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Hello, bird thread. I have a derpy tiel, a few years old, who I love to death. I am getting him a friend. I've been in touch with a local rescue person and I have made arrangements for another male cockatiel out there who will be ready for a forever home come the new year. I am extremely nervous about this. New bird will have his own space, though I hope to house them together eventually. Please give me advice on how to not have two birds kill each other or, equally heart breaking, decide they like each other more than me.
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Dec 31, 2017 05:11
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 08:28 |
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Well, okay. I will pay the birb tax. This is Sir Serendipity Seven-Toes, Sera for short. He doesn't care if you think he has a girl's name. He's two and a half and I've had him since he was three months old and I made a guess and it was wrong. We deal.   He likes millet, sour cream, cuddles, all the kisses, If You're Happy And You Know It, the theme song from the Addams Family, looking out the window suspiciously on guard for crows, trying to eat my food while I'm cooking, and sitting too close to the TV.  The new bird, coming from a rescue situation has a lot of unknowns. They think he's between five and seven years old, and he has no name. I have a few ideas, but I'll wait until I know him better to decide on anything.   I showed the pictures to my family over Christmas and they said "oh he looks just like Sera how will you tell them apart???" They're different colours that's how. 
RoboRodent fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Dec 31, 2017 |
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Dec 31, 2017 16:02
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Ahhhhh tomorrow I get my new rescue tiel. I hope he and my other bird become friends 
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Jan 8, 2018 05:09
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New birb obtained?? I might have lost my mind. Why did I do this.  He still has no name. He makes weird warbling beeping noises. He sang a little, as loudly as possible. Rescue lady was like I THINK SHE MIGHT BE A GIRL but um that is definitely male plumage do you just not know tiels? My existing bird was so surprised by this new bird he fell off his perch (he's okay) and turned into velcro for the rest of the evening. They stared at each other from across the room for a while. Everyone is high strung and nervous.
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Jan 9, 2018 04:01
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The lady who was rehoming cockatiels from whom I got this new birb was not really a formal rescue, and while she's familiar with birds I don't think she was familiar with tiels in particular. She said to me she thought this new bird (who I have since named Mr. Oscar Beepington, Ozzy for short) was a female, because of "her" behaviour. And I wasn't really going to get into an argument with her but I was thinking, nah that is some definitely male plumage so I don't know what the hell, I know most parrots aren't sexually dimorphic but tiels sure are. But I think Ozzy is just gay as hell. At least, he is gay as hell for my other tiel, trying to serenade and flirt with him from a distance every time he sees him. Sera (Sir Serendipity Seven-Toes, if you're feeling nasty) is not in the least sure about his new admirer so it's all very one-sided right now.
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Jan 10, 2018 16:50
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 Sera and Ozzy are cautiously making friends.
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Jan 18, 2018 03:27
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Battle Pigeon posted:Is right birb nervous hissing, or flirting here? Flirting. Flirting his little heart out.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:53
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Sera goes for anything white or off-white. Bread? Yes. Crackers? He wants them. Noodles? Gonna get noodle bits all over. Perogies? Nom nom gonna eat the corner of your food. Sour cream? Delicious. Whipped cream? A delightful surprise! Lotion? NO DAMMIT BIRD. His pellets come in red balls, orange balls, green balls, and yellow bananas. And he doesn't like eating the bananas. Is it colour? Or taste (are they even flavoured differently)? Or does the shape bother him? It's such a waste. At least Ozzy will eat the bananas.
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Jan 23, 2018 23:13
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I think tiels at least have some binocular vision, though not as much as humans or something like a hawk or owl. I've noticed with my birds that they will look at something head on when something just gets their attention, but when they want a closer look, then they'll look at it sideways. Which I guess makes sense. Looking at something straight on probably gives more of a panoramic. Man, though, it's hard to theorize about vision with different eye placement. It's so hard to imagine.
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Jan 27, 2018 07:22
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Ozzy came to me with his wings pretty severely clipped, and I don't think he really had much opportunity to ever fly in his old home. Sera is fully flighted. When he was younger and I was living in a place without a lot of safe places for him to fly, I'd clip the outer two or three primaries, just enough to slow him down, but I moved out of that place and I haven't bothered since. But I think Ozzy is watching Sera and trying desperately to also fly, except he can basically just do an extended jump with an extremely clumsy landing. Initially Ozzy could go about a foot before dropping, but now he can manage three or four. Building muscle! A few days ago he made a long (for him) flight from his cage top to my shoulder.  He's still really bad at landing, though.
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Jan 27, 2018 18:07
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.... Does anyone have a bird who seems to like being towelled? Because I swear Sera enjoys it and it's actually a good way to get him out of a bad mood.
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Jan 28, 2018 00:57
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My understanding is that pigeons are actually domestic animals, while parrots... kind of aren't. So yeah, very good pets in that respect.
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Jan 30, 2018 03:00
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I've often thought that any time an animal becomes comfortable living in a human city, we have a tendency to hate them. So people hate feral pigeons. Same for urban foxes and coyotes. There's always hate for raccoons, and rats we hate a lot though they've been with us for thousands of years. Around here, it's mostly hate for crows and squirrels.
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Feb 1, 2018 01:00
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Naptime.
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Feb 14, 2018 22:01
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Ozzy continues to sing like an alarm clock, but he's learning about other tunes. He likes Judas Priest and Peter Gabriel, I have discovered. It's funny, because Sera has always preferred female vocalists. But oh my god, this cockatiel. I'm so mad. He doesn't know how to be a bird. He's probably between five and seven years old, and when he came to me he didn't know how to fly (just STARED at Sera for the longest time before starting to mimic) and very obviously had no flight muscles built up to speak of. He'd just drop like a stone and faceplant. He doesn't know how to have a bath. The only song he knew is some horrible alarm/cell phone ring. He's nervous about being out of sight of me and Sera but also is ridiculously protective of his personal space, he's so afraid of being hurt by either of us while also obviously wanting to be a part of things. He's doing so well, and Sera's separation anxiety is much better with him around, but drat the person who broke this cockatiel so badly.
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Feb 28, 2018 19:33
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God help me, my two-year-old cockatiel has just discovered masturbation. And he does it all the time.
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Mar 3, 2018 07:05
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Yeah, one of my cockatiels likes to dump all his food on the floor and then eat it there. It drives me nuts.
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Mar 5, 2018 19:11
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I have been delighted by galahs since I first learned that they're a thing. Small pink dumbshit cockatoos! What's not to love? Edit: 
RoboRodent fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Mar 6, 2018 |
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Mar 6, 2018 05:49
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Tendai posted:Judah used to do this when my mom would come and visit me Sera loves my mother but my mother is afraid of him. It turns into her trying to crane her whole body away from the tiny potato on her shoulder, while he tries to serenade her. I take him away and that works for thirty seconds and then he's back trying to make friends. It's hilarious.
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Mar 8, 2018 17:05
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he would act like a teenager with a crush and want to be close to her and be a shithead to me
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An aggressive kiss? So I'm seeing a lot of this happening on top of Ozzy's cage lately.  Sera still just really, really wants to love Ozzy, but Ozzy continues to get nervous about him getting too close. Fortunately, Sera backs off quickly enough when Ozzy protests, so it's never gone past hissing and beak fencing. Last couple days though, Sera (on the right) has been spending some time hanging out on Ozzy's cage, like this. Ozzy allows it. Good sign? Also, Ozzy might be protective of his personal space but he always gets worried when Sera flies to the floor and out of his sight.
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Mar 14, 2018 23:01
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Televisions cannot possibly be displaying in the right colour palette for bird eyes. It's based around RBG, our three-cone colour vision, while birds have four-cone vision that can see into the ultraviolet. That said, they still love it. Actually, birds on TV with non-curved beaks are not welcome, but I don't think he can distinguish between a hooked-parrot-beak and other types of hooked beaks. Sera once tried to make friends with a harpy eagle on a documentary I was watching.
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Mar 19, 2018 21:57
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My dumb loving cockatiel got it into his head that my squirt of titanium white acrylic was sour cream, I think. He loves sour cream. After trying a few times to inch down to get at the paint he straight up flew into the middle of the palette, got paint all over his feet, made some footprints on the plastic tub I was using as a painting table, and then flew away, tracking paint. I had to corral and then burrito him and then wash his feet off. He was incredibly sulky about it. He's forgiven me this morning, but I doubt he's learned a goddamn thing.
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Mar 21, 2018 17:05
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Plant MONSTER. posted:My budgie gets really turned on by my thumb nails. My tiel has been attempting to seduce my toes for a year now. Fortunately, he only humps a certain perch in his cage.
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Mar 26, 2018 14:05
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 Ozzy and Sera are sharing millet. are they friends now?
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Mar 29, 2018 20:22
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Potato Salad posted:They could just be apeshit for millet Why not both?
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Mar 29, 2018 20:41
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Having a bird is about making sacrifices. I have sacrificed my ability to ever sleep in, my freedom to go away for a night or two, being able to pee alone, and the ability to wear nail polish (because Sera won't go near my hands if I wear any), among other things. Still worth it, imo, but it's a lot.
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Apr 5, 2018 15:23
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Sera has, just in the last week, realised that he's capable of flying down the hallway to the bathroom if I leave the door open. I live alone, so I often do. Nothing like peeing and then suddenly there's a bird on your shoulder. I watched him make a series of experimental trips down the hallway (I live in a sort of L-shaped studio) and back before he came to this conclusion. A little ways down, then back. A little further down, then back. Having concluded that flying in the hallway is not fatal, he will do it all the time now. But Ozzy still yells, because he can't fly, and even if he's super protective of his personal space from both me and Sera, he still wants to be able to see us. I can't win.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:06
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This morning, Ozzy the rescue cockatiel called for me when I got out of bed, came and hung out with me (at what he decided was a comfortable distance) while i drank my coffee, and enjoyed some kisses. He's doing so well! On the other hand, Sera is two and angry and horny and he refused to even look at me for several hours this morning. Also he's going to try to bite things outside the window and dig up my potted plants and just generally destroy everything in sight. He's been with me since he was three months old but no, today he hates me.
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Apr 9, 2018 20:16
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Sera loves sour cream more than anything and he gets very excited when he sees me open it up. He's kind of dumb.
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Apr 15, 2018 04:41
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Well, I agree that it's delicious! But I'm also the one of us who can digest lactose.
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Apr 15, 2018 06:31
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Okay, but real talk: one of my cockatiels is going through puberty. I'm dealing with a two year old who is also a teenager. He alternates between loving me and wanting me to be near me always and hating me for existing in his personal space, and then when he's done sitting on top of the bookcase and screaming because I won't let him murder himself walking over the stove top, he goes to try to kill his toy bell and then masturbate on his favourite perch. I love him. But I also want to send him to the moon.
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Apr 15, 2018 23:54
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I can't take full credit for the phrase. A friend of mine has been known to threaten her much-loved but brain-damaged cat with the moon as well.
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Apr 16, 2018 07:04
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I live in a one-room apartment  (Well, they're at the other end of the room from my bed. And there's a room divider. At least there's that.)
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Apr 17, 2018 05:07
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 Charging solar cells...
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Apr 22, 2018 17:21
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Sera has came to me clipped as a baby but I basically just let them grow our and he's a very competent flyer now. But yeah, he was very clumsy for over a year. I used to trim just the outer two or three feathers of his wings. That's not enough to keep him on the ground, but it effectively slowed him down enough to keep him from hitting something too hard. Ozzy came to me clipped (still is) and also I'm not sure he knew what flying even was, which is tragic for an adult bird, but he's been trying really hard. I think he watches Sera. He face-planted a lot before he worked out how to land, and has graduated to short horizontal-then-down flights. He can get halfway across the room now! But he needs help up from the floor.
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Apr 24, 2018 04:20
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Agent355 posted:clipped birds are so much easier to care for and less likely to hurt themselves, but it's sad when adult birds don't have any idea how to fly and can't even effectively save themselves from falls. Right? When Ozzy came to me, he'd flap his wings when he fell, because I guess that much is instinct, but he basically dropped like a stone. I'm pretty sure his flight muscles were completely atrophied. Poor guy spent his entire previous life stuffed in a cage, I guess. I get so angry sometimes at his previous owner, whoever they were. But I remember the way he put his head up the first time Sera flew past him to my shoulder, like a total "holy poo poo you can do that" moment. I think if he manages actual flight at any point in his life, he'll be quite pleased. He's very nervous about being picked up, but also does occasionally want to go places, and these two feelings are very conflicting for him, I think. Some mornings it takes him a while to warm up to "if I want to sit with Mom while she drinks her coffee, then I have to let her pick me up and carry me there." Meanwhile, Sera is impossible and does these hover-briefly-in-midair-and-change-direction maneuvers which just baffle and impress and frustrate me. He's too good! No one told me tiels could hover!
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Apr 24, 2018 07:58
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My cockatiels smell like dust.
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Apr 25, 2018 19:27
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Beelerzebub posted:This is going to sound like a dumbass question, but where do birds go to the bathroom and how do you clean up after them? 1. Wherever they happen to be. 2. Kleenex works well. Damp cloth if it dried before I got to it.
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Apr 26, 2018 20:25
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I think it's a lovebird thing. It's how they carry back material foraged for nesting material, I believe. I'm just mostly fascinated by the Zellers flyer. There haven't been Zellers in, what, five years now?
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Apr 29, 2018 04:24
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 08:28 |
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My coworkers were talking about how if a bird poops on you, you gotta buy a lottery ticket, because that's really lucky.
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May 1, 2018 02:44
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