LisaPizza

A cockatiel standing on knuckles and looking down at painted fingernails

Spritzer, curious about the new cat-eye nails
#cockatiel

This face is why I can’t ever be allowed near a conure. I’d be signing over my bank accounts in minutes.

Spritzer is learning the #Pikmin 1 map theme! I know I’m shameless for picking a favourite, but the little guy really works for it.
#cockatiel

There is something about birds that makes it so that even if you go in with perfect intentions and all the effort, it still feels inadequate. You’ve put her wellbeing above your own and made hard decisions in her best interest. Be kind to yourself now, for her.

Look, these are my birds and I’m always the confused math lady trying to figure out who’s who. I will actually miss the cone because I’d helped me identify Honey. Ginger always looks a little startled (left), Lemon looks chill no matter what (right), Honey looks stoic (middle).

A scruffy bird (Honey) preens himself. His mate (Lemon) companionably preens with him. On the other side, his daughter (Ginger) is waiting excitedly for her chance to help.

Honey has graduated from his cone! His daughter, Ginger, is completely obsessed with helping him preen. (That would have been more helpful while the cone was on.) His mate Lemon didn’t care much when his cone went on, but also didn’t react when it came off.
#cockatiel

A cockatiel, poised to take off, between several plates of angel food cake with ample whipped cream and berries.

His special piece didn’t have whipped cream, but the rest of us sure did!

A one-day old cockatiel resting in human mom’s hands. He’s just a few cm long, covered in down, and his eyes are sealed shut.

Vs. 1 day old…

An exactly 1-year-old cockatiel nibbling on a piece of angel food cake that is bigger than he is

Happy 1st hatch day to Spritzer! We made angel food cake for our sweetest angel bird.
#cockatiel

On this National Flag Day, the Maple Leaf flies at half-mast.

Today our flag carries a message for the community of Tumbler Ridge: Canada is with you.

A cockatiel wearing a cone with a lot of grubby unpreened feathers.

Honey is in great need of a spa day, but his toe is healing very well and he only has one more week of the cone. Here he is, crusty but grinning because he’s been out exploring with his family.
#cockatiel

Adorable! There’s something new to try to teach them.

What are you talking about? That’s a beautiful giraffe cockatiel

I didn’t know they could move so fast!

Aww, they really are musical!

At first when we heard the rattle, we thought that there was something wrong with Spritzer’s beak. Then we realized it was percussions in a musical routine. Now Earl has learned “the woodpecker.”
#Cockatiel

Aww that’s great. Ive watched it so many times too - I love watching the little boops from Honey.

It’s such a dice roll. Budgies are so bold that sometimes they don’t get even along with other budgies. The friendships are always so interesting though. Skittle taught Spritzer to fly vertically, which I didn’t even think cockatiels could do!

Nah, Honey is in a banana box 18 hours a day. He doesn’t want more rest. Just family time!

I think it’s even more sweet that Honey is giving him beak boops back. He likes listening to Pom but hardly ever gets this close.

Honey enjoying some gentle budgie chatter from Pompom. It’s the first time I’ve let Pom close to Honey since the surgery, and he had a lot to say… all surprisingly nice.
#cockatiel #budgie

A cockatiel recovering from surgery and a neck cone, sitting beside his loyal mate.

Honey, scruffy but healing, has had enough of sleeping in a banana box. He and Lemon have been on a special diet which I just realized was missing the raspberry tea because Lemon started doing a horny hen dance and looking for her nest box. Caregiving for a tiny angry bird is exhausting.
#cockatiel

Aww, poor girl! That’s only slightly better than a 45 degree crash.

A tail feather from a cockatiel chick’s first moult. It is broken in two places and covered with damage.

Ginger moulted this. I used to think that many baby cockatiels had damaged feathers because of poor nutrition and restrictive cages, but after raising three well cared for free-flight chicks, it turns out they’re just energetic little idiots who will fly into any obstacle (including the ceiling).

A cockatiel chick (Earl), only a few hours old, glowing in the evening light with down feathers groomed to fluff by its parents.

I’m happy to announce that Early Bird, shown here in downy translucent beauty on his hatch day, finally responds to his name!
#cockatiel

Personally I call it #plumescrolling. I post mostly cute bird pictures here instead of my usual social activism and doom rants because we all need a little escape!

The vet also told me that it’s not removable except by cutting, basically to stop bird parents from feeling sorry for the birds and sabotaging their recovery haha.

Yes, it’s felt, and flexible so they can still move around and even fly, but just wide and thick enough to stop them from biting at their injuries.

A cockatiel wearing a felt cone after surgery and sitting contentedly on the back of a chair.

A cockatiel sitting on 1 foot with eyes closed and grinding his beak in contentment.

I brought Honey out of his banana box for a couple hours this morning while the other birds and humans were asleep. He’s happy (except for the part where I wrestle him to give him meds, and not being able to preen after) and relaxing on the soft chair back. #cockatiel

One cockatiel is inside a cage, wearing a big cone and looking through the plastic barrier at his cockatiel and budgie friends who came to visit.

Visiting hours at the hospital cage. All the birds came by to see Honey and check out his new cone. Honey is doing well. He escaped me during his medication and managed to fly upstairs to his cage in the loft, despite the cone. He does NOT like sleeping in the vet-ordered banana box.
#cockatiel