TikiTalks
12-20-2007, 12:41 PM
Hello all! I wanted to take a moment to just introduce myself :)
My name is Michelle and I have 4 cockatiels, and will soon be taking an adorable little Quaker Parrot off of a friend who rescued him (yay! the cage is built!)
I wish I had gotten into birds sooner in life.. like when I was 5, as I absolutely love them. I can't imagine not parking in the parking lot of my apartment complex, and not being able to hear my birds making noise as I walk up (they know when mommy's home).
My first cockatiel ever is Tiki, who will be a year old on April 26 of this coming year. He was a pearl who I acquired when he was about 6-8 weeks old and by all accounts probably should not be alive right now.
I woke up one morning really thinking I needed a pet as my two dogs are staying with my mother until I have a house (they're not allowed where i live now). I was sitting at my mothers while my now fiance was out of town and petting the dogs when my mother walked in and I said simply "I think I want a bird" Lucky for me her friends cockatiels had just laid eggs and she was handraising that clutch.
When I saw Tiki it was love at first beak grindie.. I was enamored (I still am) Everything he did was amazing! from climing on his ladder to "driving" the car (I have a picture of him on the steering wheel of my car on the way to his new home!). Little did I know, that I was in for the emotional roller coaster of my life.
I kept Tiki for about two weeks before I got concerned. I was reading, and learning as much as I possibly could but nothing in the books covered what I was seeing. He made horrid screeching noises that sounded like the TV when it's just static. He slept all the time, he didn't climb.. and I never saw him eat! I started to become paniced! I have lived around animals of all kinds my whole life!
I went to CraigsList just because and I emailed a lady who was selling hand raised cockatiels.. it went something along the lines of "hello, i don't want a cockatiel, i just got a baby one but... i never see him eat. How do you tell if they're eating?"
I waited, anxiously for almost three days, at this point Tiki hadn't eaten in about two weeks, though I thought for sure he was eating (see how little i knew?)
When the woman I contacted finally contacted me, I called her immediately. Her name was Ginger. She offered to come to my home and see him and brought me some baby birdie formula (EXACT). She took one look at him and knew exactly what to do. She began to spoon feed, and my baby birdie went nuts, but not nuts enough. He ate barely anything.
Ginger told me she was going out of town or she'd take him and make sure he was healthy before giving him back to me.. so she provided me with a phone number to a friend and told me to call. The friend was Anna! (hi Anna :D)
I tried spoon feeding my baby birdy twice more that day before going into a complete crying emotional panic! I called Anna and she told me to bring my birdie and his cage right over to the house.
It was a long process for Anna, she handfed my Tiki and weaned him but along the way there were times we were sure he was not going to make it, he had no diseases, but seemed to be a failure to thrive.. she tube fed him for awhile, and he steadily gained weight, and eventually began to eat pellets. he still eats those, but not the green or the red ones and has recently discovered seed.
Tiki seemed neurotic, so I went and purchased another baby cockatiel, a little pearl named Mickey, who has drawn blood on me more than the doctors. He's finally one who LOVES scritches.
Next came Toby, who i actually ended up getting from a friend who didn't want "him" anymore. We've since found out Toby is a she.
Cinnamon was my first rescue.. my fiance, Shane, was doing laundry and looked in the penny saver and called me to say "we're getting another birdie!" I said "NO NO NO" then.. we went to see the birdy.. and we saw a plucked, despondant sad dirty little cockatiel. She still is missing feathers but she eats well, and is at a healthy 103 grams! (and finally out of quarantine and off unfertilized eggies!)
Tucker, is the next addition (and the last for awhile) who I fell in love with when i saw him! He's sooo cute. :)
My name is Michelle and I have 4 cockatiels, and will soon be taking an adorable little Quaker Parrot off of a friend who rescued him (yay! the cage is built!)
I wish I had gotten into birds sooner in life.. like when I was 5, as I absolutely love them. I can't imagine not parking in the parking lot of my apartment complex, and not being able to hear my birds making noise as I walk up (they know when mommy's home).
My first cockatiel ever is Tiki, who will be a year old on April 26 of this coming year. He was a pearl who I acquired when he was about 6-8 weeks old and by all accounts probably should not be alive right now.
I woke up one morning really thinking I needed a pet as my two dogs are staying with my mother until I have a house (they're not allowed where i live now). I was sitting at my mothers while my now fiance was out of town and petting the dogs when my mother walked in and I said simply "I think I want a bird" Lucky for me her friends cockatiels had just laid eggs and she was handraising that clutch.
When I saw Tiki it was love at first beak grindie.. I was enamored (I still am) Everything he did was amazing! from climing on his ladder to "driving" the car (I have a picture of him on the steering wheel of my car on the way to his new home!). Little did I know, that I was in for the emotional roller coaster of my life.
I kept Tiki for about two weeks before I got concerned. I was reading, and learning as much as I possibly could but nothing in the books covered what I was seeing. He made horrid screeching noises that sounded like the TV when it's just static. He slept all the time, he didn't climb.. and I never saw him eat! I started to become paniced! I have lived around animals of all kinds my whole life!
I went to CraigsList just because and I emailed a lady who was selling hand raised cockatiels.. it went something along the lines of "hello, i don't want a cockatiel, i just got a baby one but... i never see him eat. How do you tell if they're eating?"
I waited, anxiously for almost three days, at this point Tiki hadn't eaten in about two weeks, though I thought for sure he was eating (see how little i knew?)
When the woman I contacted finally contacted me, I called her immediately. Her name was Ginger. She offered to come to my home and see him and brought me some baby birdie formula (EXACT). She took one look at him and knew exactly what to do. She began to spoon feed, and my baby birdie went nuts, but not nuts enough. He ate barely anything.
Ginger told me she was going out of town or she'd take him and make sure he was healthy before giving him back to me.. so she provided me with a phone number to a friend and told me to call. The friend was Anna! (hi Anna :D)
I tried spoon feeding my baby birdy twice more that day before going into a complete crying emotional panic! I called Anna and she told me to bring my birdie and his cage right over to the house.
It was a long process for Anna, she handfed my Tiki and weaned him but along the way there were times we were sure he was not going to make it, he had no diseases, but seemed to be a failure to thrive.. she tube fed him for awhile, and he steadily gained weight, and eventually began to eat pellets. he still eats those, but not the green or the red ones and has recently discovered seed.
Tiki seemed neurotic, so I went and purchased another baby cockatiel, a little pearl named Mickey, who has drawn blood on me more than the doctors. He's finally one who LOVES scritches.
Next came Toby, who i actually ended up getting from a friend who didn't want "him" anymore. We've since found out Toby is a she.
Cinnamon was my first rescue.. my fiance, Shane, was doing laundry and looked in the penny saver and called me to say "we're getting another birdie!" I said "NO NO NO" then.. we went to see the birdy.. and we saw a plucked, despondant sad dirty little cockatiel. She still is missing feathers but she eats well, and is at a healthy 103 grams! (and finally out of quarantine and off unfertilized eggies!)
Tucker, is the next addition (and the last for awhile) who I fell in love with when i saw him! He's sooo cute. :)