakes, nutrieberries, etc). If you do that and don't give them any nests, they won't lay at all (and anybody who tells you differently is because they are not giving their bird the proper care - I had over 30 tiels and not a single chronic, off-season layer or eggbound hen. But, if you don't, they will and, even if you don't bring another bird, your hen will still lay on her own. It's all proper versus improper care.

You can house them together without a problem BUT you will have to wait until the new one is done with quarantine and it's already eating on its own. Once the baby is a juvenile, like the other one, you can put them in the same cage together but, even when they are not housed together, they can still be together (again, after quarantine) when they are out of the cage.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Getting my bird a friend!

Postby Cede » Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:51 am

Will there be any hormone imbalances by keeping 2 female girls together? My brother in law had a male cockatiel at one point in time. His was from a breeder with not that much experience and his bird had high hormone fluctuations. It kept masturbating and trying to mate with him. I just want to make sure there aren’t too many offsets. In your opinion would a male or female partner in crime be Ideal for her? I realize the importance of the solar schedule and making sure the lights go out at the right time for her to sleep. Does the free feeding only come into play when I have more than one tiel. Or I should already be a little more restrictive on her food? I feel like I’m more scared of the males because of their curiosity and attentiveness. A few more questions I have are: out of your experience with tiels, what fruits and veggies do you think they enjoy the most? Do they like dried fruits and what kind are safe? Thank you!
Cede
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Cockatiel
Flight: No

Re: Getting my bird a friend!

Postby Pajarita » Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:34 am

Ok, let me try to rephrase what I said before and make it clearer for you. When it comes to birds being overly hormonal (the only way a bird would masturbate and/or regurgitate on their own), It makes no difference if you have a male, a female, two females, two males, or a male/female pair what makes the difference is the solar schedule (which is, actually, quite difficult to do right) and the diet. No cockatiel (actually, no parrot) should be free-fed protein food (pellets, seeds, nuts, etc). Period. Parrots did not evolve to eat seeds (high protein, high fat), they are NOT natural seed eaters (most passerines are the ones that were meant to eat seeds - birds like canaries, finches, etc.). Parrots evolved to eat plant material and, although one could accurately say that seeds are plant material, it actually refers to things like leaves, buds, stalks, flowers, fruits, etc. They do eat seeds but these are almost always what we call 'green seeds' -which are the ones that are inside the fruit- and not in abundance at any time during the year (the only places where seeds are abundant are fields planted by humans which nature did not take into consideration during their evolution). So, male, female, two females, two males, a female/male pair is the same in terms of the actual care they need to receive.

The ONLY differences are that: 1) a male/female pair is best because they are monogamous and mate for life so nature decreed that they are to live their adult life with the same mate (I strive to give all my birds a mate because it enriches their lives in a way that cannot be reproduced by anything we might do or give them). And 2) that, when a hen lays an egg, she should get an extra dose of avian calcium.

Cockatiels are not big on fruits. Of all the tiels I had, there were only two that would take a few bites of an apple slice, the rest did not touch them. What they do love is leafy greens and cruciforms (like raw broccoli). My tiels would not wait for me to actually serve the greens, they would start eating them right from the tray with the food. And they do eat veggies as long as they are small in size (like corn or peas) or cut into small pieces and kind of soft (they always ate all the veggies in the gloop with gusto). Mind you, even when they eat gloop (whole grains mixed with veggies) and their greens, you should still supplement them with a good quality multivitamin/mineral. I use ABBA 2000 (a powder soluble in water) three times a week in their water. I recommend the same kind (soluble powder) because sprinkling powder on their food is not efficient and liquid drops in the water are already degraded by the time you use them.

I've never noticed a marked difference between the behavior of a male versus a female. There are differences, of course, but not so much in 'curiosity' or 'attentiveness'. Males vocalize but, when kept the right way and with a mate, they only become a bit insistent at the beginning of the breeding season while females with mates do not make a single peep ever. BUT birds without a mate will vocalize a lot because, basically, they are 'calling' for a mate. Females which do not make a peep when with a mate will make a monotonous call incessantly during breeding season. PLUS, tiels without a mate will try to fly away (to look for a mate/flock) while birds with mates will be content in their environment as long as they are receiving the right care (they don't need to go looking for anything because they have everything they need and want where they are). I'll tell you a story. I used to run a parrot rescue and had a very large bird room where all my birds (except for the handicapped, sick or whatever) lived cage-free (this is when I had the more than 30 tiel flock) and, once during a big storm, a large branch broke off a tree and flew through the air, crashing against and breaking a large hole in a window in the birdroom. I had over 240 birds and the ONLY ones that left were three budgies, one quaker, one senegal and two doves. Not a single tiel or any other bird left and one of the budgies, the senegal and the quaker came back the next day on their own. The doves ended up flying with a flock that belonged to a man who had a nice flock of them so I gave them to him (I only had the two and doves/pigeons love to live in flock) and the other two budgies must have been eaten by a hawk because the silly birds, not knowing of danger after living all their life in captivity, because I saw them flying above the tree tops (a very dangerous thing to do for a little prey bird).

So, if you ask me, the best thing both for the birds and the human care-giver is to have a bonded pair of parrots (and this goes for any species but, most especially, for the aviary ones). They are happier and healthier that way and they are MUCH easier to care for than a single lonely needy bird which will never be 100% happy all alone with a human.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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