First time feeding Galah cockatoo.

[Peaches15]

We got our first cockatoo who is just 3 weeks old today and tried feeding baby bird formula for the first time. At one point he turned his head and some of the feed got spread over his eye. I wiped it immediately but he started making a fist with his toes. After a couple of minutes he went back to normal and all the feed is now clear out of his eye. However I am very worried that something might go wrong. Has this ever happened to anyone? And is there anything I can do to make sure nothing is wrong? Thank you

 

[June2012]

We got our first cockatoo who is just 3 weeks old today and tried feeding baby bird formula for the first time. At one point he turned his head and some of the feed got spread over his eye. I wiped it immediately but he started making a fist with his toes. After a couple of minutes he went back to normal and all the feed is now clear out of his eye. However I am very worried that something might go wrong. Has this ever happened to anyone? And is there anything I can do to make sure nothing is wrong? Thank you

Okay, I might seem crazy, but please do not hand feed your galah cockatoo if you have NO experience! Please go to an avian vet immediately, and learn. I beg of you, this will not only save you heartache, but the cockatoo's life. I also suggest, if you can, to take the bird back to the original breeder. If he KNEW that you did not have experience, then I suggest you cut business off with him.

You could VERY easily kill this bird. There are many horror stories about this, which is usually true for most of the people who have never experienced or never learned from someone.

 

[Doublete]

It is very hard to hand feed...
It is irresponsible of a breeder to release a young bird to someone without experience. Maybe the breeder will take him back and get him weaned?

 

[Peaches15]

He actually showed us exactly how to feed him and we followed his instructions step by step. Unfortunately we had no control over him turning his head.
Is there anything we can do to make sure he is ok?
Thanks

 

[labell]

Being shown once in no way makes you qualified to hand feed there are so many things that can go wrong. Let's just consider that you are feeding at the right temp how do you think it would be to have 108F liquid squirted in your eye. Without being seen by a avian vet there is no way to tell if you burned his eye and if there will be lasting effects.

What temp were you told to feed at, at this age it is really easy to KILL a baby if you don't know what you are doing. Controlling the head and not getting it all over the baby including in their eyes by shooting it out too fast takes time to learn and as I said being shown once will not make anyone proficient at it.

 

[Grraarrgghh]

He actually showed us exactly how to feed him and we followed his instructions step by step. Unfortunately we had no control over him turning his head.
Is there anything we can do to make sure he is ok?
Thanks

Actually, you can gently pinch the flesh points where the beaks meet to both hold the birds head in place, and stimulate the feeding response.

Regardless, 3 weeks is far too young for a novice to hand feed a bird, let alone one that takes longer to mature like a Galah. This is speaking as someone who recently learned to hand feed (an older, fully feathered baby however).

If you are going to keep the bird (and please, don't if you are still able to have the breeder finish it's weaning) read this like 50 times VERY THOROUGHLY:

https://theparrotuniversity.com/arthandfeeding1

As well, you can also read my experience here:

http://www.parrotforums.com/new-members-welcome/50658-finishing-weaning-red-belly-yeesh.html