Hi. I do not consider myself a Cockatiel expert, but I do have two of them so I'll try.

Why do you do if your Tiel nips at you? - Our male is the one who will occasionally nip. I never do what you read. I do tell him "No biting , Roger" and put him back in his cage immediately. It doesn't happen often but it is painful when it does. He usually does it when he wants to do something he shouldn't be doing like chewing on a computer cord, etc

How do you teach it the "step up" or "down" (step on/get off finger) command? You'll want to put your forefinger right in front of his legs where he is perched and say "step up", and touch his legs just a little to make him want to pick his leg up off of his perch. We found this very easy to do with bofh of ours. I have never taught "step down".

Do you think it is okay to buy a tiel from a pet store? Both of ours came from a pet store. I would look around and make sure you are comfortable with the level of cleanliness, their abiliby to answer your questions, overall appearance of the pets they sell, especially the birds. If water bowls are nasty that might be a red flag, also if the birds are plucking their feathers alot or just look scraggly in general, be careful. We felt very good about the quality of the birds we looked at and Roger immediately respodned to my daughter and walked up her arm. It was love at first sight.

What are the pros and cons of getting a female? Well, our female is much more quiet than our male. She also is not as outgoing. But I don't know if that is a female trait or just a Milly trait. Milly is sort of a rescue bird, although I paid for her. She was an owner turn in after her owner was placed in a nursing home and her son didn't like the bird. She is quite shy and had never been trained to step up while inside the cage. To this day, she comes out on her own, but then will step up for me. I don't think all females are like Milly. She was an excellent mother when we allowed them to have babies last year.

Since I am a first time owner should I be getting a female or male?

Depends on what you want, I guess. We have both. And the 3 babies that we raised (Roger and MIlly raised) consisted of 2 girls and 1 boy. One of the girls talks incessently, just like her daddy. The other is more quiet. They live in the same home. The male is owned by a fellow pet talker, Amber. She can tell you how he is. I think he is a talker too, if I remember correctly. Our Roger was our first one and I am glad we got a male for the first one. He is dalring when he talks and whistles his songs. He doesn't have a huge vocabulary, but it is sweet to listen to. I would say that if you don't have a major preference, see which bird responds to you first and best. That's certainly how we chose Roger. He walked up Helen's arm and sat on her shoulder while she walked around the store. Love at first sight, I guess.

Wish you the best of luck! Other than the mess they make, I have never been disappointed with bird ownership and I"m so happy they have such long, full lives.

Logan, Roger and Milly