I have almost always had birds but breeding these birds is something that I had never even thought about until a pair of Zebra finches had 3 little babies in my livingroom. This was so exciting!

After a bit of budgie breeding, next in line were Cockatiels. I had two pairs set up & both were laying eggs. I was very excited about having some little cockatiels to raise. These birds were very protective of their nest and eggs so I left them alone as much as possible. One morning I heard a faint peeping from the nestbox & I knew there was a new baby in there. I took a look in & found that although the parents had all the remaining eggs covered, this little baby was alone in a corner of the box. I quickly closed up the box hoping that the parents would get the baby back where he belonged if I wasn´t around. By the next morning the little bird’s peeps were getting very weak & I had to admit to myself that the parents were not going to feed or look after their baby. Unfortunately, he was too weak to feed properly when I took him for handfeeding & the little guy did not make it.

The next baby hatched 2 days later & this time when I saw him huddled in the corner by himself, I quickly removed him from the nestbox. It just seemed so hard to understand why the parents protected the eggs & didn´t want anything to do with their babies. This baby was so adorable. He fed eagerly when offered handfeeding formula & I could see him growing before my eyes. Two days later another baby hatched & this little one was also shoved aside so he joined his older clutchmate in the little container that I had wrapped in an electric blanket to keep warm. This little guy also fed eagerly & I was so happy to be saving them.

When the older baby was 3 days old, I was in the process of giving him a couple of drops of formula when a drop went in the wrong side & he choked. Within a few seconds I had lost another baby bird & I was devastated. This isn´t the way it was supposed to be. These two pairs of Cockatiels had a total of eight eggs between them & unfortunately one by one every baby died until there was just one more egg to go. Some of the babies had hatched on days when I could not be home to handfeed & these were taken immediately over to a friend´s house because she would be available & had offered to help out. Each one was rejected by the parents upon hatching and each one died within the first 3 days.

This last egg was due to hatch just before I would be going to work again & I had already talked to my friend Judy about whether we should try to save the baby or not. We were both worn out from lack of sleep from feeding newly hatched chicks, but neither of us were willing to give up with one more to go. This egg hatched right on schedule on a very cold winter night and my daughter cupped him in her hands & kept her hands inside her winter parka for the trip over to Judy´s place where he could be looked after when I went to work. We both knew it would be day 4 before I could bring him home so I didn´t know if I would ever see him again.

Day 4 arrived and the little bird was thriving! This was so exciting and I eagerly drove over to pick him up. He had grown so much in his short lifetime and he looked so strong. For the first time I started to have hope that he would survive. I took over the handfeeding for the next few days and watched as he grew bigger & stronger each day. Before long I had to take him back to Judy´s so I could go to work again. This time, before leaving him, I named him "Lucky".

Well - Lucky continued to grow and he is a marvelous bird. There was absolutely no way I could ever part with him. One time, a couple of years later, I tried to pair him up with Pearl to see if they would breed for me. Pearl seemed interested in the idea & moved into the nestbox to wait for Lucky. Unfortunately, Lucky seemed to have no idea what was expected of him. I will always remember seeing him stick his head in the nestbox and say "hello - what a pretty bird" to her.

Here is my Lucky bird. He is 8 years old in this picture.


Click here to see and hear a short video of Lucky.





After more than 20 years of Cockatiel ownership, I have decided to write an e-book about the care of these wonderful birds.