Customer Reviews

Cockatiels For Dummies

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After Christmas, my husband and I visited the Animal Welfare League of Arlington shelter with the idea we would adopt a cat to replace our 19-year old kitty who died last year. I never made it to the "cat room". I wandered into a "miscellaneous pets" area just off the entrance, and found cages of bunnies and ferrets and other creatures including a pair of bonded cockatiels. When I was a child, my grandmother raised love birds, and I had always wanted my own bird, but the presence of cats made that difficult. Currently catless, I decided to take the birds home. After I purchased two cages, and a few other things at the shelter, I made a trip to the local bird store for seed, pellets, cuttlefish bone, toys, and other assorted necessities the shelter folks recommended. When I told the proprietor of the bird store I was a new owner, she recommended COCKATIELS FOR DUMMIES.

Over the past few weeks, I've been seeking all the information I can find about cockatiels. Although my daughter and daughter-in-law have pet birds (love birds, parakeets, and a dove) none of us knows much about cockatiels. Diane Grindol's approach to happy and healthy cockatiels includes advice about preventative health care maintenance, but she also provides plenty of suggestions for ways to bond with your bird. She gets down to the nitty gritty with: what to feed your bird and why; how to maintain his or her cage; why wing clipping, toenail trimming, and other grooming matters; what it means when a bird molts; how to distinguish between nutritious and poisonous plants; how to avoid bird hazards like scented candles, the toilet bowl and Teflon-lined pans; what to do if your boy bird masturbates on his food cup; and how to avoid reproduction without stressing the female, but the best tips involve how to have a good relationship with your birds.

Grindol's book is perfect for a novice like me who knows plenty about wild birds but precious little about caged birds (actually two cages since the male was a bit hen-pecked so he spends part of the daylight hours in a separate establishment). So far, I am doing really well with my feathered friends who have a place of honor next to my PC (but far enough away they won't be radiated). If you're thinking about getting a bird, I suggest you read the DUMMIES book first. Birds require much more time than a cat, but for me it's worth it.

I ordered this book from another website the minute I found ot it was available, and it is one of the most helpful resources I have found. I have purchased several books on tiels and this one blows all the others away. Being a relatively new bird owner, it offered me some helpful tips on how to handle and feed my bird, and some nice things such as how to pet a bird- my tiel is so sweet and begs me to pet her after I tried some of the tips in this book. It also offers varied and less confusing advice than the other books on diet and basic care, and some very good taming and training tips. I liked that although it does offer info on breeding, it seems to focus mostly on keeping tiels as pets, which I found extremely helpful. The book was interesting and entertaining, and extremely informative. I highly recommend this book as a resource to anyone who has or wants pet cockatiels!

If you are going to buy just one book about cockatiels, this is truly the one to own. It's well written and researched, and presented in an unintimidating, friendly manner, and covers all the basics you'll need to know to nurture and share a happy relationship with a devoted pet. There's excellent advice about choosing, housing, feeding, training and caring for one or more of this wonderful species of bird, and solid advice about handling emergencies, choosing a vet, etc.

And as other reviewers have mentioned, this book's insight into cockatiel psychology and development is exceptional, and it really helps to understand why a bird might be behaving in a certain way, and what this behavior might communicate.

Previous to acquiring a cockatiel, I owned a halfmoon conure for a number of years, and although I'm an experienced bird owner, I learned a lot from this book. I'll be sure to keep it handy in case I need to consult it in an emergency. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Wow! This is an excellent book! I bought this book because I'm getting a cockatiel for my birthday. I knew absolutely nothing about them. I got so frustrated because I didn't think I could take care of a bird and started rethinking my decision to get one. That is, until I read this book. Now I am so confident and feel so knowledgeable because this book really explained everything in plain old every day English. It was so easy to understand it even made me feel like I can even breed them! That's how confident I was when I got finished reading this book.
Thanks, Diane for the very good information and all your knowledge!

Diane Grindol has a very natural and entertaining style of writing that makes this book as much fun to read as to use as a reference. It's a great title about these wonderful birds with a lot of useful information I haven't seen much written about prior. My own bird unfortunately suffers from night frights on a regular basis, and this is the first cockatiel book I've looked at that spends any time discussion the issue. I'd read something about it on the internet, but it was nice to see an expert put it in print. As a reference, this book certainly holds its own against any other consumer-level guide on the market.

Hi All,
We first became familiar with Diane's expertise by reading her articles in the pages of Bird Talk Magazine. Diane's fabulous book "Cockatiels for Dummies" is a book for beginners, intermediate and expert Cockatiel lovers! No matter what your own level of expertise, there is something new to learn by reading Diane's book! Her great sense of humor combined with an incredible amount of information makes this one of the best and most enjoyable resources on cockatiels that we've ever seen! Even if you have other books on these Fun and Loving birds, you must add "Cockatiels for Dummies" to your library.
Have Fun,
Bill and Debbie O'Rourke

Cockatiels for Dummies is a wonderful hand-guide for cockatiel care. It's written in an easy to read and understand format, which makes this book an absolute must for everyone interested in owning cockatiels!

There couldn't be a better person to simplify cockatiel ownership into a "For Dummies" book than Diane Grindol. She is the author of "The Complete Book of Cockatiels," which you will want to get to complete your education if this one whets your appetite. The book is organized in an especially helpful way, listing first the joys of cockatiel ownership, then the hazards and diseases, then finishing up with a summary of do's and don'ts. In the process, you'll learn the not-so-obvious differences between males and females, the importance of diet, the gauntlet of avian diseases, setting up the cage, travel, grooming...in short, everything you'll need to know. When you reach the end of this informative and readable book, you will never view a cockatiel the same again. You will see complexity, fragility, intellect, and camaraderie, where before you saw only ornate plumage. If you read this book in preparation for cockatiel ownership, your new friend will find hundreds of ways to thank you.

This is a great book for anyone who is thinking about getting a cockatiel! It covers all the basics like choosing a cockatiel, feeding, toys, cleaning up after birds, etc.; as well as behavior, clipping feathers, and health. The author writes in plain english that everyone can understand, and guides you through every step of cockatiel ownership. The pictures and diagrams are helpful. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants or already owns a cockatiel!!!

This book is easy to read and very helpful to every novice and maybe some long time tiel breeders. Fun to read, not boring unlike other books that I have read. All informations are discussed in a laymans term and well explained.
I highly reccomend this. More books Diane!