Say hello to my little friend!

[captwest]

About any thing would be a toy for a cockatiel, they love to play, the big hit in our tiel cage are the small plastic balls with a bell inside, and of course a good swing,

[Shani]

About any thing would be a toy for a cockatiel, they love to play, the big hit in our tiel cage are the small plastic balls with a bell inside, and of course a good swing,

Great idea! I'd completely forgotten about those, so thanks for the suggestion.

[Jenny]

Richard is right about them playing w/most anything. I made a discovery w/Aaron this weekend: he LOVES the thin elastic hair bands. He's always picking at the thicker ones in my hair, & will break them if I don't distract him. So I gave him one of my really thin ones, which don't work so well for me, & he was one happy boy! I wrapped the end of one around a post on the playgym, & he enjoyed playing tug-o-war.

[Shani]

It's that time of the week again



"Feed me dammit!"

He's apparently one of the more difficult babies to wean, and is taking after his brother Calypso in that he won't shut up for 5 minutes Will probably be another 3 weeks or so until he's ready to be taken home I'm guessing. I just can't believe that he's already started flying. I know they grow up fast, but my goodness O.o

[Jenny]

wow, he's grown fast! 3 weeks will be past before you know it! & he's such a pretty baby.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

He is looking very grownup even if he isn't feeling it yet!

[Shani]

Thank you everyone for the lovely comments directed at my baby Barney He would thank you all as well if he wasn't preoccupied playing with toys and trying to eat my rings.

Anyway, Barney is 7 (!) weeks old now. I got to see him on Saturday afternoon. It's just been absolutely amazing to be able to see Barney grow up. I could write an essay but I'll let the pictures do the talking. Fwiw, he is fairly comfortable with being handled anywhere, which truly surprised me. I can do anything handling wise short of hold him on his back (though admittedly I didn't try). Holding out his wings, touching his beak, back, belly, feet, tail etc - no problem whatsoever. It will make training him an absolute joy, since it seems that a lot of the early work has already been done.

He also seems to be becoming bonded to me - several times he went for a little fly and chose my head as the ideal crash landing spot. He's a very strong flier, but the landings leave a lot to be desired. He's also quite a clumsy baby :3

Anyway, pictures!

"Om nom nom, shinies!"




The look on his face here is hilarious - he'd been trying to get the ring off my finger to no avail

[Shani]

Been a while since I've updated. First of all, some pictures (which I'm sure is why you guys look at this thread )

7 weeks (breeder photos)



8 weeks (breeder photos)
"Look, I'm graceful, I really am!"


"Oh wait, no I'm not"


He was two months old on the 2nd of December (10 weeks), and I brought him home last night (the 3rd). He's settling in fairly well - he's more comfortable out of his cage than in at the moment (he's still trying to figure out how to use the top half of his cage), and he has a bit of polyuria, but it's only been there for a couple of hours, and he's otherwise eating/playing as he was at the breeder's. Something to keep an eye on, but it's certainly not diarrhea so I'm not quite panicking yet.

There's not really much else to update on! He's home - kind of wary of his cage but better than yesterday (it is a very big cage), addicted to being out of the cage (we had lots of fun this morning when I prepared his veggies), and generally chilling out doing bird things. Bit of a seed junkie right now - he was eating pellets this morning, but since I brought him home yesterday evening I'm just glad he's eating *something* well in his cage (eating out of the cage is no problem). As I type this he's discovered the spinach and carrot on his fruit kebab, hooray!

The breeder sent me home with a great care package - a certificate with his hatch date, his parents names (plus their color mutation), his DNA sexing results, and a picture. It also contained some high quality seed, pellets, millet sprays, cuttlefish, and a treat bag full of dried fruits and sunflower seeds. Gonna give him a few days then start seriously target training. We've already had a bit of a play around with target training which worked unbelievably well, but I think he just wanted to play with the stick than actually 'target' on command, lol.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

So happy to hear he is home and doing well!

[Mom2Rico]

Congratulations, he's gorgeous