Bought a Cockatiel, Will the band tell me her age?

[ladybirdb12]

Haven't been around lately,
but to your question amandcv86, about breeding and if they get mean, I have been blessed with perfect breeding pairs.mine will let them pick them up inside the breeding box (I just gently lift them up by their body's, just to check the eggs or babys)they don't bite me they don't get mad, but after I put them back down they DEMAND a head rub lol. Yes some can be very protective inside the box but, outside the box they still want love from a human flock.
I hand raised them, (parents) and I make a point to pet them everywhere, body, under there wings to petting the vent, because if they need to see a vet, they are used to being touched all over so it helps the stress, does that make since?
as of right now I have two babys that I am handfeeding my third baby isn't old enough yet to pull, but one thing for sure its so wonderful, when the babys sees you and they scream because your mommy and they want food and love. I just love it.

 

[amandacv86]

It's ok, I haven't been on much either. That's good to hear because I'd hate for Molly to not be friendly anymore. She's not super friendly as in she likes to be cuddled, but she's made quite a bit of progress. She begs to be out of her cage and paces the perch in front of that door. She will let me put my hand over her back and scritch her head and neck a little, but only for about 5 seconds until she wriggles free.

I'm getting the breeding pair tomorrow. The female is yellow(I think clear pied?) and male is white face. The male has one foot because of an incident when he got his foot stuck in a swing, but she says he has no trouble mounting and has produced clutches since then. She's going to throw a nesting bow in, too, so I can put it on right away. I have a breeder friend who's going to show me how to hand feed when the time comes. I'm super excited!

 

[ladybirdb12]

That's wonderful, its great to be taught first hand, I hope she will let you feed some of her babys, so you can get the feel of it, it looks easy but you have to know the feelings, like they stop chugging for food that could be dangerous because it goes to their air sac. The crop pipe might not open, or if it is the pipe to the air sac is open also.
You are going to love raising the babys, what I do, I go beyond, just feeding they will sit on my chest,, with a light cover above them and I talk to them, plus let them watch me or my others teils play, this helps with human being a flock,
another thing, please teach them to eat pellets, mix a small amount of seed but lots of pellets, I use pretty bird for cockateils, even my adults, that's been on seed, almost all of them love the pellets, it took almost two years, to get my older ones to eat them, but I have not been to a vet for awhile, due to diet.
Yellow with orange cheeks, cheek to see if her eyes are red, she is a Latino (umm might not be spelled right. With a white face and your female is going to give you very pretty babys, the babys will be called fancy's but even the ugly babys are so darn cute lol I have one named shotgun Lol he looks like he was fired in a barrel of a shotgun LOL, he is the sweetest bird, I love him to death.
Of course I love them all they own me what can I say Lol

 

[amandacv86]

I'm planning on co-parenting the first clutch so I can get the experience at first, then hand raising the next clutch at 3-4 weeks. My feed store has a 40lb bag of Kaytee Rainbow pellets for $70, planning on getting that ASAP.

Just found this. $40 for 20 lbs costs a bit more in the long run, but seems more doable right now. Do you have any opinions about Kaytee vs Pretty Bird?

I'm pretty sure she's a clear pied. I was telling her eventually I would like a mate for my current tiel, she said she had a yellow male, and when I asked if he's lutino, she said no he has black eyes. So I'm assuming the female of this pair isn't lutino, especially since she said she has only gotten white face or pied from this pair.

Thanks for all of your help!

 

[BirdLadyToo]

I just wanted to say that cockatiel babies are probably one of the hardest to feed and one of the easiest to kill. They will beg for food. Sometimes non stop. They are extremely easy to aspirate for a novice hand feeder. Since they beg so much for food it's also very easy to stretch their crop or overfeed or get slow crop. The handfeeding food has to be a certain consistency so that the crop empties almost out before the next feeding.
When I first pull at usually 3 - 4wks I feed 5 times a day. 8 - 12 - 4 - 8 and midnight. If you feed too much you can easily feed one feeding on top of the nest which can cause sour crop. I keep baytril antibiotics on hand at all times when feeding tiels. I RARELY ever have to use it on any other parrots I breed. I cannot stress enough to go to your breeder to learn how to handfeed tiels.
Also there is the NCS, national cockatiel society and ACS, American cockatiel society. I haven't been breeding many tiels so I have been just using my regular bands I use for everything else. I go through the AFA, American federation of aviculture. My bands are all traceable. They include the AFA logo, 2 digit state, 2 digit year, my 3 digit aviary code and the individual number that corresponds to that particular bird. They come from l&m. You can also order bands from them. They won't have the AFA logo though. I'm not for sure if they are traceable. I band all my birds. Mostly so I know who's who in verifying genetics. It also is so nice when after a bird has changed hands maybe several times in helping to know how old it is.

 

[Magic Birdie]

Sounds like you're making great progress!

I don't know about the band. My cockatiel's band just says NYS 377. I suppose she's the bird store's 377th bird??? I'm not sure

 

[BirdLadyToo]

I can't remember if yml put their logo on their bands or not. There used to also be a band identification web site or two out there. People have let them go. It might stand for New York State?
I sell a small minority to a bird store. Sometimes they have my bands and sometimes not. Maybe I should start another Facebookage so breeders can list their band numbers. Usually the initials identifies the breeder. Most circular in diameter with letters and numbers signifies a wild caught bird. Since they quit importing years ago your cockatiel wouldn't fall in that category. My bands are wide, flat and round and closed.