Your Go-To Cockatiel Information Sheet

It’s a very exciting time adding a new cockatiel to the family, at Pet.co.nz we want to make sure that we help you successfully introduce your new cockatiel to your home and make the experience as stress free as possible.

Before the big day, ideally before the cockatiel arrives you want to set things up as they will be when the cockatiel arrives, so that they don’t come home to an environment that then changes again once they have started to settle in. Here is what we suggest to help make sure that your cockatiel settles in.

New Cockatiel Checklist

• Correctly sized bird cage
• Cage cover
• Cockatiel food
• Millet spray (bird treat)
• Cuttlefish
• Cockatiel treats
• Bird cage tidy to catch any seed etc. that falls from the cage
• Bird perches
• Bird toys
• Bird bath
• Bird food and water dishes
• Mineral block
• Grit
  Cockatiels make great pet’s, they are mellow and intelligent birds who like to copy repetitive sounds and noises around them. Cockatiels are also social birds so require close human interaction on a daily basis to keep them stimulated and happy.

Feeding Your Cockatiel

Your cockatiels diet should consist of high quality cockatiel seed and/or pellets, these seeds and pellets should make up approximately 65% of your cockatiels diet. Fresh fruit, vegetables and treats should make up 25% of your cockatiels diet and the remaining 10% can be made up with treats.

Fresh food and water should always be available, if fruit and vegetables are not eaten within the day they should be removed and replaced with fresh fruit and vegetables the next day.

Your cockatiel will also need a mineral block and cuttlefish, both of these provide the cockatiel with all the calcium and other essential nutrients they need to stay healthy.

Housing Your Cockatiel

The most important part of housing a cockatiel is ensuring that you get the right sized bird cage. A good sized cage will be at least 50cm50cm60cm for one cockatiel.

Inside the bird cage you will need a variety of bird perches, with different textures, shapes and sizes to help to recreate the outdoor environment for the bird, so that the cockatiel can stretch out its feet and also keep its claws trimmed on the different sizes and textures.

When choosing to position your bird cage, ensure that the cage is not in any drafts, direct sunlight for endless hours of the day and in a reasonably social part of the house, your cockatiel will want to feel that they are part of the family. And finally make sure that the cockatiel is kept out of the way of any cats and dogs.

Maintaining Your Bird Cage

It’s important to clean the cage and perches in your bird cage regularly, this enables you to change the bird cage around, by moving the perches and also changing out the toys helps to reduce boredom as the cage keeps changing.

Ensure that the bird water and food bowls are changed and cleaned daily and located in a part of the cage where, poo and feathers are not likely to fall into them.

Make sure that you don’t use a lot of cleaning type chemicals around your cockatiel, and don’t spray fly spray around them.

Cockatiel's Health and Wellbeing

By spending time with your bird on a daily basis you will notice any changes. Basically a healthy cockatiel eats regularly, stands on both feet, its feathers look nice (unless moulting at the time), they are clean around the vent (bottom) and a clean and free from stains and any sort of build up around the nostrils and eyes.

So if you notice any of these things change, then it is time to get some advice from your local vet.

A lot of things can be toxic to birds like aerosols, cleaning products, and some indoor plants so make sure that you bird proof your home before letting the cockatiel fly around.

The other major factor to protect your cockatiel, is that while they are getting used to the layout of your house, make sure that you cover the windows and any big mirrors as the birds can’t see glass, pulling the curtains or blinds works for the windows, either tie a ribbon over the large mirrors or put paper onto the glass to show the bird that it is there.