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Cockatiel is a very nice birds, however how do we know that the pet Cockatiel
that we choose is the healthy cockatiel or whether he is suitable for a pet
Cockatiel. In Year 2003 I come across a Cockatiel that died several day after
the owner bring her back home. Later I found that actually the Cockatiel is not
healthy since she is in the hand of the Pets Shop owner.
Here
is some guide that you can adopt when choosing to buy a pet cockatiel. Choose the shop
carefully
Always look for the Pets shop that
is clean and 'professional'. Ask question to check whether the shop owner know
about Cockatiel. They will able to give you some good advise on how to handle
the birds, the characteristic of the individual birds, their diet, housing and
also guide to care for a pet cockatiel. Check if they are the breeder, normally
the breeder will know more information about the cockatiel compared to average
pet shop owner. Well, not everyone have the willingness (effort) and patient to
overcome the obstacle to breed and raise a healthy and tame pet Cockatiel, while
many can display and sell them as one of their stock in the shop! Choose
the individual cockatiel that suit your need
If you able to get in touch with a
breeder than this is easier for you. However, some good pets shop also can
give you good advise on this. What I mean by this is that try to ask the
breeder/seller about the behaviour of the cockatiel that he or she want to
sell to you. If you want a cockatiel that likely to talk or whistles, ask him
whether he have the cockatiel that do that. Since each individual is different
and some cockatiel will whistle more compared to other cockatiel, this type of
question is really help. Not even that, you also can ask if he have a
cockatiel that is very friendly and love to cuddle. In season 2004 I just sell
one baby that really friendly and every times I go near her, she will bend her
head down for me to touch her. There are lots of behaviour that you might not
think of... so asking question is one of the best way to get your best
cockatiel. Always get a tame Cockatiel
(Young one is better if you would like to teach him some trick
- Older birds from good home also nice)
Buying a pet Cockatiel for pets is different from buying a cockatiel for display
(in an aviary) or for the purpose of breeding. Normally, only hand feed
Cockatiel will become tame ( please note that there are always some exception).
Therefore, ask the seller whether the cockatiel that he sell is hand feed. well,
if you intend to keep a cockatiel for pet (able to let them out from cage and
play with you), this is the best way - and also to reduce the stress in both the
birds and you - the owner.
Choose a healthy bird.
This is very important point. A healthy bird give you a hassle free and good experience
of keeping pets. There are some sign that you should look out for this. Some
point that you should remember is that the bird must physically alert, with good
feather condition and no wet dropping. One way to check the Cockatiel is to
observe the birds from "far". the bird must active and very
"sociable". Don't choose the bird that is not active or like to
"sleep" in one corner of the cage - even they look tame. However,
please note that the Cockatiel will "active" and try to run away if
you observe them too close. You can minimize this risk / problem if you able to
buy the cockatiel from a reputable breeder. In this issue, you can check out one
of my article which talk about 'how to know that
our cockatiel is sick'. the article will able to give some sort of picture
about what to observe to make sure you get a healthy cockatiel.
Prepare yourself before get the
Cockatiel
Before you go out and buy your first Cockatiel, I would like to recommend you to
prepared yourself physically and mentally. Physically is by having the cage (and
the accessories) ready before you bring the Cockatiel home. Mentally is by read
as many article or book about keeping them. For some guideline you can
check variety of great book at Avian
Publication.
I
hope this simple guide can assist you in some way to choose and buy your
Cockatiel.
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