Millet Spray!!!

I finally spent some quality time with my Tall One. Now that she is better, I decided she really needed some more tiel interaction. When I saw her eating something that looked a lot like birdseed (she calls it cereal, but it looks a lot like what she puts in my dish), I flew off the cage and landed on her head. She did not give me any of her food, but she got some millet spray out for me. I munched on it happily, and even Miss Prissy deserted the annoying pink things to join me. The day got off to a good start!

Tiel Therapy

I've been worried about my Tall One. Ever since she got sick, she's been tired and sleeping a lot, even though she's better now. I think she should never have gone back to work, but who of you knows a human who listens to reason!?

I chirped at the Cool One to let him know about my concern, and as usual, he understood what I was saying. My Tall One needed some nice fresh air and some diversion. Of course, that's good for all humans, including the Cool One. So I sent both of them to the zoo, where one of the exhibits featured my cousins, cockatiels, along with some more distant relatives: budgies, a.k.a. parakeets, and finches.

Of course, the Tall One took her camera along, and she took pictures of my fine feathered cousins. Not surprisingly, they flocked around the Cool One without hesitation, and with his help, a couple of them also settled down on the Tall One eventually. Here are some pictures:

This beautiful black and white cockatiel reminds me of vintage movies. I dubbed him Humphrey Bogart. He bit the Cool One and the Tall One right away to let him know he is the boss. Of course, neither of them let that deter them. They know we cockatiels are in charge. Here he is on the Cool One's hand.

Here are two tiels on the Cool One's hands!

Note the other cockatiels in the branches above!

The cool bird came back to the Cool One after a little break in the branches and perched on his shoulder.

This youngster lost his tail feathers. I can sympathize, because when Miss Prissy was young, she always bumped into things and lost feathers. I think he felt quite comfortable with the Cool One:

The Cool One finally placed the little bird on the Tall One's shoulder, where my feathered friend started preening her hair.

The zookeepers were so impressed by the Cool One's connection to birds that they asked him to stay and volunteer!

I think my Tall One is feeling much better after some Tiel Therapy, and I'm sure it was good for the Cool One, too!

A Dreary Day

Bonjour!

I did not get a chance to post anything yesterday, mes amis. It was a dreary day, with cloudy skies and some rain, and I don't like rain. Neither does Miss Prissy. Even though we're nice and dry in the apartment, we cockatiels still don't like it when it's overcast. We like sunshine, and lots of it! On overcast days, Miss Prissy and I just sleep on our perches until the sun comes back on. The same is true for the Tall One, except that I can't imagine a perch big enough for her, so she sleeps on her couch. She did not sleep all day, of course, since she has to watch over us, but the times that she was awake, she was on the computer or carried some clothes back and forth.

The human clothing ritual is very interesting to watch, even though it does not make much sense. Since the poor things don't have feathers, they have to put on fabric of different colors to compensate. They change the colors often, which is very confusing to me. Luckily, I only have one human, but how do they tell each other apart when they get together? Anyway, one of the strange rituals humans follow is to carry clothes around. My human puts her clothes into a big basket and carries them out the door. Where she takes them, I don't know, but it can't be far, because she always comes back right away, but with an empty basket. After a while, she leaves again with her basket and brings the clothes back. She then folds them carefully in a certain pattern. I can only guess that this is a human preening ritual; since they don't have feathers to preen, they preen their clothes. I've tried to preen her clothes before, but I've given up, because they are too big for me. It would take me all day for just one item. Maybe there are some giant birds nearby with huge beaks that preen the humans' clothes for them. I don't want to find out, though; they might mistake me for their dinner!

Anyway, in the evening we all finally perked up. The Tall One made the light come on, and since we had snoozed all day, we had a lot of energy. I, for one, wanted to work on my blog, but the Tall One kept hogging the computer. I may have mentioned that patience is not my strong side; anyway, for a second I forgot all about the fact that my blog is a secret and the Tall One cannot find out about it. I flew from the cage to the top of the computer screen, which is about the same width as a comfortable perch, and glared at the Tall One to give me a turn. Luckily, she did not understand what I wanted, and thought I was coming for some quality time. She put her finger in front of me, and I stepped on it. She talked to me real nicely; I think it made her happy that I came to see her, so I forgot all about her hogging the computer, and I was glad she appreciated my presence like a well-trained human should.

When she tried to pet me, I flew off, but a few minutes later, both Miss Prissy and I landed on her. I even let the Tall One pet me for a little while without biting her. Then, I preened her arm for a while, and then I preened Miss Prissy while we were both sitting on the Tall One's arm. I was in such a good mood, I started serenading Miss Prissy. Like I said, I could have been an opera singer. Since Miss Prissy does not know the difference between a train whistle and a song, the beauty of my performance was lost on her, but the Tall One enjoyed it.

Doctors and Vets

If I did not live in a relatively small cage in a tiny apartment, I would think the Tall One is some kind of millionaire or celebity. She has different doctors for almost every part of her body! She goes to one doctor when she is coughing or has a cold, to another one for her sprained ankle, and today she even went to a special doctor just for her teeth!

The last one I absolutely can't understand. I don't even know why she has teeth in the first place. Miss Prissy and I get along just fine without them. Anyway, the Tall One went to her tooth doctor today, and she said some of her teeth needed fillings and had to be drilled on. Now, why does a tooth need to be filled? Is it hollow? The Tall One says the tooth doctor is nice, but she came home during lunch time with half of her face numb. She looked funny. She couldn't even smile or blink right!

At least she had enough common sense to stay home this afternoon and not go to that place she calls work. Everybody there would have laughed at her. To make her feel better, Miss Prissy sat on her shoulder and I preened her hair while sitting on her head. Then, the Tall One put us back into the cage and went to sleep.

Once I was sure she was fast asleep, I got out of the cage and onto the computer. We birds only need one type of doctor, but a special kind called an avian veterinarian. Other vets may not have studied birds, but avian vets do. Birds need to go to the avian vet at the slightest sign of trouble. That's because we birds are so resilient that we hide our illnesses very well, so by the time our humans finally notice, things are usually getting serious.

I found some information for you on finding avian veterinarians:

Why and How to Find an Avian Vet

Why Your Bird Needs an Avian Veterinarian, How To Find One, and How To Tell If You REALLY Have One....

Find a Local Avian Veterinarian

Finding an Avian Vet

Avian Vet Lists and Search Engines

AAV: Find Your Local Veterinarian

AAV: Active Veterinarian Members

ParrotParrot: Avian Vet

Parrot Connections: Avian Veterinarians

Birds n Ways: Avian Vets and Veterinarian Services

Toolady: Avian Vets in the UK

Vetafarm: Australian Avian Vets


If you have any other good links, please post them under Comments!

Where Did You Put My Computer, Human?

One of the annoying things I have to deal with is my human's sporadic clean-up sprees. I'm not sure if she folded up the computer and simply put it away somewhere, if she had it repaired, or if she took it to the place she calls work, but either way, I could not find it, no matter how hard I looked. Usually, she is very careless and leaves it sitting on my desk, ready for me to blog away, but this time, all that was left was some birdseed and papers. I was not happy at all. I love my computer, and I enjoy surfing the web!

Finally, the computer was back in its place today, and she even left it running, so all I had to do was log into Blogger so that I could finally post the update I am sure you have been eagerly awaiting. My question is: How do I keep my human from putting the computer away again? I heard her telling the Cool One that she is planning to go on a trip soon. I'm not sure when or where, and honestly, I don't really care, because it means the Cool One will be coming over every day for a long time to play with me and give us food, and of course, I prefer his company to hers. The thing that worries me is that she might take her computer with her or clean house and put it somewhere so the place looks organized. I'm not sure what to do to prevent that. What I really need is a tiel-sized computer in my cage, but I've searched the web and found nothing. We cockatiels are shamelessly neglected when it comes to fulfilling our computer needs!

Saturday Snoozing

The weekend started very nicely. The Tall One is staying home so far, which is very good. She let us out, and Miss Prissy flew onto her head right away. The Tall One knows to get Miss Prissy down from there immediately and put her on her shoulder so that the landing space is clear for me. While Miss Prissy preened the Tall One, I climbed down to the other shoulder. I did some preening, too, because the Tall One definitely needs it. Then, Miss Prissy settled in on the Tall One's arm and I climbed on the other shoulder, and we both fell asleep. I love to have a little snooze!

Let Us Out!

Miss Prissy and I tried to get the idea across to the Tall One that we wanted to get out. It took a while, but finally she relented. What she does not realize is that, if we had pushed the door just a little harder, we could have gotten out without her help. But like I said, I want to keep that a secret...

Getting to the Food, Fireman Style

The Tall One filled up our food dish while we were on top of the cage. As soon as she had put it back into our cage, Miss Prissy and I slid down the cage bars like firefighters to get to it quickly! Guess who won the race...

Bread!

I'm finally in a much better mood! The Tall One brought home some of that yummy bread and gave us a large slice. I chirped happily and started eating, and pretty soon, Miss Prissy joined in. It didn't take long for us to make it disappear!

Leisure Time

The Tall One went to work later than usual yesterday, so Miss Prissy and I took the opportunity to move about the apartment while the cage was open. Afterwards, we settled in on the porch for a little snooze.

She's Not a Duck - Or Is She?

Bonjour, mes amis!

There comes a time when even an extremely intelligent and resourceful cockatiel like moi needs some advice, and that time is now. You know about my beautiful companion Miss Prissy. As gorgeous as she is, she also has some strange habits. Most of them are harmless, like looking dreamily into space as if she were seeing angels, or being startled easily.

However, lately she has taken to a very strange behavior that I can't quite understand. She likes to sleep while sitting on the water dish, with her feet in the water! She's not a duck! I'm worried about her possibly getting sick. Not to mention that our drinking water doesn't exactly taste better that way! The Tall One was not very happy when she saw Miss Prissy acting that way, and I have a feeling that she is thinking about taking our water dish away overnight. What if I get thirsty?

My faithful human, cockatiel, and canine readers, has anyone experienced this with a tiel before? If yes, what should I do? Please post your experiences, ideas, or advice under comments!

Merci!

J. L. LeMone

Paper Fun

I spent most of the morning tearing up the paper the Tall One put underneath our cage while Miss Prissy looked on from our porch. Here are the pics:

Entertaining the Tall One

The Tall One has been home all day. She says she has a stomachache. If you ask me, that's because she eats all kinds of strange things. Maybe I should convert her to a pellet diet, hehe! She says someone called the Flu is going around, and she did not sound happy about it, so I hope he does not come here; she's already unhappy enough as it is.

Miss Prissy flew on the Tall One's head right away this morning, and I followed. We sat on her shoulders for hours. I preened her hair and her neck, and I think that made her feel better. Finally, both Miss Prissy and I fell asleep for a while. The Tall One has her shortcomings, but she does make for a great perch! Later on, I chirped at her for a while so it would not be so quiet and boring around here, and then I got behind the cage and tore up some of the newspaper while screeching at it. I pecked at the wooden cabinet for a while, because the Tall One likes it when I act like a woodpecker. She was getting too quiet, though, so I got ready to chew on the rubber cord. Just like I thought, she told me to quit, and I was happy that I at least got a reaction out of her.

I'm telling you, it's pretty hard to entertain a human who is sick!

What Should You Feed Your Cockatiel?

Now that we're on the topic of food...

We cockatiels like to eat all kinds of things. Personally, during my first years with the Tall One, I would only eat bird seed, millet spray, honey treats, and my cuttlebone, no matter how hard she tried to get me to eat fruits, vegetables, and other things that she considered healthy. She even tried to convert me to pellets a couple of times, because they are supposedly well-balanced, but when she realized she was facing a hunger strike, she gave me my bird seed. You show me the human that's eating a well-balanced pellet diet, and I'll eat it, too, but in the meantime, I want some real food!

Once Miss Prissy moved in, though, I realized that I had been a little narrow-minded about food. She actually tried all the stuff that the Tall One gave us, not only the bread and pizza crust, but also the fruits and veggies. Of course, I didn't want her to have anything I couldn't get, so I tried it, too, and I have to admit that some of the stuff is pretty good. I really missed out before. The other day, she brought something called a hamburger and gave us a little piece. I'd never had one before, and it was yummy! Yesterday, she gave me something called a tortellini. It was a little softer than the things I usually like to eat, but by now I had learned to try new things anyway. It was soooo good, I ate the whole thing!

So, if you're a cockatiel, I'd encourage you to try and eat what your human gives you, unless it really seems to be bad to eat. If you're a human, you need to make sure that everything you feed your tiel is actually good for him or her. Things like chocolate and avocado are actually toxic for birds, and feeding your feathered friends only seeds is not good for them, either. Following are some links on cockatiel nutrition.

The National Cockatiel Society: Feeding Cockatiels. By Dr. Vanessa Rolfe, DVM, 1997. This is a concise article about how to make sure that your cockatiel gets adequate nutrition.

Health and Diet. This page is part of the Australian National Cockatiel Society's web site, and it contains articles on Caged Birds and Diet, Vitamin A Deficiency, and Weeds for Birds.

Cockatiel Cottage: Diet. My friend Eleanor has a very informative page about cockatiel diet on her Cockatiel Cottage site.

20 Things You Must Know About Nutrition. This very informative list refers not only to cockatiels, but all species of pet birds.

Understanding Pet Bird Nutrition. By Gary D. Butcher and Richard D. Miles, University of Florida, IFAS Extension. This is a well-researched article from a reputable source. It describes the six essential nutrients: water, protein, carbohydrates and fiber, lipids, minerals, and vitamins in a relatively easy-to-understand, but scientific format. It also includes a Question-and-Answer section on bird nutrition.

Avian Nutrition, Winged Wisdom Magazine. By P. J. Schimel, 1997. This is an easy-to read general article about pet bird nutrition. It is split up into food categories, for example water, vegetables, sprouts, fruits, nuts, tablefood, birdy bread, and food toys. The author also points out that different species have different nutritional needs.

Some Random Ideas on how to Get Your Cockatiel to Eat Veggies. This is a fun, short, easy-to try list of ideas. Some of these ideas may not work for you and your tiel, but some of them may, and they sound like a lot of fun. Try them out!

To Peel or Not to Peel: Parrots & Natural Living Foods. By Monica Gonzalez, 2003. Another list of creative ideas on how to get your bird to eat healthy food. Actually, I might print it out and leave it on the Tall One's desk...

Avian Nutrition. By Cynthia L. Kiesewetter, NACS. Despite its title, this article focuses on cockatiels in particular. Each nutrient is described in detail. There is even a chart that shows how much fat each type of seed contains.

Cockatiel Nutrition Guide. This guide is organized by food components such as carbohydrates, proteins, etc. It explains what role they play in cockatiel nutrition and where they can be found. This site is especially useful if you have some background knowledge in nutrition.

What Should I Feed My Cockatiel? By Mary Beth Voelker, Online Pet Consultant, National Cockatiel Society. If you decide to switch your cockatiel's diet to an all-pellet diet, this article gives good advice and a step-by-step guide.

Converting the Seed Junky to Pellets. By Dr. Vanessa Rolfe, DVM, National Cockatiel Society, 1997. This is another article on the same topic.

What to Feed? A Solution. By Peter Feldman. This article gives a different perspective on pellets, considering them a part of a healthy diet rather than the main or exclusive source of nutrition for birds.

As you can see from these articles, there are different issues and opinions involved with providing good nutrition for us birds. While humans know what foods are unhealthy for us and what nutrients we undoubtedly need, there does not seem a consensus on exactly what a good diet should look like. My advice for my human readers is to offer your cockatiel a diet that contains different types of nutritious foods, and to continue doing your research on cockatiel nutrition and new developments in the field. If I hear of new information, I will certainly keep you posted.

In the meantime, if you have any other informative links on the topic, please post them below under "Comments".

The Return of the Tall One

I think the Tall One realized I was mad at her, because she came home at lunch time. She made herself some of that liquid stuff that she calls soup, with little things floating in it just like when Miss Prissy drops our food into our water dish. (I can't stand it when my feathered friend does that, and I chirp for the Tall One to change the water.)

Anyway, the soup did not look appetizing to me, but I still chirped at the Tall One to give me food. Not that I was really hungry; I just felt like a snack. She gave me a piece of banana. Now, I like the taste, because that's the flavor of my calciumm perch, but the fruit itself is way too soft. I tried it, but it was not crunchy, so I left it alone. If she figured out a way to make a banana crunchy, I would try it alright, but not if it is soft.

Miss Prissy didn't even bother to try it, even though she is usually obsessed with anything edible. She was so happy our human was home that she flew on the Tall One's head right away and climbed down on her shoulder. Since I had nothing better to do, I abandoned the banana and landed on the Tall One's head, too, and preened her hair while Miss Prissy got the human's shirt dirty in a matter of seconds. I think the Tall One felt better, though; I'm sure she did not mind changing clothes. She has so many, more than I have feathers... Then she went off again to the place called work, and I returned to the computer to do some more tiel research for you.

Oh no, gotta go!

Don't Go to Work, Human!

I am really mad at the Tall One today. She actually went to that place she calls work, just as I was getting used to her being home all day long. I knew she was going to, because she got up early and ate something, and then she ran the water in the bathroom for a long time. She only let Miss Prissy and me out for a few minutes and put us right back into the cage. Those are the classic signs that she is planning to be gone all day. I thought about biting her, but then I saw that she had filled up our food dish, and that appeased me somewhat.

The Tall One just doesn't know what's best for her and, more importantly, for me. She's not even feeling well yet. She's sneezing a lot, and she's still tired. Of course, she should be staying home with Miss Prissy and me. But this way, she'll come home when it's dark, and then she'll be too tired to let us out and play with us.

I chirped at her to let her know she couldn't leave, but she did not obey me! Even Miss Prissy joined in the noisemaking, but it did not change the Tall One's mind. She is so stubborn! It's very annoying when humans don't do what they're told.

The Demise of Thing Number Three

By now, you are probably wondering what happened with the pink things. Well, about a day after the Tall One took the first two away while she was cleaning the cage, another pink thing appeared. This time, though, neither Miss Prissy nor I felt like sitting on it. I didn't, because I'd tried it a couple of times and it was very boring. Miss Prissy kind of surprised me, though, because she usually acts like the pink things are the most important things in the world. Maybe it's because the cage looks different, or because the heat in the apartment has been fluctuating due to the cold, cold weather outside, but when it comes down to it, I don't really care. The thing is just at the bottom of the cage, Miss Prissy, the Tall One, and I all ignore it, and no new ones have appeared. I hope this is it for a while where pink things are concerned.

Time with the Tall One

The Tall One is staying home today. Now, that's not really surprising, since it's the sixth day. She usually leaves really early for five days in a row, but the following two days, she does not. On those days, it's hard to tell what she is going to do; sometimes she leaves later, sometimes she stays home, and sometimes the Cool One comes over. Then she starts all over with the five days of leaving early. I don't know why she follows such a strange pattern instead of just staying home with Miss Prissy and me, but she does many silly things, and I try not to wonder too much about them. At least I have some idea what she is going to do on most days.

Today is different, though, because I can tell the Tall One is not feeling well. She sounds funny when she talks, and she sneezes quite a bit. She gets that way sometimes. To be honest, I don't mind it, because I know that she'll stay home with us for sure. I'm a very healthy bird, and I've never been sick in my life, but I know how Miss Prissy acts right before the pink things appear, and I remember that one time when Miss Prissy kept losing her feathers and growing new ones for two months, so I can tell when others are not feeling well. The Tall One does not always know what she is doing, but she really likes me, and so I don't like it when she is sick. I want her to be happy.

I think Miss Prissy was thinking the same thing. She flew off to land on the Tall One's shoulders, and I followed, landing on her head. I preened her hair for a while, and then I climbed down on her shoulder and preened her neck, and I think she felt better, because she called us "pretty birds" and petted Miss Prissy. (She knows better than to try and touch me; I want to make her feel better, but that does not mean that she can pet me!)

I had to wait until she got tired and went back to the long soft thing in the other room where she likes to sleep before I could finally get to the computer and give you this long-awaited update. Those humans sure are funny. Every self-respecting bird sleeps standing up or, at the very least, sitting in a nest, but the humans actually stretch out horizontally as if they were dead. The first few times the Tall One did that, I panicked and started screaming, and I still do that sometimes when I see her doing that, even though I know now that she'll get up and be just fine, but it just does not look right. Well, if it helps her feel better to sleep that way for a while, I'll try not to make too much noise. You never can tell, though; if I feel like chirping, I will do it, and the Tall One will just have to wait until I'm done.

The Cage Cleaning Ordeal

There is one thing I hate almost as much as bathing, and that's when the Tall One gets into her cage cleaning moods. As usual, she was very sneaky about it, opening the cage door and then waiting until both Miss Prissy and I took a break from sitting on the boring pink things. As soon as we strolled on top of the cage, she started dismantling it, even taking the bottom off. At least she has given up on trying to stick us in the small cage she used to put us in at cage cleaning times; I guess my sharp beak got the message across after all. Instead, she put us on her shoulder, and after a while we flew off onto the bookshelf.

I don't think Miss Prissy knew what was going on, but I watched the Tall One as she took our beautiful cage apart and scrubbed it down. Now, I like a clean cage as much as the next tiel, but did she have to do this today? It's not like we haven't had an exciting enough week already! The pink things, the boiler, and now this? To let her know how I felt about it, I shredded the magazines on the shelf, and after that, I felt better.

After a while, she brought the top of the cage back, and she let us sit on it while she got the other parts ready. When she finally assembled everything, it was squeaky clean, we had fresh water and birdseed, and she had even put some newspaper underneath the cage that I started shredding right after having some food, since she did not bother to close the cage door yet.

The day's excitements were still not over; suddenly, I slipped on the newspaper and fell behind the cabinet, just like Miss Prissy did the other day. Of course, it was not my fault, but the Tall One's. Unlike Miss Prissy, I am not prone to panic. I did not flutter my pretty wings so I would not hurt them, I simply chirped for the Tall One to get me, and she did. Of course, I was undaunted by the adventure and kept on shredding, until it occurred to me that the cage looked different than before.

So I climbed back inside, and I inspected the place. A few of the toys were missing, but that was not the most alarming part. The pink things were gone, too! Now, I had given up on the Tall One taking care of the things, and, to be honest, I had gotten used to them. Why did she take them away now? Miss Prissy, of course, did not even notice they were gone, but if I remember correctly, two or three more of those things should show up soon anyway.


If she is going to take our toys away, I might as well preen my pretty feathers while I am waiting...



... and do some stretching exercises...



... while Miss Prissy is totally oblivious to the fact that the Tall One is rearranging all our cage furniture.




What have you done with the pink things, human? We left them right here. Miss Prissy, our pink things are gone!


What pink things? I don't remember any pink things. Hmmm, that bird seed is yummy!

Thing One and Thing Two

Mes amis,

The silly humans finally turned the heat back on, which made me happy, but not for long. As soon as it got warm in the apartment again, a second pink thing appeared. I guess there is no stopping them now.

Since Miss Prissy likes to sit on them, I took the opportunity to try it out myself while she was eating. I sat on them for a long time, but there was nothing spectacular about it. It wasn't very comfortable, and the things did not move. No baby birds appeared, either, which is good, of course, because I don't know what we would do with them. I don't think Miss Prissy knows, either.

Luckily, the Cool One finally came over again today. He held me upside down and smoothened my ruffled feathers, and I played with the zipper on his shirt. He put me in such a good mood that I even let the Tall One pet me on my head, which is very unusual. I think she felt honored.