Cockatiels

My cockatiels are upset. I have two males. Joey and Chevy. Joey is a white face. No orange cheek patches. No yellow. Just grey and white. When I take pictures of him, it looks like I changed the picture to black and white. Chevy is normal coloured.

I have had 'tiels for quite some time now. I started out with Riley about 13 or 14 years ago. A regular coloured female. Then came Marco, I believe...and babies. We had quite a few babies over the years. No more of that, though. I like just having the two...and when they get yelling, I sometimes wonder if I like the two I have. lol

I started out with a budgie named Blue Christmas. Yes, she was blue. I got her for Christmas. I do like Elvis. When she died after several years, I got a new one and named her "Blue Too". When I lost her, I switched to 'tiels.

I ended up with a green budgie one day when a girl I knew got tired of hers. She gave me the cage, food and bird. She hadn't realized how messy birds can be and how much time they can take up. I only had Chevy at that time, and the new bird, Pickle, was good company for Chevy. I believe that someone must have grabbed Pickle while trying to train her because she was terrified of hands. I have trained some pretty wild birds, but Pickle never got over her fear so I finally told people to just leave her alone. She was happy in her cage. I guess she felt safe in there since no one bothered her. Chevy would stand on the cage all day and the two would talk quietly for hours. Little chirps and peeps. They would seldom get loud and although I was afraid Pickle might bite Chevys toes, she never did.

A couple of years ago, on Christmas morning, all was quiet when I got up. Since Pickle had been acting "off" I knew immediately that she had died in the night. Poor Chevy. He stood on her cage, all hunched over. He was talking to Pickle and trying to get an answer from her. After I took her little body away, he fell silent. I am sure he knew she was gone for good. Chevy isn't really a "people" bird although I raised him from an egg. He is a loner. It isn't that he is scared of people...he just wants nothing to do with people. Never has.

So once Pickle was gone, Chevy went into a depression. That's all I could call it. He didn't fly. He lost weight. He seldom chirped. Even the way he stood seemed to convey sadness.

One day, while looking on facebook I saw that a girl I knew was looking for a new home for her cockatiel. She had a tiny house, cats and dogs. No room for a bird. She was afraid the cats would end up getting the bird so she knew she would have to send this bird to a new home. I spoke to my husband about it and he said "Lets go!" I said that I had already called and no one was home. I was one step ahead of him. I didn't really want another bird though. After a few days I called again just to see what was wrong with the bird that she didn't want it anymore. There were no behaviour problems, nor were there any health problems...just cat problems. I told her I would wait a week, and if no one else called, I would come look at the bird. She told me that when she first decided to find the bird a new home, she thought of me. I lasted 3 days and then went to bring Joey home.

Joeys full name (I did not name him...he came with the name) is Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo. I guess it is from the Simpsons. I don't watch that show. Well, Chevy fell in love with Joey. No transition period at all..they just started hanging out. Oh, they argue once in awhile about who gets to the food dish first, but other than that, they get along wonderfully. Chevy came out of his depression and Joey gets to fly free, something he could not do in his previous home.

I mentioned earlier that they are upset. I am not pleased with them, either. A few days ago I came home and one of them had gotten onto my book shelf and chewed one of my books in my "The Cat Who..." series. Not just a few nibbles, but large chunks taken out. I will need to get a new one, if I can find it, since this one is now falling apart. The bird chewed right down the spine. I don't have a lot of books but I love that series and managed to get the whole set. So now they are stuck in their cage most of the day. I do let them out in the evenings to exercise and play but only if I am home all evening. No more being left alone for awhile. Their cage is large and they have toys in there so it isn't like they have nothing to do. They also chewed up a dvd box. One of the McGyver seasons.

Will the birds get free reign of the house again? I don't know. We will see how they act in small time periods. Until then, they can hang out in their cage...grounded for a bit.