Guess what I saw!

[jriley]

Well, my debate about what kind of bird to get for the girls may be resolved...I think Chip and Kea (our cockatiels) have decided to provide one for them LOL. I heard an odd noise this afternoon and looked at their cage and they were definitely in a procreative kind of activity. They have a nestbox attached to their cage, but I had blocked the entrance because Kea has become a compulsive egg layer (all clear eggs) and Chip never seemed to have any interest in her. Guess that frustration of not being able to get into the box did the trick! If they happen to produce a fertile clutch of eggs, I can handfeed a baby for each of the girls, now that I've had Molly to teach me the ins and outs of handfeeding. I just have to find out more about when to pull the babies and how to properly brood them during handfeeding. Hope I'm not getting ahead of things, but it was very exciting to see that they had finally bonded.

All day long Chip has been in the macho male role: tapping on the box like a woodpecker, singing to Kea when she's in there, looking very aggressive and protecting her when she's eating. It's too cute. Before I had blocked the box, she wouldn't let him in there and would beat him up when she came out. Now, she's going in with him and acting very sweet to him.

I bookmarked the american cockatiel society website and some articles on winged wisdom. Does anyone else have any info, advice, or links on cockatiel breeding to share?

Julie