Originally posted by I Love Brian, Forever <3
Thanks, all for responding. Someone at my mom's work just said that if the non-hand raised birds are sold alone, they will be very unhappy birds for the rest of their lives, so they *MUST* be sold in pairs. Does that sound right to you all?

PCB, no worries, I will keep my tiel separate from my cats.
Another thing, PCB...? How can you tell how old the tiel is? AAAAAnd, can you teach them to talk? Thanks.

Not true. Non hand-fed tiels do NOT need to stay in pairs. Tiels are birds, that when tamed properly, think they're humans and consider their humans as their *flock*. Smaller birds, usually do not stay happy enough as single birdies. They prefer having a friend, however cockatiels and other parrots love being around humans, and if they don't have a birdie friend, they most likely will not be so accepting of other birds. Popcorn and Muffin are 2, but they do NOT accept any other bird other than themselves. They think the only members of their flock are us the humans, and themselves, and whenever I take care of my friends' birds, they let them know that they aren't welcome in the flock. Single tiels are the same way. They usually don't like other birds if they've only lived with humans (which a bird will get used to living with you), although there are exceptions, usually with the less tame ones.

They will normally tell you how old the tiels are when you purchase them. At Petco, they have the hatch dates of every bird they sell. When we got Popcorn and Muffin, we were told they were 3 months old. They were smaller in size, had *baby feathers* which are kind of prickly because they aren't fully grown, and they had a baby voice as well, which matured as they grew up. Those are some of the signs, and most places sell their birds between the ages of 3-8 months, so they are normally young enough to successfully tame very well.

Tikeya's mom, handfed birds are nicer than non hand fed birds the day you bring them home, but they are no different than how a non hand fed bird becomes after proper taming and love. Your Cheeko was well into his adult years when he was given to you, which is why it is hard for him to change, especially when it seems he wasn't given enough love before he came to live with you. That doesn't mean hand fed birds are better than tamed non hand fed birds. When brought young and tamed young, they forget their *baby-hood* and come to think of their humans as their family, just as hand fed ones do from the start. Popcorn and Muffin LOVE getting petted and head scritches, and they are very well tamed and sweet. It took me only 2 weeks of working with them to get them like this, and they are just the sweetest little things now. It all depends on the way they are raised, more than if they were fed by hand during the first few weeks of their life. Popcorn and Muffin eat from our hands every day now anyway, so I guess I can call them *hand-fed*. LOL

Ps. Yes tiels can learn to talk and become very good talkers. The males are more likely to learn to talk or imitate whistles, while females are normally more cuddly.