Meet my latest couple, Zethan and Fjant. they are really so nice.
It took some time to make them trust me but now we are ok.
Fjant can still be quick to bite when I try to get him in the cage,
but as soon as I have him he is sooo friendly and love to be kissed on the head.
No biting then :-)
I have said it before and I am saying it again, having Cockatiels is not something
you do if you don´t have the time they need. These birds are familymembers, and they
need your full attention.
It makes me so sad to read all ads online filled with birds for sale and all because
their owners claim they don´t have enough time.
Think before you get a bird. If you already know you don´t have enough time to spend with them, then don´t get one.
You see, once they have moved in, your home is also their home and for a very long time, since they can be really old. 30 years is nothing for a Cockatiel!
Do you have 25-30 years to share with your new friend?
Well, anything can happen and we don´t know how long we can expect to live, but
if everything is ok, you could look forward to spend a very long time together with your bird/s.

I don´t think I can take in more birds now, really. A few weeks ago a couple moved in with the rest. I responded to a cry for help in our local paper and got a handsome normalgrey boy and a beautiful Lutino lady just like that. Now we have 3 grey boys, almost lookalikes :-) Not easy, trust me! Raven is still easy to pick, but Polly and the new, Fjant, are almost identical. On top of that they are the same age and both are having a really heavy attac of *spring feelings*. Fjant already had his lady, Zethan, and Polly finally decided who to team up with and to my big surprise he fell for Citrus, our little girl. I told you about her in the last posting. I guess they would like to start a family but Citrus is a little too young so we are not giving them a *nest* yet. With the dog gone the birds can be out in the room with me every day, however Polly and Citrus are giving me a hard time, always doing things that are not good. Like eating on the wallpaper, my old clock and whatever they can find.....

Our little boy is now a really good looking male bird, and he knows it too. Raven turned into a very nice little fellow. He is so social and friendly and a wonderful singer too. He is not talking, yet, but he sings like
Caruso, at least. Since their cage is in my livingroom there is always new sounds from telly for him to pick up. Every day!
Citrus, his little friend is a really cute female and she is always up to something.

Gosh, that girl, you could almost belive she´s been trained at a Circus, or something. On the swing she can go a full circle, over and over.
There is no end to her *stunts*. Compared with Raven she is a little shy, but as you can see, hand trained.
Everyday together with these wonderful birds is an adventure.

May I introduce Bella? She is a Pearl-Cockatiel, about 2 years old and she is a darling. She came to me very unexpected almost a month ago, when my daughters boyfriend surprised us with 4 birds that needed our love and care. Susanne took care of 2. A sister to Bella and a little male Lutino. I got Bella and a very scared little copy of Polly, called Figaro. These birds were saved from a family that did not treat them well and they were in bad shape. At least Figaro and he didn´t make it. He died a week later. I think he was a little too scared and when he ended up with me it must have been like heaven. He used to sit on the food pot as if he thought someone would take the food away. He never stopped checking where I was, I had his eyes following every move I made. Bella and Figaro were a couple so she was rather sad the first days after he was gone but after that she turned into a completley new bird. Very nice and friendly now.

With more birds I needed a bigger cage, so I got my husband into building one. Last evening they could move in. Ikarus and Sphinx came to visit to have a go at the new home too. They liked it!

Here in Sweden we have a new law about the size of birdcages, so this one is following that law, even a little bigger, just in case there might turn up more birds in the future.

Polly is talking! On the picture here he is saying Bye bye! In Swedish *Hej då*. Over and over we hear him saying with a very sweet little voice *Hej kom,kom - Hej då! (in Eng. Hey come on - bye bye) You should hear him, it is really amazing. He always starts with the whisteling and chirping sounds, then all of a sudden he talks. I am so proud of him, and he loves all that extra attention he gets when he does this. He is really one funny little bird and he is getting more and more social and friendly the more time I spend with him.

Come and meet Atlas, the latest member of my daughters bird group. Isn´t he just wonderful this young Lutino? Just as Ikarus and Sphinx he got very friendly and nice in no time at all. My daughter Susanne is very good in training them. Even though he is the youngest of the Cockatiels he is rather tough among the others and he is not afraid to protect his place. Even Polly had to give up. Atlas just wont move for the others. He does talk back, this one!

Seems we got a couple of lovebirds. As you can see on this picture my Pollypins and Ikarus are sitting very close together leaving Sphinx all alone on the swing. This happened a few days ago and now they are very friendly with eachother. Singing and making all kind of noices that are new to us. As soon as Susanne have her birds to visit we can see the same thing happen. Just look at how they are picking at eachother while sitting on the chair in my kitchen. They are really cute together. Don´t you think so too? They say that Cocktiels only pick a mate ones, and then it is for life. Isn´t it nice to think that they are so faithful. The only problem we have with this new situation, is that Ikarus is not ready to have eggs. That is a huge responsibility and you need to prepare your female bird long before you let that happen. They need special food to be extra stong and healthy since the feeding of the youngsters will take so much of the female bird ( the mother). Ikarus is a little too young as well to go through this but it is in their nature to wish for a family when it is summer and sunshine.

Yes, they just love sitting outside all 3 together in Polly´s cages. If you look carefully you can see our old dog in the chair behind, keeping an eye on them. Summer is finally here and that means being able to have the birds outside, at least a couple of hours every day.. They really like that and makes all kinds of funny noices. The neighbor cats are not coming near our terrace thank´s to the dog always looking after the birds. Today they decided to take a bath in the sunshine, so I did put in a little bigger bowl at the bottom of the cage and I think they thought they got a swimmingpool.

All 3 did have a wonderful time bathing and they were really funny to look at, splashing around in the water.

This is also part of how to take good care of a pet bird. Cockatiels need to be out in the sun as much as possible. That way you will have a healthy bird and since we are in Sweden, we need to have them out everytime the weather is nice. Budgies can be out too, but need a little higher temp. We are not there yet. Summer just started :-)