Post by Casey on Sept 9, 2012 10:39:13 GMT -8
there's been a lot of talk about my tiel tsuka lately. i thought i would go further into detail about his history and everything we've been through with him. i will share photos and everything i could think of. some of his story might be graphic. he came from a rough past, but i want to make it clear that i do not blame his old owners, i blame lack of education. his last owners were truly nice people.
this is tsuka's story.
we had gotten dally first. i had her for about 4 months before we decided to get a second cockatiel. dally would scream for hours on end if i left the room to go out or whatever. she has separation anxiety. well i had heard some birds dont scream as much if they have a second bird as a friend.
so we decided a second cockatiel would be helped, and i had always wanted a male too at first. so i went looking on kijiji for one. there were a few ads, i called a few some were rather disappointing. they didnt sound like they knew anything about cockatiels so we avoided those ones. one sounded really really good, but we didnt get a reply sooner. we found tsuka's ad, with him and his parents being sold.
well the lady contacted me back and we talked for a bit. i asked her questions about him. she told me he was not tame but he seemed to be able to be tamed. well she sent me more photos of him the day before we were going to get him, he looked a tad tattered, and so did his dad, his dad looked like he may have been sick. the perches were run down and broken and the cage looked small and rusted, later i found out it was only 20x20x24" with the three birds inside. too small for even two.
he was dropped off at my husband's mom's home because at the time my husband and i lived with our parents still. at the time, i did not know about quarantine, so that didnt happen (future reference, it most definitely should happen). i had dally's cage in my hand with dally in it, and downstairs from my husband's room i could hear a cockatiel screaming, and dally responding.
as soon as tsuka seen dally he started whistling and talking to her. he looked very happy, but very ragged. his feathers were dull, a lot of them were broken, frayed and had stress bars. one of his wings he held out as if it were hurting him. he had dropped a feather. we clipped him, to help with taming him, but he was quite happy to be with us and dally. his back of the head was completely bald and his crest was thin from plucking, and you could still see the red dots on his skin where he was plucked. he was 5 months old, losing his pearls still and he had the brightest little sad face. he had some oddities that i noticed on him. but we loved him anyways.
you can see the back of his head in this photo
we gave them a shower, tsuka needed one because he reeked of cigarette smoke. it took EIGHT showers to get the stench off
he grew tame very fast and within 3 weeks he let me give him head scratches. we noticed his eye had part of the eyelid missing, mostly noticeable when he closes his eye. he also was missing part of his beak on one side, not very noticeable but you can see a difference.
he was such a sweet bird as a baby, this was him at 6 months old when he wore the harness for the first time.
thats around the time he started bickering with dally. he loved her, but she only saw him as a friend. she had stopped her screaming with him around, but he got mad she never paid him any attention like he wanted her to.
but he was a funny bird, he loves head scratches from veggies
then started the nightfrights. he would start breaking feathers and blood feathers in the cage almost 5 times a week. the feathers that grew in after grew in deformed, stunted, and would fall out after a short period of time. the poor feathers are linked to the smoke he was around at his old him, it made him have trouble with molting.
he had fun on halloween of his first year, we dressed him up as a bat and he thought he was real funny. he loved the paper wings we sewed onto his harness.
then he started being nasty towards me around 8 months old. we thought it was just the teen stage.
his feathers still made no improvement on growing in, they'd grow in part way then fall out. just like that. his wings looked tattered a lot and he could not fly.
then it got worse, he grew in this very odd thing in his wing. it had been a feather cyst, but it had died off during forming, and a new feather started growing in and pushed the cyst tissue through the skin. when we removed it, out came the new feather that was attached to it.
we started taking photos of the deformed feathers he lost all the time, nearly always from the same wing
we resorted to making splints for his wings to help prevent him from bashing his wings any more. but this was a failed attempt as he hated it
he went on with bad wings for several months, he could not fly and he had very frequent nightfrights. it seemed to us he would never fly. after 9 months of these feathers he finally started growing in normal feathers. he nearly got all his wings in, then he had a nightfright and knocked them all out of his wing.
but because he knocked out one whole wing, he was unbalanced and we had to clip the other side... stupid call at the time now that i look back, but he was crashing really bad
he started growing them back in eventually and thats when he finally could fly. it made me so happy to see him actually fly, albeit clumsy.
but he started getting even more nasty towards me and dally. not super bad, just started getting an attitude more and bit more and would do his "angry bat birds". most tiels do bat bird because its a happy thing or its a territorial thing, he nearly always does it as a territorial thing. but he also tail flares, where he quickly flares the tail and lunges and hisses.
another nightfright came and knocked out the same wing again. he started up with more deformed feathers. there had been nights i'd wake up to his thrashing in the cage, find feathers and blood all over the cage and blood all over him. it was a real nightmare to wake up to. he has broken over 50 blood feathers as a baby. again he had to be reclipped because he crashed having no feathers on one wing...
finally got him flying after that whole mess of nightfrights and deformed feathers....
and in the end his attitude grew and grew. he started divebombing me and dally, he would go for the face and go for blood. he became dangerous and unpredictable to live with. we had to make the hard choice to clip him for our safety.
in time, he gained weight clipped and each time the feathers grew in, he would break the blood feathers as they had no support.
we had realized the mistake and at 2 years and 6 months old we made the choice to imp his remaining clipped feathers after one of the worst blood feathers he's had so he would no longer break the blood feathers as easily. he would stay a good healthy weight instead of being obese. its the attitude we need to learn to live with, and learn how to avoid his diving and his biting. his attitude is suspected to either be bipolar disorder, too much testosterone (hormone imbalance), or possibly brain damage from being attacked as a baby in the nest.
he can fly very well with the imped feathers now. so far he has been well behaved and very sweet. thats the thing. he is very sweet on his good days and he is the best bird ever on his good days. after all the blood feathers, every bit of pain this bird has been through, right after all he wants is headscratches and love. he is the most forgiving bird you will ever meet, he loves kisses and hugs and snuggles and all the attention you can give him. he thrives on it and he can be hands down the best bird you will ever meet, but his bad days make him the worst bird you will ever meet as well. you never know what mood he will be in, nothing seems to set him off. you uncover him one morning and he lunges at the cage door trying to get at you, he will dive at you, launch himself in a flurry of wings at your face. theres no pattern, little warning. then the next day he will talk to you and beg for scritches every ten seconds and be very demanding of your love.
as for his old scars, he's got part of his eye lid missing, part of the side of his beak missing, and two nails on one foot that will never grow and theyre twisted and deformed
you can see this side of the beak, its normal fits snugly with the bottom beak
you can see this side of the beak, it does not
you can see the eyelid here
from not being able to fly at times with his obesity and breaking feathers, he has bashed his tail enough times that he grows in deformed messed up feathers there from time to time, hes grown in two twice the same feather that was clearly two feathers combined.
this is tsuka's story.
we had gotten dally first. i had her for about 4 months before we decided to get a second cockatiel. dally would scream for hours on end if i left the room to go out or whatever. she has separation anxiety. well i had heard some birds dont scream as much if they have a second bird as a friend.
so we decided a second cockatiel would be helped, and i had always wanted a male too at first. so i went looking on kijiji for one. there were a few ads, i called a few some were rather disappointing. they didnt sound like they knew anything about cockatiels so we avoided those ones. one sounded really really good, but we didnt get a reply sooner. we found tsuka's ad, with him and his parents being sold.
well the lady contacted me back and we talked for a bit. i asked her questions about him. she told me he was not tame but he seemed to be able to be tamed. well she sent me more photos of him the day before we were going to get him, he looked a tad tattered, and so did his dad, his dad looked like he may have been sick. the perches were run down and broken and the cage looked small and rusted, later i found out it was only 20x20x24" with the three birds inside. too small for even two.
he was dropped off at my husband's mom's home because at the time my husband and i lived with our parents still. at the time, i did not know about quarantine, so that didnt happen (future reference, it most definitely should happen). i had dally's cage in my hand with dally in it, and downstairs from my husband's room i could hear a cockatiel screaming, and dally responding.
as soon as tsuka seen dally he started whistling and talking to her. he looked very happy, but very ragged. his feathers were dull, a lot of them were broken, frayed and had stress bars. one of his wings he held out as if it were hurting him. he had dropped a feather. we clipped him, to help with taming him, but he was quite happy to be with us and dally. his back of the head was completely bald and his crest was thin from plucking, and you could still see the red dots on his skin where he was plucked. he was 5 months old, losing his pearls still and he had the brightest little sad face. he had some oddities that i noticed on him. but we loved him anyways.
you can see the back of his head in this photo
we gave them a shower, tsuka needed one because he reeked of cigarette smoke. it took EIGHT showers to get the stench off
he grew tame very fast and within 3 weeks he let me give him head scratches. we noticed his eye had part of the eyelid missing, mostly noticeable when he closes his eye. he also was missing part of his beak on one side, not very noticeable but you can see a difference.
he was such a sweet bird as a baby, this was him at 6 months old when he wore the harness for the first time.
thats around the time he started bickering with dally. he loved her, but she only saw him as a friend. she had stopped her screaming with him around, but he got mad she never paid him any attention like he wanted her to.
but he was a funny bird, he loves head scratches from veggies
then started the nightfrights. he would start breaking feathers and blood feathers in the cage almost 5 times a week. the feathers that grew in after grew in deformed, stunted, and would fall out after a short period of time. the poor feathers are linked to the smoke he was around at his old him, it made him have trouble with molting.
he had fun on halloween of his first year, we dressed him up as a bat and he thought he was real funny. he loved the paper wings we sewed onto his harness.
then he started being nasty towards me around 8 months old. we thought it was just the teen stage.
his feathers still made no improvement on growing in, they'd grow in part way then fall out. just like that. his wings looked tattered a lot and he could not fly.
then it got worse, he grew in this very odd thing in his wing. it had been a feather cyst, but it had died off during forming, and a new feather started growing in and pushed the cyst tissue through the skin. when we removed it, out came the new feather that was attached to it.
we started taking photos of the deformed feathers he lost all the time, nearly always from the same wing
we resorted to making splints for his wings to help prevent him from bashing his wings any more. but this was a failed attempt as he hated it
he went on with bad wings for several months, he could not fly and he had very frequent nightfrights. it seemed to us he would never fly. after 9 months of these feathers he finally started growing in normal feathers. he nearly got all his wings in, then he had a nightfright and knocked them all out of his wing.
but because he knocked out one whole wing, he was unbalanced and we had to clip the other side... stupid call at the time now that i look back, but he was crashing really bad
he started growing them back in eventually and thats when he finally could fly. it made me so happy to see him actually fly, albeit clumsy.
but he started getting even more nasty towards me and dally. not super bad, just started getting an attitude more and bit more and would do his "angry bat birds". most tiels do bat bird because its a happy thing or its a territorial thing, he nearly always does it as a territorial thing. but he also tail flares, where he quickly flares the tail and lunges and hisses.
another nightfright came and knocked out the same wing again. he started up with more deformed feathers. there had been nights i'd wake up to his thrashing in the cage, find feathers and blood all over the cage and blood all over him. it was a real nightmare to wake up to. he has broken over 50 blood feathers as a baby. again he had to be reclipped because he crashed having no feathers on one wing...
finally got him flying after that whole mess of nightfrights and deformed feathers....
and in the end his attitude grew and grew. he started divebombing me and dally, he would go for the face and go for blood. he became dangerous and unpredictable to live with. we had to make the hard choice to clip him for our safety.
in time, he gained weight clipped and each time the feathers grew in, he would break the blood feathers as they had no support.
we had realized the mistake and at 2 years and 6 months old we made the choice to imp his remaining clipped feathers after one of the worst blood feathers he's had so he would no longer break the blood feathers as easily. he would stay a good healthy weight instead of being obese. its the attitude we need to learn to live with, and learn how to avoid his diving and his biting. his attitude is suspected to either be bipolar disorder, too much testosterone (hormone imbalance), or possibly brain damage from being attacked as a baby in the nest.
he can fly very well with the imped feathers now. so far he has been well behaved and very sweet. thats the thing. he is very sweet on his good days and he is the best bird ever on his good days. after all the blood feathers, every bit of pain this bird has been through, right after all he wants is headscratches and love. he is the most forgiving bird you will ever meet, he loves kisses and hugs and snuggles and all the attention you can give him. he thrives on it and he can be hands down the best bird you will ever meet, but his bad days make him the worst bird you will ever meet as well. you never know what mood he will be in, nothing seems to set him off. you uncover him one morning and he lunges at the cage door trying to get at you, he will dive at you, launch himself in a flurry of wings at your face. theres no pattern, little warning. then the next day he will talk to you and beg for scritches every ten seconds and be very demanding of your love.
as for his old scars, he's got part of his eye lid missing, part of the side of his beak missing, and two nails on one foot that will never grow and theyre twisted and deformed
you can see this side of the beak, its normal fits snugly with the bottom beak
you can see this side of the beak, it does not
you can see the eyelid here
from not being able to fly at times with his obesity and breaking feathers, he has bashed his tail enough times that he grows in deformed messed up feathers there from time to time, hes grown in two twice the same feather that was clearly two feathers combined.
. You know him more than I do so know whether it's best to clip him or not. From what I have read i'd say it is better to let him be flighted, clipping would only cause further problem to his flight feathers. 
