Most people want just one cockatiel, since they think that one bird would be friendlier and more easily to teach to whistle tunes or talk. Unfortunately, they dont' realize that one bird will be happy only if there is someone that is willing to make up for the lack of company of it's own by being around a lot of the time and paying plenty of attention to the bird.
If you don't have enough time for being with your bird, the solution would be to get two birds. At first, start out with one bird. Once it learns to trust you, you can get it a companion. If it learned to enjoy whistling, talking, and playing tricks is a sign of trust. If you get it a companion, is will not lose interest from these occupations to pass up time. The new bird will eventually pat all it's attention to the first bird and see how life is day to day in it's new home. At first though, it will be timid towards all the human members of the family. But, as I said, it will learn from the first bird that these humans are trustworthy and "useful" for it's needs.
It doesn't matter, by the way, whether ot not the two birds belong to opposite sexes-unless you hope to breed them. If two male or two female cockatiels are kept together, one of tem automatically takes the place of the missing one of the opposite sex. A relationship between these two is messed up if a third cockatiel is introduced. Keeping three birds is always an ordeal for one them, and this situation should be avoided.
<-- Back to the Bird care info switchboard
