If you are thinking about a pet, cockatiels must be perfect for you. Being nicknamed as America’s most favorite bird, this smaller-species of parrot family has a sweet personality yet attractive-colored feathers that will make you instantly fall in love with them. Talking about personality, female cockatiels and male cockatiels do have some significant differences. Below are some common personality traits of female cockatiels that you need to know.
-
Gentle Nature
Similar to human, the female cockatiels tend to be gentler than the male ones. The female cockatiels do not much like to create ruckus since they are mostly shy and reserved. Even though both malez and female cockatiels like getting much attention from their caretaker, the female ones do not try to crave attention as much as their opposite sex.
They like showing their sweet and decile side and will not nip you even if you do not pay any attention to them. Moreover, the female cockatiels prefer observing from the background and avoiding threat as much as possible. When they feel like facing a threat or a new person, they will draw themselves back and flee from them as soon as possible.
-
Talk Less
Due to their reserved behavior, female cockatiels also do not talk much. Even though they may learn one or two vocabularies, female cockatiels do not much like either imitating words or making any noises. In general, they only make one call that sounds like a whistling “wheeeep” sound. This call is usually made when you leave the room, as a sign that they do not want to be left alone.
The other times they make a sharp whistling sound is when they answer other cockatiels’ call, respond to their caretaker or other familiar voices, or voice or whistling call from outside birds. This quiet and less aggressive personality of female cockatiels is perfect for you who want to take care of cockatiels but do not like the noisy ones.
-
Egg Laying
Female cockatiels tend to lay eggs, just like other hens. However, you must be surprised by this fun fact that female cockatiels can even produce eggs even without males. Since they are originally coming from the arid land of Australia, they naturally have an instinct to produce eggs when there are enough water for plants to grow well and enough food to feed their newborn chicks. Therefore, if they feel like having access to enough food and water, they may attempt to produce eggs even without male mates. Of course, these eggs will not develop into chicks since there are produced without fertilization.
Usually, she will lay one egg every two days until she has five days, which generally takes 10 days. During this egg-laying process, she will incubate the eggs by sitting on them. Therefore, it is better to allow them to lay on the eggs until they ignore them by themselves. Usually, she will incubate the eggs for one to three weeks. If you try to take the eggs in the middle of this egg-laying, they usually will replace them and lay more eggs.
For this egg-laying nature, which is one of the common personality traits of female cockatiels, it is essential for you to provide extra calcium in female cockatiels’ diet. You can give them a calcium-fortified base diet or a supplement like a cuttlebone so they will not lack calcium in their body. However, since not many people know about this yet, they often feed their female cockatiels with seed diet only, which then leads to malnutrition.
The seed diet can make the female cockatiels suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies which can be identified with their inability to pass any eggs. Besides vitamin and mineral deficiencies, the all-seed diet also causes fatty liver disease for cockatiels since they are high in fat. For this reason, you need to pay attention to what food you need to feed your cockatiels. To prevent any diseases, you have to provide a healthy, low-fat diet with balanced vitamin, minerals, and amino acid for your cockatiels, especially the female ones.
-
Masturbation
As part of female cockatiels’ reproductive process, of course, they need to stimulate themselves by doing masturbation. Masturbation is one of the traits that female cockatiels usually perform. When you see a female cockatiel perching into a corner of her cage, it signifies that she is going to perform masturbation. During her masturbation process, a female cockatiel will raise her tail up, slightly droop her wings, and emit rolling coo vocalizations which are different from her normal vocalization.
She may also allow a toy or other hanging object to drape across her back and make the same sounds. This weight seems to be a substitute for the weight placed on her back from her mate during the copulation process. She may also seek close cuddling with the favored person or people in her life without a male (a mate substitute).
These four traits of female cockatiels are the most outstanding traits to differentiate the female cockatiels from the male ones. Before you take care of a cockatiel, it is important for you to know the facts of their personality so you can bring home the most perfect cockatiel for you. For example, if you decide to pet cockatiels so you can teach them to talk and whistle every time, the perfect cockatiel for you must be the male ones.
However, if you do not like much noise, you should pet the female cockatiels instead of the male ones. In addition, knowing the facts about cockatiel beforehand will not make you surprised if you suddenly find some eggs in the cage while you do not have a pair of cockatiels. Besides these common personality traits of female cockatiels, there are more traits that you have to learn since taking care a cockatiel can be easy but can be difficult as well.