Cockatiel Diary - April 7

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Finally Cricket is starting to appreciate things like kale and broccoli, he still seems to avoid carrot and apple (which I shred for him with a grater). Any bits of table food I include he avoids still. I have a separate dish for these snacks.

He’s definitely eating pellets because I find them on the bottom of his cage (although I’ve been crushing them to seed size bits and he seems to eat these more than the full size pellets, but that’s probably because I also put actual seed in there with it, so he’s kind of foraging for the same size stuff). He gets tres ornery when he can no longer find seed in there with his pellets (I’ve been doing a 1:4 mix of seed to pellets) so I’m trying to manage that while also encouraging him to eat the pellets.

I got him a “front porch” for his cage (thanks FloatyGimpy!) and now he has no problem coming out.

He’s still super-protective of his cage area and just will not trust my hands, so if I have to get him down from the top to put him back inside, I have to “chase” him with a perch, he eventually gives up running away from it and climbs on (I say “step up” every time he gets on), then I put him on the floor, after which he has no problem stepping up on my finger (and I say “step up” then too- so maybe one day he’ll figure it out & get on my finger when it’s time to come down from the top of his cage). I know he has negative connotations with the perch-chasing, but what else can I do when I have to leave for work/cook dinner/etc?? At some point I have to get him down and he’s too chicken to climb down on his own.

He’s been a little less vocal lately, but I think that might have to do with his time outside the cage, which he gets every day.

We have plenty of “shoulder time” which he seems to love (and obviously so do I!) I “wear” a bath towel with a head-shaped hole cut in it (zexy!) which he always seems to miss when he poops & I get it on my shirt anyway- hahahaha!

He’s just great. Here’s the latest portrait.

p.s. how does his beak look? I always kind of worry about the flaking…

2

Beak looks normal to me!

See here for a brief write-up of the difference between a flaky beak and normal “growth lines.”

Our own two 'tiels have somewhat smoother-looking beaks than Cricket currently. You can see a little bit of flakiness on the side of Cosmo’s beak here; Buddie’s looks a little more uniform here. (Warning: these links load large pictures; I used the top size to show beak detail. Also, link required by Flickr’s terms of service.)

But their beaks have looked like his in the past. Good nutrition might improve it, and the whitish lines may disappear as the beak grows out, but that’s not abnormal-looking to me.

3

Cricket looks and sounds like he is doing well and making good progress, his cage is his safe place so he will be extra protective of it, just give him time and he will chill out about it. One good way to teach him that its not polite to poop on people is about every 15 - 20 minutes or so get him to step up onto your finger and hold him over a waste basket for a couple of minutes, one of those times he will poop in the basket and when he does give him a treat and praise/headscratches and before long he will get the idea to hang his butt over the edge before he goes. His beak is ok, just make sure that he has wood branches and toys to chew and he will keep his bill worn down and in trim. Try feeding him cooked and warm plain rice, mashed potatoes (no gravy), mashed sweet potatoes (no butter) and whole kernel corn/corn on the cob, my tiels go nut for those foods especialy corn on the cob.
Peace
LIONsob