How to Care for a Cockatiel

1 Housing and Setup

Buy well and set up the cage right. Cockatiels are robust, climb well, and love chewing wood, so use a larger metal cage—about 45 cm wide, 60 cm long, 40 cm high per pair—with a perch around 2 cm in diameter made of hard wood or a branch.

Use sturdy, stable dishes so they are not bitten through or kicked over. The nest box should be a closed plywood box about 30×20×16 cm with a 5 cm divider inside and bedding added.

Clean the water cup daily and change the water; disinfect the food and water cups weekly. Watch the weather and adjust room temperature to prevent illness, and in winter keep the cage at 16–30°C.

2 Diet

Vary the diet with millet, panicum, rice, wheat, hemp seed, sunflower seed, egg-food, and greens. A good grain mix is: millet 40%, hemp 20%, panicum 20%, sunflower 10%, rice 10%.

3 Breeding

They mature around eight months and can breed year-round, but in hot summers remove the nest box to stop breeding—eggs hatch poorly then and chicks often die in the shell, and it is also their molting season, so breeding delays the molt. Pause in summer so they recover and molt, then rehang the box for higher hatch rates.

They raise 3–4 clutches a year. First-time pairs lay 3–4 eggs, later 4–6. One egg a day, incubation starting after the third. Once chicks eat on their own, separate them from the female, who will start laying again.

During breeding and incubation, keep the environment quiet and avoid moving the cage or disturbing the nest, or the female may abandon it. After hatching, keep the temperature right and food and water ample; if breeding in winter, hold the room above 20°C with 45–50% humidity and good airflow.