Candy and Mr. Mister - Mother's Day 2010

Candy-Mother's Day 2010. She was quite unsettled at being in a new home. Candy's last owner couldn't take care of her any longer. No one had seriously interacted with her; in that; loved on her, held her, talked to her etc., in some time. She began plucking her feathers; a sign of distress.The day she came to me, her cage was moldy and nasty. I literally had to take the entire cage apart and clean it. She never tried to fly that day. Friends were with me the day I got her and they baby-sat while I scrubbed her cage. Once the cage was up, I had her sit on top of it for awhile to see what she would do. I didn't realize at the time that her flight feathers were so diminished from plucking that she probably couldn't fly. 

This photo is from June 2010. In the short month that I had her, she began to look much healthier. I still don't know her age but anyone can see the difference in her from May. I know looking at her front however is a bit alarming.Candy will continue to 'pluck' and preen deeply the next few months. Research on cockatiels have explained much about diet, interacting and personality. 

She absolutely loves to have her head scratched and will bend down to have someone, most anyone, do so. The most flying she is doing at this time it taking off and landing on the floor. I was pleased to know she at least remembered how to fly. I'm positive that she can not fly much more at this time. She has also started 'loving' the person she is with. By this she tries to preen their ear or hair. She will also regurgitate a seed or two to let you know how much she likes you. 

This is July 2010. Look at this photo compared to the May photo. She has new feathers just under her neck. Her bare shoulders are slowly closing. Very slowly. So slow, I honestly have no hope of her feathers coming back in for a long time. She now has different food bowls, water tube and a couple of toys in her cage. She also has real wood posts to climb onto and perch. She now talks to me constantly. Chirping mostly and rarely 'twitters' the way cocatiels are supposed to. I find it sweet when she does though. 

In the first two or three months of Candy and I getting used to one another, a question concerning her sex began to make me wonder. Her last owner took it on word that Candy was female. Again, research pretty much confirmed it. Males are very vocal. In that, they tend to not just talk the way Candy does, they do it loudly. Also, males, will mimic sounds and words fairly quick. Females can mimic but not as much as a male. I also learned that stress will deter any cockatiel from mimicking. I was resigned that Candy would probably never mimic. But to prove her sex came in an unusual way. I have a video but for some odd reason Blogger has a hard time with uploading videos.

I heard her one day constantly chirping. When I looked at her, she was sitting on her front perch. Her toy with large beads and and bell hung near the cage wall. She loves this bell. She will often use it as a way to comfort herself. She will pull the toy in motion then let the bell rub her head. It's sweet to watch her do this. But on this day, she was, like I said, chirping and sort of singing quietly. When I looked at her she was-well-how can I put this?

Candy was in the proper position waiting for her mate. I should say, the proper position for a female cockatiel. I think you get the picture. She doesn't have a mate. If she did, in this position, the male would stand on her tail, and sing just as she is singing. They can be quite noisy during a mating. He would also "kiss" the top of her head or "pet" her with his foot. This is why Candy is using the bell to stroke her head. This went on for a little longer than two minutes until the quiet sing-song chirping stopped. The above photo is a snapshot from the video. It was the best that I could do.

Candy and Angel meet. Angel is the sweetest girl and is a wonderful companion to a friend in my apartment building. She was quite curious about Candy when she came to visit.   Candy wasn't so sure. I can't say she was afraid of Angel, but you can see by her top comb that she is a bit shocked at this sudden face so near her cage. My friend has canaries but Angel is used to them in her apartment. She was surprised to see other creatures in my apartment as she hadn't visited since I took charge Candy and Mister.

As Candy began to adjust to her new home, some of her transitioning has been difficult. Me too. I've been heart broken watching her sometimes. Although cockatiels should take to a shower or play in a sink of water, Candy is overcome with fear of water. Add to that, I assumed far to much of her previous owners. Apparently they never bathed her or gave her the opportunity to splash about.

Thinking a gentle spray of shower would entice her to get a good soak I took her to the bathroom. Bouncing the shower spray off the wall in the shower is the best way. As I was not taking a shower myself (many owners take their cockatiels into the shower with them) I sat her on the edge of the tub. Thinking this would be a natural act for her, I watched. She didn't  ruffle her feathers in anticipation of the water. Nope. She ran for me, grabbed a hold of my jeans and crawled up my leg as fast as she could.

Up until this point, she hadn't bathed at all. The most she was used to was me spraying her with water. She apparently was just tolerating this action because she was terrified of the water from the shower.

Barely wet, I made her get back on the tub for another run at me and I called it good. I turned the shower off and she clung to me like a frightened baby. Her damp feathers would have been a perfect photo opportunity but I just didn't have the heart. She was too frightened. And scared. So traumatized by the shower incident, she barely "spoke" for three days and during that time, barely ate. She had me a bit traumatized.

Still, she had to be bathed. It is in their nature to splash about. She simply was never taught to do so. I did wait awhile before we "took a bath" again. When I did decide to do it, it was in the kitchen sink. Still a bit traumatic, but I covered her with one hand as I splashed water and even rubbed her down gently with a cloth and she was okay-not willing-but okay. I would love to see her enjoy it though. I hate that she thinks it is an ordeal.



This photo was taken in August. I didn't take too many pictures after this date in August. Summer got away from me then Autumn arrived. In October I was terribly busy and in the middle of the month took a trip to Tennessee. Two good friends stopped in twice a day to take care of Candy and Mister while I was gone. Both of whom Candy and Mister are quite used to.

Mr. Mister, May 2010. Mister is a hybrid Zebra Finch. Hybrid being he has all the right  markings but somewhere along the way lost his black and white stripe tail color. In other words, it was bred out of him. This photo shows Mister in front of his mirror. His favorite place. His reflection, he believes, is his mate. He talks to her, tries to get her to fly to the feed bowl with him by hopping back and forth from the mirror to the bowl and when this doesn't work, will regurgitate to "feed" her on the mirror. He will also, look for her. He talks and chirps to her then moves to the side of the mirror to see if she's back there.

Mister is quite happy to stay in his cage. He shouldn't be allowed out to "fly around" or even handled more than necessary. Apparently, finches understand their confinement and content to be left alone. I'm not too keen on this simply because being caged does not allow freedom.
Mister's talk consists of what I call his "feeding chirps". I can always tell when he's at his feeding bowl. Then there is is "whispering chirps" to his "mate". Finally, his "squeaky toy" chirp. There is no other way to describe this sound.

Both Candy and Mister roost when sleeping or napping. Candy tucks her head into her wing and sleeps. Mister sits in the corner near his "mate" and sleeps there. Both birds have lost their balance while sleeping and fallen. Mister has flown out of his fall and recoups. He has done this twice. Once he was covered up for the night and I heard him flying around so I know he had almost fallen. 

Candy has also gotten so comfortable while sleeping. Twice for her also. Once during the day, she actually fell to the bottom of the cage while I was sitting here at the computer. She looked at me if I had pushed her off. The other time, she was covered up at night but managed to catch herself. When I lifted the cover, she was hanging on to the edge of the cage. 


They both have gotten themselves into trouble. Mister will fly around in his cage and land anywhere. He managed to land where the door is and got himself hung up in the door. I had to give him a little push from this side to 'unstick' him.

Candy likes to walk the sides of her cage. Even the roof of the cage. Not long ago, I think she lost a little confidence in what she was doing. Usually she will hang from the roof by her beak and swing her legs up then either walk across the roof or hang upside down. For some reason, her little legs just wouldn't go. Had I not been sitting here and caught sight of what she was trying to do, she could have fallen. I opened the roof of the cage and pulled her out. She looked at me and shook her head as if to say "what the heck happened?"

Mister loves to play "dead". Too often while I  clean his cage, he flies around, objecting to my intrusion then will simply fall to the floor of the cage. He scared me to death the first time he did this even though the last owner warned me he has tried this in the past.



So with the help a friend, this time I got photos. Though you can't see it in this still, his little heart is just beating away, his chest rises and falls with each breath and his oil drop eyes blink; yet, he's pretending to be dead. 

This is Candy and me. What we do usually on a daily basis. She loves to sit here and let me  stroke her head. She's so quiet and still when we are doing this.

Sitting with me, whether she is on my hand, shoulder on on the drawer next to me at my desk, we spend a little time talking to one another. When she sits on the drawer, she is usually eating while I am eating. Something I read cockatiels like to do. And she does enjoy it.

A quiet chat. I talk, she responds in kind by chirping. Her tail feathers are close to perfect now. And her flight feathers have, for the most part, grown back. She can and will fly around the apartment but for some odd reason, likes to land on my bed.

Note:  This was written Mother's Day 2011.  On September 11, 2011, Candy died in my arms.  She had been quite ill for almost a month after having a stroke.