The cockatiel basics: food, water, and sleep
Start with the measurable routine. Write how much of your cockatiel's seed and pellet mix it gets, which fresh foods it reliably eats rather than throws, how often the water changes, and whether it likes a bath dish or a gentle misting. Cockatiels graze through the day, so tell the sitter to check that food is actually being eaten, not just scattered; a bird that has decorated the cage floor with seed may have eaten very little of it.
Sleep deserves its own paragraph. Cockatiels need a long, dark, quiet night, and most owners cover the cage at a set time. Give the cover time, the wake time, and whether a corner of the cover is left open. A sitter who lets the bird stay up for evening television in a bright room for a week can hand you back an overtired, cranky cockatiel, so treat the sleep routine as care, not preference.
Night frights: the instruction that matters most
Every cockatiel sitter needs the night fright briefing, because it is the emergency most specific to this species. Explain that a sudden noise, shadow, or disturbance can panic a sleeping cockatiel into thrashing around the cage, and that the right response is lights up, calm voice, and standing near until the bird settles, never reaching in to grab it mid-panic. Note whether your bird settles better with a dim night light left on, and ask for that arrangement to be kept exactly.
Tell the sitter what to check afterwards: broken feathers, a bleeding wing tip, or a bird that stays shaken and quiet. Blood from a broken blood feather or a bird that cannot settle and seems injured is a call to you and the avian vet, not something to assess in the morning. If your cockatiel has a history of frequent frights, say so, and say what you have found triggers them.
Company, flight time, and the dust
Cockatiels are social in a steady, undemanding way, and the sitter should know your bird's normal contact pattern: the morning whistle it expects answered, whether it steps up willingly, and whether it prefers a shoulder or a play stand. Give a realistic out-of-cage plan for the sitter's home, including which room, doors and windows closed, and mirrors or hazards dealt with, or say plainly that for this stay the bird stays in with extra company instead.
Mention the powder down honestly. Cockatiels coat nearby surfaces in fine white dust, and a sitter with allergies, asthma, or a bird of their own in the same room should know before the stay, not discover it. Ask that the cage not be placed beside another bird's cage and that hands are washed between birds if the sitter keeps their own.
Health signs and contacts
Describe your cockatiel's normal droppings, appetite, and energy, then the changes that should trigger a call: sitting fluffed on the floor, breathing with a bobbing tail, sneezing repeatedly with discharge, or going off food for most of a day. Leave your number, a local backup, and your avian vet's details, with clear permission to seek care if you are unreachable. Putting the routine, the night-fright plan, and those contacts into KinsLe's Care Pass means your sitter has the whole cockatiel brief in hand at two in the morning, not buried in a message thread.