Preventing Accidents and Illness For Your Pet Cockatiel

A pet Cockatiel standing by the open cage door. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Cockatiel, Nymphicus hollandicus and Budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus fighting on a perch. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How to Prevent Accidents and Illness in Your Pet Cockatiel

Preventing accidents and illness with your cockatiel just takes a little forethought. When purchasing a treats and toys carefully look at them as you would for something you were buying a younger child. Not all birds' toys are created equal. Consider if metal or plastic parts will come loose with your cockatiel is playing with it. If your bird is particularly aggressive with toys you will want to make sure you purchase toys that do not have parts that will come loose when stressed by the bird's beak.

You also need to look over any environment that you plan to let your cockatiel loose in .

You will need to look at the room with the eyes of a small curious child who happens to be able to fly and climb. Make sure doors and windows are shut. Make sure the family cat is out of the room. Cabinets and tight enclosed areas should be covered to avoid having your curious bird get stuck in them. Your bird may have issues with windows if they are not used to them. Pull the shades; until you know your cockatiel knows that the window is not an open door to the outside. The best rule of thumb is to never leave your bird unsupervised for even a short period of time.

Preventing illness in your pet cockatiel really centers on cleanliness. You need to change the papers in the bottom of the cage daily. You should once a week the bottom tray; should be washed with a mild soap and hot water. Some people advocate using disinfectant. Strong fumes can be dangerous to your bird, so only use strong disinfectant in another room and rise the tray several times to make sure your cockatiel has not exposure to the chemicals. When you wash the tray weekly; also wash toys, food dishes, and removable perches. If you bird has made an obvious mesh on a perch just wipe it off with a damp paper towel during your daily cleaning. It is a good habit to rinse water and food dishes and dry them out every time you feed. Daily eminence makes weekly clean up a breeze.

Your bird benefits from bathing as well. The best thing to do is simply put a shallow bowl in bottom of the cage for a half hour a couple of times a week. Most cockatiels will bathe themselves. Some people bath their birds with the sprayer in the kitchen sink. This is fine if your bird will not take off and get into trouble in the middle of a bath and you can absolutely control the water temperature. Water that is too hot will kill your bird. You also must be sure the room is free of drafts when you bath your bird. An alternative to a shower is a spray bottle bath. These are fine if your cockatiel is not stressed by the spray bottle as many birds are.

Feeding your cockatiel a good diet, accident prevention, and cage cleanliness will assure that your bird suffers from very few accidents and illness. It is also a good idea to provide you bird with some climbing toys to be a proper amount of excursive when you can not have them outside the cage. Change the drinking water often especially, if you have more than one bird in the cage as no one wants to drink toilet water and they will contaminate the water dish over the course of the day.

Your bird can live a healthy life for years with a little common sense and effort on your part.

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Getting Gabby with Your Cockatiel

A cockatiel, Early, offering his head to be petted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Half the fun of owning a cockatiel is teaching them to talk. You should keep in mind that some individual birds are more adept at talking than others. This is one reason you will really want to get to know and bond with your cockatiel before you try to teach it its first word. Your bird will be more teachable if it is not tired or stressed. You will want to teach your cockatiel in sessions when the bird is happy and relaxed.

If you show perseverance in teaching your cockatiel to talk then be assured even an older bird can learn to mimic a few words. You should prepare your cockatiel for its first talking lesson by putting the bird in an environment where it will not be distracted by other pets and noisy children. You should also turn off competing noise such as televisions and radios. You need to approach the bird with no abrupt movements and speak to it in a soft voice. Using a soft voice is important because when you start teaching your bird the first word you want it to learn you will be saying the word distinctly and louder than the voice you normally use with your cockatiel.

Normally you will want to keep the bird in a location where there is activity to keep the bird intellectually stimulated, but not overwhelmed. If you can not clear the room the bird normally stays in then moves the bird cage to a different quieter space. Give the bird a few moments to take in its quieter surroundings. Then focus the cockatiel's attention towards you.

The sex of the cockatiel has nothing to do with its ability to learn to talk. Cockatiels of both sexes learn to talk at about the same rate. Age does make a difference. Younger cockatiels will learn to speak faster than older birds. It is important to realize the bird does not understand the word it learns to speak. The cockatiel mimics words it hears by rote. You may have noticed that your cockatiel will mimic the birds it hears in the morning when it is near an open window. These sounds are the most natural sounds for your cockatiel to mimic. It is sometimes easier to teach to birds to whistle a familiar tune than teach it to speak a word in English. If you find whistling annoying then you should not encourage it. Some experts feel whistling impedes the birds desire to learn to speak.

Some bird trainers advocate training the bird on a perch outside of the cage in front of the trainers face. Others advocate training the cockatiel with the cage covered. There are merits to both methods as they both focus the cockatiel on your voice. Pick only one word to teach to bird and repeat it several times in a strong intonation. Introducing more than one word at a time will confuse your bird. The bird must understand the sound as distinct and separate from the other sounds it hears on a daily basis. This word need to stand out from all the household background noise. Ideally you should work with your bird for at least 20 minutes twice a day to teach it its first word. Once you bird associates repeating this word with positive attention from you they will repeat it again and again. Once the bird recognizes that it pleases you to repeat certain sounds the next word you teach you bird will be repeated much sooner.

It normally takes several weeks for even a young eager cockatiel to learn to repeat words. The bird's name is often a good first word, Avoid teaching your bird swear words. It may be funny at first but unless you want that word repeated in front of house guests you will regret teaching your bird to swear. Sometimes cockatiel will repeat swear word because that are usually distinct words from the one's they usually hear and are normally say=id by a person with great gusto.

Patience and perseverance are really the only really proven ingredients to get you cockatiel to talk. I have heard people who have not taught their birds to talk that they often will mimic common sounds like the vacuum or the yelping of a small dog. Some of the sounds cockatiels make are a hissing noise when they feel threatened. My two cockatiels whistle the Andy of Mayberry song and make money sounds when they see the dog. I have no idea where the monkey sounds came from. They also do a kissing noise when you ask them for a kiss. We are working on them saying the phrase ", cats are stupid." So far the male bird Captain Morgan say's "cats" and Marie the female just swings and sings and makes kiss noises when you repeat "cats". It is fairly evident to me that the process of learning to talk varies a great deal from bird to bird.

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How To Give a Cockatiel A Bath

Cartoon of 2 birds talking about a bird bath. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nymphensittich-Hahn-Wildfarben (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Green Naped Lorikeet in a Bird bath in the Children's zoo at the Saint Louis Zoological Park, St. Louis, Missouri (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most cockatiel owners know that cleanliness is essential and wash their bird's cage and accessories on a regular basis. But did you know your feathered friends benefit from a cockatiel birdie bath as well?

Cockatiels came originally from semi arid regions , but still in the wild they have been seen bathing and preening in small pools of water. Cockatiels get a regular bath from Mother Nature in the form of rain as well. These birds then preen with a bit of oil they get from a gland underneath the base of their tail. Cockatiels spread the oil with their beaks.

There are many options that a cockatiel owner can use to give their bird a bath. One is to use a shallow bowl. The bowl should be heavy enough to avoid accidental spills. There are red clay bowls or deep set plates that people use to catch excess water under potted plants. These red clay bowls are available at most garden shops and work very well in the bottom of most cages as bird baths. You simply place this bowl with room temperature water in the cage every few days for about a half an hour and your cockatiels should bath themselves.

Some people like to spray their cockatiels with the kitchen dish sprayer. This is fine as long as you check to water temperature before you shower your birds. Many cockatiels prefer this method of bathing, but there is risk involved. If you keep your bird loose , and go to wash a pan with hot water the bird may tragically burn itself trying to steal a shower. Definitely wash dishes when your birds are securely in their cage , if your cockatiel views the kitchen sink as his private bird bath.

Plant misters and other spray water bottles can be used to give your cockatiel a shower. 
Buy one specifically for the purpose and do not recycle an old spray bottle that may have contained cleaning chemicals. Plastic spray bottles inevitably absorb small amounts of the chemicals that that once held. Repeated exposure to even small amounts of toxic substances can cause your bird to become ill.

My younger son showers with his birds. This is fine for a positive interaction time with your birds , but you must be able to deal with taking a luke warm shower to avoid scalding the cockatiel. You should also remove shampoo and soaps from the shower that your bird may get into . Remember , that bar of white ivory will look like a cuddle bone to your bird in the shower. You also must avoid drafts to keep your bird from becoming ill. Showers with you cockatiel are probably left as an occasional treat for your bird and not something you should do on a regular basis.

Finding the right method to allow your cockatiel to take a bird bath is one of the essential care you will provide your bird to keep them happy and healthy. Observe you bird bath and preen when you can. Excessive preening can be a sign of a physical problem or stress that can be dangerous for your bird. It is a good idea to know what your birds beauty routine looks like so you can note any significant changes.

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You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream :A Birdy Scream Time

Bird cluster (Photo credit:) All species of bird to communicate with the of the flock.

English: A finger bitten by a pet bird. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Avoid engaging with your pet bird when they are overly stimulated and screaming. Let the bird have a cooling off period.

Raggiana Bird of Paradise, Paradisaea raggiana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)These birds use screaming as a security system to keep the flock safe.

Unidentified bird in a bird bath . Birds in your back yard find a reason to be loud. Since it is not at 2am we generally don 't notice how loud birds in the wild are.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Song learning pathway in birds (Based on Nottebohm, 2005) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why are many pet birds so loud?. One of the things learned from Michelle Karras  a parrot expert is silence means danger! If you have a flock of wild  birds in trees (in their natural environment) or even a flock of local wild birds in your back yard a flock of birds will make a lot of noises . It is all about the flock. Chirp, chirp, scream, scream bird interaction goes on for hours. What are they communicating about? Same things we do. “Find any food lately? Yeah they had a great sale on worms about a mile from here.”

SILENCE means danger! If you’ve ever seen a hawk fly over a flock of wild birds, you swear you can hear the sound of the hawk’s wings flapping. That’s one of the reasons pet birds’ come in so many colors. If they’re quiet and deep in a tree they are difficult to spot. Wild birds- know screaming now is the wrong to do. When that danger passes its chirp, chirp, scream, scream, among the flock. All this post danger screaming means the coast is clear.

Something we hear a lot of is - people will have a screaming bird (usually newbie’s) and the bird will scream for whatever reason. What does their human companion do? Yell SHUT UP! And what does the pet birds do? SCREAM SOME MORE!

. The bird screams, you scream back. Do you think there may be a slight chance that when you scream back the bird might be thinking “hey – this is great!  Someone is finally squawking back at me “hey SCREAM, SCREAM, please scream back some more, I’m lonely you’re my flock and I need to talk to someone than you?”


Excessive screaming is a learned behavior that we teach our birds.  Covering your feathered companion with a blanket, teaches him or her that you will cover the cage when scream gets out of hand.

Yelling at a screaming pet birds, gives the pet birds the attention it seeks.  Ignoring screaming pet birds is not the answer either. Ignoring bird’s screams could result in finding injuries too late (or water had run out).  Options are to make sure all your birds needs are satisfied.  Large hygienic cages, clean water, fresh food, working toys are all needed to keep your pet bird happy and less inclined to engage in attention demanding screaming. Remember your bird needs 8 to 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Maybe if you create a more tranquil napping environment for your bird , the bird will not scream and let you actually get some sleep.


You can create aa signal to stop loud pet birds. Ring a cowbell (or bang a pot)  in the room next to the screaming bird. They hear the bell (sound), they stop to listen to the noise, because the sound is new and grabs the attention of the bird. If you then, show up from the other room while they are quiet. Now you reward the quiet behavior with treats and attention. This makes the bird much more likely to succeed at learning there is a time and place to make loud noises. If quiet time is rewarded, then being quiet becomes an activity that pays of more to the bird than being loud to get attention. to praise and reward.

Creating A Controlled Screaming Hours

 Use a time when you know your birds  are quite loud. Distract the pet bird with a loud unfamiliar sound from the next room.  Then you come out with some very significant rewards( such as cheese or dried egg) and verbal praise..

Lengthen the time between the signal and your appearance each time.  Try and take a whole day at first and only work with the pet birds and the screaming. Initial rewards should be substantial, a known favorite treat. Use the same signal just before feeding fresh food.  Not all pet bird’s will quiet down for the same signal so you may have to try several noises before finding the one that works for you.

Note: Do not use your voice. They may try to mimic you.

 Scream time is a time during the day that you allow your pet birds to be noisy.  This should be given somewhere between 3p.m. and 7p.m. each day.  Encourage your pet birds by playing stimulating music. aDance, sing or scream along with them. Scream time should last no less than 15minutes and no more than 1/2 hour each day.

Some pet birds enjoy screaming to the vacuum, this is fine to encourage but play music as well.  Find music that your pet bird gets excited over. Use that same song every day for scream time. Change the music from time to time but be consistent overall.  When Scream time is over, lower the music volume Talk your pet birds down. Lower the music slowly, turn it off, and play their relaxation code music. Give them afternoon snacks when “cool down” is over.

Birds will wait for their "Scream Time” because they know they will be rewarded for their patience.

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