Help with cockatiel

[Pajarita]

Oh, don't worry for a single second about not knowing, you WILL know, trust me on that! When the bird wants to be with you all the time, he has bonded. It's as simple as that. But to give a few pointers of what to look for: he gets excited when you first walk in, he approaches the side of the cage closer to you, he flutters his wings at you, he flies to your shoulder, he preens your face and hair, kisses your ears or gently grabs your ear lobes in his beak and 'tastes' them, he calls for you when you leave the room, he tries to kiss your lips and feed from them - these are all typical signs of a bird which loves you. Now, I'll be honest with you, I've never had a cockatiel that did ALL these things because I always try to get the ones that were hand-fed and human-imprinted to bond with the other tiels (it's healthier for them and makes a happier life than depending on a human) but the two hand-fed ones I've had would ALWAYS fly to my shoulder, preen my face and hair and take treats from my hand even though I never did anything to get them to bond with me.

[Tiellove]

Thanks Pajarita for the info! My parents thought that we should get a larger bird cage, so we got a cage that was 24x24x48 inches. It was pretty large, so my parents thought that we should put the cockatiel and the three budgies together. I've had them interact on certain occassions before, and not too many problems arose, just a few scuffles for about two or three seconds. I don't know if this is mentally good for the cockatiel, but just wondering.

[Pajarita]

No, it's not. Budgies are much more territorial than tiels and they can be the worst bullies. They might gang up on him and relegate him to a corner of the cage but, even if they don't, it's never a good idea to put birds together in the same cage UNLESS the birds are a mated pair. It's too stressful for them.