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Post by chickie on Apr 4, 2010 21:17:37 GMT 10
My male escaped 10 days ago and left mum and a chick who is 3 weeks and 3 days old. Mum has been doing well but today laid an egg and has nipped the chick and pulled 2 feathers out. I am in a dilema. I removed the egg as obviously it is infertile but she still nipped the baby. I have removed bub and decided to hand raise. Have I done the right thing? I have also removed the nest. I have 2 other cockatiels sitting on infertile eggs as I have no male old enough to mate so my house feels like a big brooder
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Post by vankarhi on Apr 5, 2010 12:49:52 GMT 10
you have done the correct thing. Cockatiels are easy little things to feed they just love their food lol
Have you handraised before?? Make sure you have a good brand of handraising formula. I like to use Roudybush or Kaytee exact. They wean around 6 to 8 weeks of age so you shouldn't be feeding it for too long. I would try a few mls every 3 hours but check the crop to make sure it is not empty. I can't remember the amounts I fed Snowy (our cockatiel) but I always checked his crop was nice and full but not hard.....just nice and spongey. Do not over feed them as they can aspirate it back into their lungs. Spoon feeding a tiel is easy ....... and they will just eat until everything is gone......so just keep an eye on how full his crop is getting.
Make sure the food is not too hot either.....I always now test on my wrist area (like when feeding a baby a bottle) to make sure it is not too hot. Don't let the food get cold either.......
At his age he should have a lot of feathers too.......so I usually just put them on a towel in a plastic box/crate and a towel over the top with a fluffy toy to cuddle up to and to help them keep warm with their own body heat. I do have a home made brooder but only use it if the chicks don't have many or any feathers or if it is winter time.
Make sure his feeding utensils are always clean and never reuse uneaten formula......always make a fresh batch each feed. Once you are sure he is eating enough (which shouldn't take long) you can probably cut him back to 4 hourly feeds and see how that goes then by the time he is 4 weeks old or so he should be fine on 3 feeds a day as long as he is eating heaps.
Let us know how you go so we can help you along ....... if you need any help that is ;D
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Post by vankarhi on Apr 5, 2010 12:52:50 GMT 10
Some might not feed as often as I am recommending........but that is how I do it for the first few days until the new baby and I get into a routine and I can guage how well they are eating and how well their crop is emptying.
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Post by chickie on Apr 5, 2010 18:48:45 GMT 10
 This is the little guy. We have raised 4 galahs from 1 week old and crop fed them with a soft tube. Don't fancy crop feeding this little one so went with the spoon. Very messy and difficult to judge amount given in mls. We are using paswells as you use less water than wambaroo which I used for the galahs. We are feeding 3hrly too until we have a good regime. He's taken to it well so hoping all goes well. When checking the temp of the formula someone suggested leaving your finger in it for 10 secs to simulate how the bird will feel with it in his crop and if it's too hot it will feel hot on your finger. Seemed to work well for us but I do have a thermometer |
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Post by vankarhi on Apr 5, 2010 21:36:45 GMT 10
He is little less feathered than I thought but OMG what a cutie ;D
I used to use a thermometre..........but now i just do the wrist thingy. Yes spoon feeding is messy but tiels are so ready to eat it is easy with them.
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Post by chickie on Apr 5, 2010 22:40:41 GMT 10
He was born 12/3/10 and we felt he was pretty small and you're right I would also expect him to be more feathered by now. We have had 2 chicks 12 months ago and looking back at photos they had heaps more feathers than this little guy. He is very bright, flapping his wings and strutting around so I'm sure he'll catch up. ;D
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Post by vankarhi on Apr 6, 2010 14:30:50 GMT 10
He has all his feathers by the look of it they are not open yet..........once they open he will look fantastic and fully feathered ;D I would guess by the end of the week he will look totally different ;D
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Post by madaussie on Apr 6, 2010 21:13:33 GMT 10
Looks cute i have no babies i miss feeding them. ;D
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Post by AussieBirds on Apr 7, 2010 9:34:26 GMT 10
He will be easy to hand raise and you will find he will form a great bond with you, we love hand raising here and find it very hard to part with them once they are ready to go to their new homes, I would suggest if the baby is a bit thin add some creamy peanut butter to his mix and if he is not taking his food add some baby food apple sauce to the mix, it makes it a bit more palatable to them.
John
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Post by Laraine on Apr 7, 2010 20:02:46 GMT 10
What a little cutie, good luck with him.
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