I have had birds for some 40 years & have been breeding  only cockatiels for the last 22 years, After starting out with budgies, pigions  & parrorts. When I started I had about 20 cockatiels in pieds pearl & lutino. I went along to the Melbourne show grounds & purchased my first  cinnamon pearl cockatiel for $700  & was hooked on these beautifull birds. I met  ALLAN GODFREY who had bought birds off PEGGY CROSS. Peggy  wrote a book on cockatiels with DIANNE ANDERSON.  About 15 years ago I bought a pair of Whiteface pied  cockatiels from a person in Sydney for $5000 a pair. Look how things have changed because you can now buy  a good quality bird  for $80 to $150. Cockatiels have a good personality & you can teach the males to talk.