Need Advice with 4 day baby cockatiel!!

Hi all,
I have been raising a baby cockatiel, which was rejected by the parents, since Saturday
he is set up in my brooder. he weights 6 grams which was today's weight.
his sibling is one day younger, her weight =0 grams, wow! she was born Monday

I am feeding him every 3 hours or so, and getting up every 3-4 hours at night.

his colour appears to be normal, he is not dehydrated, and has a good appetite.
I am feeding them Zupreme hand feeding formula.

tonights update: ....now they have rejected the youngest one, discarded her to the corner of the cage as well.Now I have two in my brooder.
then later my daughter comes to me and says "mom, remember you saw a larger cockatiel baby, well we have a third one".....what???
the third one is really the first one born, but never ever saw him, as they had been sitting on him until tonight.
the only reason I saw him was because he too was in the corner of the cage, and both parents were on their perches as if he didn't exist.
his was cold, his skin is a little dry, and had been plucked by mom.

this isn't their first clutch, it's their 5th, and thus far have been excellent parents, so my question is why now? why would they discard all of the babies, when they all appear to be fine?





IMG_1047_zpsf4c865b7.jpg Photo by bmckellar735 | Photobucket

IMG_1055_zpsc69ac73f.jpg Photo by bmckellar735 | Photobucket

baby birds may loose control a lot its normal they are so young and helpless. I dont know how much to feed the little guys that young though I take mine out at 3 weeks of age and never had a rejected one that young. Good luck!

Chances eyes are red. Do any of the other chicks have red eyes?

with previous chicks, 2 out of the 3 have had red eyes.

how can you tell?..his eyes are still closed, are you referring to the red ring around his eye?

its a big difference if eyes are red the film covering the eye will be redish and if black eyes it will be blueish you can tell even before they open the eyes yours definitely has red eyes.

Have they every had a deep nestbox hanging up which required them to climb down to the area where they eggs were incubated? I don't understand how the baby can be pushed out of the nest.

It does seem odd they would exhibit this behavior on their 6th clutch. Something apparently was not right and it disturbed them.

It's hard to say why they chose that one chick. I was thinking maybe it appeared differently than the others, but they've raised red eyed chicks in the past. Did the chick act differently than the others before they tossed it out? Would they take the chick back now? Probably not. I hope the chick grows up strong and healthy.

to make a long story short, normally they are set up in a proper nesting box. this time they were set up in a carboard box which was set up in their cage on a temporary basis due to her being injured by another bird. she had been laying eggs prior to the attack. the vet recommended just setting something up so she can lay the remaining egg.
before I had a chance to remove it she was laying more and nesting.
I was just saying to my daughter last night, I felt they preferred the normal seclusive nesting box, as opposed to the carboard box which didn't provide the privacy that they are use to.
All the chicks are doing excellent(3 of them) the oldest one had dry skin, and was being plucked, mom is known as a plucker. the two youngest ones are doing excellent as well.

these two are proficient parents. but ended up rejecting all three babies. they weren't sitting on them very much, not like they normally do. this went on for over a day, and I was worried at that point. so I removed the second chick. then we discovered another chick. this one had been born first, they had been sitting on this one the entire time, we never heard it nor saw it....I know hard to believe.it was a well kept secret.... lets just say my jaw dropped when I saw it. this one was in the corner of the cage as well, and both parents were perched as if it wasn't even there. his skin was dry, and had been plucked. Now all three are cozy, clean and warm.

Poor babies. Hopefully with your love and care they'll grow up healthy and strong. Please keep us updated. I love seeing itty, bitty baby birdie pictures.

They're going to abandon them in their temp box. That's to be expected! I was home monday when I saw the momma bird hurt herself and lost a lot of blood. Good thing the babies are a bit older and I've removed them to feed while she's recoop in hospital cage by herself. She seriously lost a lot of blood!!!!! I put my hand to her and she hop on but looking tired. She's been chirping away for her mate now but still sleep a lot. Giving her extra nutrients to recoop. I about fell over when I saw all the blood but I knew I need to take quick action to save her.

So you and I both dealing with hurt mommas....just keep up with the good work, very tiring experience!

thanks mikeytn, I was hoping you were going to pop in

I was not aware that would happen, so I will definately ensure they have a proper box next time.

even thought the vet recommended for me to do that, sometimes it just doesn't work out.

how did your female injure herself? thank goodness you were home!

She jumped and fell by a protruding bolt that holds the branches together. I wasn't aware of what she have done at first until I saw blood on the bottom. She's growing new feathers in and she bust all the blood feathers and her sides were soaked in blood. She's fine now but I seriously was about to have an heart attack. I check my birds many times everyday, its a routine. When you have so many, something is bound to happen even though we're pretty careful. If it was my partner that was home, I would of been called home for emergency.

wow, that sounded painful, poor thing. I'm glad she is ok. she is lucky to have such a dedicated owner

you might want to put 1 drop of iron drops in her water for a few days, it does wonders.

I'm cautious with iron drops! I know it would probably help her right now, but I'm still cautious....

I know, I was too.
I've done it for years, with excellent results. It doesn't harm them in any way, (I would never suggest it if it did)
my vet said that would be fine, as long as you stick to just one drop, per day.

How's the little ones today??? My momma bird had 4 little ones that's all growing very fast. She's a good momma. She's been asking me to give her a head rub.

Got pics of your little ones??

MikeyTN said:

How's the little ones today??? My momma bird had 4 little ones that's all growing very fast. She's a good momma. She's been asking me to give her a head rub.

Got pics of your little ones??

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there all good, and growing!, the two oldest ones eyes are starting to open. I'll post some pics tomorrow, I have new ones

what a good mama, your lucky

Wow! They're so lucky to have a good owner like you! I hope that if I breed, my birds won't reject! I understand they will sometimes, but I cannot hand feed them EVERY 3 hours!! Maybe a few times, but defidently not at night or 8:00- 4:30 would the parents take over then?!

Eclipse said:

Wow! They're so lucky to have a good owner like you! I hope that if I breed, my birds won't reject! I understand they will sometimes, but I cannot hand feed them EVERY 3 hours!! Maybe a few times, but defidently not at night or 8:00- 4:30 would the parents take over then?!

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IF the parents rejects them, they're not gonna take over when you want them to. If you give them back, there's a high chance one of the parents WILL kill them. But there's certain momma and papa birds that will adopt and be really good parents. So it's generally a good idea to keep multiple pairs and breed them all at the same time. I have a pair that lays infertile eggs but are super good parents and will adopt any youngsters that's being left in their nest box.