How to transform your cockatiels’ cage into an avian paradise – part 2
14/11/2024
Translation: Katherine Martin
From toys to food bowls to paddling pools, here are the most important things to consider when creating a home for your pet bird.
Let me start off by saying one thing. A cage shouldn’t be your cockatiels’ main home. Ideally, they should have several hours of free flight around your house or apartment per day. My two cockatiels, Cookie and Rio, are busy making their first exploratory flights around my living room since moving in with me in mid-October.
Even so, getting the right cage setup is important for these birds. After all, a cage serves as a safe haven, a food joint and a bedroom in one. Here’s how I set up a bird-friendly home for Rio and Cookie. Maybe you’ll pick up a couple of tips.
Aluminium feeding dish
Young cockatiels eat like toddlers. They rummage around in their seeds, fall headfirst into their dish and sometimes trail their dirty feet through their dinner. With this in mind, being able to clean their feeding dishes thoroughly is all the more important. Although there are plenty of plastic feeding dishes on the market, aluminium ones are much more suitable. Why? Because you can rinse them out with boiling water when necessary, meaning you can disinfect them without using cleaning agents.
Source: Anika Schulz
The cage I got from Montana Cages came with four aluminium food dishes. Rio and Cookie each get one and a half tablespoons of mixed grains per day. I also give them greens such as pears or lettuce. Since they prefer eating that stuff straight from my hand, I don’t need a feeding dish for it.
We have aluminium dishes for parrots in various sizes in our range. You can simply attach them to the bars of your birds’ cage.
Natural materials over plastic
Wild cockatiels live in trees. So, why should domestic ones have to perch on plastic sticks? It’s not as if you’d sit on a rock-hard plastic chair if you could have a comfy sofa, right? Fortunately, many pet supply manufacturers have now realised this and are offering more and more cage furniture made from natural materials.
Rio and Cookie’s favourite spot, for example, is a thick tree branch screwed to the cage bars on one side. As a result, it sways gently when one of the birds hops on – just like on a real tree.
Source: Anika Schulz
Bird swings made from natural materials are usually a hit with birbs too. Rio and Cookie also have a swing hanging in their cage, but they haven’t been brave enough to go on it yet. To be fair, everything’s still new to them.
Stuff to tear up
Now, here’s something absolutely essential for keeping Rio and Cookie from tearing up my flat: shredding toys! Cockatiels are basically tradespeople in reverse – they break everything they can find. When there’s nothing else available to sink their claws into, they rip up wallpaper and doors too. In an attempt to be good to my cockatiels (and my nerves), I’ve bought them some stuff they can freely destroy, such as cork blocks.
Mind you, I’ve also heard that parakeets are happy enough ripping up the cardboard tube you get inside a roll of toilet paper.
Bird baths for your birb to splash around in
Cockatiels love to bathe. In fact, all other parrots do too. You can either get a bird bath and hang it on the cage door or carefully spray your birds’ crests with water. Simply fill a clean spray bottle with warm water. I haven’t tried either option with Rio and Cookie yet, but it’s definitely on the cards.
Bird lamp
To wrap things up, here’s the hottest thing on the block right now in bird health: bird lamps. Good pet shops and animal blogs (site in German) recommend buying a bird lamp that mimics the sun’s natural UV component. The reason? Unlike humans, cockatiels have receptors for UV light, which enable them to see their surroundings in high contrast.
That pretty much squares with my experience. I initially didn’t have a bird lamp for Rio and Cookie – and both birds slumbered their way through Hamburg’s grey, autumn days. However, once I bought a lamp, barely half an hour had gone by before Cookie was sunning himself under it. After that, he was looking curiously around the cage as if it were his first time there. Mostly likely, he really was seeing everything clearly for the first time. The birds are certainly much more alert in the mornings now, and Rio starts off each day with a little song. I can only apologise to my neighbours for that.
Source: Anika Schulz
Even so, I have to say that Rio and Cookie are much more active under «just» a regular light bulb. With this in mind, all the bird parents out there have to decide for themselves whether it’s worth getting a bird lamp or not.
So, there you have it. You now know how to make life nicer for your cockatiels. Next time, I’ll explain why mirrors have no business being in a bird cage. You’ll also learn how to make caring for birds easier. I’ve got a few good tips to share on that, all of which I’ve tried out myself.
Header image: Anika Schulz feat. Rio
Anika Schulz
Teamleader Editorial
Anika.Schulz@galaxus.deAs a child, I was socialised with Mario Kart on SNES before ending up in journalism after graduating from high school. As a team leader at Galaxus, I'm responsible for news. I'm also a trekkie and an engineer.