Biki's Aviary - Cockatiel Care, Bird Health & Pet Bird Guides

The Problem Most Bird Owners Don't Know They Have Here's something I see all the time: a beautiful cockatiel sitting in a nice cage, seemingly healthy, energetic — and eating nothing but sunflower seeds and millet day after day after day. The owner loves the bird, there's no doubt about that. But cockatiel nutrition? That part often gets overlooked — and honestly, it was something I got wrong myself in my early years of keeping birds. If you've ever wondered why your bird's feathers look dull, why it keeps plucking itself, or why the vet found it to be Vitamin A deficient — chances are, the diet is the problem. Proper cockatiel nutrition isn't complicated, but it does require understanding the basics. And that's exactly what this guide is for. I've been keeping and breeding cockatiels for over a decade now, and I can tell you from firsthand experience: feed your bird right, and everything else — energy, feathers, mood, lifespan — just falls into p...

  INTRODUCTION Let me ask you something honestly — how many of us started our cockatiel journey with a little packet of millet seeds from the Galiff Street bird market? Yeah, me too. For years, my cockatiel Tutu ate nothing but seeds. Sunflower seeds, millet, the occasional spray. He looked fine — or at least, I thought he did. Then one day during a routine check-up, a vet in Kolkata told me something that shook me: Tutu had early-stage fatty liver. At just five years old. That's when I truly understood why knowing how to switch your cockatiel from seeds to pellets isn't just "nice to have" advice — it can literally save your bird's life. In this guide, I'm going to walk you through everything I've learned over 10+ years of keeping cockatiels at Biki's Aviary in Barasat. I'll tell you what worked, what didn't, and I'll also cover things that most online guides (written for the US or UK market) completely ignore — like where to actua...