A few months ago I bought 8 cockatiels, a pair and their 6 offspring off of Craigslist for $25. The pair was a gray cock and a pearl hen. The male babies would be split to pearl. I was ecstatic and thought the lady was crazy for selling the whole flock for so cheap. Apparently she was an art teacher and one of the students' grandparents was allergic. Her loss my gain. I had recently bought a used aviary for my doves, so they went in with the doves without any problem.
I set up nesting boxes and within a week I had eggs. Then Missy Mae left one of the feed doors to the aviary open and let half the cockatiels and most of the doves out. We were able to catch all but 3 of the cockatiels, no telling how many doves are flying around with the wild mourning doves. Three weeks after the first egg I had baby cockatiels, they died however when we had a late spring cold snap. I had went from cockatiel owner to cockatiel breeder though, it was a step up for me.A couple weeks later another person was advertising doves for $3 each. I came home with 10. She had given them to me because I already had an aviary set up. My doves had not been very successful at breeding so I hoped that they would breed and produce babies. They set right in to making babies. I've since had 4 baby doves.
A month or so later another lady was selling off her breeder cockatiels and budgies for cheap too, so I picked up seven cockatiels, a lutino, a cinnamon pearl pied, a cinnamon pearl, and a few grays split to pied and whatever else is in the mix and a pair of budgies. Missy had already had some budgies I'd bought in November at the bird sale they have twice year. I set up nest boxes and within a week had cockatiel eggs again. The gray/pearl pair, a gray/gray pair, and a lutino/ cinnamon pearl pied all on eggs. I made an 8X8 pannel aviary for the doves and moved them before babies arrived.
Two weeks later a man in SLO was advertising a pair of African Grays for FREE. I was stoked he'd gave both to me. I finagled hubby into letting me have them if I agreed to sell off some of the other birds. I bet you could now see the problem, I had three nesting pairs of cockatiels and a pair of African Grays all in the same aviary. Normally the aviary would have been large enough for so many birds, but babies didn't sit well with the male Af
rican Gray. The babies survived for a week before disaster struck. I was going to pull the babies at 2 weeks for hand feeding, but he wouldn't wait. He had killed 5 babies before I knew it. The one box had a ledge instead of a perch so he sat on the ledge and pulled the babies through the hole while crushing their skulls. I quickly pulled the last one and put it in the other box with babies. The next day I pulled all the other babies. I ended up with 4 male birds. I don't know if that was luck or if there is a difference in male and female baby calls, but that's what I'd ended up with. One of them barely survived with a hurt wing.
rican Gray. The babies survived for a week before disaster struck. I was going to pull the babies at 2 weeks for hand feeding, but he wouldn't wait. He had killed 5 babies before I knew it. The one box had a ledge instead of a perch so he sat on the ledge and pulled the babies through the hole while crushing their skulls. I quickly pulled the last one and put it in the other box with babies. The next day I pulled all the other babies. I ended up with 4 male birds. I don't know if that was luck or if there is a difference in male and female baby calls, but that's what I'd ended up with. One of them barely survived with a hurt wing.
I had one more box to figure out what to do with, I couldn't leave the eggs in there to hatch and be eaten, so I moved the pair and eggs all to a small finch aviary I had, and moved my gray/pearl pair onto the other side of it. The lutino/cinnamon pearl pied pair started laying eggs again once their babies hatched. I had to assist the first two babies, the first died the next day. Yesterday, I lost the little lutino female baby at 2 weeks old, last night I pulled the last male. This morning he got his first feeding of bird formula and the eggs in the nest were moved to the gray/pearl pair's nest since the hen didn't want to set any more. I sure hope I get some female birds this time around. Five male birds added to the pairs already set up is going to overbalance the mix. 
All told we've lost about 10 doves and 5 adult cockatiels, I also lost 5 baby cockatiels to my gray and 4 to weather. I sure hope that my percentages go up some. I've lost 2/3 of the baby 'iels in 5 nests. The ones that have survived sure are cute and worth the trouble though.
I don't plan on hand feeding any more babies this year after these babies hatch next week. It drains too much. I now know why people only breed their birds twice a year. It's not for the birds so much as the emotional drain, sleepless nights, and losing chicks you've fought to help survive.
