Chablis

Chablis is a pied (split to pearl) cockatiel cock. He was born somewhere around January 1993. He is bonded to my hen, Merlot (of sig fame).

Chablis was completely wild when I bought him from a cage full of cockatiels at a Woolworth department store. I suspect that the only human contact he had experienced at that point was someone taking him from his clutch mates, shipping him to Hartz, shipping him again to Woolworth, and then being netted and stuffed into a little cardboard box before being placed in my hands. He was fully flighted when I got him, and he was determined never to be caught again.

It took me over two years to get Chablis to the point where he wouldn't fly away from me. I didn't clip his wings, because his mate, Merlot is unclipped (necessary because of her other physical handicaps). Also, I wanted Chablis to come to me because he wanted to come to me, and not because I had "crippled" him. It was only after we reached a point where Chablis trusted me enough to step up onto my hand that I decided to give him a partial clip. (He can still make it across the room, but he doesn't do the graceful figure eights between the livingroom and bedroom that he used to do.) I decided to clip him for his own safety, because he still has a lot of wildness in him.

Chablis will never be "tame" in the way my other birds are tame. He doesn't want head scratches, and he would be quite happy if I just gave him his food and then left. But he comes to me readily, and he has never bitten me, even when he tore his toenail last year, and I had to hold his foot in styptic powder. He *has* bitten and drawn blood on his birdsitter and two vets, so I take my uninjured state as a sign that he trusts me not to hurt him. I have held him cupped in my hands, and he feigns biting me, but doesn't try to hurt me. Overall, a nice relationship. :)

Chablis is the lightest of my cockatiels. He weighs about 78 grams on a good day, and he occasionally drops to about 76 grams. He is the father of over twenty baby cockatiels, all of whom have gone to bird-loving homes.

Chablis has a pigment variation in his upper beak which has resulted in a dark streak that runs the length of his mandible. He has passed this trait on to his son, Beaujolais.

Chablis likes hard-boiled egg yolk, multi-grain Cheerios, and getting a head preen from Merlot. Even when I open up the aviary door, Chablis is quite happy to hang out inside. He is a tolerant parent, but seems a bit relieved when "the kids" go outside, and he and Merlot can just find a nice corner of the aviary and cuddle.

The Spector Flock
Merlot - 3 year old normal gray, mother of Beau & Fume	Chablis - 3 year old male pied bonded to Merlot	Chenin - cinnamon pearl hen, bonded to Beau	Beau - 1 year old male pied, bonded to Chenin
Fume - 10 month old pearl hen, bonded to Spector	Froggy - 8 month old yellow- collared macaw	Kenya - 7 month old congo african grey

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Last revised 5/22/97