About My Flock
The birds
I keep and breed cockatiels and quaker parrots. I also have a few pet parakeets. Most of my birds are pet-only birds and never produce babies. I call the pet-only birds my "special flock." I prevent unwanted breeding by not providing nest boxes in the aviary and controlling how much light they get.
Diet
My birds are fed a diet of Mazuri Small Bird pellets, Higgins Gold Safflower Cockatiel and Conure seed mix, fresh fruits, and veggies. Sometimes, they get sprouted seeds, millet spray, and scrambled chicken eggs.
Caging
My cockatiels live in one of 2 different free-flight aviaries with airlock door systems to ensure the safety of the birds. One is inside of a climate-controlled shed and is 12ftx4ft. This is their winter and bad weather home. During the nice weather of the year, they are in the patio aviary, which is 12ftx6ft. Any pair I want to get babies from are temporarily moved into breeding cages with a nest box. This ensures I know the genetics of each baby produced here, and it cuts back on fighting over nest boxes.
My other birds
I have 1 pair of quakers named Syl and Kal. Quakers can be very rough on other birds, so for the safety of the rest of the flock, they have their cage in the bird room and are allowed out to explore under supervision. Visitors are not allowed to interact with the adult quakers as they do bite!
I also have 4 parakeets which mostly stay in their own cage as well. At times, I do place them into one of the avatars, but they get stressed when it's time to move them, and this has resulted in injury and the death of these little birds, so mostly, they are not in the aviary.
My Flock
mozart
Mozart is the oldest bird in my flock. He was found in St. Pete many years ago by my cousin. I got him in 2013 and he was a young bird at the time, probably no more than a year old. We looked for his owner, but none was ever found. This is why it's so important always to have double doors, secure windows, or clip your bird's wings! Mozart is a whiteface pied male.
Sparrow hawk
Sparrow hawk was hatched in February of 2019, and I purchased him at the Hernando County bird fair from a breeder who "assured me he was a female." Needless to say, he was a boy! He is a male whiteface split to pied and cinnamon
Dew drop
Dew Drop is a female lutino cockatiel that was produced by Beth Garcia in Brooksville. She was hatched in 2019. She is mates with both Sparrow Hawk and Ember-yes cockatiels will do love triangles!
Ember
When I first met Ember, I thought he was a girl. But he is a boy! His birthday is estimated to be in 2014, however I am not really sure. The story I got was that he was passed from home to home until a women was looking for a friend for him and met me. She wanted to buy a baby cockatiel from me to be friends with him, but after she saw my set up, she asked me if I would take him. I took him in on 10/15/2020. He came to me with no social skills and it took a while for him to settle into flock life. However he is doing great here and he even has a few kids of his own now! He is a cinnamon pied.
Jack
I purchased Jack as part of a "proven pair" of cockatiels in 2019. He was sold as a 2-year-old male. Unfortunately, the hen he was sold to me with was never a very healthy bird, and I had to send her off to a pet bird-only home to keep her from laying eggs constantly. Jack does not really like to be held, but he LOVES being a dad. He is mates with Faile. He produces lutino, white face lutino, whiteface, and whiteface pied babies. He is also an accomplished taker.
Faile AKA Lady Faile
Named after a character from the Wheel of Time, Faile is a very lovely cinnamon pearl split to pied whiteface. She was hatched on 06/06/2020, and I purchased her from a breeder in Ocala, FL. She has produced some very nice babies with Jack. She is also a very friendly girl who will come and sit with you when you are in the aviary.
Nova
Nova is a whiteface lutino (some may say albino but that is incorrect). He was produced by Beth Garcia and I was able to hand raise him. He was hatched in October of 2020 and is mates with Dapple.
Dapple
Dapple is a grey female who is split to whiteface and pied. She is the daughter of Sparrow Hawk and Dew Drop. She hatched on 09/27/2020. She is a cheeky girl who will fight to her place on your shoulder. His biggest competitor is her sister, Sun Flower.
Sun Flower
Sun Flower is a cinnamon pearl cockatiel split to whiteface and pied. I sold her, but her new family had to move, so she came back to me, and this is where she will stay. While she has several boys to choose from, she has remained within a mate and prefers to follow me around the aviary, trying to get head pats whenever she can. She hatched on 01/10/21 and is the daughter of Sparrow Hawk and Dew Drop.
Goldie
Goldie was given to me by a fellow bird breeder. She was extremely ill when I got her, and it took over a month on antibiotics to save her. It is estimated that she was hatched in 2018 and she came to me in 2021. She has proven to be a resilient fighter with a strong will to live. She is an extremely yellow cinnamon pied cockatiel.
Cisco
Cisco came to me with another female cockatiel in 2021. Her hatch date is believed to be in 2017. This is a very wonderful girl who will come when you call her name! She is a whiteface cinnamon and is mates with Gilligan.
Giligan
Giligan came to me from a wildlife rescue. He is a pied cockatiel and his back story is a little sad. Someone turned him into a vet's office on the brink of death. The wildlife rescue nursed him back to health and then he hung out with their flock for a few years. Then in an effort to help the wildlife rescue focus on wildlife, he came to my home and joined my flock, along with another cockatiel named Lady Grey.
There are more flock members below!
Lady Grey
Lady Grey's exact age is not really known, but we estimate her to have been born around 2017. She is here as a retirement bird only. She does not ever want to come up to people and she has produced many babies in her life. Her mate passed away before she came to me. I think she is happy here and is flying around in the aviary with the rest of the cockatiels.
Baby
Baby is a very beautiful whiteface pearl pied cockatiel. She was picked up for me by a friend, and he regretted not keeping her for himself! She was born around March of 2022 and was weaned here. She is one of the most friendly cockatiels here and loves hanging out with people. I hope that one day she will pick out a mate and make some pretty babies for me.
Jester
Jester is the son of Dew Drop and Ember, remember the love triangle? Well, this handsome fellow loves to follow me around the aviary. He is super handsome and a great addition to the flock! He was hatched 04/20/23.
Parker
Parker came to me from a fellow nurse. He was found in a parking garage in Tampa. Unfortunately, no one came forward as his owner for several months, and then he came to live with me. He is a very small grey male.
Male pied
This handsome fellow was produced by Susan Graham. He is a pied cockatiel and hopefully will produce some pretty babies. I need a name for him still! I got him in 2024 and he was sold as a 1 year old.
Whiteface male
This gentleman came from Susan Graham. He is a cinnamon pearl split to pied whiteface male. While I had hoped he would bond with Baby, that has not happened. He has a silly nature and is a very good boy-who just needs a name!
MB FL 20 23
This young lady is kind of a free spirit. She does not really care for human interaction and prefers other birds. She is the daughter of Gilligan and Cisco and was hatched on 08/11/23.
Non-Cockatiel Flock members
Syl and Kal
Syl (short for Sylpherna) is a blue quaker that I got as a baby from a local pet store in April of 2020. She speaks many words including "No", "Wana go outside", "DOGS!!!", "Stop that", and "I'm a pretty bird". Can you guess what we said around her a lot when she was growing up?
Kal (Short for kaladin) came from a bird broker by way of a friend. He never really bonded to me and prefers to be left alone. He was born sometime in May of 2022. He is a blue opaline quaker.
Together they produce blue male offspring and blue opaline female offspring. I do not let them have babies often, but when I do they go fast.
The parakeets
I took in a pair of older parakeets and had 1 die. So I got the remaining one a friend. A few months later the older one joined his lost mate. I currently have 4 parakeets. These are pets only. They do not have names. 2 came from local pet stores, 1 was given to me by a co-worker who took it from a random lady walking around with it in a tiny cage, and 1 was found in a box left on the doorstep of the wildlife rescue I was volunteering for. The one shown in the photo is the blue male that was left in a box, with no note, on the doorstep of the rescue.