Chico - our Cockatiel
 From
time to time I was wondering, how our budgies will exist with
cockatiel? At the beginning I was afraid, that they'll be fighting with each other.
Both: Budgies and Cockatiels are Australian
species, but still different one.
I realized, that new
bird could be bullied by Budgies, who have been living here for a
while. Even risking keeping birds in the separate rooms I made my
decision: I wanted Cockatiel parrot.
I was searching local shelters, adoption centers and ads to re-home adult
'Tiel and one day I found myself in my favorite pet store. And then
it was...little grey bird with cute crest, and the moment I pet him, he
was mine. It was love at first look! I knew, that that bird with unknown
sex is going with me home.
At the store I purchased cage, perches, toys and baby formula with
syringes, because my beauty at that time was still hand-fed. I got the
lesson how to prepare food for bird, in what temperature and in what
dosage it should be given. I hand fed baby-mammals in my life, but never a
baby-bird. Never forget that filling!
Cockatiel came home day before St. Patrick's Day, so I named him Patrick,
but it didn't last long. Very soon we start calling her Chico. The very
first day bird settled in her cage and started whistling. At the beginning
she was so young that I had to put perches at the very low level of
cage, the same with food and water to make sure, she will reach the
containers. After about one week, she started refusing baby formula
and I stopped hand-feeding her. She started to eat solid food: budgies
pellets mixed with variety of seeds. I also give her veggies, such as:
broccoli, Romaine lettuce, alfa alfa sprouts, cilantro; home food like
cooked dark rise and egg. So far Chico diet is similar to my budgies,
so it's easy to prepare food for all of them.
After about 3 weeks of quarantine, we put finally cages close to each
other. Since there I have less cleaning and now I can keep an aye on them.
All the signs show, that Chico is female: her color, feathers color and
behavior, but we can't be sure until she'll mature. We can do DNA test to
check Chico sex, but that won't change fact, that she is lovable member of
our
family. She did won our love quiet fast!
To be continued...
Chico's Pictures
Read
about our Budgies
Budgies Pictures
Back to Top
|
