Originally posted by DogLover9501
Wow, this is alot of good, and interesting information!!

First of all, they seem ALOT different than budgies I grew up with lol, they seem very smart!
Budgies are very sweet too, but when you compare cockatiels with budgies, cockatiels are definitely the more human oriented/intelligent bird. Of course it depends on the bird's personality, but in general, cockatiels like to interact with people a lot more. They're LOTS of fun! I've been around budgies a lot, and while I love them, tiels are different.



Are they messy?(Like alot of feathers everywhere, or food everywhere?)


During molting season, you will find feathers everywhere. Once they get their new feathers, the shedding stops for a long while. You will still find an occasional feather or two here and there, but not much. Cockatiels do leave a lot of dust when they preen though, but nothing a vaccuum can't fix. As to seeds, they do seem to enjoy throwing their seeds around, but there are things you can do to limit the mess. I have food bowls that are high from the back, so when they eat, if they throw seeds around, most of them end up back in the cage. You can also buy a seed guard for their cage. It also helps. I sweep under their cage every night. It doesn't take more than 2 minutes, and they're worth all the effort. We have tiles in our family room, so that makes cleaning up after them much easier. If your bird will be in a carpetted area, you'll need to vaccuum under the cage instead of sweep.



Also where would I find one/some??
There are many good bird breeders out there where you can get a sweet handfed bird from. You can also get them from most pet stores.



*EDIT* What about doves?? I know exactly where I could get some, I heard that they aren't loud, that they just "coo", but I don't know anything else about them, does anyone else?
I don't know much about doves, other than they're CUTE! I would *think* birds from the parrot family are more playful/intelligent, though I'm not sure.

Hope this helps!