Hi!
Great questions & I’m glad you are following my recommendations. You can definitely keep a chick, but it needs its own cage, and really should not interact with the parents. Again, referring to in the wild, the parents would make the chicks leave once they are weaned and taught how to find food by the parents. This is nature’s way of preventing related birds from breeding. In captivity, when trapped in the same cage with the parents, the chicks can’t leave, so if you do not separate them, the parents will start to pick on them and get increasingly aggressive. In some cases, the parents, might tolerate them, but then try to breed with them after a few months. And of course related birds should never be allowed to breed. Plus you want your chick to bond with you and be a pet. Whether you breed birds or not, when two birds share a cage, they will almost always bond and eventually no longer want to be handled. Even if both birds are the same sex, this bond usually forms. So where your pair is concerned, they may be lost as pets. You can try to handle them, but even without breeding & the chicks in the picture, it may cause issues between the pair. As I mentioned, the day could come when the male turns on you or her. Maybe you will be lucky and both birds will go back to being pets. There can always be exceptions when dealing with captive cockatiels. They aren’t domesticated, but they aren’t wild, so it depends on how strong their natural instincts are. I think we already know your male’s instincts aren’t as strong as your female’s. Watch for any fighting between them, or reluctance from him to be a pet or to be with the female. It would be sad for her if he chooses you over her, but usually a bird chooses a bird over a human. I’m not sure if you have handled the chicks at all. Usually when letting the parents feed – which is best – you can start to handle the chicks, one at a time, when they are still in the nest box. You can try handling one chick at a time now, but of course watch for any aggression from either parent and stop any handling if the parents object too much. Good luck with the chicks and I hope they turn out to be great pets for you and their future homes!
Thanks for the update,
Brenda
