so this is a thing.... (another MBS thread)

[bug_n_flock]

Today we are welcoming home 2 young female cockatiels. A 9 month old whiteface pearl and a 10 month old normal grey. In the photos I was sent, the grey has a "clear" patch on her nape... split to pied. We originally bought Rin and Boomer as a "breeding pair" but a few months after we brought them home Rin shed his pearls and showed himself to be a young male.



These girls are hand tame and friendly, not clipped, eating seeds and zupreem pellets. So we are getting 2 new pet cockatiels whom we will hopefully eventually be able to pair up with Rin and Boomer. Ideally we will pair the grey with Boomer, who is pied split to pearl. Rin we would pair with the whiteface pearl. Of course, the birds themselves will have opinions on the matter.



Boomer still hates us with a firey passion, Rin however is a friendly funny boy. He was parent raised so should hopefully know what to do with a female, but is friendly so during the non breeding season hopefully will continue being a friendly little guy. The ladies would hopefully remain friendly during the non breeding season. During the breeding season they obviously be busy with their families.



We plan to breed the same way we do the budgies: pets first, breeders second. We do not breed constantly or anything like that. Heck, we bred 1 clutch this year of budgies and that was not intentional. We will most likely do as we do with the budgies as pertains to the hand fed/parent raised issue: parent raised, but socialized with people extensively. With the budgies it works delightfully well to produce friendly healthy birds who know that they are birds.



Anyway before this post gets too long I'll sush up. I'm just so excited! The timing is not what we would find ideal, since we have only had the Pigeon for 2 weeks yesterday. We have been looking for female tiels for about a year now tho and they are not so easy to find around here. So we are having to juggle quarantine again. We have Pidge in our bedroom, we will either put these two tiels on the other side of the bedroom, or we will put them in the bedroom closet for quarantine. That is where we held quarantine when we took in 2 dozen birds from that evil man a year and a half ago or so.

[Laurasea]

Congratulations!!! Lucky girls! Definitely Quarantine, ive been wondering if blue boy brought in something....tho that was
2 months ago so likely he is innocent!

More pictures please

[SailBoat]

Hmmm, MBS clearing in place!
Yes, we are within the confines of Winter, but Spring planning is underway.
Enjoy an active Spring 2021!!!

[bug_n_flock]

The girls are home. Stressed, but friendly indeed. Made the trip in a cardboard box. Both were totally happy to step up right from the box, and went into the cage. They are sharing a cage for now. The family we bought them from speaks spanish, so our flock is now bilingual! The girls reacted positively when I spoke to them in spanish. so cool. They are munching away at a millet spray I gave them. So very cute. Very happy to have them! Now we must think of names for them.

[bug_n_flock]

Oh my goodness these birds are so sweet. Want to be OUT of the cage getting head scratchies, hanging out on shoulders. They have a very perfumey smell tho, probably the previous home used air fresheners or something. :[ I noticed it when they first came out of the box. The box STINKS and it went immediately outside.

[bug_n_flock]

They are *really* bad with fresh foods, and haven't touched any pellets I've seen. To be fair we do not have any zupreem fruitybits in the house, which is what they had for their pellet ration in their previous home I am told. I did manage to convince them to eat a small dish of cooked sweet potato between the two of them, tho how much they ate and how much they threw is up for debate. Lol the cage floor after was quite the mess! They also nibbled a teeeny bit of raw sweet potato I stuck between the bars by a perch, and ate a couple mothfulls of greens I tricked them into trying... (mmmm, yummy chips, tasty junk food. Oh, you want some? *hands a leaf instead of a chip*) they actually seemed to enjoy the greens after getting over the surprise, LMAO. So their diet should hopefully be pretty easy to get on track.



They are complete and utter love bugs! Still so stinky from whatever perfumey thing. Thankfully, it seems a little less now, but with one on each shoulder I feel like I am choking on the stuff! Poor birds!!! Female cockatiel noises are so QUIET! Oh man, they are adorable. The exact same contact call "word" as the boys, but way less shrill, and like half the volume. I am already quite attached to the little dears. The pearl is more outgoing than the grey, but they are both sweeter than pie. Sneak out the second the cage door is open, and skitter up to a shoulder if you have them on your hand to try and put them home. They both are happy to step up, but are happier to put their head down and beg for scritches when asked to step up. the pearl will do all sorts of acrobatics to literally shove her head in your hand to get scritches. I don't know the spanish words for "step up", which I'm sure they would understand better than the english "step up".


Hubbs and I are both *so* glad we got these two. They are simply delightful little ladies.

[Scott]

Congratulations on your new additions!!