The Secret Nest

[MiaCarter]

Last night, I went into the bird room to turn out the lights.

And Hunter the cockatiel was sitting alone.
Abby, his mate, was nowhere to be found.

This immediately frightened me as they're always together. Always.
And Abby nearly always flies right to me when I come in the room. And she always always comes when I call her.

I scoured the room and she was nowhere to be found.
I was perplexed.
And scared.

I sat down on the couch to think this through - how could my bird just disappear???
As I sat, I noticed a hole in the corner of one of the boxes (I boxed up all my desk and shelf contents when I started re-doing the bird room.)
Abby had chewed her way into the box and had made a nest in a pile of quilting fabrics.
She'd collected all sorts of little bits and pieces for the nest. Cardboard. Hay. Fake foliage. Feathers (which is odd. Usually cockatiels are not big nest builders.)

I shooed her away and she gave me a very agitated "meh! Back off, human!"
Lo and behold there were 3 eggs in there!

I was shocked!
She had a secret nest!
She was not happy when I pulled out the eggs and blocked off the hole in the box.
They weren't developed yet. I think she'd literally just started sitting. They look so huge compared to the finch eggs! LOL

But indeed, she scared the bejesus out of me!
So note to self: keep an eye on boxes for secret nests!

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter

You meanie!!!

Why didnt you let her have her nest? She obviously worked so hard at it. Don't you want little Tiel grandkids???

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

lovezebs - I know, right?

I actually did feel bad as she'd clearly put a lot of effort into that secret nest!

Alas, she's only 6 1/2 months old. (Born Oct 1, 2014) So I think she's too young and I'm not in the mood to hand raise a bunch of tiels! LOL (Plus, I'd want to keep them all!)

I actually don't think any would be viable as her and Hunter aren't "like that." I've never seen them show any sort of lovey affection to each other. I think their relationship is one of best friends or siblings, not mates.

I was also shocked that she hadn't eaten the eggs.
She literally eats finch eggs within 2 seconds of noticing them. I guess it's different when you've laid them yourself!

[Sheather]

That is very young for a cockatiel to become broody. You must be giving her some excellent care, though, it means she's in extremely good condition, even if she's probably muchtoo young to care for young (though one of my societies did raise chicks fabulously at 3 months of age!).

My Gracie's recently gotten into 'nesting'. He has a long cardboard box in his cage, one that held 12 cans of soda, and he's chewed little windows all through it and accumulated the shreddings into bedding deep inside - it's now his favorite place to nap and where he runs if he's startled by something. Adorable.

[MiaCarter]

Sheather -- I know it! I was shocked that she was laying so young! I only just learned her birthday today when I rang her breeder to inquire.

My guys love boxes!
Their favorites are the red bull 12-pack boxes and the 36-can cat food boxes.
That's so cute that Gracie goes into his box when nervous! So cute!

I actually talked to the woman who bred Abby today and it turns out Abby's older sister died of egg binding the other day.
And I know that she's really good about supplementing and so forth, so it made me so nervous as I know there can be a genetic predisposition to egg binding.
The thought of losing this spunky girl terrifies me, so extra Soluvite and Calcium plus for my missy!



Abby is just a hoot. She's mischief on a stick!
Her influence on Hunter has just been magical. She's made him so happy and active and explorative. They're always into some sort of adventure!

<--- he's yelling at me. LOL

They just recently discovered the many treasures on the floor. (Which gets me nuts as I hate it when they play on the floor.)
So they've been in pigeon mode lately, waddling around and pecking at all the dropped seed. They love foraging.

[Sheather]

Oh my gosh that is so young! Poor baby. :((( I worry about my canary hen Kari, she pretty much hasn't stopped laying since Christmas because she ends up destroying all of her clutches... she eats tons and tons and tons of calcium and gets lots of exercise but it worries me now because her latest (again, destroyed through being tossed from the nest) had very thin shells... I hope she can just either lay a clutch and not kill it, so she gets a break while sitting, or stop when the days get too long... she's trouble all around. I wished so much for her to be a mom, but she is hopeless at parenting. Whether she tries to lay eggs in the water dish or build 'nests' on the ceiling fan or just gets itchy and turns around, knocking all her eggs out from under her, she has a lot to learn... :/ It sucks because all these eggs are fertile and she never manages to keep them going more than five days; just after the little heartbeats show up inside.

Lol! My guy loves the floor too. I don't love it nearly as much! I can't ever move my computer chair until I've found exactly where he is when I'm working, I'm so afraid he'll sneak under there (he doesn't, he always likes to go spelunking under the bed, or much more annoyingly - house-plant hunting. He's a veggie murderer!).

Ha but Gracie's old. He does love his beauty rest, and if you deny him that, he'll get you.



Especially if you are a parakeet! He truly hates the parakeets. And they know it. They'll fly circles around him, teasing him on, pulling his tail, playing chicken, if I don't supervise them. They completely infuriate him. Because of this I can't let Gracie stay in the bird room without supervision anymore. :/ The budgies are stupid enough I can't trust them not to put themselves in obvious danger. Gracie pays no mind at all to the finches, even sharing food from the same bowl, because they don't bother him.



When Weaver was young, in fact, Gracie adored him. He lost interest when the youngster began to fly and be a bird though.





I have really bad luck keeping my guys tame... Weaver went pretty wild (as far as canaries go - not fearful but in no way able to hold on my finger anymore) overnight once he could fly. : ( I think they would be a lot easier to keep tame in cages, they quickly develop a flock mentality with my set up. The bird room set up works well to habituate birds to people, but it makes it impossible to tame one or two individuals to a greater level in my experience.

[MiaCarter]

Aw, the parakeets are naughty ones! That's a funny pic with him caw-ing at them as they flutter off!

My 'keets don't really notice anyone but each other! I've never seen two birds so wrapped up in each other. So closely bonded.

In fact, there's really distinctive cliques in my flock. I suspect part of it is due to the fact that they get caged at night, so they seem to have tighter bonds with their cage mates, which are typically of the same species.

But there's very little interaction between the cockatiels, parakeets and finches. It's like three distinctive "clubs".

That is such a sweet photo of Gracie nestling Weaver!
It's SO tough to keep them tame once they start flying. You've really got to force the issue and if you miss a day handling them, that's all it takes to backslide in a big way. It's very hard. Especially when they want to explore and you're boring old news by the time they fledge!
I'd keep working with him and encouraging him to eat from your hand and so forth.

Poor Kari. It sounds like she's reproductively challenged. Been there, done that with my zebras! I don't want to even guess how many babies and eggs they went through before they got it right.
It is concerning when they keep laying. Have you tried giving her fake eggs? Perhaps to reduce her instinct to lay? I've tried that with some chronic layers and it worked really nicely.

[MiaCarter]

I can't get over how much Gracie looks like Hunter, by the way! He looks identical, right down to his soft crest feathers.
(Abby's are really thick and stiff.)
I think the only difference is your Gracie seems to have a tiny bit of white on his neck.

Handsome boys!

[Sheather]

They are really similar, but most gray males are. Gracie's only distinctive feature physically in that regard is his white neck splotch. That splotch also signals to most people where the petting must stop. Pet his head and he'll love you, but unless you're really special, you're going to lose a fingertip if you touch below that marking on his back. It took him two months to let me pet him anywhere but his head, but now he does let me rub him anywhere I wish. But only me.
Oh and he has pink splotches on his toes, and two toes on his left foot that lack growing nails. He apparently caught his foot in a toy when he was a baby and injured them, they simply don't grow out now, remaining very short and worn.

My birds tend to have cliques, but they're not completely closed-off. I have one spice, for example, who decided early on he was not meant to be a spice. While his brother learned the normal spice song, little Cookie never spent time with his family and only wanted to hang with the societies; he ended up learning the society song instead of his own, and is completely part of their flock today, shunned by the other spices who have paired up and left him the odd bird out. But he doesn't seem to mind one bit or realize he's not a society, and neither do the societies, so it works out.

I've then also got my Javas and Budgies who tend to snuggle across species lines to sleep with one another, which is oh so cute. The budgies like the Javas very much and frequently try to play with them, which only confuses the finches, as they're not big into play.

I HAVE noticed my canaries, uniquely, actually do play, though! Weaver and the young orange hen Sierra love to play-chase one another. I cannot think it's anything but play, as they take turns leading and following and never have any aggression involved - once they alight, they just tap beaks and go their own ways again, but then later someone will take flight and the other will follow just behind in laps and swoops around the room again. They're both excellent flyers - I've never seen a house bird fly so skillfully as my Weaver does. He's like a little hummingbird sometimes.

Weaver and friends!



I don't have any fake eggs yet for Kari. I really wanted her to raise a clutch, so I didn't buy any, but she just fails and fails and fails. She's three, and she's never succeeded. My Steve raised a lovely little Weaver on her first try at one year old, with no problems.

Oh my gosh, on zebras, my Sally and Cody's four chicks (who I think are two recessive silvers and two fawns, for the record - two like mom, two like dad) are independent, coloring up, and singing like mad now (all but one, we got three boys), and mom and dad immediately went to nest again. They have TEN eggs set to begin hatching this week. Good grief... after this we're going on birth control like the societies!

Here's a pic showing three of the zebra chicks (and another up in the top left amongst socie friends). Are they not just adorable? Sadly the flash muddied their colors, the fawns and silvers are pretty distinct in life.



I've never seen a big picture of your bird room, Mia? I'd love to see it all together! This is the current state of ours.





~~~

I kind of wish my Gracie wasn't hand-fed and then kept for ten years as his family's single pet. It's left him super duper sociable, but also completely incapable of forming a bond with anything but a human. I think he'd be happier if he would accept another teil as a friend, but I am pretty certain he'd be indifferent to it at best. He likes people, not birds. He's made that pretty clear.

Though he gets hormonal at times and then he pretty much hates everything. He can be a BIG handful to control during his periodic flare-ups where he has gone quite vicious towards strangers and occasionally even me (he has a few weird triggers like dusting- he gets very upset if he sees you dusting anything with a washcloth, and attacks your ear quite maliciously. :/ ) he usually doesn't get locked up except to sleep, but during his bad days, he does spend the day in it with things to destroy and eat up to re-direct that aggression, because otherwise he's triggered by almost anything and that's not good for us or him. I think he's exceptional moody even for a cockatiel; he is great, smart, sweet and amazing most days, but when he's in a bad mood (it comes on for a few days ever few months) I think he could be very dangerous if not in capable hands. He's not a bird I'd ever trust small children to handle or who I would think most families could properly accommodate, just because he can be so aggressive when his hormones build up. He doesn't just bite, when he gets angry enough he'll launch himself and actually go for the face. He has no human fear at all, which means he doesn't have anything inhibiting him all-out attacking when he gets upset enough like a parent-raised tame bird will - part of the reason I don't necessarily think hand-raising is the best plan of action for cockatiels. It saddens me to think how many great birds like Gracie are labelled unpredictable and vicious and left to languish just because they occasionally do have bad days (as does any living creature) and their owners didn't do their homework and realize that before buying them.

Also, do your teils eat a lot of vegetables? I struggle to get Gracie to eat as much as I'd like. He will only eat them if I hand-feed him and refuses anything from a bowl, except seeds, pellets, or eggs (he likes egg). He likes leafy greens and broccoli (though only from the hand, entirely ignored on a dish as if it doesn't exist) but won't touch fruit.

[MiaCarter]

You know, handfeeding hookbills is a blessing and a curse.
It's a blessing if they have a good owner who can literally be their everything, offering attention 24-7. But few people can achieve that.

It's a curse because they become reliant on humans for social needs and even more so when they can't connect with other birds.

The approach I prefer is to keep them with the parents, but to handle frequently and handfeed snacks, so they learn to relate with and view humans in a positive way. It seems to give them the best of both worlds. It requires a bit more one-on-one time than an exclusively handfed bird would need, but it's worthwhile because they maintain an ability to connect with other birds.

I'm so thankful Hunter bonded with Abby. He was a sad guy before Abby. He wanted attention from me, but he was frightened to let me do anything but give him head rubs. So he was conflicted and frustrated a lot of the time - he wanted the interaction, but it scared him.
Now he's happy to get head rubs, but the frustration is gone since I'm not his only social outlet.
He's odd with Abby. They're not lovey dovey at all. And they have a tendency of getting annoyed with each other when one tries to preen the other. But other than that, they never seem to disagree and they've become inseparable. Abby keeps him amused and on the go!

That makes me sad to hear about Gracie's frustration. I've had many birds with frustration issues. And sadly, they are labeled as nasty and aggressive and unpredictable....and that's how the end up in rescues and foster homes.

I've had some luck in getting them to work through frustration by providing an outlet for the frustration (usually entails shredding something) and then, once they've calmed a bit, redirecting them to something that occupies their attention. Have you tried redirection? The mechanism is different for each bird; it has to be something they really love that occupies their attention. Trips outside are often a good fix (you've got to have them clipped/tethered or caged for that, of course.) I've also had some birds who loved bird videos. (Those made-for-pet videos. The ones who loved these are the ones who loved singing along and watching the other birds....but if Gracie doesn't relate to other birds, then this may not work.)

I've also had success by giving them a nap.
Lights out for an hour or two lets them calm and sleep it off. It serves as a nice re-set button for birds who are prone to temper tantrums.

My 'tiels are impossible about veggies and fruits! So I feel your pain!
I'm lucky if I can convince them to eat a few bites per day.
The only veggies they eat reliably are baby spinach greens.

Mine are both seed junkies. They eat way too much seed. But slowly but surely, we're changing that.

I'd love to see a photo of my finished bird room too! LOL

Right now, it's a fright. I pulled down all the shelves and most of the decor and play stuffs. I pulled everything away from the walls, so all the cages are near the center of the room on tables at the moment.

I got a primer coat of paint up, but wasn't sure on what color I wanted to do, so I moved everyone back in for "a few days" while I decided...and that was like 11 months ago. (I've since settled on green for the walls and I'll do some nice tree-type murals too.)

I've temporarily replaced the wall-mounted play centers, some of the hanging toys and replaced the tube lighting (I have the tube lighting strung up like you've got the ropes. They're easier to clean and they get warm when they're lit up, which they love!)

I just need to move everyone out for a few days to do the painting and then ventilate! It's such a huge operation. That's why I've been dragging my feet. I'm kicking myself for not finishing the painting before when I had them all moved out! I'm really getting sick of the half-finished state, so it'll happen soon!
And, of course, now I have Abby and Hunter, who don't live in a cage. (I reassigned their cage to the budgies). So I'm going to need to figure out something for them.
The couple times I've been ready to move everyone into the adjoining bathroom for a few days, someone would get sick or they'd start sitting on eggs and I didn't want to cause stress with a move. Seems there's never a convenient time.
I just need to bite the bullet and be done with it! It will be incredible once it's done.

I've also built some cool "trees" that I can't wait to get moved in there. (Interesting shaped branches, stuck in buckets of cement. I'll place those buckets in a nice pot and cover with spanish moss to conceal them.)