A few questions about my Tiel

[Ziggy]

She is about 2 1/2 years old now (and we have had her since she just finished being hand fed, which was 2 1/2 years ago)

1) Is giving her gravel a good or a bad thing? I remember in early science classes in school they said "Bird's use gravel to help them digest" and when I took care of the birds at school, we gave them a gravel dish (which we had to refill once a week or so). But my family seems to think this is a bad idea to give her gravel. She usually will fly in to our kitchen and go in to her corner where she has a small portion of grout already removed that she can easily get at (this is also by a heat vent, so she probably enjoys the extra heat also)
2) She is very adventursome, and very friendly. Although at times (well, almost always) she is very uncoordinated. She will be climbing her ladder in to her cage (it is about 5 inches long, 1 inch between steps) and she will often fall through, so she has taken habit to climb on the side of the ladder, but she will EASILY climb a 3 inch object with no problems. She could sometimes just be walking along (on carpet, or tile) and she will just stumble, and regain he balance and then continue on her way. She also sometimes will be running along and nudge the corner of a table leg and be thrown off course. Or she might be in a kind of bad mood and try to bite us when we come near (she cannot bite hard, so this is not the problem) but she will sometimes try and bit our finger but instead headbut our finger (we say "step up" when we want her to hop on to our finger). Is this normal or should I be worried she has some sort of brain disease or poor depth perception?
3) Since she is very friendly, we have tried to teach her to whistle (with hopes that maybe we can get her to talk later in life) and within 2 weeks she tried to mimick our whistle, but was only able to produce a groan/grunt to the rhythm of what we were whistling. This was a while ago (1 year, we tried to teach her for about 2 months with only grunts or groans.) so she can not do it anymore, but should we try again to teach her?

[krazy4birds]

Hi Ziggy....I love 'tiels I have a pair and then I have a baby I am handfeeding. I don't give gravel to any of my birds. I was told the bad out weighed the good so it was better to not offer it. This is a good question for someone who can explain why.
What you are describing about her coordination does not sound normal to me. Sometimes babys are like that but adults usually have overcome that and rarely miss their target when they are going to bite. Have you ever had her to an avian vet? I don't know what would cause this though. Female 'tiels do not have a big success rate at talking but I say go for it...if she was trying the first time she just may get it if given enough time. The sounds you were hearing was probably her practising. Good luck Ziggy....I am sure someone on here will be able to give you more educated answers!

[Mrs.Birdy]

Hello Ziggy.

Definitely do not give your cockatiel gravel. You cockatiel is a hook-billed parrot.

My avian vet said that it can harm the lining of a hook-billed bird's stomach. You see, hook-billed birds shell their seeds and are able to digest them very well that way. Wildbirds or non hook-billed eat the entire seed with the shell intact. They need gravel to help digest the shells in their crops (stomachs). Wildbirds get plenty of gravel outside in the wild. Some people keep caged Canary's, doves, and finches which are not hook-billed like parrots and they need gravel added to their food to help digest the shells.

I hope I made this clear and it is of help to you.

Glad you asked the question.

[krazy4birds]

Thanks Mrs Birdy....That explains it to me also.So i guess I should give it to my canary then? He is the only bird I have that is not hook bill. THANK YOU for the info!!!

[Ziggy]

Another thing, she is not very adept at flying, she will kind of fly irradically, left right jerky movements. She rarely hits things anymore when she flies, but she has very little control.
I was watching a show of some people that took in an injured parrot who the vets thought would never be able to fly, so it could not be released back in to the wild, so they took it in while it was still young and did some exercises to help it learn how to fly and build up the destroyed muscles. They didn't show or specify what they did, but is there something I can do to help her fly better?

We have not taken her to an Avian Vet, just a regular Vet when she "broke" her foot.

*edit* Also, she is very picky about when we pet her head. If she wants the attention she will come to us, otherwise she will get very defensive if we bring out hands near her.

[Mrs.Birdy]

Oh, you're welcome Krazy......glad to help out.

Hi Ziggy...could it be that her wings are clipped unevenly. Some people only clip one wing's feathers and not the other and this makes it almost impossible for the bird to fly properly. The theory behind clipping one wing and not the other is to keep the bird grounded, but it is not a good idea because they can actually get hurt upon landing.

Do you clip you tiel's wings at all, if so please clip both evenly.

Also, I would have her checked by an avian vet if one is available in your area....

....or, she may need some exercise. A good way to exercise her is to have her perch on your index finger while holding down her feet with your thumb. Move your arm up above your head and swiftly bring her down to about your waist. This will give her the incentive to flap her wings rapidly as if she is flying on her own. Do this over again a few times in succession. I do this with all my birds as it is a great way to exercise them. Snickers, my tiel, loves it, although at first she was a little shy about it. My budgies enjoy it also. Marcel, my Pionus, loves this too and he actually rotates around my index finger and hangs upside down......it is very comical.

I keep all my birds' wings clipped evenly and have never had a problem, except once when I clipped one of my budgies too short and she kept landing too hard which caused a small cut in the skin over her keel bone.

Here is a great web page to show you just how to clip a birds wings properly:

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww19eii.htm


Good luck and keep us posted. I hope this helps you.

:)

[Ziggy]

Well I will try the thumb thing, maybe she will like that, I don't know :)
I looked at that website you gave me and it tells me to also get her different sized perches. Would this be a good or bad thing? It said it will help keep them comfortable..

We do clip her wings evenly, both sides. As best we can since she squirms while we do it (of course). But we have never cut her, so that is a good thing. We also trim her toe nails, although not as often as we probably should be :(

[Mrs.Birdy]

Ziggy: Yes, different sized and different material perches are a must. For example, get a Manzanita perch , a sand perch, a rope perch, etc., (all cockatiel sized and not too big or small) and this will help exercise her little feet and keep her happy and comfortable. A straight wooded perch which comes with the cage is not a good idea.....her feet could cramp up and it doesn't provide foot exercise.

Clipping her wings evenly is a very good thing. Regular nail trimming is very very important because if the nails grow too long, they will curve around and make it hard for the bird to walk or perch and long nails can get caught in something like rope, etc., and she can pull the nail out completely by accident.

Wow, you are on the right track to a very healthy and happy birdie.......good job!!!

Talk soon,

Roseanne

[SnowWhite]

Your birds can fly with their wings clipped? We have had a LOT of birds and always kept the wings clipped (evenly) and none of them could 'fly'. They just kind of glide to the ground.

[Mrs.Birdy]

I guess we mean "glide". A clipped bird should fly at about our waist level which is sort of gliding so that they don't just fall abruptly to the ground like a lead balloon which can cause injury. Also many of the smaller birds still fly quite well even though their wings are clipped (especially if they accidently get outside and catch a good breeze, then away they go) so we must still be careful with letting them outside with clipped wings.

:)