[Demm]

Hello all!

Well i finally got myself 2 cockatiels. Found a lady on craigslist and she sold me 2 birds, (a whiteface and a normal grey i believe) plus the cage for $50. so i took them.

They are int he same cage together. They have always been. The whiteface is about 1 years old and the grey is 9 months. Well i'm trying to figure out what they are (male or female) i am not at all sure. They are getting along great. they are already eating, and sharing food from each others mouths, and they snuggle next to each other. They even looked like they were doing beak to beak kissing many times.

either way just wanted to say hi since i am a new user, and try to figure out whether they are male or female, and if they are both males or something if i'd have any trouble?

here are some pics.

thanks!
-Andrew

 

[allen]

well the males will do the wolf whistle verry talkative bop there heads up and down and tap tables or anything like a woodpecker on the other hand the female will be cuddly and may hiss to you definetly have a wf but your grey seems to have pied in it as well with that much yellow

oh yea welcome to the group you should go to the newie section and do a introduction of yourself

 

[Laura]

Hi there welcome to the forum you new cockatiels are very cute Your white face is a male and the other one is not a grey its a pied and with pieds you can't visually sex them, I would say if there that close and snuggling together and feeding each other you have a male/female so your pied could be a female.

 

[Bea]

Hi and welcome to the forums! Your tiels are lovely.

 

[allen]

i thought it was a pied

 

[xxxSpikexxx]

Welcome to the form They are very cute I love pieds but of course I have one myself

 

[Beckyjean81]

Welcome Andrew! Your birdies are adorable

 

[Demm]

thanks for the comments all!

i stand corrected, it is a pied then!

they havent been to much vocal as of yet. i just brought them home about 6 hours ago. they have a thin sheet over the cage right now and are sound sleep. they started chirping a bit after a couple hours right before nap time.

the lady i got them from said that the whiteface says "hey baby" and it does a cat-call whistle everytime they walked out of the shower or something lol.

no hammering of the cage yet, or bobbing heads, i think its a bit to early for that. they are still trying to get used to the new environment i think. in a couple days i will try to start hand feeding them and get them used to me!

 

[allen]

when i got mine home i fed them and within 2 hours they were eating

 

[xxxSpikexxx]

I don't think I would hand fed as in what you do with an unweaned baby. I would just hold some millet for them to eat Here is a couple of links with good info on tiels if you like http://www.cockatielcottage.net/ and http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-beh...d-training/training-older-re-homed-birds.aspx

 

[feathers]

welcome to the forums :thumbu: cute birds
:tiel3: :tiel1:

 

[Laura]

I don't think I would hand fed as in what you do with an unweaned baby.

hehe... I thought the same thing at first when I saw it but I think Demm means handfeeding as in getting them to eat out of the hand

 

[xxxSpikexxx]

I thought of that as well. But thought I would just mention it anyway, even if they are eating on their own.

 

[birdieness]

Actually, you do have a normal pied there but your white face male is also split for pied. you see how he has that large white blob on the back of his neck. That means he is split for pieds. I can't stand when people leave that out lol.

 

[Laura]

I can't stand when people leave that out lol.

If people are leaving that out it means they didn't know to me it just looked like the white on the back of his neck.

 

[Demm]

ahh well it surely seems lik ei have alot to learn.

i do have another concern now. 99% of the time the birds get along fine. however tonight i was watching TV and where the birds were it was pretty dark. Well one of the birds, not exactly sure which one since it was to dark to see across the room, start cat calling, chittering and whistling to the other one. I think they wanted to uhh...well you know. They they got into what looked like a small fight...they werent biting each other per say, it was more like holding each others beaks. they did it several times for a few seconds at a time. When i got up to check on them they stopped. the rest of the night they were just all snuggled up next to each other without fighting at all.

so now my question is, should i be worried about this? would this be a sign for me to separate them?

 

[Laura]

It's pretty normal I wouldn't separate them just yet, they have there squabbles but I think as long as no one is getting hurt they should be ok, you should see mine go at it sometimes you would think someone was getting killed...lol but no blood has been shed yet

 

[Demm]

alright i will keep a close eye on them, definately dont want either getting hurt!
thanks

 

[birdieness]

If people are leaving that out it means they didn't know to me it just looked like the white on the back of his neck.

Maybe but if i see's that it's not posted you can be certain i will be there and posting about it lol. Gl with you birds, i'm sure everything will work out.

 

[Demm]

I am happy to report, what i think is progress!

Well both of these birds werent hand raised, or used to being attended to on a regular basis. so they were the nicest birds earlier this week. but i believe i am getting through!

Everytime i leave to go to work, as soon as i close the door behind me both of the birds starts squaking loudly. When i come home from work they are quiet, but as soon as i get closer to the cage the yellow one jumps on the perch closest to the front of the cage. I am able to put my head a couple of inches away from it. However if i put my hand near it will shy away still.

Also they are both taking millet spray from my hands. the first time they were a bit reluctant. but now as soon as they see my pull a millet spray out of the bag they are earger and waiting for me. I've been feeding them that by hand for the past 2 or 3 days now. I started holding the millet as far away as i could, then i slowly inched my hand closer. now i am able to get my hand as close as a half an inch away from the birds head while feeding them the millet. They are still a bit reluctant when i'm that close but they will eat none-the-less.

Today also really suprised me. whenever i come in the door i always do kisses to the birds, and the white one since day one has always mooved it beak everytime i did that and squeaked just a little bit. but today when i did it it started chittering at me and cat calling. when i stopped kissing it stopped as well. then i started kissing again and it would chitter again.

hopefully that is some progress, because i see it as progress!