Any experience with baby cockatiels?

Paddy Cow

I know this might be more suited to the pets forum but I'm hoping the wider net of after hours might be able to advise me as traffic here is higher and there maybe people here with advice to offer who don't go to the pets forum. About 2 and a half weeks ago two of my cockatiels had a baby. Yay! They'd being laying eggs for months but none of them ever hatched. About five or six days later another baby hatched. Double yay!

At first all was well and the parents were taking really good care of both babies. I called the older one Teddy and the younger one Sasha. Things were fine until Teddy went through a massive growth spurt and starting taking all the food from Sasha.

I had followed Teddy's progress closely as I'd never seen a baby bird go through development. At first Sasha was growing as quickly as Teddy was but then she seemed to stop. He was getting bigger but she wasn't. On christmas eve I called the emergency vet and got given a protein powder to make up for Sasha. I gave it to her twice christmas eve day. I had to go home christmas eve and it wasn't practical to take the birds with me. I got back St Steven's day morning and when I checked the nest box she was still alive.

The parents weren't happy with me cleaning the nest box so I left it until the next day to clean it again. When i did I found that Teddy was healthy but poor Sasha had been mushed into the poo accumulated by the two of them. She was freezing and had congealed poo all around her mouth, beak, body. I took her out and gave her a warm bath and decided that I would have to take her away and look after myself.

I left her in the nest box while I went into town and when I got back and got everything set up for her I took her out. Again she was covered in poo (though not as bad as earlier). She was cold and I warmed her up. I put her in a shoe box with a hot water bottle as an incubator and a vest to keep her warm on top. I stayed up all night last night and feed her every 2 hours and made sure to change the hot water bottle to keep her warm. I check to make sure she's not over warm.

Today she is still alive but is not chirping like Teddy did at her age. She's nearly two weeks old. I've been feeding her through a syringe from a recipe I found on the internet which is basically - baby cereal, baby apple sauce and smooth peanut butter. It was really cold today and I noticed when I took her out of the nest box to feed her she went from being warm to shaking with the cold really quickly. I went to the supermarket and got a roll of cotton wool. I wrapped her in that and it seems to be regulating her temperature but she still seems very listless for a birdie of her age.

I know from my searches Christmas eve that vets in Galway can't help with specialised food for baby cockatiels. I'm going to start ringing places in Dublin tomorrow but even if they have any, it'll be next week before they can post it.

Is there anyone on boards who can advise me on this? If there are any breeders in the Galway region please contact me by pm.

Paddy Cow

Sasha

Cherry Blossom

Please contact Bairbre OMalley's veterinary clinic in Bray first thing in the morning for advice. She is the top small animal vet in the country and has a lot of experience with less usual pets.

Silverfish

Bairbre O'Malley in Bray, soon as you can.

Cherry Blossom

Also make sure the peanut butter does not contain Xylotil

Joeseph Balls

Yea Bairbre would be who I'd advise too. Bird owners from all over would, eh, flock, to her.
I wonder is there something up with her that the parents would neglect her. My breeding tiels have never neglected a chick. Maybe I'm just lucky. I think bird jungle in dublin have hand rear food over the counter

Silverfish

Generally birds only neglect a chick if they don't think it's viable.
Sasha'll need a lot of help.

Have you tried feeding her egg - boiled and mushed?

Joeseph Balls

Silverfish wrote: »

Generally birds only neglect a chick if they don't think it's viable.
Sasha'll need a lot of help.

Have you tried feeding her egg - boiled and mushed?

Thats what i mean, the parents might know there is something up with her and that's why they aren't feeding

njs030

There's a pet shop in Galway County that hand rears birds he might advise you if you call tomorrow if you want the number pm me

Paddy Cow

So Sasha didn't make it

Fr_Dougal

Give them bread and Guinness, they thrive on that.

Are Am Eye

It's hard to imagine the top anything in the country coming out of Bray.

Paddy Cow

Earlier today I thought she would be ok because she survived 24hrs without the parents but this evening I noticed she wasn't as chirpy and interactive as a chick her age should be. I had put it down to her needing to recover her strength from the neglect but I guess I was just kidding myself.

I'm really upset. I was crying and I'm not normally a crier. I'm going to bury her with the daffodils.

Bairbre O'Malley are the vets that I get the pellets for my parrots from. They're great. I never thought I'd have to look after a baby so never looked into it. Thankfully the parents are still taking very good care of Teddy.

Thanks for all the replies x

njs030

Aww so sorry to hear that. Poor sasha x

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mod note: Sorry to hear about your bird, Paddy Cow. Seeing as there is nothing we can do now, unfortunately, I'll close this thread up.

Thanks to all for your help in this,

Buford T. Justice