My husband and I are looking to find another home for our 1.5 year old Lutino Cockatiel, Cam.

He is an extremely friendly little bird, who loves to spend his time getting lots of scritches and love from his people. He can be a little quarrelsome when we try to remove him from his cage, but he is extremely gentle with his beak even when he is upset. Once he is away from his cage, he is cautious and wary of sudden moves, but he melts as soon as you start to rub his head and preen him. He will also step up from anywhere, as long as it is not his cage.

We are looking to find him a better home because he is lonely in his current situation. Up until several months ago, he was caged along with a parakeet that kept him company and stuck up for him whenever the other birds picked on him during play time. A tragic accident took his pal away from him and we decided that it would probably be unfair to bring another small bird into a house with two cats. Now, he spends a majority of his time alone in his cage. He does get out to hang out with us, but he really needs more human interaction if he's going to be caged alone. We currently have to take our birds out in shifts: we have a Quaker and a Sun Conure who are a danger to our cockatiels, a mated pair of cockatiels who constantly try to attack Cam, and Cam. We love Cam, but we are trying to do what we feel is best for him.

Cam would probably do well in a home with a person who can take him out to play daily. He does not really need active play, but he does need your love and companionship. He's perfectly content to sit with you while you do homework as long as you take a few minutes out to rub him. He may also do well with another parakeet as a companion. I think that he may be hesitant around another cockatiel just because our pair have been nothing but hostile towards him.

If we find someone suitable, he will come with his entire cage setup.

Pictures:


With his late friend.


Making sure that I get just the right spot.


A rare calm moment with the other birds.

PS. We are also considering re-homing the sun conure in the background of the last picture. He was an ill thought out Christmas present from my husband. He is a very typical sun conure with a number of issues that are primarily a result of coming from a PetSmart environment. We will only let him go to someone with prior bird experience, preferably with sun conures, and a great deal of patience.

10/18/2006 3:56:36 PM

awwww they are gorgeous! I had a cockatiel, he made it 10 years, and one day he made some kind of sound and just fell over :-(

Good luck!

10/18/2006 4:26:10 PM

those sun conures can be loud. i had a nanday conure that was ever bit as loud and he was a mean son of a bitch.

what is wrong with the sun conure? he like to bite? doesn't look like he has any mental problems (ie feather plucking)

10/18/2006 6:51:06 PM

If you are desperate for someone to take him my husband and I can or my folks can. We currently have 2 very friendly tiels and my folks have 3 tiels. Our tiels have a large cage currently with lot of room so they can all be together, and my folks have a whole room that they leave the birds in to fly around 24/7. (don't even have cages anymore at the folks house!)

Let me know if you are desperate for a home. I'd prefer to just have the 2 I currently have, but I also hate to see a pretty bird be sad.

~skip

10/18/2006 7:11:00 PM

The sun conure is perfectly healthy and happy. He is very friendly, he loves people, and he loves to play. He is loud and he is a screamer. We're working on training him to scream less or use some other sound, but with little luck. He's also very unsure of hands and does not understand the power of his own beak. (I've found this to be a common trait with corporate pet store birds.) He can deliver some painful bites when he's upset with you or decides to use your hand as a jungle gym. We're mainly looking to rehome him because our Quaker, who is our baby, has started mutilating his feathers since bringing the sun conure home. Quakers are very sensitive birds and tend to be very territorial -- our's is no different and the sun conure is really stressing him out.

I've had some interrest in the cockatiel, but it's mostly "if you don't find him another home." It would be nice if someone REALLY wanted this sweet boy.

10/19/2006 7:38:01 AM

my nanday had the same problem. he bit too much. he was a nice bird, but would get really vicious when he got pissed.

you can't do anything about the noise. aside from covering their cage with a towel or something. i have heard that a lot of sun conures would be kept inside plexy-glass cages; so that you could see the bird and not hear them as much.

at least your sun conure is friendly.

quakers -> good birds, somewhat quiet and their bite doesn't hurt as much

10/19/2006 9:44:21 AM

I REALLY want a bird, but I'm not comfortable with committing to taking a bird without having enough in savings to cover unexpected exotic vet bills.

10/19/2006 9:52:29 AM

Quakers are awesome birds. My husband and I think that they are the end all be all of bird ownership. We cannot imagine our lives without one and will probably have one for the rest of our lives.

Sun conures are definitely the funniest little monkey birds that I have ever come across, but they are not the bird for us and Mina definitely agrees.

--

Unexpected vet bills can be very expensive, but routine vet care is only slightly higher than you might spend on a dog or cat ($100-200). In fact, most of minor illness and emergencies haven't run us more than $250 or so, but major emergencies. . .After an incident involving the houdini-like skills of our Quaker, a dust ruffle, and a foot, we spent $1,000 on his broken leg. But Mina is the love our lives, so we'd spend that and much more if it meant improving his quality of life.

--

I'm going to keep looking through tomorrow or so and then contact some of the people who have PMed me over the weekend while I'm off work.

Cam will come with his cage like the bottom unit shown below, all of his toys, and enough food to get you started. The cage is large enough for two cockatiel-sized birds, but we do have a smaller cage that is suitable for a single bird that we are willing to send him home with instead (if space is an issue) as long as we felt confident that you would be letting him out regularly.


The cockatiel cages.


Sitting pretty his first day home.


Shaking it off.

[Edited on October 19, 2006 at 2:31 PM. Reason : Image Sizes.]

10/19/2006 2:30:34 PM

^^in the 6 years i had the parrott, i never had any veternary emergencies. as long as you give birds clean water, mineral supplements, a variety of food, and a clean cage then you almost don't need to worry about illnesses.

i would have to say the biggest expense will be the food + supplements. it will cost about 5-10 dollars a week if i remember correctly.

^i sold my nanday before i came to college. if i was living on my own without roommates, i could take the cockatiel or even the sun conure. but no can do right now. want to hold on to them for another 2 years?

10/19/2006 3:09:11 PM

If I find a good home for either of them, I'm going to go ahead and give them a new home before they're too old to adjust to a change. The cockatiel has only been with me since last August and the Sun Conure since last December.

10/19/2006 3:35:04 PM

that's a calm teil..... mine are always mean haha

10/19/2006 3:47:36 PM

do you think a cage that size is big enough for 3? I have one roughly that size ... two in it right now ... just curious

10/19/2006 4:24:39 PM

I just went and looked my cages over to get a feel for the size and how 3 birds might look in a single cage. My cages are aviary cages that are 30x18x18 that came in a 4 pack -- I still have one that's never been taken out of the box. As long as your cage is similar in *WIDTH* instead of height, I think that 3 birds who got along with one another, were provided more than a single food dish, and had free time out of the cage *might* be comfortable in a cage that size. I think that it would probably depend on just how well the got along and how much time they were out just to have a little space -- I can foresee squabbling if that many were kept in a cage that size without a break for days on end. I'd definitely want something larger for more than 3 birds.

And I did get your PM, you're actually at the top of my list to contact. I'm just giving myself until the weekend when I'll be off work and have the time to get everything ready to send Cam to a new home, and give more people a chance to respond.

[Edited on October 19, 2006 at 5:25 PM. Reason : PM]

10/19/2006 5:20:55 PM

Mine's 30L x 24W x 18D, although a second cage would still be good in case they don't all play nice

10/19/2006 5:46:26 PM

My Friski is 17 years old and not very friendly to other birds...otherwise I'd offer!
Cam sounds like a sweetheart though! Good luck

10/19/2006 10:03:01 PM

One last bump.

10/20/2006 1:41:19 PM