Training & Behavior · Birds
Cockatiel Care Guide
Decoding Crests, Diets, and Night Frights
The crest tells you everything, once you can read it. 10 lessons on what each crest position means, the powder-down dust and the air purifier it calls for, whistling versus screaming and how to shape the sounds you want, preventing night frights with a night-light and smart cage placement, a balanced pellet-seed-greens diet with grit, stopping chronic egg-laying in hens, getting past the step-up plateau without pushing, target training basics, room-proofing for out-of-cage time, and recognizing avian gastric yeast before a bird goes light.
About this course
A cockatiel's crest is a mood flag, and Lesson 1 teaches you to read it: curved and upright means calm, arrow-straight means curious, flat against the head means scared and ready to bite. Lesson 2 explains the white dust on your furniture (powder-down, not dirt) and the air purifier and bathing routine that keep everyone's lungs clear. Lesson 3 separates the whistling you want from the attention screams you don't, and shows you how to ignore one and reward the other. Lesson 4 is the night fright lesson: why cockatiels thrash in the dark, and the night-light and cage placement that prevent it. From there you build the diet (pellets, grass seed, greens and grit), learn how to shut down chronic egg-laying in a hen with darkness and cavity removal, and work through the step-up plateau with a target stick instead of a pushing finger. Lesson 8 teaches target training from the first touch, Lesson 9 room-proofs your home for a bird that walks the floor, and Lesson 10 covers avian gastric yeast, the stomach infection behind a bird that eats constantly and still loses weight.
What you'll learn
- Reading crest positions as mood signals, and managing powder-down dust with clean air and baths
- Shaping whistles instead of screams, and preventing night frights with a night-light and smart placement
- A balanced diet of small pellets, grass seed, greens and grit, and why seed alone fails
- Halting chronic egg-laying with long dark nights, cavity removal and leaving the egg in place
- Getting past step-up refusal with target pulling, the Retreat Protocol and touch-click-treat
- Room-proofing for a floor-walking bird, and spotting avian gastric yeast before a bird goes light
Who this is for
New cockatiel owners who can't tell a curious crest from a scared one; anyone woken at 2 a.m. by a bird thrashing in its cage; and keepers whose hen keeps laying eggs or whose bird is tame in the cage but nips at a finger.
Course outline (10 modules)
Quiz & Certificate
Knowledge quiz
After completing all lessons, take a short quiz to test your understanding.
Go to quiz →Completion certificate
Pass the quiz and earn a shareable certificate of completion.
View certificate →Frequently asked questions
Ready to get started?
$9.99 · Lifetime access · 10 lessons