This are our pet birds. They are cockatiels. Cockatiels are members of the parrot family and are the smallest species of cockatoo. We brought them home in July, 2004 when they were about 3 months old. With proper care, cockatiels can live to between 15 and 30 years of age.

Pepper & Kokoro
Time to Water the Birds
Meet Pete
Spur of the Moment Videos
Pete Learning to Whistle "Jingle Bells" Videos

On the left is Koko (Short for Kokoro, which is the Japanese word for "heart"). She is a hen and belongs to Rachel. Pepper, on the right is a cock and belongs to Dan.

Koko's coloring is known as an ordinary grey and Pepper's plumage is a mutation known as white face pearl. This photo was taken on the second day they were with us. As you can tell from this photo, Koko is a very friendly little bird. Pepper was a little more reserved.

Koko and Pepper are enjoying some Timothy Hay. Here's a better shot of Pepper's plumage. When I first saw him his markings reminded me of a snowy owl.

Males lose their pearl markings as they mature and molt. As you'll see in the following photos, Pepper is no exception.

It's Christmas time and the birds found the holiday decorations irrestible. In fact, Pepper enjoyed it so much, that he wanted this one all to himself.

As you can tell from this photo, Pepper's already losing his snowy owl look.

We try to give the birds as much time out of their cages as possible. They love to play on the floor under their cage and forage for seeds dropped in the carpet. One day, they discovered that the space between the vertical blinds and the patio glass window was a great place to play.

This day, they were playing and heard some crows loudly cawwing outside and up they went, back to the safety of the cage. (Video - 10.8Mb MPEG)

Early on, I discovered that Pepper loves to play and we've made up quite a few games together. Here we're playing tug-o-war with my wedding ring.

This game has two-parts; tug-o-war and birdie fetch. It's a little different from the game of fetch played with dogs. With birdie fetch, the birds drop and the people fetch. (Video - 6Mb MPEG)

He's also learning to talk and whistle tunes.

He can whistle "Jingle Bells" (Video - 2Mb MPEG), Mozart's Serenade No. 13 "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (Video 2Mb MPEG) as well as the old "Shave and a haircut" and a couple of wolf whistles.

He's learned to say "Daddy", "Pepper", "Hi Pepper" and "Hello". (Video - 5Mb MPEG)

Pepper is in love with Koko, but she couldn't care less. He tries to woo her with his impressive repetoire every chance he gets.

In the wild, cockatiels are ground foraging birds, so grass seeds are a part of their diet. We like give the birds a little hay every day for them to chew and forage through. (Video - 5409Kb MPEG)

They've always loved to chew on the ball-chains for the vertical blinds. Pepper invented a game that he plays with the ball-chain and the draw-cord.

He'll lean way over from the corner of the cage and snag one of the two and pull it back to him and climb through it, letting it fall when he's done. He plays this over and over. Koko has learned to play the game, too. (Video - 5Mb MPEG)

Koko has learned to drink from our cups and glasses. The first drink she tried and liked was orange juice. Here she is having a drink of Rachel's water. Since this picture was taken we've learned that Koko likes her drinks slightly chilled, thank you very much.

CAUTION: Do not leave your birds unattended around open cups and glasses. Like small children and paint buckets, birds could fall into a cup or glass and not be able to get back out on their own and drown. It only takes a few seconds and then it's too late.

Pepper doesn't take them too often, but when he does take a bath, he really enjoys himself.

Here's Pepper after a bath showing me his best impression of a bald eagle.

He comes to our family from one of our fellow Girl Scout moms. Pete's dander has proved to be too much for her allergies, so she thought we'd like to have him join our family because as she put it, we seem to really enjoy our other birds. (we do!)

They'd had him for about two years after he flew down and landed on their son's shoulder while they were on a family outing at O'Neil Park. Obviously, because of this, his exact age and history is unknown.

We met him a couple of months ago, and we thought he had personality-plus. He's a very nice little bird, but just a little shy. At his previous home, he was only out of the cage for 30 minutes or so in the mornings, so this contact has helped him remain social.

While with the other family, he lived in the same house with a an Amazon parrot (Dudley) and a small-ish dog. Both Dudley and Pete learned from the dog to bark at strangers, so when Pete feels threatened he barks like a dog. It's quite amusing to have a dog, an Amazon and a cockatiel all barking at one's self. ("Ruff-ruff, Ruff-ruff')

He's already been to the vet and is in quarantine (Q) until he gets a clean bill of health. But, this gives us all a chance to get to know each other a little better. The first and most obvious thing we noticed about Pete is that he loves women and thinks men are so-so. We can tell because every time Martine, Rachel or Rosalyn comes near, he stands straight-up, neck stretched and gives them a wolf whistle and makes kissy-kissy sounds ("Smooch-smooch").

In addition to the wolf whistle and barking, he also has several other sounds he makes. He'll occasionally gives, what I call the 'Hey you!' whistle ('wee-oh-weet'). He also does a telephone ringing phone, just like Pepper did when he first came home. I noticed this when while sitting visiting with our other birds and heard a strange-sounding telephone ring coming from our bedroom, where Pete is in Q. When I poked my head in, the ringing stopped. In addition, he also makes what sounds like a telephone conversation would when heard from another room. When he started making this sound, I joined in and he and I carried on a mock conversation for several minutes.

I don't think he's had too much contact with other cockatiels. He doesn't make the usual cockatiel sounds and contact calls and instead, has mannerisms that I've seen/read about in larger birds, such as head-bobbing, territorial beak drumming, etc. He also has spent some time among song birds and/or budgies because some of his calls are very melodic.

As we get to know each other better, I'll post video clips of him for everyone to enjoy.

Here's a couple of short audio clips I captured of some of his unusual calls.

The first is a quiet 'chirp'. (PetePeep1.mp3 179K MP3)
The second is his contact call. (PetePeep2.mp3 200K MP3)

5/27/06 - Pete's been here a week now and we've gotten to know each other better. When we spoke to the vet last week, they said that they would like to see him again in two to three weeks to check to make sure his weight's coming down and to give him another, more thorough blood test to make sure the high liver bile count they found last time isn't due to illness.

So, until we've taken him back to the vet and get the results back, we're going to keep him in Q. The usual amount of time recommended is 30-45 days, so it's going to be a little while until he's able to join Pepper and Koko.

Because of this, we've been trying to spend as much time with him as we can. He's out at least 30 minutes in the morning and two to three hours in the evening. Martine's been working with him to get back into flying shape by walking him a short distance away from his cage, then encouraging him to fly back to his cage. It seems to be working because he's looking slimmer and feeling lighter than when he first arrived.

We're supplimenting his cockatiel-mix seed diet with ZuPreem pellets. He's tried them so he know's it's food. We're also giving him the same mixed veggies that Pepper and Koko get, but he hasn't quite figured out what to do with them. We're sure he'll understand once he sees the other birds eating them.

We're also giving him a handful of Oxbow Oat Hay. We think he' tried chewing some, but we've never seen him. This is most likely another birdie-see, birdie-do item.

To help alleviate the boredom of being alone, we bought a raffeta pinata chew toy and hung it in his cage. Another birdie-see, birdie-do item.

I've taken some videos of him and Martine. The links to the video are in the Spur of the Moment Videos section below. He still prefers the girls to me, but he and I have been spending quiet time together and he's getting more comfortable with me. Whistling tunes to him seems to help.

We've found he likes to listen to the radio, so we leave it playing quietly during the day while he's here alone. Rock-n-Roll seems to be his favorite as it's got a nice beat.

I took these videos with my cell phone camera, so they're in a new video format. You'll need to be running the latest version of Apple's QuickTime (7.0 or 7.1). Unfortunately, if you're running Windows 98 SE or earlier, you probably won't be able to view the videos.

6/2/06 - Pete's been here two weeks now and we're getting more comfortable with each passing day. He's a really sweet little guy. We borrowed a digital scale and have been weighing him daily. He is getting to be a slim, trim bird. While at the vet's they checked his weight and he was at 117 grams, which is a little on the tubby side for a tiel. His weight varies between 86 and 90 grams, which is exactly where he should be, so this is great.

More importantly, it looks like I've picked up another music student. I've been whistling songs to Pete when he and I are alone during our visits together and I think I've caught his ear. In the last few days, he's started paying close attention to my whistling in the same way that Pepper does. He's now started doing the "Hey You!" whistle again and I've even heard him singing the beginnings of Shave-And-A-Haircut to Martine.

While I was visiting with him last night and I was whistling to him, he was listening intently and Martine came into the room. I was surprised to see Pete virtually ignore her. When she went to pick him up off my hand, he beaked her hand, but stepped up. This was most unusual because he usually can't wait to go to her when she enters the room. Even more surprising was he didn't perk up and start wolf-whistling to her and when she went to give him a kiss, he beaked her lips and was acting like he was irritated with her. I took this to mean he was in the middle of a music lesson and didn't want her to interupt us. Later one Martine went in to visit with him and he was back to his usual affectionate self, whistling and making kissy-kissy sounds..

He must be starting to like being around me because he now walks over to the edge of his cage and leans towards me like Pepper does when he wants me to pick him up. When he steps up, he's beaking my fingers less and less and occasionally will walk right up the the edge of the top of the cage and do a two-footed bunny-hop onto my fingers, just like Pepper.

We can tell that he's really beginning to dislike being stuck in the bedroom by himself when he can hear everyone else in the other room. Koko has started to respond to some of his contact calls and when I'm in the room with Pete, he sometimes will respond to the other birds' contact calls. Since I've been working with him on music, he's also started to pay attention to Pepper's singing. We've got a follow-up appointment for more detailed blood work scheduled for Monday afternoon, which means Pete will have to remain in Q for another couple of weeks.

He's started chewing on the Raffeta pinata and we've put a water bottle in his cage so he could get used to it in preparation to get him off the water cup. We mistakenly moved a little too fast by putting a new calcium swing (to help trim his nails down), a new cushy perch (to give him someplace soft to roost --Pepper and Koko love theirs) and a new chew toy (to replace the two old chew toys). He wanted to have nothing to do with his cage and couldn't get far enough away from it. So, we took out the new swing, comfy perch and left the new chew toy and water bottle and he calmed down and went back on top of, and eventually, back into his cage. So from now on, or, at least until he's with the other birds, we're making the changes a little more gradually.

6/19/06 - Pete has come out of Q and is out with us and the other birds in the living room. While things didn't exactly go as planned, they have gone pretty smoothly. They all are getting more comfortable with each other considering they are not used to being in a flock with other birds.

We thought that for the first couple of hours it would be best if we left Pete's cage partially covered with only the front open so he could get comfortable looking out in the new room from a safe hiding spot.

When we let Pepper and Koko out of their cages following the move, Pepper immediately tried to fly over to Pete's cage to land on top of it, but turned back. He tried again twice more, then gave up and flew back to his cage. He probably got scared by the sheet covering Pete's cage. His flights seemed more exploratory than like an attack, so I took this as a good sign that he was interested in getting to know this new bird, or at least wanted a better look. Koko, as usual, was more interested in preening.

After a while, Pete started acting like he wanted to visit with Martine, so we put Pepper and Koko away and let Pete out. Since everything was so new, we let him look around and take everything in. He was a little nervous about being in a new space, but was comforted by having his cage, Martine and I, to help him make the transition from isolation in Q to the hustle and bustle of the living area. He seemed to be adapting to the new space like a trouper.

I noticed that Pepper was watching intently and so I decided to bend protocol a little and let Pepper, Koko and Pete out together instead of waiting for a day or so and that's when I snapped the pic seen above. Pete was having a snack with Pepper looking on. Immediately afterward, Pepper climbed up Martine's arm and started to court Pete. Since Pete isn't used to having other birds in close proximity, he became a little defensive and opened his beak at Pepper to tell him to back off, which he did.

Since they weren't attacking each other, we left them all out. Pepper and Koko were aware that a new bird was present and were understandably jumpy, but were content to observe Pete from a distance. Pete was also aware of these other birds, but was content to stay on his cage or with Martine or I.

That is, until one of them got startled and that set them all off flying, in opposite directions, with Pepper and Koko circling counter-clockwise and Pete circling clockwise. So, every lap, they would see each other coming head-on, then get scared, squawk and avoid each other as best they could. They landed no worse for the wear and tear and were gathered up and put back in their cages to gather their wits and catch their breath.

In spite of the initial panic, they all are getting more comfortable with each other. Pepper and Koko don't think Pete's a bird coming to eat them when he takes off to fly between his cage and us on the couch and Pete is learning the lay of the land. No one was instant friends, but I didn't reall expect that to happen. Pepper and Koko have not been around other birds and neither has Pete.

Thankfully, Pepper doesn't seem to get jealous when I visit with Pete. He has become a little more territorial about trying to herd Koko away from Pete, which I'm not pleased to see. As much as Pepper likes Koko, she really doesn't have any interest in him. Luckily, I'm already somewhat used to dealing with this, so when he gets too bad, we either let one out at a time, or she'll hang out with me, where she can get some peace because I don't let him bully her while she's with me.

Pete seemed a little afraid of his cage and was hesitant to fly back to it. We figured it was the sheet cover that was scaring him. Pepper and Koko are quite comfortable inside their covered cages, but if we let them out when the cages are still covered, they get scared of their cage because they're not used to seeing it covered. So, once again, we decided to bend protocol and uncover his cage. He has been handling this very well and has begun landing on his cage. We can tell he'd overcome a lot when he hopped up onto the mantle (which is blanketed with 'collectables and memorabilia') to chew some paper.

As we expected, they are getting more used to each other and Pete is just starting to feel like he's fitting in. When we first moved him out, he stopped eating while inside his cage. He would eat when his food dish was on his cage door, or would eat millet spray while it was on top of the cage, but when we put his food dish and millet spray inside the cage, he wouldn't eat. So, on a whim, I moved his seed dish from the left rear corner, which had a poor view of the room, to the right front corner, which had a good view of the room and he has since started eating out of his food dish while inside the cage.

While he was in Q, we put a new perch on the outside of his cage to give him someplace comfortable to stand when looking out the window. It took a couple of tries, but we found a good spot for that, too. It's funny how much difference to a bird it makes where something is placed. If it's in the wrong place, it won't get used --period. I guess, it's like the real estate people say, location, location, location.

Pepper Imitates Spiderman
Pepper Whistles Mozart's Serenade No. 13 "Eine kleine Nachtmusik"
Pepper Whistles 'Bridge on the River Kwai'
Pepper Chews a Hair Tie
Koko Takes a Hair Bath #1
Koko Takes a Hair Bath #2

Pete Chirps "Hello"
Pete Wolf Whistles
Pete Bobbs Head
Pete Wolf Whistles & Gives Kisses
Pete Says Hello & Bobbs His Head
Pete Learns Old MacDonald
Pete Ducks Down With Martine