Hello there!

[Hannerz]

Thanks for the feedback on gender, Pajarita. 99% is good enough for me to start going ahead and calling her a girl. Eventually I will probably get her tested just to confirm, but I am going to leave that for the distant future when she (hopefully!) trusts me. I think she's really pretty, too.

Don't worry about the delay, Wolf! Non-internet-life comes first. I hope that you enjoyed your BBQ and that you're feeling better by now.

I don't have a whole lot news on my end, just a few small things and some questions that I'm sure I will somehow manage to expand into a very long post.

I moved the cage into the corner where it will stay the same height but allow me to give her more space. She handled the moving surprisingly well and it looks like she's already returned to normal comfort levels in her new location.

She hasn't touched any of the new foods I've tried to give her yet. She never goes to the bottom of her cage, so I think I might try putting it one of her bowls instead for now. That way even if she doesn't eat it, she might at least investigate a little. It also spares her the horror of me opening her door and reaching inside the cage.

I got her one other perch at the pet store. A sandpaper textured one that has different widths along its length. An employee said it was good for their nails. After feeling it myself, it seems like it could be rough on the rest of her feet. Are those ok? I think I am going to order the rest of the perches and things on Amazon, since prices look way lower there.

She gets nervous when I get within 10-12 feet of her cage, so I am taking things slow and talking to her from there and little beyond for a little while every day. I also spend a fair amount of time on the other side of the room working and watching shows, which she doesn't seem to mind very much. At that distance, if I am quiet, she mostly just goes about her business as if I weren't there.

She's gotten much noisier since I last wrote. Whenever she hears birds outside now she calls and calls to them and seems to get frustrated and a little distressed when she doesn't get an answer. I've tried whistling back to her, but she is not impressed. Any tips on calming her down? I don't mind the noise that much, but she seems to really work herself up. (Side note: We think she might have had a buddy. The day after we caught her, we heard what sounded like another cockatiel but could have been a mockingbird near our neighborhood. We took her and her cage outside and she called a bunch, but we never laid eyes on the other bird and didn't hear any more from it then or since. This girl was being targeted by a hawk when we found her, so I don't have the highest hopes of the other bird turning up again... Should any of this information influence how I handle her?)

I'm trying to figure out what to do about lighting. I've read that birds need UV/full spectrum lighting if they are kept indoors but also that it is not necessary and potentially dangerous. People have wildly different opinions on how much light should be used as well. The more I read about it the more unsure I get! What is your opinion on this?

In a similar vein, I've seen talk of how important it is for birds to be exposed to the light of sunrise and sunset. Unfortunately, all of my windows (front AND back. I'm so lucky...) are situated close to streetlights that turn on before sunset and off after sunrise. I've been closing the blinds but a lot of light still gets through. I have black-out curtains, I just have to install the curtain rod before I can use them. Many people also recommend night-lights for cockatiels to help with night frights. So I am very unsure about how to handle light at night.

Just looked over at her and she is sleeping with her head tucked behind her. I haven't seen her do that since she was completely exhausted when we first rescued her. I wonder if the light shining through the blinds at night has been keeping her up instead of just acting as a nightlight. She seems to be totally out. I said a few words softly and she didn't move. Pretty sure she doesn't trust me that much. I'd expect her to immediately wake up and stand at attention. Guess I need to get around to putting those curtains up...

[Wolf]

I would definitely either cover her cage or put up the curtains and like the curtains better as covering the cage reduces air flow in and through the cage.
It is entirely possible that this was a mated cockatiel and could have been a breeder. It is also possible for her to have had a mate and still have been a companion bird. With as skiddish as she sounds I would think that she was either a breeder bird or not handled much, perhaps was treated as an aviary bird and lived in a large cage with a small flock. No I would not do anything differently than advised, but a breeder bird will just take longer to calm and become friends with.
The best perches are all wooden branches with the bark left on for them to chew off. The list that I linked for you has a section on toxic and non toxic woods, just make sure that it hasn't been sprayed with insecticides or fungacides as those are toxic. I have a small stand of lilac that I cut perches for my smaller birds from and even an occasional rose branch.
Full spectrum lighting is indeed a touchy topic and there are as many pros as there are cons. This is partly due to comsumer ignorance of the proper specifications for a bird, but most due to the greed of some large manufacturers who take full spectrum lights designed for reptiles and just repackaging them for birds. This has resulted in birds being blinded or burned severely sometimes fatally so. And it doesn't take very long for this to happen. I do have a full spectrum light for my birds, but I don't use it unless I am physically present during its use. I don't use it for its possible effects in converting vitamin D-3. I use it because parrots see into the ultraviolet light range which is invisible to us, so it enhances their vision. Next to a parrot with proper lighting we are color blind as they see so many more colors than we do. This affects the way that I use the light making it safer to use.
Birds use light in many ways and the special characteristics of the light at dawn and dusk set and reset their internal biological clock which also controls the signals based on the length of the day when it is time for reproduction and not.
As for night lights for cockatiels, I really don't know what to say, as I don't have cockatiels, myself. I think that I would try it without one unless you hear the bird thrashing about in its cage when it should be sleeping. Liz has a small flock of cockatiels and would be better able to answer your questions about night lights.

[liz]

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for taking the little one in. Cockatiels are the sweetest of all parrots. They are little flockers and enjoy being together. Even if she is afraid of you she will still watch you when your in the room. When cleaning her cage don't look at her. Keep the palms of you hands down. I rescued a breeder bird, Maggie, who still does not want touched. She will climb over the back of my hand to see what I am doing. I can talk to her face to face and she will try to communicate but as a breeder she had no human contact. The only joy she had was her babies and the humans took them.
Cockatiels eat together so eat in front of her. My older ones teach the new ones what to eat. Most came to me as seed eaters.
The only way I can tell the difference between genders is that when happy the male will sing.
The females make happy little tweets and will try to communicate.
I agree with everything you have been told so far. Wolf and Pajarita are great. If they don't know then they find out. I soak up the info that they share.

[Pajarita]

OK, let's see:

-her callings: she is, most likely, hormonal and calling for a mate or, like Wolf said, she was with other tiels and is now calling to them, trying to find her flock. Tiels are HIGHLY flock oriented so, if you can, I would suggest you get her a mate (hens are almost completely silent when they have a mate and, while males still vocalize, it's not constant and doesn't have that 'desperation' quality to it). It doesn't have to be right now and, actually, it will be better if she gets comfortable with you and her new home first but having another of their own species brings a wealth of benefits both physical and emotional to the little ones providing for needs we can never satisfy (we don't make good birds no matter how hard we try). In reality, the only reason anybody can provide for having a single parrot of a small species is that they don't want to share the bird's attention but this is not only selfish but also unnecessary as tiels are the mildest and sweetest tempered birds and their affection for us does not diminish when they have a mate or even a flock.

-dawn and dusk - even if the lights on the street turn on in the evening, turn the indoor artificial ones off when the sun is halfway down (if you work, you can use timers) and cover the window. There are myriad studies that tell us that city lights (streets, windows, etc) affect their endocrine system so blocking the light at night is necessary. Yes, many people talk about night frights and leaving lights on but I've had a flock of over 30 tiels for 5 years at one time (I only have 6 now) and have never had a single one having a night fright except when I first moved from the Poconos back to the city in NJ when it did happen. I couldn't figure out why until I slept in the birdroom one night (on purpose and precisely to see what was happening) and discovered that their flight cage received the merest sliver of light from a street lamp across the street - and once I put black out curtains on that window (I would draw them after night fell and open them before dawn), the night frights immediately stopped.

-full spectrum - I have them in the ceiling fixtures. You need to look for them online because the ones they sell in the stores called full spectrum, daylight, natural light, etc are no good. You need a CRI of 94+ and a Ktemp between 5000 and 5500 (I like 5000). I turn them on when the sky is completely lit and turn them off when the sun is halfway down to the horizon. Birds are, of all the vertebrate species, the most vision-dependent animals so good quality and bright light is essential for their wellbeing and happiness.

- food - try cooking whole grains al dente (a bit soft on the outside but still hard on the inside -kamut, wheat or oat groats are real good to start with because they retain their shape and look and feel like seeds) and mixing a bit of seed in it so the bird recognizes them as food. Once she starts eating the grains (she will start by picking the seeds first but she will eventually start eating the grains, too) and, when she does, (you will find empty white 'skins') you can start adding chopped veggies to them one by one (start with sweet corn, they all love it). A simple gloop and a different leafy green every day are good enough for now but give her some vitamins (the ones you mix with the food are best but, if she is only eating seeds, you will need to use the ones in the water which are not as good as the ones you mix with the food but something is better than nothing) also because if she only eats seed, then that is what she has been eating all along and could have a vitamin and mineral deficiency.

You are doing just GREAT! She is already feeling much more comfortable and will continue to improve steadily.

[Hannerz]

Curtains are officially going up tomorrow! That will make a massive difference in the amount of light in the room at night. It'll be almost totally dark, so I can just use the curtains and no cover (which totally freaked her out the few times I've tried it). I'm glad that night-frights aren't as common as researching on the internet makes them seem.

Will she still get the benefit of the light characteristics at sunrise and sunset with all the interfering light from the streetlamp? Or is the benefit more from the gradual increase/decrease in light? Has research even been done to figure that out? Opening and closing the curtains will make a pretty jarring shift in the amount of light, so I'm wondering if I ought to do it bit-by-bit at intervals or something.

I'll look for some wood perches for her. I'll have to buy them, since I don't know for sure what plants around here have been sprayed. I definitely will only go for ones that explicitly state the perches haven't been sprayed or treated in any way. Preferably with lots of good reviews to back the claim up.

Thanks for the welcome and the advice, Liz! I can see this girl becoming a lot like your Maggie. She is definitely interested in me, but I don't know if it will go to the extent of wanting physical interaction. I would love she did start to like it, but I'll be perfectly happy as long as she learns that I'm not a threat and can enjoy my company. That's the first I've heard of the palms-down advice. I'll start doing that and see if it helps. She definitely is more afraid of my hands than she is of the rest of me. I have been eating with her two or three times a day pretty much since I found her, and she seems to like it. When I started eating she'd immediately start chowing down on her seeds back when I had them as an option 24/7. So far, her vocalizations more closely fit the female description you gave. I 100% agree that Wolf and Pajarita are great. I am simply blown away by how much high-quality advice they've given to me and others on the forum.

I'm still holding out some hope that I can find her owner, but if they don't turn up within another month or so I will start seriously looking into getting her a mate once she's all settled in and comfortable. On my own, I definitely won't be able to provide nearly as much companionship as she really needs and is likely used to having. Is the cage I have right now big enough for two birds? (30 1/2" wide x 18" deep x 34" tall)

You guys have convinced to look for some lighting for her. Using them at a distance for the definite visual benefit instead of close up for the added risky and hotly debated vitamin D benefit seems like a great middle ground. I think I'll only turn them on when I am around, like Wolf does, just in case. I'm around often enough that she'll still get it for a good long while every day.

I haven't been mixing any seeds into her grain meals. I'll start doing that and see if that helps her get more adventurous with them. I already have corn waiting in my freezer, ready to be introduced to her diet as soon as she accepts the grains.

I haven't been giving her any vitamins at all. What kind(s) of vitamins does she need and are there any I should avoid?

If I am doing great, it is largely thanks to you guys! I was plunged into bird ownership with much less knowledge and experience than I had hoped to have by the time I got a bird. AND I got a far more challenging bird than I would have chosen as my first one. You have all been incredibly helpful in the ongoing figuring-things-out and winning-the-bird-over processes. Thank you, thank you! I have definitely seen improvement with her and am starting to get rewarding little glimpses of her personality under all the fear and uncertainty now. I think she'll be a fun bird to have around.

[Wolf]

I know exactly what you mean about not having been prepared for a bird when one arrived. My first bird appeared at the house starving and half frozen one spring morning and rushed us ( dive bombed) to get in the house when we went outside. We saw a flash of green and yellow and ducked. I ended up letting in a 4 year old female hormonal Senegal parrot, and neither of us had ever wanted to have house birds in our lives. It was unexpected and unprepared for and we knew absolutely nothing about them. It took close to three weeks to find out what kind of parrot she was. Kiki, tore me up, mostly my hands and forearms for the next year, before she was settled on who was her human, who she could trust and was finished with being hormonal. I had to learn a whole lot very fast in order to provide for her. To top it all off during this first year we became to friends and caregivers for a total of 6 different parrots of 5 different species that needed a home bad enough that we could not say no to them.
If I can go from totally ignorant about parrots to where I am in this short of time span 3 to 4 years, I have no doubt that you can easily succeed with your bird. But you really must be wary of catching MBS from your birds. MBS is Multiple Bird Syndrome, and can easily and quickly get out of hand and there is no cure or treatment for it.

[liz]

You are doing great. With the love and care you are giving her she will come to you. She may be scared now but these little ones learn fast.
My cockatiel flock grew when my Sweetie died and left her mate alone. I did not want one pair and a single so I took in a breeder bird, Maggie, to even it up. The breeder gave her up because her mate died and she would not accept another. My thoughts were that I did not have to have physical contact with her. I just wanted her to be happy. She did not want to accept a mate so I looked on Craigslist and found others that really needed help.
Hence my flock of misfits. I love every one of them. Some have been landing on me that I did not expect.
Just like you I just want them to be happy.
Wolf became a bird's human unexpectedly. Amy, my first bird came to me when my sister added her to my critter collection because she was tired of little feathers in her house. She just dropped her off one day.

[Pajarita]

ighWhat makes twilight (dusk and dawn) so important is the change in spectrum. Sun light is made of many different wavelengths (colors), including ultraviolet (which we don't see but birds do) and infrared but, during the day, the light changes the spectral distribution (how much of each color is actually in the light we see) as the sun 'climbs' up to its zenith (noon) and 'goes down' in the afternoon until it disappears in the horizon. This is because the position of the sun (whether it's perfectly overhead as in at noon or low as when it 'travels' up and down) makes the rays either hit the atmosphere (with all its particles and gases and whatever) at different angles which, in turn, makes the light diffract and 'split' into different proportions of the different colors. That's why everything, including the sky, looks 'rosy' during sunrise and sunset, and it is this different, 'rosy' light and the way it makes objects change color that affects the birds' photoreceptors (cells that 'perceive' light) and which make their endocrine system react. Basically, the different light during twilight starts and stops the internal 'stopwatch' and allows their bodies to 'measure' the length of day which, in turn, tells them when to start and stop producing sexual hormones. So, even when there is a bit of interference by street lamps turning on at dusk, the actual 'color' and quality of the twilight light is 'recorded' by their bodies.

[Hannerz]

Wow, Wolf! That is quite the first bird story! Huge kudos to you for learning so much in such a short time and sticking with the bird even though she was such a handful! I don't know if I could have handled a year with so much biting. I'm glad she's settled down now.

I guess I'm not really *that* unprepared (I had done several hours research and decided I wanted a cockatiel a few weeks before she even showed up, after all). I'm just less prepared than I am used to being! I like a little challenge though, and she offers it without being overwhelming. I really feel like I'm doing well with her.

Ah, multiple bird syndrome. I am familiar with a strain of it. In the chicken world, it is known as chicken math. You lose the ability to count birds correctly and always figure that you have room for more. Some aren't laying, they don't count. Some are small breeds, they only count as 1/3 to 1/2 a chicken. So to the afflicted mind, a flock of 12 chickens is technically only a flock of five, if you think about it. I think that at least for now I am safe from the perils of MBS. I'm still in school and it is very likely that I will need to move to the other side of the country for work when I graduate. I don't want to make things totally impossible for myself! Another cockatiel and I am done for a while, unless more birds appear out of nowhere and crush my resistance.

Liz, I'm glad you mentioned Craigslist. I've been looking into where I could get a mate for my girl when we're ready for it and there is a distinct lack of rescues in my area. Craigslist is probably one of the next best places to look. It can be pretty sketchy, but there are a lot more options there. And lots of the birds come with their cages, which would help a bunch with transitioning, quarantining, and introducing.

Thank you so much for the explanation on morning and evening light, Pajarita! It really is amazing how much more they get out of light than we do.

Update time! Work suddenly got very busy and there weren't any bird emergencies or urgent questions, so I haven't written in a while.

She still is very frightened of me going to her cage to get fresh water and deal with her food and stuff, but reaches panic levels less often. I can move about a foot closer to her cage than when I last wrote before she starts getting nervous.

The curtain seems to be helping her. She seems much more well-rested. I, on the other hand, am still not used to the early wake-up time and am very very sleepy!

She is starting to nibble at her breakfasts, still mostly picking the seeds out of it. Hopefully soon she will get more into it and I can start to introduce the corn.

I have yet to acquire a light. It is really tough to find ones that meet the specifications! I've found a few that have been recommended to others (mostly by you guys) by searching the forum. I'm going to see if I can find another two or three options that meet criteria and then compare prices and fixture options before I buy.

I'm going to finally order some better perches tonight. I've found a bunch of good options and just have to narrow it down to a handful of them and triple check that they are made of safe materials. Any tips on how to introduce them with minimal stress?

[liz]

I always take the cage with the bird. It is his and he knows it.
During quarantine they will call back and forth to each other. After a month you can put the cages side by side. If they are equal and you stay with them let them out together. Do not put them together until one invites the other one home.