Cockatiel Chick Constantly Hungry?

I have a cockatiel chick that’s a bit over 3 weeks and very stunted (only just hitting 40 grams now). He was actually taken out of the nest due to stunting along with his little sibling, but the sibling died a few days later due to unknown reasons (had hard remnants at the bottom of the crop, bulging veins and weird head shaking all the time). Another chick (older) has also died in the nest earlier on for reasons unknown.
However, this current chick will not stop screaming! I’ve raised another clutch previously and never had a chick this bad! He will just screech at the top of his lungs constantly as if he’s absolutely starving, but he’ll do it all the time, even after being fed 10% of his body weight in formula (VetaFarm Neocare). He won’t sit still for a single second for me to feed him, runs around the room if I let him out for the feeds and tries to feed from literally everything in site, including the basket I put him in to weigh in, to the point I literally have to pry his beak off it to feed him.
I’ve tried looking these symptoms up but everything I find lists a serious of other symptoms he just doesn’t have. He’s certainly not lethargic, his droppings appear perfectly normal, he’s not vomiting and there’s no blood anywhere, and his crop usually empties very well (a bit slower recently though). His growth is incredibly slow, but I’ve been feeding him the 10% every 4 hours (when the crop appears empty enough) so not sure why he’s not growing. The only thing I could think of was some kind of fungal infection like avian gastric yeast, so I’ve been giving him Nystatin as well as some feeds with Gastrolyte to keep up the liquids.

Has anybody else had a chick like this? Any ideas how to get his growth back on track and his hunger under control?

Start feeding every 2 hours, fill the crop. Only let it empty overnight. What solids are you offering?

He’s acting like he’s starving because he IS STARVING. That’s pretty much what causes stunting. It may not be your fault but he isn’t getting the nutrients her needs.

You say the others died of unknown causes but it sounds pretty obvious that they died of a fungal infection. What does your Avian Vet day?

What temp is your formula?
What temp is your brooder?


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I actually did try feeding every 3 hours on the dot, but the crop started getting too full and I stopped after that because I was concerned about Sour Crop. I haven’t been offering any solids, as I wasn’t sure if he’d be at the age or size to accept it yet. What would you suggest I give him?

I’m not quite sure why he’d still be starving after feeds though. I know that it takes time to reach their stomach, but it’s still a bit strange to me. I’ve definitely been keeping an eye on the crop too to make sure he’s not emptying too quickly. I’ve heard about offering peanut butter to try and increase weight, so I might start doing that. I’ll see if I can also water his food down a bit maybe so he can have feeds more often.

I had a feeling it might’ve been something fungal, but I had been cleaning out the nest very regularly so I’m not sure how it’s being contracted. I’ve actually had a previous clutch where 3 chicks died too unfortunately, so it seems to be a bit of a continuous thing. I haven’t seen an avian vet for this clutch yet (ended up seeing 5 for the last clutch) but might check in, for the sake of any following clutches too.

I always keep the formula at 36 to 40 degrees Celsius and the brooder is at around 27 or 30 degrees. I have two other chicks in the brooder too (the ill chick is isolated to prevent spread of anything) so I’ve been trying to keep a good intermediate so they don’t all get too hot or too cold.

Part of this is psychological

Part of this is psychological; he was starving (May still be), and you need to feed him often enough for long enough that his mind realizes he isn’t going to die. If his crop is feeling tight, don’t feed, but his slow crop sounds like a temperature issue that I’ll address in a minute. For now, just feed a smaller amount more often.

You should be offering weaning foods. Fresh greens, WELL RINSED sprouts, pellets, a few fresh veggies, some boiled or scrambled egg, whole grain toast, things like that. And clean water constantly.

Don’t add peanut butter, don’t water down the formula. Mix as recommended on the label.

You MIGHT check with the vet for your starving stunted chick? Wow. I can’t even address that. See the vet. You chose to breed birds, you are responsible for their vet care. I say this as a fellow breeder; I know what it is to drop cash I can’t afford on birds that will never even come close to having monitory value. This is part of the commitment. Anything that goes wrong is on us; we are committed to handling it.

Your formula is not hot enough; that alone will cause slow crop. It needs to be 40C - 43.3C.

Your brooder is way too cool ESPECIALLY when you already have a health problem! Kick it up to 35C - 37.8C. Start at the top and only turn it down to where the chicks aren’t panting.

You need a new brooder. You can’t isolate one chick from another in the same brooder. You just can’t. Even if they aren’t touching they are still contaminating each other. If you are going to have different aged chicks you need more than 1 brooder anyway. I have 8 and I will never have even close to that many clutches at a time. Why? Because temperature is arguably the most important element of raising baby chicks. There is no intermediate; the temp is either right or it’s wrong.


I know I’m being extremely direct and it might seem harsh since you can only read it and not see my face or hear my voice, but I’m not trying to be harsh. Either you are an adult or you are a young person who has taken on the task of an adult. Either way, I’m speaking to you as an adult. I ABSOLUTELY want you to succeed! Not just for the sake of the baby but because I 100% believe that parrots should be raised in homes by people who love them.

Clearly you have a lot of learning to do. Great; we all do. I’m happy to help with that as much as I can, just as others have helped me. But I don’t sugar coat things to make them seem optional when they are not.


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No I really appreciate the help actually! I don’t mind how it’s said as long as it’s helpful information, which your information definitely is!

I’ve omitted the peanut butter as it didn’t seem to do much in general anyway. I’ve been giving him some Gastrolyte to increase his fluids and he seems to be quietening down a bit with it, so I have a feeling some of the begging may have been due to thirst rather than hunger. I haven’t upped the formula temp just yet, as the instructions listed on the formula itself says strictly not to feed anything over 40 degrees Celsius so as to avoid crop burns and nothing below 36 degrees Celsius to avoid slowing digestion. Perhaps the type of formula can also affect the recommended temperature?
I think it may be a good idea to get another brooder. I may be moving the two elder chicks into another cage, as one is looking as if he’s about to fledge and they are almost fully feathered, so at least the stunted chick will have the brooder to himself until I get another one.
I have also called an avian vet, but the vet wouldn’t take any appointments unless it’s an absolute emergency due to the current Coronavirus climate and told me to just keep an eye on him. Unfortunately lockdown isn’t doing us any favours. He does seem to be gaining a bit of weight though and has almost reached 50 grams, so hopefully he’s starting to grow.
I’ve also gotten a book on hand reading parrots and found that obsessive ‘pumping’ on things can cause poor weight gain, so I’m hoping that keeping him away from anything that he’ll try and eat will help (bit difficult as he tries to eat absolutely everything, but it seems to be working so far).
I’ll increase the temperature of his brooder. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on a breeder with a thermostat (they’re difficult to find here) so I can have better temperature control.
Again, I really appreciate the advice!

Also sorry for the confusion but by saying I ‘might’ visit the vet I meant ‘will’. It’s an Aussie lingo thing but I keep forgetting not everybody’s Australian ��

Hey! Thought I’d update this thread for anybody interested in Chikka.
A few months ago, Chikka had unfortunately gotten very ill. We woke up to see he’d been vomiting, was fluffed you and lethargic, and had very green droppings. We were lucky that the symptoms fit the bill for an emergency vet visit and were allowed to bring him in immediately for treatment. He stayed a few nights and a range of different tests (cloacal, fecal, crop swabs and bloods) were all done for diagnostic purposes. He ended up being given both vitamin A injections as well as Doxycycline injections, as his symptoms were very similar to those experienced by birds with Chlamydiosis. Vets later called to say he had a very red glottis and a lot of gram-positive bacteria than normal, but that it was a normal symptom for a chick going through this kind of illness.
Tests came back a week later and we were told that there were no abnormalities in any of his results and although we did continue treatment for Chlamydia as he appeared to get better with that and the vitamin A injection, he was pretty much cleared for the condition.
Vets have now told us that they believe Chikka’s illness as a youngster and likely also as an adult was due to some type of genetic condition he inherited through the combination of parent genes, hence why a lot of the chicks from this parent pairing have also become ill and passed. We are very lucky we pulled him from the nest when we did, as it’s incredibly unlikely he would have survived had he stayed in the nest with his siblings.
Though there is an option to test for this condition, the vets have recommended we leave it as Chikka is back to normal and the excess stress and likely thousands of dollars worth of tests probably won’t be worth it unless he continues to become ill as he had that last time (he has remained well ever since, which is a good sign). We were also told that the red glottis was probably something he was born with, as it never changed over his treatment period that they saw in any of his checkups.
Chikka is a very happy boy today, is very noisy and has a lot of character. He’s still smaller than his siblings, but not by much, and he’s definitely a strange one - makes a lot of strange noises, is very clumsy and is just generally a but of a doofus - but he’s doing very well.

Thank you everybody for the insight and the help with Chikka!

Feat. Photo of not-so-little Chikka

Beautiful, thanks for updating!!