Hi Adam,
I think it's wonderful that you're taking your time and doing lots of research before getting into breeding cockatiels. I'll post some links I've found helpful at the end of this.
We have five sweet and adorable little birdies ready to go to their new homes at the end of the month. I've truly loved raising them, but we will not let our birds hatch any more eggs for a number of reasons.
If I wanted to get into breeding cockatiels, I think that in addition to doing more study on breeding and raising tiels, I'd also visit cockatiel shows in my area, maybe join some bird clubs, get to know the best breeders, and think about how I could go about contributing to the good of the species through breeding. I'd also speak to some avian vets about what they would like to see breeders breed in or breed out of the species -- are there certain chronic conditions or diseases which seem to be inherited? I'd most certainly talk to the folks at the veterinary college about such. I've found the professors at my home town vet school to be extremely helpful.
To me, the only really good reason to get into breeding cockatiels is to benfit the species in some meaningful way, to improve the gene pool. And on top of that, to raise happy, healthy, sweet-tempered, well-socialised little birds who eat a healthy diet and make wonderful pets.
For my breeding pair(s), I'd carefully choose birds which had excellent personalities in addition to whatever traits I thought desirable for breeding. And I'd get them from reputable breeders who could give me pedigrees going back at least three generations. The last thing one wants to do is to breed an inbred bird!
Then there are other practical considerations. I would never get into breeding birds unless I had a reliable partner or a trusted someone who could help out or take over if I were to become ill or injured or have a family emergency. Those babies HAVE to be fed and tended, no matter my broken arm or my husband in the hospital or my grandmother's funeral.
I'd also want to try to determine what sort of market there is in my area for cockatiels. I'd hope the bird shows, clubs and avian vets could help me out with that one.
Not to discourage you, but here are some more things to think about:
(1) If you work full time outside your home, forget breeding birds! If you work part-time, then you still might need to forget it. A very few people, like mrshud, another poster on this board, can work full time and do an excellent job of raising birds. But, like mrshud, such people would need to own their own businesses and be able to take the babies to work with them and care for them there.
(2) Baby birds really tie you down. You have to whip out to the store between feedings and make sure you're back in time for the next one. Social life? Forget it, while you've got chicks who need to be hand fed! We managed to make an appearance at one important Christmas party (turned down invitations to all the rest), but had to leave after 45 minutes to make sure we'd be back in time to feed the babies. And we had to give up going home for the big family Thanksgiving, even though it may have been my mother's last Thanksgiving (she's in bad health). No way could we leave the babies or try to travel three hours in the car with them at that stage.
(3) Raising chicks takes far more time and effort than one would think by just reading about it. It's not just a matter of squirting food in their mouths every so many hours for so many weeks. When the chicks are on the every-three-hours feeding schedule, for example, you're going to be spending about one hour out of every three (or one-third of your time from 6am until midnight!) doing the following: preparing formula, warming to the exact temp, re-warming as needed between chicks, meticulously cleaning each chick after each feeding, cleaning and changing the bedding in the brooder after each feeding, cleaning and disinfecting the feeding equipment after each feeding, weighing chicks, keeping records, scrubbing out and disinfecting the brooder once per day, etc.
(4) Even when the chicks are in the weaning stage, they still require lots of time and attention. You'll keep busy preparing a variety of foods for them, socialising them, giving them play time (and flying time in a safe room), cleaning up after them, etc. You'll need to clip their wings when the time comes, too, and also trim their sharp little claws. If you don't feel confident doing this yourself, you'll need to get your avian vet's tech to do it.
(5) You'll probably lose money raising cockatiels, unless you consistently breed champion show birds. Even then, I don't know. Here's the economics: Equipment: Professional brooder (several hundred $) or homemade brooder (about $40-$50); weaning cage ($120+); gram scale (about $120); feeding equipment (about $15); nest box ($1. Supplies: hand-feeding formula (about $50 for five chicks); weaning foods (gosh, I don't know, probably about $75 or more for five chicks -- more, I think!); a huge case of paper towels ($24), plus toilet paper and Q-tips for cleaning chicks; also possibly pedialyte and/or a few jars of infant apple sauce if a chick get dehydrated and/or develops slow crop.
Add in extra costs for additional and special foods for the parent birds while they're feeding the chicks during the first two weeks, plus conditioning foods for them prior to breeding and hatching... not to mention avian vet care! ... and you get the idea. In winter, you may have higher heating bills for your home as well. If you don't clip the wings and trim the claws yourself, add about $25 per baby bird. I haven't included the original cost of the breeding pair, their upkeep and care between clutches, their cage, etc.
You'll count yourself lucky if you break even over several broods, even if all goes well with every brood. And if, miracle of miracles, you come out a bit ahead, um, by the hour, you could have made a lot more money flipping burgers!
(6) The thing NOBODY ever writes or talks about. I've read lots and lots of articles and still haven't seen it anywhere. It is not a pleasant thing to "pull" the babies. Maybe that's why they call it "pulling." We humans tend to use euphemisms for unpleasant things, don't we? The parent birds will be upset that their dear babies have been taken from them. Of course they will! It's their instinct!
(7) You may find yourself having to boil lots of eggs. You shouldn't let your parent birds raise more than two broods per year, but they don't know that. Our parent birds were sitting on a new clutch of (boiled) eggs starting when these chicks were only eight weeks old!
(
(9) Your sweet pet bird will not be the same sweet pet once mated. You've probably figured that out already.
Anyway, here are some of the links I've found useful (I think I've left out the ones others gave, sorry for any duplicates if not):
www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/index.htm#toc
www.acstiels.com/articles.html
www.cockatiel.org/
www.cagenbird.com/weaning.htm
www.cagenbird.com/crop_prob.htm
justcockatiels.com/articles.htm
Best wishes to you in your research!
. If I would have that would have been 4 chicks that I probably would have had to hand feed from day 1. I had to run one of the chick on New Year’s eve to the vet because it’s feeding response was not very good and it did swallow a very small amount of formula down the wrong pipe, not enough to prevent death. Thank goodness for my fast reflexes. 
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