3 simple questions about cockatiels..?

Question

1. whats a good name for a 6 month old male. it must be a name that they can say.

2. is this a good cage for a cockatile. all it will do is sleep in it. it will be out most of the day.

http://www.petco.com/product/100285/Prevue-Finch-Flight-Cage.aspx

3. what are some easy homemade toys for them. im planing on getting a preening toy but i need to make some too.

thank you 10 points will be awarded

Answer 1

1.  Good names are anything with a good, sharp sound, including k, c, t, and ee sounds.   Petrie, Petey, Mikey (my-key), Cookie, Luke.   Thats not to say that if you give him a softer sounding name (i.e. Don, Zeus, Sam), that he won't learn to say it- there's not even a guarentee that he might learn to say an 'easy to say' name.  -It all depends on the bird.

2.  No, I would find a bigger, better cage.  That one is a bit small.   I have one of those cages, and I know just how big it is.  Remember that cockatiels have very long tail feathers, and are very clumbsy, they need a larger cage than most birds their size, otherwise that long tail will be scruffy, broken and ugly (then again, there are SOME cockatiels who will never have that immaculate tail, because they are just too clumsy!).    Look for a cage where the feed dishes are kept at least 8-10 inches off the cage bottom, and don't place perches much below that.

The best cage option would be a cast iron cage with a metal 'skirt' for trapping seed and poopies that fly everywhere (believe me, I know... it's amazing what will end up NOT in the birds cage).    Also, if the grate in the cage slides out for easy cleaning, that's a super plus!  I love cages where the catchpan is six inches below the grate, it doesn't allow a poo to 'bridge' between the grate and the paper and pull your paper around and drag it out of the pan when you're trying to clean up, not make a mess!

This is the style I mean, and like, http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Bird-Parrot-Conu...  whatever cage you choose though, make sure that it has no more than  5/8 in. spacing between the bars, or your bird could hurt himself getting stuck between them.

3.   Easy homemade toys -drill holes in popscicle sticks, use natural wooden beads, and plastic pony beads on hemp strands to make toys -my cockatiel adores chewing on popscicle sticks and gets great beak excersize doing so.  You can fashion the popsicle sticks into spinny type toys, triangles, stacks, ect.  I would say these are some of the easiest toys to make!

Anyway, hope I helped -enjoy your new cockatiel!

Answer 2

Even though he'll only be sleeping in it, he needs a cockatiel sized cage, not a finch cage.

Answer 3

A name can be anything you want it to be. If you don't take the time to teach it, it won't say anything, lol.  

The cage you picked is way to small for the bird of your choosing.  You want something that is 24x18x33 at least.  Even if its only sleeping in the cage, which i highly doubt it will only be sleeping in the cage because at some point you will have to shower and do grocery shopping and other things.

Simple toys to make are using shoe strings(non dyed) and put cheerios on them and place them in the cage.  Regular Milk jug caps with a hole in the middle strung on raw hide leather strips and place a bell at the end.  I have many ideas i used for bird toys.