A couple question roughly speaking my cockatiel?
Okay, so I know that cockatiels put up their "mohawk" when they are happy, but it is possible that they can still be happy without their mohawk up? Because my bird does not hold it up often, but I believe she is happy. She learns whistle tunes I teach her, she preens my hair, she even plays notes beside me when I play my flute. And any other info on their mohawk/emotions would be nice.
And the other question is about people food. My breeder told me that it's okay and in actual fact a good thing for certain fruits or oatmeals/grains to be feed. I have tried to get my bird to eat fruit and other nutritional foods from the schedule my breeder gave me, but she won't eat any of it. The only entry she eats is cheerios and ritz crackers, and I hardly ever give those to her. So is in that any way to get her interested in food, and is it a doomed to failure thing if she never gets any human fruit/nutrition?
Thank you for any info, and I'm sorry this is kinda long... :P
When I switched my quaker to pellet food, I actually have to let him watch me eat it past he would even taste it. Now he loves it. An all seed diet is not apt for birds. They don't get their required nutrition from it. Also in quakers, it causes fatty liver disease.
When a cockatiel's crest is up, it doesn't necessary close-fisted the are happy. It can also mean they are alert. A cockatiel's crest is down when they are relaxing or sleeping. When the cockatiel is angry or scared, their crest is laid flat across their boss.
25-75% of a bird's diet needs to be made out of fresh fruits and veggies. My cockatiels like their fruit when I hang it on a kabob on the the top of their hold. They also like "Beak Appetite", a food for your birds that you cook. It is a good source of nutrition.
Answers: I love that you ring it a mohawk LOL It is actually a crest & when the crest is up it not happy, it's more of an alert or frightened signal.
Angry is normally when the crest is flat to his head but a tiel that is happy can also enjoy the flat crest. A crest that is relaxed on the head but not completely flattened to the head is a thankful content bird.
For people food, I answered another question similar to that:
"Fruits are not the best food for cockatiels. Cockatiels are naturally grassy, squalid, grain, leafy, dark green veg, sprout eaters. All these foods give them the nutrients they require & they are the foods they get through in the wild.
Not all tiels will even adopt eating fruit because it's not a natural food source. Fruit should be used as a treat only because it is loaded next to sugar, an unnatural food source to cockatiels & can cause some behaviours as well as obese tiels in those who do devour fruit.
Human food is perfectly fine for your cockatiel as long as it is natural, no salt, fat/oils, sugars etc.
Egg should NOT be an occasional food for them. It should be offered regularly as an animal protein which is historic for tiels.
Seed, canary & budgie mixes or your own mixes that don't contain sunflower seed is better.
Pellets are great for those that won't eat a varied diet.
What I nurture my cockatiel:
I feed my tiel all veggies on this list, not fruit as he won't drink it. At the bottom of that page is also cooked foods which he loves
http://eclectusparrots.net/fruitandveg.h...
Sprouts
http://www.eclectusparrots.net/sprouts.h...
Herbs
http://eclectusparrots.net/herbs.html
edible flowers
http://eclectusparrots.net/flowers.html
Eucalyptus
http://eclectusparrots.net/flowers.html
These sort of foods are ideal for tiels."
I hold the same kind of bird. He always have his mohawk up but he is not always happy. I guess it would go for indistinguishable as his mohawk not being up and him being happy.
My bird does not guzzle any human food. I just buy him "fruity pebbles" for birds.
