Hi Daisy, Welcome!!

 

I don't breed tiels but I think we have several people who do.

 

Hang in there, they will see this message soon.

Check back for sure in 12 hours or so. Some are up all night (our nighttime).

Annie

Welcome, Daisy.  It is good that you want to get information before breeding the cockatiels.  I started with a pair of cockatiels (lutino male and cinnamon female) in 1998, and now have 15 cockatiels.  Except for one clutch of 6, I have always let the parents raise the chicks.  The one chick that I hand fed from that clutch (lutino female) has always been very tame and loving.  I have found that cockatiels are in the mood to breed all year long.  Mine have their own little house, separate from my house, but no aviary.  Momnoah is our resident cockatiel expert, so I'm sure she'll have lots of good suggestions for you to try.  Kathy

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Hi Daisy.

First question: Why do you want to breed? Profit? Hobby? Fun? Show?Second: What do you want to breed for? Color? Temperment? Size?

Before you get any birds to breed, you need to do a lot of research. You will have to learn nutrition, care, first aid, to hand feed, and a lot more. If you plan on selling, you need to know who you will sell to.

Will you sell wholesale or retail? Where will you advertise? Are there shops you can sell to or bird shows/fairs you can sell them? You will need to know the market near you if you are going to sell them, what mutations sell well, which don't do as well.

You need to know and understand something of genetics so you will have an idea of what you have, and what you are likely to get. It is always best to start out with the best birds possible. Buying good birds to start with can get pretty pricy, but better than breeding mediocre birds and having trouble finding homes for all.

You want big birds of good conformation, temperment  and disposition first and foremost. Then if you wish to breed for a color mutation, you have to know not only the color of the parents, but of their parents as well so you can guess at what 'splits' they might have- then you can guess what you might come up with. it helps to know so you can attempt a pairing that will produce what you want... birds willing of course. 

There is more, but I think this is a start...

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Thankyou so much everyone for replying, especially momnoah for your advice.

 

I'm hoping that we will get a lot of enjoyment as a family hand rearing them but I also imagine it will be a lot of hard work,physically and emotionally at times. We would like to aim for good temperament and nice colours, well socialised and healthy birds. Where we live, it's fairly isolated from the rest of Australia so we have a lack of breeders for many animals. They are such a beautiful bird which I believe everyone should have the opportunity of owning as a pet if they wish. We have 3 main pet shops locally or within a 20 min radius and only one has hand reared cockatiels, the others don't even  have aviary cockatiels and that's just due to a lack of suppliers. We tried finding a breeder and the nearest one is a state away which happens a lot for many animals up here and then they need to be flown in which for a cockatiel, I imagine this could be very stressful. I would love to be able to supply well raised, well socialised, happy birds of good size, colour and temperment for families to enjoy as pets.

 

This is why we are trying to research as much as possible now although there would be many things I'm sure that you could only learn hands on. I want to be prepared for as much as possible though, like first aid, nutrition, etc. We have read quite a bit now on different aspects of raising and breeding. Things like nutrition I've found many have different views on and different results.

 

Here we have many markets through our dry seasons, pet shops that lack supply and plenty of places to advertise. I really believe that it should be a personalised experience with owning a cockatiel for a pet given their temperment rather than be locked up in a cage all day long and we would like to give people an opportunity to experience this.