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Hello From Australia!

3K views 24 replies 7 participants last post by  hanna 
#1 ·
Hello, or should I say G'Day Mates!

I'm Sharon and married to Alfred. We're in the over 50s crowd age wise. We had a Cockatiel for more than 10 years. Not sure how long really, maybe closer to 15. We called him Tilly, but obviously down the track we were told she was actually a he. He talked some (Hello Birdy) and whistled quite a bit. He was never tamed even though I tried. But after reading quite a bit around the internet in the past few days I wasn't doing it properly. And Tilly actually bonded with the Peach Face in the cage next to him. Tilly few away early in the year.

We have no other pets. Just each other :rolleyes:

We're hoping to get ourselves a nice cockatiel to become part of our family. I'm home most of the time as I'm a housewife. So it wouldn't be left on it's own all day very often.

The past week I've been thinking of trying again with a new bird. First I did think of getting a budgie, but after much thinking and reading I've decided I'll get a cockatiel again. It's hard to find someone who breeds them. There are always the Pet Stores in the City (none in my little town), but it would be nice to get one from a breeder who has possibly handled it.

We have the Show (kind of like a mini-fair) coming to town next Thursday afternoon till Saturday. The local Vet suggested I go to the area where the show birds are as there are often birds for sale by those who have come to show their prized birds. I also went into a store here called Rural Supplies, and the Lady there also told me to go to the Show as there will be birds for sale.

I've been trying to decide whether a boy or girl is better. Tilly was a boy and one of the grey kind with the big orange spots on the cheeks. I'd love one of the yellow or fair colored ones. I guess it would depend on what they had. They may not even have anything.

I'd love some input from those of you old hands at all of this taming and bonding as to whether a boy or girl would be better for us. I'll be the one doing all the training, but I bet it then wants to sassy up to Mr Husband and love on him.

We have Tilly's old cage..which is biggish. My husband made it. Tilly was in the laundry...all closed in and down 3 steps. But I read we should have the Cockatiel upstairs so it gets used to us. I've been doing my reading on how to go about taming. So I'm getting my info sorted.

Suggestions about getting one and all that would be very much appreciated.
 
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#2 ·
just let the bird choose you :) if an individual bird stands out in some way or it keeps wanting to grab your attention, that will be the bird for you, male or female.


but if you want some thoughts...


males can talk sometimes, they whistle, theyre fun and generally more bold. however when the teen stage hits, its usually worse in males than in females. they get a bit nippier for awhile and can be a tad aggressive during hormonal times, happens once or twice a year.

females dont really talk or whistle (can happen though very rare) but i personally find them to be more cuddly and gentle and less moody. but egg laying can be a concern for some birds.


both can be friendly and affectionate, all birds are individuals, but these are just generalizations. both make great pets. just go take a look at some birds, you will know which one is meant for you :)


good luck, we will want photos when you get your new baby.


welcome to the forum :)
 
#3 ·
Hi Sharon and Alfred,

welcome to the forum, yes let the bird chose you :love:.
Where are you in Australia? I am at the Sunshine Coast and know sbdy who breeds tiels, lovely couple, they also own a small local pet shop.
I am thinking to get a mate for Joe but will let him chose his little friend :love:
 
#4 ·
Welcome!

I have both males, and females, and I can tell you, they can both be just as affectionate as each other. Obviously it is going to all come down to the Cockatiel, some can be cuddly, while others aren’t, or not as much, each one differs.


Where abouts in Aus are you!? If you are in Queensland, they have the Parrot Rescue Centre there that are looking for new homes, or if you look at Gumtree and PetLink, both these sites I have seen people needing to re-home their Cockatiel.

All the best!
 
#9 ·
If you do a search on facebook for "Foowies Feathered Friends", that's a lady by the name of Cassa, she's in Collinsville. I know she breeds cockatiels and hand raises them. She had some beautiful birds not long ago but not sure what she has at the moment.

There's also a group called "Aviary and handraised birds Townsville buying, selling and information" that would be a good one for that area.

I'm away from home at the moment but if you have trouble finding them I'll be able to post a link to the page when I get home.
 
#12 ·
This sounds so good, I am excited for you. It is lovely to have a tiel or 2 or 3 or... lol.

Some people on here also joined our facebook Cockatiel Lovers group. You are very welcome to do so too and everybody else who reads this and want to join too ;)
 
#15 ·
Thanks. Have sent a request. Found a heap of FB pages of sellers around Townsville......so I'm really really hopeful of getting a bird that is at least had a measure of human contact and is young enough for us to be able to spend the time to tame and get him/her used to us. Just depends I guess on how long. But at least I've gone from no souces to a number of them.
 
#16 ·
This sounds so good I am happy for you. Even if you can get a "rescue" this birdie will be grateful to have a lovely home again and it will get used to you handling it. Our Joe is a rescue and just now he's peering onto my pc screen while I am typing...

I'll go onot FB now and accept. ;)
 
#17 ·
I've sent a request to join too :)

One tip that's probably obvious, if you get a hand raised tiel off someone who has a Facebook page, have a read back through older posts and see what others have to say about birds they've gotten. Helps work out if the breeder is someone who takes the time and cares enough to raise the birds properly or if they are just cranking them out factory style.

Best of luck with your search.
 
#19 ·
I've decided to get my cockatiel through http://www.nqaviaries.com. There is something inside of me that says to work in with them. They seem to be very dedicated breeders. I've had a couple of email exchanges with Murray and it looks like there might be a possibility we'll go for a visit. He suggested we come and have a look at the cockatiel varieties he has to see what we'd be looking for. He said "We have several pairs of cockatiels with 4 prs. on eggs at present. We have tentative orders for 4 chicks so should have some surplus avail. There should be a variety of colours coming and welcome a visit from you if you wish to have a look at the breeding stock. We could then discuss in detail what we can do to help your quest for a new bird."

He's been very helpful with my questions. So if we go (it's a 1 and 1/2 hour drive), and things turn out as we hope, then we'll commit to one of the hatchlings and be parents in 2 and 1/2 months or there abouts. It will give us time to set up his/her "bedroom" (ha ha) and for me to print out info off here and put it in a folder. So in a way it's a good thing to have a little wait so we can be prepared for the new arrival. It's kind of like going to pre-natal classes before the big day ha ha ha!!
 
#21 ·
I was offered a female cockatiel...yellow. I wanted to take it, but I know we're not ready yet. So I said to give it to the next person on the list. I think I've done the right thing. We've been working this afternoon on the cage set up and I'm about to start making my Info Folder. I don't think I'd be ready for a July 15th handover.
 
#23 ·
So today I did several things to start getting ready for our Cockatiel. I've named him/her. I think I thought up about 6-7 names but none seemed to last long in the running. I even sat with a dictionary open and had a look for names. I alighted on a word, and I just knew it was "the one". I just felt this surge of "that's it". So our bird is now called Tuppence.

Today we also started to get Tuppence's bedroom ready. She/he will live up the other end of the lounge room. We had an old timber push trolley thing that had some artificial flowers and a pic of the grandkids on it. The bottom shelf near the floor had a cane basket with a couple of stuffed teddys in it. We took the trolley outside and my husband cut the handle off it and turned the tray thing upside down so it was nice and level. And nailed it securely so it can't slide off. It had a wash down, but will need to get a hands on clean as well.

We are using our old Cockatiel's cage that my husband made. It measures 18" wide by 24" long by 24" high. It's down the list to clean and get ready - the usual decorations like toys, extra different types of perches etc. My husband had also made this container that the cage sits inside of to catch the seed. It is bigger length and width wise, and is about 7" high. I gave it a clean up today and gave it some fresh paint. It's made of tin. It will need a second coat tomorrow.
 
#24 ·
Ok so I've now finished painting the base that the cage fits in. I cleaned and disinfected all our old cockatiel's toys, perches and feeding dishes. I've also cleaned the cage with disinfectant and everything has had a very good rinse. It's all drying outside in the sun. In the next few days I'll put the whole thing together.

Alfred got some newspapers from work that no one wants anymore. We don't get the newspaper.

There's been a development with who we are going to get our cockatiel from. I decided to ring a Breeder who lives almost half way to the city and asked them if they had cockatiels. She said no, but she then gave me a couple of phone numbers for both here in my home town and also the city. So I rang the lady and she is about to put her nesting boxes in. I'm going there on Thursday to have a look at her cockatiels, and pick colors etc and she will keep one for me. She asked me if I wanted it hand raised, and I said yes, and we talked $$$. I'm glad to have found someone only 20 minutes away. The place where I was going to get mine from is 1 and 1/2 hours away. I've decided to get a boy as well. My daughter thinks Tuppi is not a masculine enough name for a boy, so I told her that if you say it in a deep and growly voice it sound down right sexy lol.
 
#25 ·
Sharon, I love reading your posts. Seems like you will have to wait a couple of months. TUPPI sounds so cute and I agree with you, according to the deep voice, lololol. I am now so excited for you too cannot wait until you'll have your baby :love:
 
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