[wst0209a]

Hi, I'm a new guy of course. I just recently got two cockatiels. These are my first birds I have ever had. My sister-in-law has a pair of cockatiels and I fell in love with them and just had to have my own. I have had them for about a week now. Lets start off with the female. The female is 4 years old, I believe she is a lutino because she is all white and yellow and has those really orange cheek patches. She was a little aggressive the first day but now I am able to get her to step up on my hand without biting at me. Sometimes she still will get cranky with me, but I think it is because I get her to step up and then I keep on doing to practice it and get her used to stepping up. I think she gets bored of practicing. She is pretty good though in my opinion, I think she is starting to like me. Today I was reading my book about cockatiels right in front of their cage and she climbed down to the opening of her door and flew to me and sat right on my shoulder. Now for the mean guy. The male is 1.5 years old and is very mean. I have not yet been able to get him to step up onto my hand. He is very aggressive. When I try to get him to step up and bites at me and hisses and goes into a corner and just stays really mad at me. The closes I have came to holding him was this morning when he didn't have anywhere to go but to hop onto my hand and then back down onto the top of the cage. I have spent a lot of time with them everyday and I have not made any progress with him. I also can't walk around with the female in my hand without him screaming and flying all around the place. I plan on clipping his wings this weekend so he can't fly away from me all the time.

Right now they are eating strictly kaytee's forti-diet but I plan on converting to pellets soon. I also would like to offer fresh food but I need to do more research before I make up a diet plan for them.

They are in a cubed cage together that is 20x21x24" high. The top of the cage opens and I put a perch in between the opening and they come out to play on top of the cage a good bit of the day. I open it up as long as I am home.

I think that is about it, sorry for rambling on I just wanting to make sure I got everything out. Any advice or help with the male would be great.