5 Important Weekly Cockatiel Maintenance Chores – (Care Guide)
One thing all those cute bird videos on YouTube fail to show you is the amount of work it takes to properly take care of a cockatiel.
I’ll say this as an experienced cockatiel owner:
It’s not easy to take care of them.
You have to be very dedicated and have good time management skills when it comes to bird ownership.
Below I’ll give you a cockatiel care guide for 5 essential chores you must do for your cockatiel at least once a week to ensure that they are healthy, happy, and hygienic.
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- 1) Weighing Your Cockatiel
- 2) Bathing Your Cockatiel
- 3) Cockatiel Cage Cleaning
- 4) Taking Your Cockatiel Outside In The Sun
- 5) Replacing Toys
- Short Summary
1) Weighing Your Cockatiel
Weighing a cockatiel might not seem important, but the weight of your bird can indicate a few things that you need to be aware of.
Cockatiels who are sick will often eat less and ultimately start losing weight, regularly weighing your bird will help you detect the sudden drop in weight and you’ll be able to take your cockatiel to a vet ASAP.
Loss of appetite can be a symptom of an illness your avian vet will be able to diagnose.
It’s very hard to tell if a cockatiel bird is sick (they’re good at pretending they’re fine), so detecting a sudden weight drop could potentially save your cockatiel’s life.
The best way to weigh your bird is to set up a T-shaped perch and set it on a small bird weighing scale.
Something like this image below would be ideal:
(Click here to view this perch scale on Amazon)
Your cockatiels weight should be within 80 to 120 grams, It’s best to weigh your cockatiel at least once a week to ensure they don’t lose or gain weight unexpectedly.
To be extra safe, do it once a day.
My cockatiel currently weighs 86.4 grams and he is healthy and very active.
2) Bathing Your Cockatiel
Bathing your cockatiel is essential as water will help them remove any grime or dirt they may have on their feathers and will also help keep their skin healthy.
But do cockatiels like bathing?
Well, it depends on the individual bird.
Most cockatiels enjoy being clean and in the water, some like it more than others and some won’t like it at all.
Cockatiels in the wild will get wet in the rain and clean themselves with that, but pet cockatiels often don’t get exposed to the natural rain.
It is up to us as responsible cockatiel owners to make sure they have opportunities to bathe…
The best ways to bathe them are to either spray them with water from a spray bottle or to leave a plate of water out for them to bathe in when they feel like it.
You could also do something interesting for your feathered friend and present a bird bath toy for them to play in.
This faucet toy looks pretty fun:
This toy takes batteries, it cycles the water from the bottom into the tap where it gently rains water back into the bottom.
Birds love to play and splash around in fountain-type toys like this one.
Whichever way you decide to bathe your bird, just know that you don’t need to bathe them every day, once a week is enough to keep them clean and healthy.
Although some birds may like to bathe every day.
Check out 6 ways to bathe your stubborn cockatiel to learn some other unique bathing methods.
3) Cockatiel Cage Cleaning
One thing all bird owners can agree on is that cleaning the cage is not a fun task, yet it is so important.
If you neglect washing your bird cage, bacteria will build up and will likely make your cockatiel sick, bacteria can come from poo and food build-up over time, which is why cleaning should be done at least once a week.
To ensure a thorough clean you’ll need to empty the cage of all perches, toys, bowls and birds, don’t try to clean the cage with the birds inside because it won’t be done efficiently.
What I do is put my cockatiel down on a perch and let him go where he wants inside as I take the cage outside for cleaning.
The way I clean my cockatiels cage is what I believe to be the most effective way and ensures my cockatiels safety:
- Remove any food, droppings or feathers from the cockatiel’s cage [rinse and wipe messy areas thoroughly with warm water]
- Disinfect with warm running water [Use apple cider vinegar mixed with water for disinfectant]
- Scrub everywhere in the cage with a sponge or wet rag using the vinegar solution
- Rinse again thoroughly with hot water [remove disinfectant]
- Allow cage to dry in direct sunlight
Read the full guide to cleaning your bird cage with vinegar
4) Taking Your Cockatiel Outside In The Sun
Cockatiels in the wild will spend quite a lot of time under the sun outside, but unfortunately, pet birds often don’t get this luxury.
Sunlight does a lot for your cockatiels body such as keeping their skin healthy and their feathers nice, shiny and in good condition.
Sunlight also produces vitamin D in their bodies which is essential to their health.
It is considered neglect to deprive your bird of sunlight as it provides many essential nutrients and health benefits.
You shouldn’t bring your cockatiel outside unless they are in a cage, carrier, or have a harness equipped, if your cockatiel isn’t used to being outside, there is a good chance they’ll fly away and won’t be able to come back.
Simply bringing them to a window is not good enough, glass windows block out 90% of the sun’s beneficial rays.
Taking them outside is the best and most beneficial way to provide sunlight.
5) Replacing Toys
Ah yes, toys…
The financial sinkhole when it comes to cockatiel care, there will never be a time when you can stop buying or making new toys for your bird to play with.
Birds thrive with new and mentally stimulating toys.
It’s a good idea to have around 4 quality toys in your cockatiel’s cage at a time, spread around different parts of the cage, different types of toys are great for keeping your cockatiel entertained.
Foraging and shredding toys will typically be your go-to toys.
Regularly switching these toys around is very important as you want to make sure these toys are as interesting as possible.
Similar to us humans, they’ll get bored if a toy has been in there too long without any change.
You should have plenty of toys on standby, ready for when a toy in their cage needs to be replaced.
Look at this list of 14 cockatiel shredding toys if you need to restock some toys
Helpful tip: You can recycle old toy parts if they break off from the main toy, they can be repurposed into DIY toys as long as they didn’t get pooped on. Don’t waste any good toy parts if possible.
The best materials for toys include:
- Safe woods
- Paper
- Balsa
- Cardboard
- Pine
You’ll probably need to switch all the toys currently in your bird’s cage within 2 weeks before they get bored of them.
Short Summary
The 5 chores you need to do weekly for your cockatiel are:
- Weighing Your Cockatiel
- Bathing Your Cockatiel
- Cleaning Their Cage
- Taking Them Outside In the Sun
- Replacing Their Toys
These are chores that must be done at least once a week, you could do these once a day if you want but these chores should not be put off for more than a week.
Cockatiel care can be hard work, it takes dedication, patience, and a lot of your time to ensure they are happy and healthy.
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