We've had Silver for years. We picked her out at a pet store in Lake in the Hills; choosing her, almost blindly, from among a bunch of her siblings. At a very young age, there's no way to know whether a Cockatiel is male or female, and we had wanted a male bird. Why, you ask? We had heard of the incredible abilities of the Male birds to mimic. So, we picked her, noticed she was a female as the days progressed; and added Jack the male bird to our order. We waited several weeks for them to be ready for pick-up. They were handled often and hand-fed at the pet store so as to get them acclimated to having human owners. Silver was sweet and calm from day 1. Jack, though more "talented", has always been more aggressive. We've had them for years, and Lord willing, they'll live to the ripe-old-age of 20 years+
