Am I doing the right thing?

[Kai]

So it's been a few days now since I brought my new tiel home and I want to make sure some of the things I'm doing are ok.

I noticed after the first day that my little baby is an absolute clutz! :love: Can't really climb the bars in the cage and has a really hard time getting back on the bottom perches when she falls down. Of course, she chose the highest perch that first night and fell from it the next morning. So I removed the higher perches and lowered the bottom ones as far as I could. I moved her food dishes as close to the perch as possible and was very relieved to see her immediately chow down on her seeds. She had been eating a little bit of millet but not a lot. Is it ok to only have one main perch in there for the moment? I know they need different size perches for their feet but she never moves from this one yet anyways.

So essentially, she has one perch that she sits on constantly, and whenever she tries to turn around she falls off the perch. Is this normal for a 3 month old? When do they start to get their feet under them (so to speak)?

Soo happy to see her eating!! Didn't realize how nerve racking the settling in part can be until it's over.

[xxxSpikexxx]

I would put in different perches even a high one. She has to start to learn how to navigate her cage sometime ;) Spike took a while to get use to his cage as well :)

[Babi]

I have two babies that I raised from 2 1/2 weeks old. I started with the low perches but one a bit higher as well. Once I seen them climb to the next one a few good times and spend alot of time up there, I put in higher ones. They like to be as high as they can get so she will learn to climb up when she is ready. Mine were climbing and not falling much by then but all babies are different. Just give her time.

[Laura]

I would put in different perches as well, it might take her a few days but she will get it, some are more clumsy then others, I have a clumsy one as well it took her two days to learn how to climb the cage she just kept sliding back down...hehe but they get it eventually, your little one is getting use to a new cage so it just might take her a couple of days to figure it out, its ok that she is only eating a little bit of millet you don't want her to have to much just offer it as a treat once in awhile.

[Plukie]

I don't think tiels are the most agile of birds, in fact I think they are downright clumsy, unless of course that's just Sir Doobs!! At least if you put in higher perches, she will eventually find her way around, she might fall off a few times, Dooby still does now, but that's all part of the learning.

[Aly]

Plukie's right- they are very clumpsy things. Add back the different perches- she'll learn.;)

[Bea]

I had the same problem with Cookie, she couldn't climb the bars for the longest time. So i had a rope perch down the bottom (comfy) and then perches going all the way up so they touched and she could walk up one, easily step to the next and walk up that one. She stayed down the bottom for the first few days but eventually used my "ramp" system to play up the top. :)

[Kai]

Thanks guys for all the info. I'm getting a new cage soon that will make it really easy to stack the perches. My pagoda cage that I'm currently using is nice and big... but very tall. The new cage should be here Monday or Tuesday. I will make darn sure I add more perches at different levels then. Right now I don't think it's much of an issue... She hasn't moved from the same spot since she realized the food was there. =)

[Plukie]

It's still very early days, she's still getting used to her new surroundings etc. I'm sure once she is in her new cage with lots of perches, she'll find her way around just fine. In fact, I'd bet that she explores when you are out of the room.

[Sophia]

When I first put Earl in his cage, he was tripping over, his feet were getting all mixed up, he was really clumsy, but now he can get around really good.

Make sure you put perches of different sizes, and widths in the cage, and put them at different heights :D