Hello there, I'm owned by a cockatiel

[kaylab]

Hi everybody,
I think my Facebook friends are getting sick of me spamming their walls with my birdy so I needed to find a better outlet for all this love and cuteness that people will actually appreciate. I was googling 'why does my cockatiel like throwing things on the ground so much?' and found this forum

I've had my grey and white cockatiel for almost a year and a half (he'll be two in June)! He's my best friend and I love him to death! His name is Taco. He's very, very tame and very charming. He absolutely loves meeting new people and will fly straight onto their shoulder or head. He always, always wants to be with me (which we're working on, he gets separation anxiety when I go to the loo and shower I think ) He's trained me well, although I'm very glad he's happy to entertain himself in the mornings now and we're not getting up at five thirty anymore ...

He's also extremely dumb. In a very endearing, adorable way, though. He falls over a lot and quite literally forgot how to whistle ( he whistled for about five months, then just stopped one day and never started again. No changes whatsoever in his environment, still happy as larry and loves me to death, but he refuses to whistle anymore, no matter how hard I encourage him ). He is addicted to throwing things off the bed/counter/cage/anything then will watch them to make sure they don't move. If he's on the floor and finds a pen, he acts like he's won the lotto.

Anyway, that's my baby in a nutshell. Can't wait to meet everyone

[KimberlyAnn]

Welcome! You came to the right place! I love hearing cute stories and seeing pictures. Post some, I'd love to see Taco.

[janetafloat]

Hello, welcome to the forum! Looking forward to nearing more about Taco. I just want to mention, though, that if you let his wings grow out so that he could fly you would find that he would stop falling over.

[Eric&Rebecca]

I have 2 tiels as well! I would advise letting his wings grow out, cockatiels are climbing birds but they often use their wings to balance and they are great flyers! Clipped birds escape just as much as non clipped birds so maybe give it a go now would the absolute perfect time as he will go through his first molt and his new wing feathers will grow out. This 'could' (I stress could) be the reason he stopped singing. If they can't fly cockatiels (or any bird) feels something is a miss or you could always get him checked at an avian vet. Check nothing is wrong

Your bird throwing things on the floor is because birds are ground feeders. They like things to be on the floor for foraging so that's why he throws things on the floor. Your bird is still quite young as well, my eldest is a year and he's still clumsy. He talks, whistles and makes sounds he's amazing. The little one is 3-4 months and is still very clumsy. He enjoys sitting in his food bowl (which means 3-5 times cleaning) and re arranging the papers at the bottom of his cage. He also LOOOOVES baths, something my other cockatiel is not so keen on. The youngest does this little bath dance, then he baths himself or gets a mist shower and he opens his wings right up and dances its so cute.

If you've got any questions feel free to PM me too

[kaylab]

Thanks for your messages. Taco was actually flighted until about two weeks ago. I've moved into a smaller apartment and it seemed like the right choice, I only took two primary flight feathers on either side, too. The singing stopped long, long, long before he was clipped.

[Eric&Rebecca]

How weird- Although young cockatiels do the strangest things! He might start again soon.

Oh so he can fly it just slows them down a bit? I'm not familiar with how this clip works. Is that because you're worried about him bumping into things in the smaller space?

I live in an apartment and both birds are fully flighted but the layout of the apartment allows for fully flightedness.

Be great to see some pictures.