The cockatiels came out of a situation of hoarding and neglect--they were part of a group of 38 cockatiels that were surrendered to Worcester Animal Rescue League in MA. The birds were all found stuffed into a single cage. The shelter took them in, had them all medically evaluated & split them up into pairs. I found out about them when I saw the shelter post about it on Facebook. My heart instantly went out to the poor little guys and I contacted the shelter with my interest in fostering and adopting
I am an avid parrot lover. I have a cockatiel named Vashti, and a budgie named Lucy (she was once part of a flock of 4 budgies, but her friends passed and she's the last old lady left). I've also volunteered at parrot sanctuaries. They are such fascinating creatures--highly intelligent, playful, sensitive, and beautiful. They are also very misunderstood pets.
Parrots are constantly being surrendered to shelters because the people who take them on have no idea how much of a handful they are. They require as much attention and stimulation as human children. When they don't get the attention they need, they become destructive to the point of self mutilation.
Cockatiels especially get purchased by people who don't know how to care for them because they are relatively inexpensive and they are marketed by pet stores & breeders as "good starter birds." There is no such thing as a "starter bird." All birds, no matter how big or small, require the same level of love, stimulation, and attention.
I'm so happy these cockatiels fell into the hands of this wonderful shelter. Once the cockatiels were medically cleared and I was available to come pick them up, I made my up to Worcester--which is about an hour and a half away from me. I was amazed at how helpful and generous the folks at Worcester Animal Rescue League were. They sent the birds home in cages with food, toys, vitamins...everything they would need to get started in their new home. It took some creative space managing to get both cages into my car for the journey back to CT, but other than that, the transport went off without a hitch.
3 of the cockatiels are white faced lutinos (often called albino cockatiels, but that's a misnomer since they're not true albinos, but the result of the mating of lutino and whiteface gray tiels) and one is a lutino--all impossible to sex visually (vets usually have to do DNA tests on these birds to determine males & females). It's reasonable to believe these guys are related and inbred since they were all kept together. They are all in rough shape--ratty, broken feathers, and big bald spots. While lutino tiels can sometimes have bald patches behind their crests (a result of how the mutation was originally bred), these birds are bald in several different places and missing their tail feathers because of crowding.
These guys are not socialized and very wary of humans for obvious reasons. The goal right now is simply to get them healthy--feed them & give them water and vitamins to get their weight up and help their feathers grow back. I stand at the cage and talk to them in a soft voice as I go about the house just so they get used to having loving people around them giving them attention. They're already showing promise, climbing and playing in their cages, and eating and drinking well. My hope is that their health is fairly good and they're just looking ragged because they were on top of each other for all of their lives. The lutino is the most vocal, which leads me to think it might be a male since male tiels tend to run their mouths more than females (my male tiel who I've had for 5 years sings, wolf whistles, and talks).
Here are some pics of the birds paired up in the cages the shelter gave me. The 2 white faced lutinos in the bottom pic love to preen each other. I'm so excited to start helping to get them healthy and happy!
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