Cockatiel Communication

Audrey has very particular requirements for the position of boxes on his cages. This is Audrey's downstairs cage.


How spoiled does that sound, readers? His downstairs cage?! When we first moved into this house, we tried to give the birds their own room. But they made it clear that the room got too hot and too bright during the day. So now they're upstairs. That works out better because the upstairs is carpeted, which protects Audrey when he falls.

So this picture shows Audrey's containers in the proper conformation for when Audrey is out of his cage. Audrey is on the left, peeking out from behind the OJ container.

At night, the OJ containers must lay flat on top with the spouts pointing down. The blue container on the right has to be at the bottom of the cage so Audrey can be close to it inside his cage.

Yesterday, when I brought Audrey out of the cage in the morning I forgot to put the blue bottle on top of the cage. Audrey started yelling so I went up to see him. He was on the left side of the cage. As soon as I looked at Audrey he walked to the right side of the cage and cocked his head to look at the blue bottle sitting on the bottom of the cage.

Isn't that amazing communication? He couldn't tell me that I had done something wrong, so he showed me with actions.

In fact, just now Audrey was yelling again. I went upstairs, and some bottles that are supposed to be on the cage were placed on a side table while papers were being changed and not replaced. Conner frequently screams to get attention, but Audrey usually has a reason.

This is Audrey warning me to stay away.

Audrey has very strict rules.