# cockatiels vs lineolated parakeets



## deb1234 (Apr 7, 2010)

Hi guys,

I am new to the list, just hoping to learn a bit about cockatiels before purchasing our next bird. We have had a lineoated parakeet previously and fell in love with his outgoing, animated personality and his desire to interact with us. We were hoping to get a little bigger bird this time that would also be good with our two boys 7 and 11 who love pets. We have heard many good things about cockatiels but we are a little warry about all the comments about their crazy squaking. Our parakeet spent a lot of time riding on the kids shoulders or sitting in the kitchen on top of his cage so, I am sure the cockatiel would get a lot of attention. We our out of the house in the day from 9-3 but home most of the time otherwise.

So, do you think a cockateil would be a good match for us? How bad and persistent is the squaking? We have had a red-headed conure before and his squawking was really loud. Is is similar? 

Thanks for any advise.

Deb


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Cockatiels are great birds  They are louder than a linnie for sure but I don't think they would be anywhere close to how loud a red headed conure would be.
Cockatiels are really nice pets, Spike likes his scritches and hanging out with me. He also knows lots of tricks, which he will do just to hear me call him a good boy  Spike does scream sometimes but I ignore it and he will usually stop screaming and talk instead and then I will pay attention to him.
The only down side I can think of is when Spike's nails get long they get sharp, my linnies nails don't get sharp when long, of course this can be fixed by having a nail trim.
Oh and the dust as well is much more than a linnie has but I think having a tiel is worth having to dust  
So I say if you can get both a tiel and a linnie


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## brittbritt (Oct 25, 2008)

I have a female cockatiel named Moonshine. She loves being out of her cage. The only time she really is loud is if she's in her cage and she hears me. She'll call to me to come get her. I have several budgies and they are louder than Moonshine. 

My six year old daughter is able to hold her and pet her. They can be very affectionate and have very sweet personalities. We love her very much.


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## Siobhan (Mar 21, 2010)

I adore my tiel and would vote for a tiel for sure. Mine is very sweet and affectionate and loves to just sit on my chest or shoulder and snuggle. If he had his way, he'd sit there all the time. I don't think he's a bit loud. He whistles and makes little noises like kissing, but he never squawks and screams. I have two Quakers and two budgies, too, and any one of the others is MUCH louder than Freddie. My little budgie Benjy could shout down the house.  When Benjy's raising the roof, Freddie looks at him like he's thinking Benjy needs to learn some self-control.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The loud shrieking is a flock call, so you'll only hear it when your tiel is calling to you. Cockatiels mostly flock call when a flock member is leaving them, so you might hear it when you walk out of the room. I also get flock-called when I arrive home after being out somewhere (they know the difference between my car and someone else's car). Most tiels won't shriek to get you to come pay attention to them but there are exceptions.

The rest of a cockatiel's vocabulary is a lot quieter than the flock call, and even the flock call isn't that bad unless you're standing pretty close to it or have half a dozen birds doing it at the same time. If you're trying to listen to something a singing male might possibly make that a little difficult for you, but he isn't going to puncture your eardrums.


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## Peanutbutter (Jun 29, 2009)

I love my tiels, but if I had researched more in the beginning I would have gone with Linnies.

Holly is nesty Again.... from what I have read tiels are more prone to being 'cronic' layers than most.

Meena has recently decided he only wants my dh to be around him. Holly decided she was a one person bird after she'd been home about 3 months; only I have been able to give her scritches ever since.

Cockatiels are also a 'powder down' bird (greys, too's, and tiels) that produce white dust/dander. Not good to be around the dust constantly if you are sensative to there dander.
(Linnies are Not powder down birds)

If I had known about linnies before tiels I would have gone for linnies just to escape the dust. 
(Recent prolonged illness in the family, turned into pnemonia in my 5 year old... 2 big new hepa air purifiers, birds & gerbils at gma's for a few weeks, lots of doctor visits. Talk of re-homing that broke my heart to pieces. He's recovering & the fids are home again, but I may end up re-homing the fids if he relapses.)

That and the pics I've seen of linnies hanging upside down are just so adorable. 

Positive... tiels do have smaller poo. lol. Serisouly, Holly is my lil' love. She will let me give her scritches all day. Meena may not let me touch him much, but I sure do enjoy watching him destroy all the toys I make for him... Overall, my fids are very laid back & only get LOUD when someone knocks on the door. They make the very best door bell.


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## cinnamon (Jul 16, 2009)

Cockatiels are a good choice if you can handle the dust. We all have asthma and have 13 other types of parrots. We don't have any troubles from the dust.
I will say this, one is a water dog! She just has to be sprayed every morning right away or I hear about it. The other takes it every other day, he just walks away.
They are fun. We let ours keep their flight feathers so they do fly in the house. So lovely to watch. Yes they did fly into the wall once when they first moved in but not anymore. Our front door is far away from the living room and we don't have folks over because we have birds so no worries about the door opening! 
They can get loud as a conure when they want to, who knows why ours do it everyday around 3:30 but they do and it ends in a minute or so. We laugh at them. 
They can have night frights where something will scare the dickens out of them at night and flap against the cage breaking feathers and blood goes every where, so don't keep the cage next to a window!
Try to get a hand fed and make sure you spend time handling it at the breeders place before deciding. Also let the bird choose you. Don't let the breeder tell you its tame, make sure.


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## Siobhan (Mar 21, 2010)

Maybe Freddie isn't loud because he figures everybody else is and why should he expend all that effort? LOL I have heard him flock call, but I still think his isn't anywhere near as loud as the Quakers or budgies. I haven't noticed any dust particularly, either. But tiels are messy. He's messier than any of the other birds. He destroys toys and flings hulls and his poop is messier (and there's more of it).


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