an update on my birds

So it's offically been two weeks since I got Halloween and Hallows Eve. In those two weeks I have found out a few good to know facts about them. Like they only come down to the bottom of the cage if they are eating or are drinking water. Their favorite perch is the top one and I think it's just because it is that the TOP one. The only noise they really make is there ocassional scwabble over who gets to play with that side of the toy. They really dont care for their Acrylic toy as much as I thought they would instead they LOVE this toy I bought them last week which is a preening/shredding/chewing toy. They dont seem to really care for their forageing toy but I think thats mostly because it stays on the bottom of their cage but if I had a rope to hang it up with I'm sure they would atleast play with it then. They don't really have much to do with their mineral treat. Their cuttle bone however they can't seem to get enough of they've already ate 3 quarters of one and thats just two birds in two weeks. Good thing I have an extra one I guess. They will not come out of there cage for anything but I figure when they are ready Hallows Eve will come out then Halloween will follow. So for now I just leave their cage door open while I clean there cage and for another 45 minutes afterwards and if by then they STILL wont come down off there perch then I close their cage door. I am thinking about making birdie bread soon with pellets as the base. We are still working on converting them to pellets.

I am sorry, I havent been online much since Oct. so I did not catch any other posts that you might have posted.

I have a couple of questions to try and understand better.

Why is the food on the ground? I cant put anything on the ground because my girl poops on it. If your cage does not allow you to put the food anywhere else then upgrading might be a good idea. If the cage is BIG then you can always make wooden shelves that you attach to the sides and then place the food on it.

How many perches is in the cage? It is good for their feet to have several of different thickness.

If I was you I would buy 2 of each toy, sharing isnt always fun. See them like your children, if you buy one toy car for your 2 boys then they will definitely fight over it. One doll for 2 girls will definitely cause lots of hair pulling and tears.

What have you tried so far instead of just leaving the cage door open? The cage is currently their safe place and there is nothing outside the cage that interest them enough to risk their safety for - I thinks.

Here are two sites that are very good.

Taming Your Bird

Cockatiels

They eat on the bottom of the cage because that is where the food and water cup holders are the cage is not too big I definatley am going to get a much bigger cage. The tropical teaser (its what the toy is called)takes up a bit of space I have posted today about other things I have done to get them out of the cage.They currently have 4 perches however three of them are the same thickness and then one is different which is why I bought it. Since I know they only like the top perch I have it where they will not poop in the food or water. The cage I will be getting will have the food and water dishes up higher. Once I have the bigger cage I will have enough room to buy two of each toy but for now one will have to do.

I also read that they dont want to eat their pellets. My girl refuse to eat her pellets if they are not soaked. I poor a little bit of boiling water over them and let them soak till soft, I then mix them and give it to her - she loves it. The ones that are not coloured smells like pronutro porridge when wet.

Yeah I am thinking about doing that. I know they like bread so that is why I came up with the birdie bread idea

wildheart said:

I also read that they dont want to eat their pellets. My girl refuse to eat her pellets if they are not soaked. I poor a little bit of boiling water over them and let them soak till soft, I then mix them and give it to her - she loves it. The ones that are not coloured smells like pronutro porridge when wet.

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What my bird will do is take the pellet food and take it to his water dish and will dip it in the water and then will eat the food lol haha

cghoosier21 said:

What my bird will do is take the pellet food and take it to his water dish and will dip it in the water and then will eat the food lol haha

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Some birds, like mine, just do not take that route. Besides I am glad she does not do that because I am not there to change her water every now and then.

wildheart said:

cghoosier21 said:

What my bird will do is take the pellet food and take it to his water dish and will dip it in the water and then will eat the food lol haha

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Some birds, like mine, just do not take that route. Besides I am glad she does not do that because I am not there to change her water every now and then.

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ya ive had to replace his water almost like twice a day i might have to do what u said and put a little bit of water into his food to soften it up so his water doesnt get all nasty lol

They will step out of their cage eventually, because the perspective of flying is tempting enough, especially for cockatiels which are great fliers.

If you want to provoke them, you might want to get them stick trained. The principle is that you get them to touch a stick, then you make a clicker sound when they do and offer a treat. Once taught, this system could help you get them where you want - they would follow the stick to get the treat. You can use millet - for my cockatiel, Olly, this is the best treat. You can further use the stick to get them to step up. You can target an area that is beyond your finger and, with a bit of luck, they will get on your finger to touch the stick and collect the reward.

There is a lot of info. about stick training all over the internet. You could search it up. Chet Womach has some practical demonstrations of how it is done.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I had a little bit of a happy accident today I managed to get Halloween on my hand then I sneezed and spooked Halloween who jumped out of the cage and some how manage to land on my bed, which I was happy about so I just let it stay there I sat near it and it pecked a few times at my phone then hopped around my bed and tried to fly which didn't work out too well for her. I did eventually get her to get back on my hand and she climbed up my arm on to my shoulder next to my ear where she kept hissing and when she stopped I was able to pet her and then she wanted to get on top of her so I let her and I got a picture of that as well as the white spot on her that I just love. Then I was getting ready to head to work an extra hour early because of the snow and ice wanted to give my self a nice buffer so that I can take my time and be careful. So I tried to get my hand under her again but this time her body language was like she was going to bite so I used a perch that i had removed from the cage to allow more room to move. And got her that way into the cage. I was so happy to be able to have her out of the cage.

love the pic, you're doing a great job, and being able to read their body language is awesome!
you have snow there? i want some *sigh* xxx

When I am able to I want to take a picture of all her unique markings she really doesn't have any orange on her cheeks the orange on other cockatiel cheeks I've seen are at least 4 times bigger than hers and the back and top of her head is yellow while the sides are grey with yellow splotches and even her beak has some grey strips on the sides of it