# does anybody elses cockatiel use its feet for hands?



## calex89 (Oct 28, 2010)

i know it sounds strange but my female cockatiel uses her feet to pick almost anything up but shes got little legs which stops her from getting her foot to her mouth with food, without losing balance. ive had cockatiels in the past and none of them have done this before?
also while im here im thinking of getting another cockatiel, another white faced female  how should i introduce them?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Shodu does it and so do her children. My other tiels don't. I suspect that there's a genetic component to it.


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

Arnella tries to do this... she does it more so with playing and using her foot toys... she has trouble with her shorty legs though too.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

my lucky likes to use her feet while she has toys or veg in her mouth


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

Whenever I give Sunny a pumpkin seed or something that is bigger than a sunflower seed, he would hold it with his foot to eat it. He only started doing this recently, like within the last 2 months or so, so I don't know where he learned it from.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Spike will sometimes hold a hanging toy with his foot 
If you decide to get a new tiel here are some helpful links 
http://www.cockatiels.org/ownersandenthusiasts/should_i_get_a_second_cockatiel.htm
http://www.birdchannel.com/images/a...xclusives/2009-april/quarantine-checklist.pdf
http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-beh...mall-bird-behavior/introducing-new-birds.aspx


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## beckins (Jul 30, 2010)

Sausage always tries to grab things with her feet, its so cute XD and normally she will grab at something, then when she lets go she still grasping her foot in mid air lol  it cracks me up!


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## Mika (Sep 8, 2008)

Both of my use their feet to hold food. The male did it since he was a baby and the female started doing it when she was about two years old, so maybe she learned form the male.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

ya dally always did it, tsuka's starting to so i think it may also be learned. dally does it with toys, avicakes, and food mostly

here's dally


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## clawnz (May 28, 2009)

Henry does , but not that often.
Here he is holding a piece of bark with one foot and while chewing it.









I have another pic that I cannot find at the moment. In that he was holding a very thin piece of wood smaller than a match stick.

I am hoping having Rikki around he will pick up on it a bit more, as Rikki the Eastern Rosella holds like a lot of the bigger parrots, and does so all the time.


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## Siobhan (Mar 21, 2010)

My Quakers both do it, so Freddie wants to do it. He's trying to figure it out, but he's not real coordinated, so he hasn't managed it so far. I expect he will eventually. He likes to stand on his perch and hang onto the bars with the other foot, so he's working on his balance skills.


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## HAJiME (Sep 20, 2009)

I assumed that it was normal for tiels to do this and mine were idiots. Mine can't even work out really simple tasks, like where the cage door is. :/


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